The Turnaround Treasure Shop (20 page)

‘What are you working on?'

Nick turned, startled by the sound of Andy's voice. ‘Hi.'

Andy stepped through the door, a backpack slung on his shoulder. Nick wondered — briefly — if he was running away from home. ‘What are you doing here?' he asked.

‘We came home early.'

‘I know.'

Andy nodded, but didn't look Nick in the eye. ‘What's that?' he asked.

Nick turned to workbench. The shop sign was an intriguing shape under an old sheet. ‘A surprise. A secret. For your mum. I was going to ask you and your sister to give me a hand with it.' Lily had told him that Andy wanted to visit him but he'd presumed that visit might be cancelled once Lily spoke to her kids.

‘Are you getting it together with my mum?'

Shit
. Okay, blatant questioning hadn't been among the many scenarios in his head. ‘Yes. I love your mum.'

‘So you're — like — going to ask her to marry you?'

Nick attempted calm, but his eyebrows rose in surprise. ‘I am.' Not what he'd expected. Still, it was the kind of thing he was used to: the guys he knew didn't mess around too much. Usually got to the point.

Andy didn't answer. He looked away, around the workshop, then nodded at the shape under the sheet. ‘So what is it?'

Nick pushed the sheet off the sign. ‘It's for the shop.'

Andy stepped walked closer to the bench, dragging his feet a little.

‘So how do you feel about this marrying thing?' Nick asked, pulling a drawer toolbox towards him and replacing the metal files he'd been using.

Andy cast a wary look at Nick. ‘What about me and my sister?'

Nick put the last file in its slot, then leaned on the workbench. ‘Way I see it, it's a package deal.'

‘Would you… I mean, if you ever…'

‘Go ahead. Say it.'

‘If you hurt Mum I'll kill you.'

‘Do you think I'm likely to hurt her?'

‘No. But I had to say it.'

‘Of course you did. I admire the way you watch out for her. I've seen you — checking to see who's talking about her.'

Andy shrugged it off. ‘It's not much.'

‘It's everything. It shows your strength.' He closed the drawer on the toolbox and rested his hand on the metal top. ‘That's why I want the package deal.'

‘What about Janie-Louise?'

‘She's growing up into a beautiful young girl. She'll need someone to keep an eye on her.'

‘How do you mean?'

‘Boys, Andrew. They're going to be after her like bees after nectar.'

Andy swallowed. ‘I've already seen her get a few looks. Don't think she's noticed yet.'

Nick nodded. ‘She needs backup.'

‘Protection?'

‘Yeah. Brother and father protection.'

‘My dad wouldn't care. He wouldn't even know what was going on.'

‘But I would.'

‘Why would you want to? Why would you want us?'

Nick looked into the boy's eyes. Same colour as his mother's. Lily had told him once that Andy looked like his father, but Nick could only see Lily in his features. ‘Ever had the sense that something's crept up on you? Taken the wind out of your sails while you weren't looking? And the thought of not having it anymore leaves you empty.'

‘You're talking about Mum?'

‘No, Andrew. I'm talking about you and Janie-Louise.'

‘You mean you love us?'

‘Yes.'

‘How can you? We're not your family.'

‘I'd like you to be.'

Andy seemed to be figuring this out. Deciding what it meant to him. ‘Janie-Louise likes you.'

‘And you?'

Another shrug. ‘I don't mind you.' He pulled a package out of his backpack and put it onto the bench. ‘I found this in Sydney. It's the type of bell Mum wants to hang above the door of the shop but it's broken.'

Nick looked down at the package, and picked it up, unwrapping the brown paper around it. ‘Reckon you can fix it?' he asked.

‘I was kind of hoping you'd take a look.'

Nick studied the bell and its housing, then handed it to Andy. ‘What do you see?'

‘I think it's the pin holding the iron coil. It's rusted, might snap if there's too much pressure on it.'

Nick smiled. ‘So let's take it apart and see if we can fix it.'

‘It might need soldering.'

‘We can do that.'

Twenty minutes later, the atmosphere calm between them as they tinkered with the bell and its housing, Andy reached over for a polishing rag and broke the silence. ‘So what do you want me and my sister to do for
your
big secret?'

‘Keep your eyes closed tight,' Janie-Louise said.

Lily had an aching need to open her eyes, but the children didn't want her to so she struggled to keep them shut.

The air on Main Street smelled of roses and backyard leaves. Autumn would forever remain the best time of year. The season she'd opened her heart. If the colours of autumn had smells, she'd be inhaling auburn, chestnut and burgundy, with red and gold thrown in for good measure.

‘I hope you're not going to take me down the stairs,' she said to her children as they led her along the walkway. She hadn't been allowed to peek from the moment they'd come running into Kookaburra's to tell her the surprise was ready.

Each child held her by an elbow. Each child's body so close either side of her as they guided her down the walkway that she indulged in remembering the baby in each of them. Downy heads, talcum powder bottoms. Little fingers curling around hers.

They let her go, and Lily stopped walking.

‘You can open your eyes now, Mum,' said Janie-Louise.

Lily opened her eyes expecting to see the surprise, whatever it might be. Instead all she saw were the beautiful faces of her children. She smiled at them.

Andy stepped forwards and hugged her, his arms around her waist.

Lily wrapped her boy in her embrace. She kissed the side of his head. Another year and she'd be leaning up to kiss him. Another year and he wouldn't want her kisses.

He stepped back and Janie-Louise came forward.

Lily held her arms out to her smiling daughter and Janie-Louise walked into the warmth of Lily's love.

‘This is going to be fun, Mum. This is going to make you happy.'

She meant the surprise, but Lily's happiness was the love her children were showing her. ‘You make me happy,' she told both of them.

Lily sensed excitement building between them. An energy. The shop wasn't opening officially until Tuesday, but the town had been adamant that this Saturday — the day of the Easter Bunny Ball — Lily should open the shop for them. They wanted to be the first to grace her doorway and offer congratulations.

She lifted her head, reluctantly taking her eyes off her children but knowing Nick would be the next recipient of her gaze.

He stood outside the door of the shop and beneath a large wrought-iron sign hung way above the door.

Turnaround Treasures
—
For the Love of Second Chances

Lily covered her mouth with her hands and drank in the pleasure of the sight. ‘I love it.' She spoke to the children but her focus was on Nick.

He smiled.

‘When you open the door,' Andy said, ‘the bell will ring. It's on a sprung coil. Nick and I fixed it.'

‘That's wonderful! It's exactly what I'd wanted.'

‘I know.' Andy smiled. ‘I had to solder parts of it, but that's okay.'

‘Thank you.'

‘I think this bit worked, kids,' Nick said. ‘Wish me luck for the next part.' As Lily had done, he spoke to the children but his focus was on Lily. ‘They know what I'm going to do next,' he said to her, as though anticipating any worries she might have.

‘You have to do the next bit on your own,' Janie-Louise said. ‘We're not coming with you.'

‘Yeah,' said Andy. ‘I'm definitely not going inside for the next bit.'

‘Lily,' Nick said, holding his hand out to her. ‘Will you step inside with me?'

She'd given Andy the keys to the shop earlier in the morning and had promised to stay in Kookaburra's drinking coffee until the kids returned to tell her that the surprise was ready. She'd known Nick was involved, and so she'd sat, drumming impatient fingers on the bar and staring into cold cups of coffee for nearly an hour while hammering and banging went on outside. Charlotte had practically tied her to the bar stool, saying she wasn't allowed to look out the window, and Dan had made a third cup of coffee which she hadn't touched.

The acceptance Andy and Janie-Louise had shown Nick had astonished Lily. Not because of effusiveness or overt attention paid to Nick and this sudden change in their lives, but because of the simplicity with which her children had embraced him. As though it were normal to go for a country walk together and have an evening picnic by the Maclaughlin River. As though it was the most normal thing in the world for the four of them to be lugging treasures from home to the shop, stopping for burgers at lunchtime and making fun of each other for the rest of the afternoon. Joking that the dirtiest and dustiest had done the most work.

Nick pushed the door open. Lily glanced at her children still standing outside Mr Morelly's hardware store, seemingly content to wait. Andy with a smile he tried to hide by compressing his lips, and Janie-Louise with a smile she obviously wanted to the world to see.

Content that nothing was bothering her children, Lily stepped through the door Nick held open for her. The brass bell rang above their heads.

‘I love this so much,' she said, meaning the bell, the sign, the shop — everything.

‘I love
you
so much.'

Lily spun to him.

‘Give me my second chance?' he asked.

‘You don't think you've already got it?'

He grinned. ‘This is the official request.'

Lily laughed, and lifted her arms to him. He took hold of them, but kept her from hugging him.

‘Do you love me, Lily?'

‘You know I do.'

‘Then everything I give you, whether it's tangible or emotional is yours.'

‘You give me protection and security.'

‘That's easy to give. It's part of my nature. I don't even notice I'm giving it.'

‘You make me laugh.'

He stalled, obviously not expecting such a statement. ‘I thought you were the crazy one,' he said at last.

Lily smiled, words and feelings bubbling in her chest. ‘You make me feel special.' She held up her hand to stop him from answering. ‘You help me — and I'm not talking about the tangible things. I'm talking about you helping the inner me.'

‘How do I do that?'

‘I don't know exactly how. But I've discovered I'm a better me because you're next to me.'

He pulled her in to him, his broad, comforting, muscled body suffusing her in warmth. She put the palm of her hand to his chest, above his heart. The place she wanted to rest her cheek whenever she needed to. Or whenever she felt like it. ‘This is where I want to be.'

‘If you're talking about getting into my heart, you're already there. All of you are there, Lily.'

Her children. ‘You love them, don't you?'

He nodded. ‘How could I not? They're yours.' He ran his hand from the curve of her shoulder blade to the base of her spine.

It wasn't a sexual touch, although every touch from this man created dynamic little bursts of sexual joy in her, but this was a coming-together touch.

‘I'm the one who's receiving, Lily,' he said, fixing his eyes on hers. ‘I'm the one who gets the best deal out of this.'

Lily pressed her palm against his heart more firmly, his heartbeat cupped in her hand.

‘No, Nick,' she said, tears welling in her eyes. ‘The children get the best deal.'

‘Thank you.' He gathered her into him. ‘Lily — will you marry me?'

‘Oh, God yes.' She wanted to throw her arms around his neck, but he still looked serious so she stayed in his embrace, her hands on his waist. ‘With all my heart.'

‘Never thought I'd get a second chance at marriage.'

‘Nor me.'

‘Looks like you gave this shop the right name.'

‘Looks like it.'

‘Talking of which.' He cleared his throat. ‘I don't expect you to take my name.'

‘I wouldn't want to have a different name to my children,' she told him, a little shyness overcoming her. ‘It wouldn't feel right.' Is this what was making him nervous? Would he mind so much, if she kept the name Johnson?

‘Lily — this might be too soon to ask, but I'm going to. I'd like to adopt Andy and Janie-Louise. If I can, and if you agree, and if they want it.'

The treasure shop smells filled the air around Lily. The smell of roses. Quilts. Perfumed candles and beeswax. The scent of secret loves, hidden letters, long-lost trinkets and forgotten gems. Everything in her shop was special. They were the ornaments of her life, but her children
were
her life. Her heart was full of joy.

She pressed herself against Nick, wrapping her arms around his neck. His arms came around her, holding her tight. ‘I'd like that, Nick. I'd like that very much and I think they would too. They love you.'

Lily closed her eyes tight and held on to the newness of her life. The Barton family. Business people. No bruises.

‘Will you kiss me, Nick?'

She felt his smile though she couldn't see it. His warmth spread through her body like a wave. She clung to him tighter, holding him like she'd now be able to hold him forevermore. Close to her. Always.

‘I'd love nothing better than to kiss you, Lily, but you'll have to let go of me a bit, so I can reach your mouth.'

Lily laughed, her mouth pressed against his strong neck.