Read Online The Turnaround Treasure Shop by Jennie Jones - Free Book Online Page A

Charlotte’s remark. They’d had the old conversation many times, with Lily closing it as she always did: by being non-committal.
    â€˜I meant,’ Charlotte said, breaking butter into her bowl of flour and crumbling the mixture between her fingertips, ‘as in for the rest of your life.’
    â€˜I’ll probably grow old like all of us.’
    â€˜Old and alone ,’ Charlotte said, eyebrows raised to you-know-I-won’t-let-this-go height.
    â€˜I’m not headed anywhere in particular, as you very well know,’ Lily said. ‘I’m happy looking after myself and my kids.’
    â€˜Don’t you sometimes dream of being swept away in a guy’s embrace? Danced around the room until your toes don’t touch the floor.’
    â€˜You’ve been reading the kissing books from the library.’ Lily put her finely chopped carrots to one side and grabbed a sack of potatoes off the floor.
    Charlotte sighed, long and dreamy, as she kneaded her scone dough. ‘I love the kissing books.’
    So did Lily, but if she admitted that to her boss-cum-friend she’d never get out of the conversation.
    â€˜What about our current resident available bachelor?’
    Lily peered at Charlotte. ‘What about him?’ Pointless pretending not to know who Charlotte meant. Nick was the only available bachelor in town below the age of 40. Below the age of 70, come to that, if you included the widowed gentlemen. But something else was happening here. The townspeople had some sort of secret, which appeared to be centred round Lily. Did it involve Nick? Charlotte — nor any of Lily’s other girlfriends in town — had never directly pushed Nick Barton her way before. Probably because they knew something had happened at last year’s Ball — although how, Lily didn’t know. She had never discussed that awkward moment with anyone. Her friends had spoken of Nick many times but they always came to the same conclusion. He was a loner. They’d decided he was a strong man with a determined attitude who wouldn’t be swayed by a bunch of love-happy females.
    â€˜Do you ever think he might have a thing for you?’ Charlotte asked, picking up her own rolling pin and dousing it in flour from a handful on the table.
    A thing . A look . Lily shrugged. ‘Don’t know. I doubt it.’
    Charlotte swung her rolling pin and prodded the air, aiming it at Lily. ‘And that’s your problem. You doubt everything about yourself.’
    â€˜I do not.’
    â€˜He’s got oomph.’
    â€˜Ooof!’ Olivia proclaimed.
    â€˜What does that mean?’ Lily asked.
    â€˜Dynamic sexuality ,’ Charlotte said, whispering the word ‘sexuality’ above Olivia’s head as she handed the child more pastry to roll. ‘All supressed and kept close within. He’s probably an exploding bomb once he lets himself go.’
    Lily agreed about the dynamic vitality of the man. If that was male oomph, Nick Barton had oodles of it. But she didn’t know what Nick would be supressing and didn’t want to further the thought of what it would be like to be close to the sexual explosion. ‘You need to take up knitting,’ she told Charlotte.
    â€˜Oh, come on.’ Charlotte dumped her rolling pin on the floury surface and walked over to Lily’s bench. ‘You’re not being fair.’ Little Olivia was used to the comings and goings in the kitchen, and didn’t seem to miss her mother’s presence by her side. She started bashing her pastry with her hands.
    â€˜To whom?’ Lily asked Charlotte, plopping her diced potatoes onto the pile of other chopped vegetables.
    â€˜To me and Sammy for a start, let alone yourself.’ Charlotte leaned her hip against the bench and folded her arms. ‘When we girls have our night on the town you’re the only one of us not married — apart from the twins, but