by Jennie Jones
A loud thump from the hall beyond the back-room library startled them both.
‘What the hell was that?’ Nick said, heading for the door.
‘Stop faffing about and zip it!’ Ted Tillman’s voice held its usual disgruntled authority.
‘Dad — we told you — it’s too small,’ Jillian Tillman said.
‘You’ve put on too much weight, Dad,’ her twin, Jessica, told him.
‘Blasted thing’s shrunk in the wash. I told your mother not to meddle with it, but would she listen?’
‘Ted’s out,’ Nick said as he moved back from the door with a barely held-together grin. ‘And he’s wearing a fluffy yellow—’ He laughed, unable to finish his sentence.
Lily pulled her own grin into line as she caught sight of Ted, his daughters either side of him, attempting to get him into the bunny costume he’d been wearing for the Easter Ball for the last 10 years. ‘He gets agitated whenever there’s a big fussy do coming up. He’s been in the Town Hall every day this week, getting his party gear organised for the Ball.’
Nick stepped back from the door as though he didn’t want to be seen and perhaps pulled into the fray.
Lily couldn’t blame Nick for wanting to stay out of it. She knew well enough how persuasive Ted could be when he asked for assistance — demanded, more like — in his official position as Swallow’s Fall Community Spirit committee chairman. He took the role seriously.
‘Let’s give him a wide berth,’ she said, starting to close the door to as Ted wriggled his torso in the bunny costume. ‘He’s been trying to lose weight for ages.’
‘I know. He came for a run with Dan and me one day last week. Said he thought he might shape-up faster if he hung around with us.’
‘Oh, my God! How far did he get?’
‘Not far.’
Lily couldn’t envisage Ted getting much farther than half way up the hill on the eastern side of town.
Nick leaned over her shoulder to look out the small gap between the door and the doorframe. ‘He’s not actually going to be wearing that, is he?’ he asked, nodding at Ted as his daughters tried to zip up the duck-yellow costume adorning his Easter-egg shaped body.
Was there such a thing as sensual claustrophobia? If so, Lily was in the middle of an attack. She was heady with Nick’s male fragrance. ‘He wore it last year, don’t you remember?’ She pushed the door and gently closed it then turned to the desk, feeling a flush creep up her neck. She shouldn’t have made reference to last year’s Ball. Now they’d both be remembering…
‘Lily.’ Nick’s lowered, softened voice had Lily trembling. ‘Lily,’ he said again.
She couldn’t appear rude and ignore him a second time. She pressed the palms of her hands to her burning cheeks, and reluctantly turned to face him.
She met his gaze and immediately got sucked into it. A zing moment passed between them.
‘About the Ball,’ he said.
Confusion stalled every thought in Lily’s head except one. Was he going to ask her to go with him? ‘Are you going?’ she asked first.
‘Yes. I’m going,’ he said, his voice a deep, lingering caress. His eyes fixed on hers, as though he were tightening an invisible cord between them. ‘I’ve got some unfinished business I’d like to settle.’
Lily’s eyes widened, and all too soon she envisioned herself and Nick finishing off some daring business at the Easter Bunny Ball. Business that definitely didn’t include knit-one, pearl-one.
Chapter 8
The next morning Lily stood in Main Street and watched the bus leave town, her heart torn by mixed emotions as her kids waved from the tinted back window. She’d dipped into her savings to give them spending money, but that was all right. A month or two more on the savings agenda for the lease of Turnaround Treasures wouldn’t hurt. Getting the shop was at least two years away. She’d had the first seven months’ lease saved, but nowhere near the first year’s. She wasn’t going to do anything about getting the shop until she had a full 12-month lease money saved. After she opened, her hopes were on making enough profit to see her through the following year’s lease.
So many hopes, not enough dedicated backing of the financial variety. Still. Hope was good, wasn’t it? Now she’d given two months’ worth over to ereaders, higher internet usage, budgie cages and holidays in Sydney. Still…there was five months’ worth of hope left in the Turnaround Treasure Shop Piggy Bank Fund.
She turned to find Nick, to thank him for running them all into town, even though the rain had only just started. The low clouds in the sky threatened a heavier shower though. He’d taken a call on his mobile just as the bus pulled out. He was nodding now. ‘No problem, I’ll come right over. No — really. Let’s get it done.’ He snapped a button on the mobile phone and pocketed it as he turned to Lily.
‘I’ve been called out on a job.’
‘Something important?’ She knew that Nick had recently become part of the volunteer firefighter service in the area. Something most of the able-bodied men in town — and those who were really too old to be hefting hoses — volunteered for.
‘Ray’s young manager up at the farm has a problem with the wheel bearings on the tractor.’
‘Has he called Ray?’
Nick put a hand at the base of her spine and gently moved her to beneath the metal awning of the bus shelter as rain pattered on their shoulders.
‘Said he didn’t want to bother Ray. Asked if I’d take a look first. From what he said, it sounds to me like it’s the pivot pin and we don’t want him driving an unsafe tractor.’
He paused, and studied her. ‘Are you all right?’ He looked towards the northern end of town where the bus had now disappeared. ‘They’re good kids and Andy has sense. The driver’s watching out for them too.’
Lily sighed. ‘You’re right. A woman I know from down south is on the bus too. She said she’d keep an eye on them.’
He leaned down, his face beside hers and whispered in her ear. ‘They’ll be fine. Don’t worry so much.’
The warmth of his breath punctured the bubble of worry and the confident tone in his voice soothed her concern about the children. Her heart seemed to swell.
‘Looks like we’ll have to make another date to finish off the library inventory.’
‘That’s okay, Nick. We can get to it next week.’ She smiled at him as she read disappointment on his face. She also wondered if she spied a little romance in his eyes…
‘Want a lift home before I head to Ray’s farm?’
She was reading far too much from very little. ‘No thanks. Think I’ll pop in and see Charlotte.’
‘Maybe you’ll still be here when I’ve finished at the farm.’ He put his hand to the base of her spine again, almost like a goodbye caress, then left her and headed for his ute.
Lily went straight to the shop on the corner. While she was in town, she might as well take a look at her dream and she had a need for the usual type of imagery she conjured up — not the romantic kind that appeared to be getting her unravelled.
Ten minutes later, rituals and silent prayers done, Lily closed and locked the door of the corner shop, happy that everything inside was safe and sound.
She saw Sammy Granger coming out of the stock feeders’. Sammy stopped to have a brief word with Ted Tillman, the owner, then crossed Main Street heading for Kookaburra’s.
‘Sammy! Wait up,’ Lily called.
‘Hey, saw you earlier at the bus stop. Thought you must have gone home.’ Sammy hugged Lily close. ‘Something happened?’ she asked in a querying tone. ‘You look flushed.’
‘I’m excited!’
‘Well that’s a first.’ Sammy grinned.
Lily had no intention of telling Sammy the real reason for her apparently flushed face but it was fortuitous that her other good friend was also in town. ‘Oh, stop teasing. I mean it — something good has happened for the kids. I was just going in to tell Charlotte.’
‘Come on then, let’s go find her bec
ause I can’t wait to hear whatever it is you’re going to tell us.’ Sammy hooked her arm through Lily’s and they entered Kookaburra’s where they found Charlotte in the bar.
‘Mum rang yesterday, wanting the kids for the rest of the holidays,’ Lily said, accepting a coffee from Charlotte and settling onto her bar stool. ‘I put them on the bus to Canberra just now.’ Lily’s excitement kind of rushed out of her. Mostly, she supposed from the dancing she’d been doing in the empty corner shop but also because of the thrill flowing through her from the romantic sensation she’d got from Nick. ‘They won’t be back until Easter Monday.’
‘That’s fantastic!’ Charlotte clapped her hands. ‘Perfect timing too.’
‘Why?’ Lily asked.
‘You’ll have to give her Sunday off work,’ Sammy said to Charlotte.
‘We fully intended to — just in case.’
‘What Sunday?’ Lily asked, perplexed.
‘A week on Sunday. After the Easter Bunny Ball.’
‘I won’t need a day off work.’
‘But you’ll be exhausted,’ Charlotte said. ‘The Ball doesn’t finish until midnight. You don’t want to have to get up at six the next morning in order to work.’
‘Why not?’
‘Because of all the dancing you’ll be doing and the free champagne you’ll be drinking,’ Sammy chipped in. ‘And because of any — situation — you might find yourself in.’
‘Especially now you’ll be child-free.’
‘I don’t intend to drink myself into oblivion.’
‘That’s not the kind of oblivion we’re hoping for,’ Charlotte said, looking at Sammy as though for confirmation.
Sammy nodded agreement. ‘More the dazed, dreamy kind.’
‘What are you both talking about?’
‘Love!’ they pronounced at the same time.
‘Or at least sex,’ Charlotte added.
‘I don’t think we need to worry about her not being loved too, though,’ Sammy said.
‘Hello!’ Lily waved. ‘I’m in the room.’
‘Hello right back,’ Sammy said. ‘We’ve been “in the room” with you for the last year, noticing things — like how guarded you get whenever Nick Barton walks into the restaurant.’
Lily gasped.
‘And how he keeps coming into the restaurant — to see you!’ Charlotte leaned over the bar top towards Sammy. ‘You know, once, when Lily was ill with the flu, he came in for breakfast, discovered she wasn’t there and walked right out.’
‘We’ve let this drag on too long, Charlotte. He had his hand on her back earlier, at the bus shelter. At the base of her spine!’
‘Oh my God, the protective hand-on-the-back routine? That seals it.’
‘He was practically whispering in her ear.’
‘Sweet nothings?’ Charlotte asked.
‘No!’ Lily declared. ‘He was talking about tractor parts.’
***
Exasperation, rain, and gravelly stones underfoot fuelled Lily’s frustration at her friends’ interference in a love life she didn’t have. Her flat white pumps weren’t much use on the track home. She hadn’t been thinking — because she’d been driven in and out of town this week. She’d got used to being chauffeured around by an attractive man in the king of vehicles. Should have worn her walking boots and jeans. Instead, the skirt of her green cotton dress stuck to her bare legs as she walked.
She pulled her cardigan around her. Roll on Monday when she’d get the Orange Bullet and her independence back. She hadn’t even brought her jacket!
A car horn sounded behind her and Lily moved to the verge.
‘Hi,’ Nick said through the open passenger window. ‘Thought I might find you half-way home. Hop in.’
‘I’m wet.’
He leaned over and opened the passenger door. ‘And if you don’t hop in, you’ll be soaked.’
‘Thanks,’ Lily said, trying not to feel relief and comfort as she sank into the leather seat. ‘How’s the tractor?’
‘Fixed. No real issue after all.’
‘That’s good.’ The young man Ray employed was skilled and reasonably experienced, but Lily knew that her stepfather would have turned the Winnebago homeward if he’d heard of even the slightest problem with the farm. ‘Thanks,’ she said again.
‘What for?’
‘Fixing the tractor. I bet you checked a lot more than the tractor while you were there, too.’
‘Took a look at the truck. While I was there.’
‘Thank you, Nick.’
‘Stop apologising, Lily.’
‘I wasn’t! I was thanking you.’
‘There’s an apology in every thank you.’
What did that mean? ‘No there isn’t.’
Nick looked her in the eye, a smile playing at the corner of his mouth.
Lily sighed. ‘All right, so it was an apology. I’m—’ She bit her bottom lip.
‘Sorry,’ Nick finished for her.
‘I’ll be happy to get my car back. Then I won’t have to thank you for chauffeuring me around.’
‘I like chauffeuring you around. Think of it as my input for the Support to Survive program.’
She felt affronted by that. ‘I’d have supported my own survival if I’d worn walking boots and jeans.’ Lily didn’t need supporting; she was doing fine on her own. More than fine.
‘Wasn’t saying you couldn’t.’
She shook her head, pulled a face but resisted saying, ‘Sorry.’
Nick simply laughed. ‘No arguing. Let’s just enjoy the last of our road trips.’
‘A five minute car ride is a road trip?’
‘You bet. Let’s live it.’
He bumped the vehicle over the verge and into the bushland that was Lily’s back garden. ‘Hold on,’ he told her. ‘We’re taking a detour.’
Lily grabbed hold of the handrail above the passenger door as he put the ute into four-wheel-drive. She was a farm kid; she’d been driving since she was 12 years old. Her father had run a reasonably profitable piggery and market garden up until his death. Her mother had continued with equal success, with Lily’s help, until financial disaster had hit the world and everything had gone pear-shaped. Lily could drive tractors, trucks and pretty much anything with wheels — but she hadn’t done anything derring-do in a very long time.
‘If you really intend to drive up that hill,’ she called out as excited pleasure — and a little terror — surged through her, ‘you’re going to need to lock the diff.’
He laughed. ‘You let me worry about the diff. This is a workhorse.’
Lily nodded. And the man knew how to drive.
***
Nick smiled broadly when Lily let out another laughter-filled yelp. He’d made up his mind up at her stepfather’s farm. This lady wouldn’t feel comfortable having lunch with him. She needed a different kind of romancing and yeah, he was going to romance her. The second decision he’d made: Lily Johnson needed adventure and Nick Barton wanted to be the man who gave it to her.
He increased speed a little as he drove the ute up a steep, tussocky hill, swerving to avoid rocks and boulders and a few deep trenches that looked like they’d been there for a decade or more.
‘Looks like someone else has been using your land for off-road driving.’
‘Me,’ she said, taking a firmer grip of the handrail as the ute rocked. ‘When I was younger. My dad taught me how to four-wheel drive.’
‘How long since you’ve done it?’
‘Too long!’ she told him with a half-laugh, half-squeal as Nick turned the ute sharply at the top of the hill and drove along the ridge. ‘You can still see some of the deep tracks I made all those years ago.’
‘Ready?’ he asked, aiming for the downward slope.
‘Watch out for the dip.’ She pointed to a place where the land appeared to be compact and flat. ‘It’s overgrown now, but there’s a big depression just after the ridge.’
‘I see it.’
; She squealed again as they plunged downhill, pleasure and laughter mingled in the sound, and Nick’s heart swelled.
‘You’re good!’ she told him. ‘Although you’re going a bit faster than I would.’
‘Years of speeding along in an insertion boat. Wanna drive?’
‘Maybe if I had my boots on.’
A few minutes later and the adventure was over. Nick parked at the front of her house. He pulled on the handbrake and turned to look at her.
‘Oh, God, that was good!’ She swept her hands through her hair, pushing back loosened strands, her smile as wide as a barn door thrown open to the sunshine. ‘D’you think the Orange Bullet would still handle off-road?’
‘Is that what you call your car?’
She turned his way as she undid her seatbelt. ‘The kids’d love it!’
It ought not to, but every time she looked at him, whether nervous or happy, he felt like a commander and hero. Something inside him wanted to be all pillars of strength for her. Build her a fortress.
Excitement still sparkled in her eyes, her smile wide and contagious. Her pleasure overwhelmed him. And she smelled beautiful. Like fine powder and silk, softened by warm rain.
He took hold of her and pulled her into his arms the way he’d been longing to do for what felt like an eternity.
***
Lily’s heart seemed to stop beating and start again with a jolt. Then her heart rate roared in her ears. All sounds around her swelled. Birdsong, the engine idling, the rainfall rustling the leaves on the gum trees, and the faraway drone of a tractor. She was being kissed! Firmly kissed.
Nick put more pressure on her mouth, willing her to follow. She parted her lips. Her kissing life had ended years ago and if she’d ever been kissed like this, she would have died from heartbreak for the loss.
He held her tightly, his grip as firm as his mouth. He kissed her as though she were a long-awaited prize.