Read The Girl Who Came Back for Free Online

turned to watch him sending his cousins back to work. ‘That’s enough now,’ he told them with a wink at Jules. ‘I’m not paying you to stand about all day admiring Jules’s car, or her ass,
Liam
… That’s right, you little tosser. She’s family, for God’s sake …’
    ‘Stop,’ Jules cried, as the sixteen-year-old lad blushed to the roots of his fiery red spots.
    ‘I was not looking …’
    ‘Get out of here,’ Kian told him fondly. ‘And you, Greg. You’re supposed to be done in the main bar by the end of today. How likely is that looking?’
    ‘Hundred per cent if you’ll let me take a spin in that car,’ Greg promised.
    ‘Yeah, like that’s going to happen. Anyway, it belongs to Jules so you have to ask her.’
    Greg immediately turned to Jules.
    ‘The answer’s no,’ Kian informed him. ‘Ruthie, my darling, do you think we can rustle up a cup of tea for us all?’
    ‘Who was that on the phone?’ Jules called out.
    ‘An engineer testing the line,’ Ruthie replied, coming to the door. ‘Very polite he was, and he told me if we have any problems …’
    ‘Tea?’ Kian interrupted.
    ‘Just what I was thinking,’ Ruthie told him, ‘you know where the kettle is. Two sugars for me,’ and allowing the boys to pass she grinned at Jules before following them back inside.
    Sighing, Jules rested her head on Kian’s shoulder as he slipped an arm around her.
    ‘I know the car doesn’t make up for anything,’ he said softly, ‘but it did make you smile.’
    ‘Not as much as the outfit,’ she assured him. ‘You look a complete dick, and I suppose you went parading through the town dressed like that making sure everyone saw you.’
    ‘Well, I wouldn’t be wanting them to miss out on a good laugh, now, would I?’ he admitted. ‘Which reminds me, I was thinking we could make our grand opening a fancy dress affair. Can’t you just see it? We could go for a nautical theme, you know, pirates, smugglers, jolly matelots,
mermaids
…’
    Jules looked at him askance.
    ‘OK, maybe not mermaids, they wouldn’t be able to walk, but the topless bit would go down well.’
    ‘I wonder what you’re going to think of next?’ she laughed. ‘
You’re
the one who loves dressing up, not everyone else. Well, maybe everyone in your family …’
    ‘Who’s that?’ he broke in as a large white van came trundling along the cove’s only access route from the main road. ‘Oh, great, it’s Bob. I bet he’s brought our new computers.’
    ‘That fell off the back of a lorry?’
    Kian’s hands went up. ‘He knows we don’t take any of his dodgy stuff,’ he assured her. ‘Apparently these are totally on the level, still in their boxes. I thought you wanted one.’
    ‘I do. Definitely. Who’s going to teach us how to use them?’
    ‘We’ll find someone. You know they’re saying that within ten years everyone’s going to have one … I’ll go give him a hand to unload. Christ! He nearly hit my new car, stupid b …’ He turned sheepishly to Jules. ‘
Your
new car,’ he corrected.
    Her eyes were shining as she watched him taunting Bob with his cape, zigzagging over to the van where Bob was clearly enjoying the performance as he jumped down on to the gravel. They’d been friends all through school, had lived on the same street, played on the same football and hurling teams, were best men at each other’s weddings, and had promised to be godfathers to each other’s kids when the little rascals finally came along. (Bob’s wife, Izzie, was expecting their first at the end of next month.) There probably wasn’t anything the two men wouldn’t do for one another, although Jules had to admit there wasn’t much Kian wouldn’t do for anyone.
    He was just that sort of bloke. He absolutely loved to help others, to the point that he found it almost impossible to say no, and it didn’t even seem to bother him if he was taken advantage of, which happened more often than he probably knew. Not that