The parking lot was empty, but that was nothing unusual at six in the morning. Justin rolled up and parked on the far edge of the gravel lot, letting out a yawn. He'd stayed up a little late studying, but he wasn't going to miss the opportunity his father was finally providing. Besides, it was a welcome distraction from the lack of sex resulting from dumping his cheating girlfriend a couple weeks earlier.

After smoothing back his light brown locks, Justin popped on his Barn Owl Treasures hat and headed into the shop. His father had decided to turn a family obsession into a business, and gained quite a clientele all across the country. One man's trash may be another man's treasure, but it takes a special breed to find those dust-covered gems hidden in barns, attics, and basements along the backroads of America.

Born to a long line of packrats and collectors, picking was in Justin's blood.

The bell on the inside of the door had barely started to chime when his father walked out from the back room. "Ready for your first solo pick?"

He walked up to his father and answered, "Good to go, Dad. Ready to bring us back some rusty gold."

His father then pulled out a debit card. "There's your expenses. Make sure you have at least a couple bills on you any time you stop."

"Got it, Dad."

Justin stepped out the door and walked over to the van - by himself for the first time. The hunt was on.

A chance encounter with a 70s Chevy pickup sporting deer antlers for a hood ornament and carrying a wrought-iron gate in the back had drawn Justin off the beaten path. His picking radar was spot on, because the truck led him to a yard filled with rusty classic cars and numerous outbuildings. The old man had happily showed off his collection for a couple of hours, though he was reluctant to sell.

His wife was a different story.

Justin broke the ice by buying a couple of 60s pinup calendars that the old man wasn't quite as attached to, and which his wife was more than happy to see go. They weren't the big score he was hoping for, but it was enough to get his foot in the door, and the old man seemed to be buckling under his wife's pressure. The place would be a good pick once that happened.

With the address and phone number sent to his father, along with a few pictures, Justin hit the road again.

Though the rough gravel road had looked promising at first, the prospects were thinning fast. Every lawn he passed seemed a little more manicured than the last. On the verge of turning around to hit a crossroad a few miles back, something caught his eye.

He slowed, homing in on the open barn door. Within, he could see a tarp covering a car. The tarp might have once been blue, but it was now thick with dust and faded with age.

Normally, he wouldn't have glanced twice at the place. The lawn looked positively suburban, despite outbuildings marking it as having been a farm at some point. The buildings appeared to be in good repair, and there was nothing out in the yard. Everything his father had ever taught him said that there was no reason to stop. Nevertheless, something was drawing him toward the property.

Above everything else, his father had taught him to trust his instincts. He turned into the drive.

There was a car parked in front of the house, and a curtain moved as he pulled up, indicating that someone was home. He grabbed a flyer and headed for the door, taking a closer look at the tarp-covered car along the way. He could see fins poking up in the back, which was promising.

Seeing no doorbell, he gave a knock, and the door opened almost immediately.

Damn, Justin thought, his smile growing wider. The blonde who answered the door had an eye-popping rack, and she certainly knew how to show it off. The material of the half-shirt stretched across the impressive globes, and the deep neck exposed ample cleavage. Below, a charm dangled from her exposed midriff. Her tummy wasn't exactly flat, but she certainly wasn't chunky. Denim shorts hugged her hips, exposing long expanses of attractive leg. One of the few advantages of being suddenly single was that his conscience wasn't nibbling at him for admiring her.

As much as he was enjoying the show, Justin was on business. "Hey there. I noticed the car in the barn as I was going by, and thought I'd stop. My name's Justin, and I'm with Barn Owl Treasures." He handed over the flyer.

"Denise," she said as she took the paper and looked it over.

"I'm a picker, and that's the sort of things I'm looking to buy. Think you might have anything on that list?"

She chuckled. "Oh, just everything."

"That's what I love to hear - if you're interested in selling."

"Oh, I'm interested. Very interested."

So am I - and not just in what's in the barn. Her voice reminded him of Demi Moore - deep and sultry.

"My dad passed away a while back, and I've been wondering what I was going to do with all the junk he collected over the years."

"Mind if I take a look around? Maybe I can take some of it off your hands."

"Do you want to look at the car?"

"Maybe, but if you have other stuff on the list, that's probably a better place to start."

She stepped out onto the porch and pulled the door closed. "The other barn, then. That's where dad kept most of his stuff."

"Lead the way."

It was all Justin could do to keep from staring at her ass. Her hips swayed, drawing his eyes to the sinuous movement. Unlike so many women, where it was obviously an act designed to attract attention, there was something natural - and incredibly sexy - about the way Denise moved.

The barn she led him to was farther back on the property, out where the weeds grew tall. The place was in good shape, but looked older than the barn near the house where he'd spotted the car. She removed a wooden bar and pulled open the huge double doors.

Justin was in picker heaven.

His initial scan revealed old bicycles, porcelain signs, metal toys - and that was just what was on top of the piles. There were boxes stacked everywhere, from one end of the barn to the other.

"Look around all you want. Everything's for sale."

Justin rubbed his hands together. "That's just what I like to hear."

Something odd-shaped hiding beneath a tarp had been nagging at him from the moment Denise had opened the door. "I've got to see what this is."

"I'm curious too. Let's see."

After removing a couple of bricks on the front corners, Justin peeled back the tarp and laughed. "Ah, okay. Now the shape makes sense."

Denise shook her head and chuckled as she beheld the examination table, complete with stirrups. "Wonderful. I have nightmares about those things already, and now there's one in the back barn."

"Probably 70s. Not much I could do with it right now, but it's in great shape. Could be worth something in a few years, or if I come across the right buyer. On the other hand..." He took a step to one side, picking up a VW emblem that had caught his eye on top of the very first stack of boxes inside the door.

"How much do you want for this?"

"I have no idea," she responded, and shrugged. "How about ten bucks?"

"I'll pop at ten bucks." He held out his hand.

Denise shook his hand, wearing an amused smile.

"That's what we call breaking the ice. Now, it's time to get dirty, and get down to business."

"Get as dirty as you like."

Naturally, those words inspired thoughts about activities other than digging through the barn, but he kept them to himself as he waded in.

An hour later, Justin was covered in barn dust and dripping with sweat. He had a small pile of select pieces near the door, and returned with one more he'd found buried beneath several boxes and an old blanket.

Denise laughed as he pulled the wagon toward her. "Need something to carry everything to the van in?"

He laughed as well. "That's part of the reason, but this is a really early Radio Flyer. How much?"

She shrugged. "Twenty bucks?"

"I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I only paid you twenty. How about fifty?"

"Sold."

Justin did some quick calculations in his head. He'd spent the cash on hand within the first ten minutes, and with the addition of the wagon, he was at the limit his father had set. "Do you mind if I take a few pics and call my dad? I think I may be able to talk him into upping the budget a little."

"Go right ahead. Everything you buy is one less thing I've got to worry about when I finally decide to deal with turning this into a giant garage sale."

He went to work immediately, snapping pics of several potentially valuable items, and a general overview of just how much stuff was in the barn. He turned around to see Denise bent over, reaching for something on the back of a table. Her ass looked incredible, and her boobs were jiggling hypnotically.

That's what they were thinking of when they made up the word MILF, he thought, before tearing his eyes away. The sight of the sexy older woman was starting to make his jeans tighten, and that was hardly the impression he wanted to make with such a lucrative pick in front of him.

"I'm going to send these to my dad and give him a call."

"Good luck."

"For both of us."

"Mmm hmm," she agreed.

The crooked smile she wore was pure sex appeal, and Justin headed outside before he busted straight through his zipper. The phone rang almost as soon as he stepped out into the sun.

"You hit the mother load," his father said as soon as Justin answered. "Is the stack with the wagon what you've already bought?"

"Yeah, I'm at the limit on cash withdrawals with that stuff."

"That's all? We'll easily double our money - maybe triple."

"I doubled most of her asking prices, too."

"Her? No sentimental attachment?"

"Nope. Everything's for sale."

"We can't let this one get away." After a brief pause, he said, "Go two grand for today. Get into town and I'll wire you the rest of the money. See if you can talk her into holding off on selling stuff for a bit. I can turn over most of what you've bought already in a heartbeat. We can use the profits from that to keep the ball rolling on other things. I'd really like to get that Harley and that Indian."

"All over it."

"I'm going to start making calls."

"And I'm going to go sweet-talk Denise. I'm only about two hours from home, but I'll probably be late."

"As late as you want," his father said, and then laughed. "Bye."

"Later."

Justin headed back in and gave a thumbs-up to Denise when she turned toward him and raised an eyebrow.

"I see a spa day in my future," she said.

"Maybe several, if you're game. There's a lot of stuff we can sell quickly. If you don't mind giving us a little time, we can keep rolling the profits into buying more."

"Oh, that's fine. You're paying way more than I would have expected, and I really wasn't looking forward to dealing with a garage sale. I trust you, so just get whatever you're willing to spend for today."

"How does two grand sound?"

Her eyes popped wide open in surprise. "Wonderful."

"Since I know how much I'm going to spend, I think I'll run into town and pick up the money. I could use a rest break."

"By all means."

"Back in a few minutes, then."

A pair of text messages along the way revealed that the wagon, VW emblem, and a Standard Oil sign were already sold before he even had them out of the barn. At that pace, he might very well be back tomorrow turning over the profits. Justin hit the ATM, then called in the location for his father to wire the other $1500. With a pocket full of cash, he pulled back into Denise's drive.

She was waiting at the front door, and he waded back into the barn.

A carrier complete with eight oil bottles brought him within two hundred dollars of his limit an hour or so later, and he hadn't even seen the back half of the barn yet.

"How about I go make us some iced tea? You look a little hot and sweaty, and I know I am."

The words hot and sweaty once again had him thinking of other things. "Sounds great." Remembering something, he asked, "There's a wooden box back there with a lock on it. Mind if I pop it open to see what's inside?"

"Sure, go right ahead. Back in a bit."

He quickly discovered that trying to hold a flashlight in the dimly lit barn so he could see to remove the hinges was a pain. The box had handles, and a quick test proved that it was of manageable weight. Decision made, he carried the box out into the sunlight.

The box was unremarkable, other than the lock. Nothing more than pure curiosity drove him to open it. With plenty of light, he was able to remove the screws securing the hinges - far easier than breaking the substantial lock. What was inside drew out an immediate chuckle, as well as enhancing his curiosity.

Bundles upon bundles of a single issue of a nudie magazine from 1989 filled the crate, as well as a few loose copies. They all looked as if they had been intercepted before ever going on sale. Picking up one of the loose copies, he tore open the wrapper and pulled it out.

Flipping through the pages, he admired the pictures. Then, he suddenly stopped and stared in wide-eyed amazement. There, in all her naked glory, was a young Denise posing for the camera.

The five pages of pictures left nothing to the imagination, and merged with his lustful thoughts of her as she was now. A quick mental calculation took him aback. He assumed that she was in her early thirties at most, yet the date of the magazine said that she was at least forty.

"Oh dear."

Justin started, having not heard her approaching. She was looking over his shoulder at herself on the pages, wearing an amused smile.

He fumbled for an explanation. "Uhm, I was..."

Denise cut him off. "Well, that explains why it was locked. Dad must have bought up all of them he could find."

Embarrassed at being caught, he was still nevertheless as hard as stone. The years had been very, very kind to her. She was still smoking hot, despite her age. In a way, it actually made her even sexier.

She held out a large plastic cup from a convenience store and a damp washcloth. "Here, have some tea and let me see that. I haven't seen these pictures in years."

Glad for the distraction, Justin wiped his brow with the cloth, drank, and tried to talk down his erection before she noticed it. She didn't help him much with that.

"I was so skinny, and my boobs were so perky. Look at them now."

She hefted one of the heavy globes with her palm, nearly making Justin choke on his tea.

After flipping through all the pages, she chuckled and closed the magazine. "Those were the days. People would pay me to keep my clothes on now, huh?"

He was torn. The look in her eyes said that it wasn't a rhetorical question. She was actually looking for an answer. His mind raced, and he finally came up with something. "You're being too hard on yourself."