Pictures of Lily Read Online Free PDF Page B

from the sun. Climbing onto a log, it sniffs the air in anticipation of a snack. Just then, Ben appears with his silver bowl and starts to speak. I’m riveted as I watch the Tasmanian Devil crush the chicks with its super-strong jaw and I have a misplaced sense of pride that I know this keeper to whom everyone is listening. When feeding time is over, Ben calls across at me.
    ‘Lunch?’
    I smile back at him and nod, relieved that he’s not holding my earlier snub against me.
    At about three o’clock in the afternoon, my whole body is hit by an overwhelming tiredness and I spend the last couple of hours of the day perusing the gift shop for stuffed koalas for Kay and Olivia and chilling out at a table inside the air-conditioned café. Michael turns up shortly after five.
    ‘You alright, love? Sorry, that was a bit of a long day for you.’
    ‘No, no, it wasn’t,’ I hurriedly assure him as I get to my feet. ‘I think I might be a bit jetlagged, but I absolutely love it here.’
    ‘Ah, that’s good. You’re welcome to join me anytime.’
    ‘Thanks. I really would like to come back again.’
    ‘I mean it,’ he says, as we walk through the exit gates to the truck. ‘Just let me know. You’ve got, what – two months before school starts?’
    ‘Something like that.’ My mood does a nosedive.
    ‘Hey, what’s with the face?’ he calls over the back of the truck. I shake my head and climb in. The heat inside the cabin is stifling. ‘Don’t worry, it’ll be fine,’ Michael says, starting up the engine, and putting the air-conditioning on full blast. ‘I know it can’t be easy for you, but I hope you come to like Australia.’
    ‘It’s fine,’ I mutter sheepishly.
    ‘Ah, no,’ he says gruffly. ‘To be honest, if I were you I’d be scared shitless. Oops. Excuse my French.’
    I giggle and he pulls out of the car park.
    Cooking smells waft down the hall as we walk through the front door of the house, making me groan inwardly. I don’t think Josh is a budding Jamie Oliver, which can only mean one thing: my mum is in the kitchen.
    ‘Wow, that smells good!’ Michael enthuses as he bounds away from me. My feet drag after him. The sound of the television emanates from behind the closed door of the living room and I’m guessing Josh is inside. What I wouldn’t give to join him and avoid my mother altogether. As if reading my mind, my mum emerges from the kitchen, wiping her hands with a tea-towel.
    ‘Hello,’ she calls, her smile practically leaping from her face. ‘Welcome home.’
    Home? Glad to see someone’s settled in.
    ‘Hey there,’ Michael says warmly, going in for a kiss. I flinch as the impact lasts slightly longer than necessary.
    ‘Hello, Lily.’ Still beaming, Mum beckons me towards her, gets my head in a headlock and kisses my temple. I firmly extract myself. ‘Did you have a nice day?’
    ‘Yep.’
    ‘Sit down and tell me all about it!’
    ‘No,’ I moan, reverting to the moody teenager she’s so familiar with. ‘I’m shattered.’
    ‘She is, poor thing,’ Michael says. ‘It’s been a long day.’ He musses my hair and it takes everything in me not to bat him away.
    ‘I’ve made Shepherd’s Pie,’ Mum says proudly.
    ‘In this heat?’ I can’t help but respond.
    ‘Oh, you,’ she says affectionately, reaching out for a killer hug. I quickly step away.
    ‘I might see what’s on the telly.’
    ‘Dinner will be ready in half an hour,’ she calls after me.
    ‘You beauty, Cindy,’ I hear Michael say as I leave the room. ‘It’s so great coming home to you today.’
    My mum only ever cooks for the men in her life. Not for me. Never for me. Oh, sure, she’s made me beans on toast, but even I’m capable of rustling that one up. And I have done. Often.
    ‘Hey,’ Josh says when I appear in the living room. He’s wearing dark-blue and white Bermuda shorts and a light-blue T-shirt. His tanned legs are projecting halfway across the coffee table.
    ‘Alright?’ I