What Love Sounds Like Read Online Free PDF Page A

stopping. Mia quickly lifted a new bowl into place but not before popcorn tumbled from Tilly’s too-full one. Their laughter was barely audible above the racket of the popcorn-maker. Tilly lifted her bowl onto the granite-topped bench. At the last moment it tipped. Mia swung around to help and the bowl that she held beneath the popcorn stream moved. Popcorn pelted onto the kitchen floorboards like a shower of shotgun pellets.
    Kade muttered under his breath, grabbed the bowl from Mia and shoved it beneath the flowing popcorn. Two pairs of large eyes fixed on him. He didn’t know who looked more stunned, Tilly or Mia. Then Tilly smiled. Mia didn’t. Instead she smoothed strands of escaped hair behind her ears with one hand and turned off the machine with her other.
    An eerie silence descended on the kitchen broken only by a sporadic pop as the last of the corn kernels exploded.
    ‘Pop–torn,’ Tilly enthused. Smile wide, she bent and scooped up a handful from the floor. She offered it to him as if she were sharing some priceless pirate treasure. He stared at the popcorn. A treasure he had no idea the value of.
    ‘Here, Tilly,’ Mia said, holding out an empty bowl, ‘put the popcorn in here. Your uncle has his own special bowl, remember?’
    At Mia’s words, Tilly dumped the popcorn into the bowl and turned on her heel. Popcorn flew from under her feet as she ran over to the island bench.
    Mia took the half-filled container from his hands. ‘I know you only wanted plain popcorn but Tilly decided to surprise you.’
    Tilly returned and presented him with a small green bowl. ‘Taramel, Untle Tade.’
    Words didn’t form in either his mind or mouth. The only thing to sound in his head was the tick of a clock as it marked time. If the popcorn Tilly passed him hadn’t been coated in caramel he’d have had no idea what Tilly had said. In just fourteen days Tilly’s speech had to be intelligible. The sweet smell of the popcorn turned his stomach. He
had
to get the only life he ever knew back.
    ‘Don’t you lite it?’
    Worry wobbled in her small voice. Suspicious moisture shimmered in her eyes. His mouth dried. Tears to him were like kryptonite to the superhero in the movie Tilly had assured him she was old enough to watch. They rendered him powerless.
    ‘I do,’ he said quickly. ‘Caramel is my…favourite.’
    Tilly’s face broke into a grin and she skipped over to the small dustpan and brush that lay on the floor beside the garbage bin.
    Frustration shouldered aside his anxiety as Tilly swept up popcorn with well-practised expertise. This wasn’t the first time popcorn had covered the kitchen floor like a winter snowfall. He placed the caramel popcorn on the bench. But it would be the last. He swung around to look for Mia
    ‘Working hard?’ he asked.
    She finished tipping popcorn into a rectangular container as though he’d merely commented on the weather. Then she added the container to the pile in front of her, before facing him. ‘Tilly’s a little superstar. She’s made some great inroads this morning.’
    ‘How could she have possibly learned anything?’ He cast a swift glance around the kitchen. ‘Popcorn isn’t synonymous with success, only with mess.’
    ‘If you remember what I said earlier, much of Tilly’s therapy will be play-based. Look…’ Mia walked past him, collected his bowl of caramel popcorn off the bench and offered it to him. ‘Eat this and you’ll see.’
    ‘I came for coffee. Not a snack.’
    Her lips pressed together as though she were dredging up her last drop of patience. ‘Please eat your popcorn and then you’ll know what Tilly has been working on this morning.’
    Upon hearing her name, Tilly looked up from the pile of popcorn she’d swept into the dustpan.
    ‘Remember caramel is your
favourite
,’ Mia pressed.
    The corners of Tilly’s mouth turned down. He accepted the bowl Mia continued to hold out toward him and selected a small clump of popcorn. He kept