Pictures of Lily

comes out of the wooden front door and I’m distracted from the look of fear in my mum’s eyes because he’s, well, unexpectedly hot.
    ‘Who’s that?’ I ask suspiciously as Mum forcibly relaxes her features and undoes her seatbelt.
    ‘That must be Josh.’
    ‘My new big bro?’ My voice is laced with sarcasm, but I’m secretly wishing I’d thought to brush out the knots that have accumulated in my long dark hair courtesy of a twenty-four-hour flight. Mum gives me one last pleading look with tired blue eyes before climbing out of the car. I grudgingly follow her.
    ‘Hi!’ she beams as she storms along the gravel footpath, leaving small puffs of cream-coloured dust in her wake. ‘I’m Cindy.’
    ‘G’day. I’m Josh.’ Josh holds out his hand and Mum shakes it before turning back to me.
    ‘This is my daughter, Lily.’
    The enormous smile on my mum’s face keeps wavering, but Josh is too busy looking me up and down to notice. I fold my arms across my bust and glare at his chiselled face, waiting indignantly for his dark-brown eyes to meet my light-brown ones.
    ‘G’day.’
    ‘Do they seriously say that over here?’ I respond, ignoring his outstretched hand.
    ‘What?’ He hooks his thumbs into his jeans pockets and looks amused. His attractiveness has obviously given him far too much confidence and that annoys me.
    ‘G’day. I thought that was just on Neighbours .’
    ‘Oh, right.’ The corners of his mouth turn down and he glances at Mum. ‘Do you need some help with your bags?’
    *
    ‘Dad’ll be home soon,’ Josh says, when we’ve unloaded our suitcases and relocated to the kitchen. I could really do with some peace and quiet to unpack my bags, but my craving for tea and biscuits is outweighing my desire to be antisocial.
    ‘How far away is the safari park?’ Mum asks.
    ‘It’s a conservation park,’ Josh replies. ‘The boundaries extend to right outside our house, but it’s a five-minute drive to get to the main bit.’
    ‘Conservation park, that’s right,’ Mum quietly chides herself as Josh opens up a packet of biscuits and tears back the cellophane. I furtively watch him as he fills up the kettle and puts it on the stove before fetching three mismatched mugs from a painted yellow cupboard. His dark hair is messy, dishevelled. It looks like he’s slept on it, and as he rubs at the sleep in his eyes, I realise he probably has. It’s only nine o’clock in the morning and he must be, what – eighteen? Nineteen? He doesn’t look like an early riser.
    Josh turns around and I quickly avert my gaze as he asks, ‘Do you want milk or sugar?’
    ‘Yes, please. Milk and one sugar each,’ Mum answers for both of us.
    Josh dumps a carton of milk and a tea-stained sugar pot on the table. ‘Help yourselves,’ he says, as the old-fashioned kettle starts to whistle.
    I reach for the biscuits. YoYos, they’re called.
    ‘So Josh,’ Mum says, ‘what do you do?’
    ‘I work at a garage in Mount Barker,’ he replies.
    ‘Doing what?’ she prompts.
    ‘Fixing up cars.’
    ‘How far away is Mount Barker?’
    ‘About twenty Ks further down the Princes Highway.’
    ‘That’s right, it’s kilometres here, isn’t it? We’re used to miles.’
    I yawn. Loudly.
    Josh glances at me then his head shoots in the direction of the door.
    ‘Dad’s back.’ He gets up and goes off down the corridor.
    Mum immediately starts chewing on a painted-pink thumbnail. ‘Do you think I should go to the door to meet him?’ she whispers across at me. She looks nervous.
    ‘No. Wait here,’ I tell her. ‘And stop biting your nails.’
    She snatches her hand away from her mouth and smooths down her medium-length dyed-blonde hair. A wave of compassion momentarily floods me and dies away again. Listening, I hear the door open and close, the murmur of male voices and then Josh reappears in the kitchen, closely followed by his dad. Mum leaps to her feet and almost topples her chair over. Reaching back to grab it, she knocks the table, spilling tea over the green plastic tablecloth.
    ‘Sorry, I’m so clumsy,’ she apologises, flustered.
    ‘Don’t worry about it,’ Michael booms. ‘Josh, whack a tea-towel over that, mate.’ Then Michael turns back to my mum. ‘Cindy,’ he says warmly, shaking his head. ‘At last.’
    ‘Hello, Michael,’ she says shyly. They step towards each other and awkwardly embrace, not quite managing a proper hug.
    Josh looks at me and rolls his eyes. I smirk back