Pictures of Lily

again; I was always fond of him. He got a bit of a shock when he found out about Ben and me, but it was nothing compared to the good-humoured stick I got from Josh. They’ve both accepted it now. How could they not when we’re so happy together?
    We live in Ben’s nan’s place and we’ve made it our own. I came home from work one day to find the picture that Ben took of me by the lily pond in a silver frame on the wall. He has an annoying little habit now of taking photos of me when I least expect it, and every so often I come home to find another picture on the wall. I protested at first, but he joked that it was his house and he’d do as he liked. I had the photo of him on the boat redeveloped and enlarged, and stuck that on the wall when he was out. Now I have to put up with his groans every time he walks past it. We’ve agreed to stick to joint photos from now on.
    The garden needed some work when we first moved back here in the middle of winter and I’ve adored getting stuck in. I uncovered grape vines, an almond tree and an apricot tree. The latter made me smile because I remember Mum making apricot jam when we first came to Australia in her early attempts to impress Michael. I’ll borrow her recipe when the fruit ripens. It won’t be long now.
    Tammy, Vickie and Jo are delighted to have me back on their turf, but I miss Mel and Nicola. Mel is still seeing Mr Horn, but Nicola is single. They’re both coming out here to visit next month and I’ve promised to hook Nicola up with one of Josh’s mates. I’m secretly thinking Shane might be a fun match. Josh is living with Tina now, but still no engagement. I’m sure their time will come.
    Mum got married in a shotgun wedding to Antonio. I found out about it a week beforehand and had to fly back to Sydney at a moment’s notice. I still find the whole thing slightly bizarre, but I’ve never seen her so content.
    As for me, I feel complete for the first time in my life.
    ‘Lily?’ Ben asks again. ‘Will you marry me?’
    ‘Yes,’ I reply as I look into his deep-blue eyes, our faces lit by the full moon as we stare down at Piccadilly Valley from Mount Lofty. And for the first time I can answer this question: ‘With all my heart.’

 
Acknowledgements
     
    Thank you, thank you, thank you to all my readers. Your overwhelmingly lovely Facebook messages and online reviews mean so much to me – please keep them coming!
    Thank you to the whole team at Simon & Schuster for their limitless enthusiasm and professionalism, especially my amazing editor Suzanne Baboneau who I adore working with. And thank you always to the great Nigel Stoneman: I’m forever in your debt.
    Huge gratitude to Donna Jensen from Cleland Conservation Park and Travis Messner from Monarto Conservation Park. I harassed them endlessly for information about Aussie wildlife and I don’t know what I would have done without them. Although Lily’s conservation park had to remain fictional, it was based on Cleland, which is one of my favourite places to visit in the Adelaide Hills.
    A massive thank you to my brilliant second cousin Annika Beaty for all her help with the Hahndorf research. You’re right, those sour peach hearts are addictive! Thanks also to her dad – my cousin – Grant Beaty for answering all my questions about yachts/fishing/Sydney etc, and thank you to Paddy Beaty and Annie Lewis for allowing me to steal their father/husband away on New Year’s Eve while I pestered him for help with the above, even as the clock counted down to zero.
    Thank you also to my other cousin David Beaty and his sons Tom and Morgan for their help with the learner driver stuff.
    A big cheers to Peter Brown – AKA The Unc – and Gwennie Philips for Lily’s New Year’s Eve inspiration. Your parties are legendary!
    And thanks to my oldest friends, Bridie Tonkin, Naomi Dean and Jane Hampton. I love that we’re still so close after all these years.
    Thank you always to my mum, dad and brother, Jen, Vern and Kerrin Schuppan, for all their support and help with various things – especially Mum for driving me around the Adelaide Hills on memory lane trips. I had the best childhood growing up there and I still miss it.
    Above all, thank you to my husband Greg and my children, Indy and Idha. Greg, because he’s the most loving, talented, generous, honest person I know and he continues to make my books better with his seriously spot-on advice; and Indy and Idha, well, just because.

 
    Simon