Summer With My Sister by Lucy Diamond Read Free Book Online Page A

wheeled through the house.’
    ‘Got it,’ he said, vanishing into the shadows.
    She let him in through the back door, and they propped the bike against the kitchen table while they scrubbed the frame and Jay pumped up the tyres.
    ‘How’s your sister?’ he asked after a few minutes of companionable silence. Hilarious as it might seem now, back in the sixth form Polly and Jay had been boyfriend and girlfriend, for almost a year. A more incongruous pairing you couldn’t imagine these days, of course. She could just picture the look of disdain on Polly’s face if she clapped eyes on Jay now – hilarious.
    ‘She’s all right,’ Clare said dismissively. ‘Making squillions of pounds in the Big Smoke. Haven’t seen her for months; last time was Christmas, when she just bored on about her job and annoyed Mum by making so-called important calls all the way through Gavin & Stacey .’
    Jay shook his head, looking amused. ‘True Londoner now, isn’t she?’
    ‘You can say that again,’ Clare replied. ‘Turns her nose up at us bumpkins big-time.’
    The bike was cleaning up nicely. The grips on the handlebars had been grimy and greying, but were becoming brighter and whiter as she set about them with a scrubbing brush. The wheels spun easily, once Jay had oiled them. The leather saddle, however, was cracked and old, and looked beyond repair. ‘Hmmm, I wonder . . .’ Clare murmured, rocking back on her heels and thinking. She had an ancient lilac fake-fur bag upstairs that she’d been meaning to customize for Leila. If she cut it up instead, the fabric would make a perfect seat-cover for the bike. ‘Back in a sec,’ she said, hurrying out of the room.
    It was gone ten o’clock by the time they’d finished painting and primping the bike. Its frame now gleamed metallic lilac, the tyres were pumped up, and Clare had made a furry cover for the old saddle. ‘It’ll need new tyres before too long,’ Jay said, peering at them closely. ‘This front one is pretty shot, but it’ll do for a while. I’ll keep an eye out for you.’
    ‘Cheers,’ Clare replied. She could have hugged him. Instead she took two twenty-pound notes from her purse and handed them over. ‘You saved the day,’ she said.
    By morning the paint was dry, and Leila’s scream of excitement echoed around the house when she saw it there in the kitchen. ‘Oh, wow! What a cool bike,’ she said. ‘What a cool . . . um . . . weird sort of bike,’ she added as she drew nearer it, her eye taking in the distinctive chopper frame and the furry saddle. ‘Thanks, Mum.’
    So yes, Clare thought, passing her daughter a slice of birthday cake, it had turned out all right in the end. She’d pulled off another budget birthday somehow, without anyone feeling hard done by, even if some of the ‘presents’ Leila had unwrapped had been promises Clare had written out and wrapped in sparkly paper and tinsel.
I promise . . . to take you for the longest bike ride ever, with a huuuge picnic at the end of it! I promise . . . you can invite THREE friends round for a sleepover next weekend. Pizza and DVD included!
    She’d found a couple of pony books in mint condition in the charity shop in Amberley, and a pretty charm bracelet for only two pounds from the same place. She’d spun out the presents by making them part of a treasure hunt around the house, and Leila had loved solving the clues and rushing to the next hiding place, still in pyjamas and dressing gown. You didn’t have to spend a fortune to make things feel special.
    The phone rang just as she was about to bite into her cake. ‘Do you want to get that, birthday girl?’ Clare asked.
    Leila jumped up. ‘I bet it’s Dad,’ she said. ‘Or Aunty Polly.’
    Clare and her mum exchanged glances. ‘Don’t hold your breath,’ Clare muttered as Leila ran to grab the phone. Polly had come up trumps this time on the present front, with a Roberto Cavalli pink silk dress complete with ruffles, an enormous sash