‘No,’ said Maria positively, changing to purple crayon.

Gloria grinned. ‘If you did draw me a face, would it be a smiley face today or a sad face?’

Maria looked at her as if she were bananas and pointed to the little unicorns dotting the pencil case and said, ‘Horse.’ Josie collapsed in fits of giggles, so Maria giggled too, screwing up her bobble nose and showing off all her pearly teeth.

It was when the girls had drifted back to the sitting room that Gloria moved into a slightly more businesslike mode. ‘Loren tells me she’s made a private arrangement with you. Children’s Services just needs to make sure Maria is safe, healthy and happy during her mum’s illness and that everyone gets the support they need.’ She talked on about ‘family and friends carers’ and advised him that he may be eligible for fostering allowance or maintenance paid from the birth parents. Foster carers could get training and professional development, too.

He listened but said, ‘It’s only for one more week. The agreement is that Loren or her parents will take Maria before Josie and me leave to visit our family in Sweden on Friday.’

Gloria tilted her head and looked at him for a long moment. Then she smiled. ‘You have my contact details anyway, if you need anything. I’ll pop in again.’ She went into a practised spiel about reports and the fostering panel and left him lots of information for him to consider. Nico thanked her, reasonably confident he was being put into the ‘OK’ category but with the knowledge that his days as a foster carer were numbered anyway.

In the afternoon he kept his appointment with the Bettsbrough solicitor who’d agreed to handle his settlement agreement from SLS. Josie entertained Maria with the iPad in a corner of the office while Mrs Ponderoy talked him through the document and he signed his part then he celebrated by taking the girls to McDonald’s.

Fast food wasn’t usually on his radar but he knew occasional treats didn’t hurt and he didn’t want the kids to grow up with his hang-ups. Also, he felt optimistic and chilled. The urge to exert unnecessary control over his eating wasn’t breathing on him as it did in times of stress.

Maria proved herself to be familiar with Macky D’s by swivelling her head to look up at Nico and piping, ‘Mydad, c’n I ’ave a ’Appy Meal?’

‘You can.’ He didn’t remind her about saying ‘please’. They were all going to have a guilt-free burger.