As they ate, Josie worked industriously on a colouring sheet from a dispenser on the wall, eating chicken with her other hand; Maria, in a high chair, ate nuggets and flung crayons around, luckily not getting the two mixed up. Then Josie concocted a game with the plush toys that had come in the Happy Meal boxes, Maria providing sound effects. Nico drank coffee and took the opportunity to telephone his dad.

‘Hej, Pappa,’ he said, when he heard his dad’s voice. ‘How are you?’

‘Good! Fine!’ boomed Lars jovially. ‘I’ll be working with the junior team at the rink this evening. Just been collecting my cones for the slalom.’

‘Makes me nostalgic.’ Nico imagined a bunch of eager schoolkids swapping from edge to edge on their skate blades as they weaved through the cones. He could almost smell the ice. ‘Maybe I’ll get some time at the rink next week.’

A staff member brought balloons attached to sticks, red for Maria and yellow for Josie and the girls began to bash the balloons together, Maria making up with enthusiasm for what she lacked in accuracy. Every time Josie bopped her on the top of her head she laughed a high baby chuckle. A woman on the next table whose kids were also in a balloon fight, sent Nico the smile of a fellow sufferer and … was that interest? She was pretty but not, he found himself thinking, as pretty as Hannah.

‘You bet!’ Lars answered in his ear. ‘Come and meet the team. Show them a few things?’

‘I’m rusty,’ Nico protested. But, added, ‘My skates are in your garage.’

‘I’ll dust them off,’ Lars promised. He paused to cough. ‘We’ll find skates for Josie, too. And it’s snowing. We could take her skiing.’

‘That would be great,’ Nico agreed. Then, because he’d already told his mother Carina, he told Lars about how he’d ended up looking after Maria.

‘Vad i helvete!’ Lars exclaimed. What the hell! ‘That poor little girl. I know you have a nanny but it’s a big responsibility. Loren’s lucky you’re a good man.’

Nico caught Maria’s balloon as she flung it at some innocent passing lady. ‘I don’t have a nanny right now.’ He spent the next half hour explaining his change of lifestyle.

‘But anyway,’ he rounded off, when Lars had finished exclaiming and worrying. ‘I’m looking forward to seeing you next week in Sweden. Josie will have some Farfar and Farmor time and maybe I’ll get a beer with my brother.’ Or who knew? He was feeling so much better that he might ask a girl out and take his mind off Hannah Anna Goodbody, who had turned up so inconveniently in Middledip.