Picnics in Hyde Park. Nikki Moore

later a smiley face icon and Lol, that’s my boy comment pinged her mobile. Smiling, she tucked her phone away and dampened some kitchen roll, standing Jasper at the sink to wash his face off.

      After cleaning him up, they made fresh bread for lunch. At the end of the bread-making session, Jasper had managed to get little white-flour finger marks over himself, Zoe and most surfaces in the kitchen. With a chuckle Zoe wiped the sides down and they got the kitchen roll back out, turning the radio up and bopping around while they got clean again, before setting up a picnic in the garden. This time Jasper helped her without complaint.

      When Zoe called Aimee for lunch, it took a full ten minutes to coax her from her bedroom at the same time as trying to keep an eye on Jasper, who was banging something about in his jam-packed room across the hall.

      ‘Aimee,’ she resorted to quiet authority after nice requests and cajoling had failed, ‘you can’t starve, and I’ll be more than happy to discuss your favourite books with you or let you carry on reading after lunch, but if you don’t come downstairs and eat with us before all the food gets swarmed by ants, I’m going to have to withdraw a privilege.’ The girl looked at her with wide eyes, waiting to see what she’d do. Zoe knew it was a test. So she let out a big sigh, shaking her head sorrowfully. ‘I would really, really hate to have to take one of your books away, because I understand how much you love them. I’m a big reader too,’ she confessed. ‘There’s nothing better than getting lost in another world and making new friends. But you have to live in the real world sometimes, okay?’ Throwing the door open wider, gesturing to the staircase. ‘Come on. You can have a quick bite then sit in the shade and read some more, or you can have a longer lunch and we can talk books while your brother plays on his swing set. The choice is yours.’