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Squirt, I’ve just got your mum a job. And if your mum has a job, that means she makes money. If she has money, that means she can buy loads more of these crackers for you, and more toys and sweets and all that stuff, so don’t give me a hard time. OK?’
    Yuri nodded. ‘OK.’
    I couldn’t believe it. If I had eaten Yuri’s crackers, he would have had a complete meltdown, but the kids never freaked out with Babs. Maybe if the TV presenting dried up she should consider childcare. I smiled to myself. Somehow I doubted any woman of sane mind would have Babs in her home.
    ‘Right,
amigos
, I have to go. I’ve got a show to tape.’
    After the children had had their snack, I decided to enjoy the lovely sunshine and sit outside on the patio. I wanted ten minutes of peace to read my magazine, so I told Lara and Yuri to do races up and down the garden. I was reading a very good article on why women are never happy with their bodies when Yuri pushed Lara. She fell down, scraped her knee and proceeded to scream like a banshee.
    ‘For God’s sake, Yuri, I’ve told you a million times not to push your sister.’
    ‘Blood!’ shrieked Lara.
    I examined her knee. ‘No, pet, there’s no blood. Now, stop screaming.’
    ‘She pushed me first. I hate her!’ Yuri shouted.
    ‘Don’t say that,’ I snapped. I couldn’t stand it when they were mean to one another. They only had each other in the world, and when James and I died, I didn’t want them fighting and falling out. Because I had one adopted and one biological child, I was even more determined to make them close. Siblings had to look out for each other. I was close to my brother Sean, but he lived in New York now and was hopeless at keeping in touch. When we met up it was always great, but I only spoke to him about once every six weeks. As for Babs … When we were younger, the thirteen-year age gap had seemed huge, but we had got closer over the years, although she still drove me crazy and we did argue a lot.
    ‘Apologize to your sister,’ I ordered Yuri.
    ‘No way.’ Yuri crossed his arms.
    ‘Yuri, I’m going to count to three and you’d better apologize or you’ll be in big trouble. One … two …’
    ‘Uhm, hello?’
    I turned to my right. A woman was leaning over the fence, waving at me. Damn. I really hadn’t wanted my neighbours to hear me shouting at my children.
    ‘Hello!’ my neighbour said again.
    I jumped up and went over. ‘Sorry. Hi, I’m Emma.’
    Close up, the neighbour was pretty in a very natural way. Her hair was cut short and she was very tanned with bright blue eyes.
    ‘I’m Carol. Carol Richards. Number nine.’
    I shook her hand. ‘Nice to meet you. We’ve just moved over from Dublin.’
    Carol leant on her spade. ‘I thought I heard an accent. How are you finding it so far?’
    ‘It’s fine, thanks. I’ve just been unpacking and getting organized, so I haven’t really had a proper chance to look around or meet people.’
    ‘Who’s this, then?’ Carol pointed to Lara, who was peeping from behind my leg.
    ‘Oh, sorry, this is Lara, she’s three, and that’s Yuri, he’s four.’
    ‘And three-quarters,’ Yuri said, coming over to inspect the new person.
    ‘Three-quarters is very important. Nice to meet you, Yuri and Lara. What beautiful names you have.’
    ‘I’m adopted from Russia. My mummy says I’m her heart baby,’ Yuri piped up.
    ‘Wow, lucky you,’ Carol said, smiling at him.
    Yuri continued with his life story: ‘Mummy said when she saw me in the orf’nage, she knew I was her little boy.Her heart told her. Some babies come out of their mummies’ tummies, like Lara, and some come in their mummies’ hearts, like me.’
    I stroked the back of Yuri’s head. I loved him telling people he was my heart baby. It made me want to weep with love and pride.
    ‘Well, it looks as if you’ve been filled in on our family history,’ I said, laughing.
    ‘It’s very heartwarming.’ Carol had a lovely smile