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“I’ll get a mop,” Sylv, the rotund shopkeeper, said, bustling off.

“Ag,” Ava said, preparing herself to reprimand the toddler. But the child was nowhere to be seen. “Ag?” Ava said again. Then she started to panic. “Ag?”

“Oh, leave off,” Sylv said, reappearing with a mop. “She’ll be over there under the cheese display. She likes to hide under there now that her mum’s too pregnant to get down and pull her out.”

Ava gritted her teeth, went over to the display, and tugged at a small foot sticking out.

“No, no!” Ag giggled.

“Yes, yes,” Ava said firmly.

The child slid out from under the display, jumped to her feet and toddled off, leaving Ava to follow her thinking that shopping had been a bad idea.

“This one,” said Ag, pulling a chocolate bar off the shelf.

“No.”

Ag’s face started to crumple. Jesus. Ava looked around, thinking hard and fast. “Wait. Shopping first.”

“Shop?” Ag said.

“Shop first,” Ava said firmly. “We do the shopping and then sweets.”

“Sweets?” Ag said.

“Yes,” said Ava, losing patience very, very quickly.

Ag grinned and picked up the dropped chocolate bar, putting it into the basket Ava was carrying.

With a sigh, Ava took the child’s hand and pulled her the rest of the way around the small shop, chattering constantly to keep Ag’s attention. When they finally arrived at the check out, she was exhausted.

“That’s not the kind you like, love, is it?” Sylv said to Ag, holding up the chocolate bar.

“It’s not?” asked Ava. “She insisted.”

“It’s not like she can read the label,” pointed out Sylv. She reached over and picked a small bag from the front of the counter display. “These are the ones Mila lets her have.”

“Thank you,” said Ava in relief. “She’s a bit of a handful.”

Sylv laughed. “That’ll be because it’s her nap time, I expect.”

“She naps?” Ava asked, surprised because frankly, Ag was walking and talking and as far as Ava was concerned was plenty old enough to make it through the day.

“She does indeed,” Sylv said. “And I’ll give you a piece of advice. You’ll probably find pull-ups in that bag on your shoulder. Mila buys them here. Make sure you put a pair on her before nap time or else you’ll likely wake up to a wet bed.”

“Pull-ups,” Ava said as though the word was foreign to her. Yet another thing she hadn’t thought of. “Right.”

“More?” Ag said, tugging at Ava’s sleeve.

Ava looked down to see Ag’s face covered in melted chocolate and the empty bag of chocolate buttons screwed up in her hand. With a sigh she picked up another bag and put it on the counter. It was beginning to dawn on her that she was very, very unqualified for her current position as baby-sitter.

She needed Hope.

???

Hope was flicking through a magazine at the kitchen table when Ava came in, dragging what seemed like far too much stuff behind her.

“Did you shop for the army?” Hope asked her.