Mrs Toon craned her neck to look up at him and pulled out the chair across from her.
‘Please, Mr O’Leary, take a seat.’
He lowered himself gingerly onto the seat, his muscular thighs feeling like they were on either side of his head now, no thanks to his rather scrunched-up position. It was hard to keep a straight face, given that they were essentially in a meeting using furniture that the Borrowers would be glad of.
‘Yesterday won’t happen again, Mrs Toon. I have taken steps already to secure Orla, and to stop this happening. I don’t want this any more than you do, but Orla is happy here. Making her leave will only upset her more. We’ve moved now. We live at Shady Pines and I work there too. It’s safe there. I am there for her out of school, and my boss is understanding of the situation.’
Thinking of April, he realised that he was lucky. Basically he’d just hoodwinked himself a home, and she’d gone along with it, and put up with his moods to boot. He felt a wave of shame and brushed it away. It confused him further, because he’d enjoyed that coffee with her more than he’d wanted to.
‘Mr O’Leary, you—’
‘Cillian, please. You make me sound like me Da.’
Mrs Toon smiled at that, nodding her agreement. ‘Fine, Cillian. You misunderstood my reasons for wanting to speak to you. We want Orla to stay here. We know how settled she is here, and we have no intention of uprooting her. Your daughter is a lovely, bright, and very sweet girl, and we love her, all of us. We just want to offer you support, to find out the situation as it changes, and to tell you that we are here to help, both of you. We do feel that Orla might benefit from counselling of some sort, but we would never overstep. We just want you to know that when Orla is in our care, she’s safe and protected. The food issues are a huge concern though, so we do want to communicate daily, if that’s okay with you.’
Cillian was so relieved he could have snogged Mrs Toon, let alone agree with her kind concern. It took him over a minute to formulate any words.
‘Mrs Toon, thanks so much. I will of course keep you updated.’
She seemed to relax then, and he realised that she’d been nervous about the meeting. Was it Tina that had scared her, or the situation yesterday? Having a half-cut angry woman braying on the nursery doors, trying to take a child, must have been hard to deal with. They said Orla had been in the back, away from the noise, but Cillian knew just how bright Orla was. How sadly tuned she was into the moods and unpredictability of her mother. Standing up from the tiny chair, his legs and lower back protesting with pain, he knelt down by Mrs Toon’s chair and held out an open hand.
‘Mrs Toon, thank you. For looking after my daughter. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it.’ He tried his best to give her one of his disarming smiles, and she shook his hand. Instead of letting it go, however, she turned it around, placing her hands around his.
‘Cillian, we want to help. This is not exactly professional but, we do think that Orla is better with you.’ They both looked across at the little girl, who hadn’t moved an inch other than to turn the page of the book she was reading. ‘You can do this – we all have faith.’
Cillian squeezed the woman’s hand and muttered something that hopefully sounded like a thank you. Her eyes crinkled at the corners as she patted his hand a final time.
‘Come on, let’s get Orla off home.’
***
‘Daddy, you need to shave!’ Orla twitched him away with her little hands, making him laugh. He swooped in again, wrapping the duvet around her and nuzzling his cheek gently against hers. She squeaked again, and his heart sang with the sound of it.
‘I know, but how else can I get you to talk? My beard is the only thing that makes you speak to me.’
Orla snuggled down into the bed, her head sinking into the plush pillows that April had bought for all the chalets. Things had been arriving in parcels, every time April coming running out, taking the deliveries, marking things off in a big notebook she seemed to have glued to her. Today the games room had opened his eyes a little to the woman, and he found himself intrigued about what the following day would bring.
‘Do you like it here?’ he asked Orla, wrapping her in the duvet like a burrito, just how she liked it. She always had her arms out though, forever holding a book or sucking her thumb. She never used to suck her thumb, not when she was teeny tiny. That started after Tina had left her alone for an entire day and night while she went on a bender. Leaving her in the dark, because the meters hadn’t been fed, and wondering why the hell she had been left alone at home, when she hadn’t done a thing wrong but be born.
Cillian let her suck her thumb, hell, it was the least that he could do. The look on her face when he walked through the door that morning from work would haunt him for the rest of his days. He vowed then and there to never work away from home again, and he was damn well going to stick to it. Thanks to Martha and that panicked phone call, he felt like maybe, if he could just shake off this anger, things might be starting to turn around.
Orla looked around the room, taking in the clean warm space, the fresh sheets that smelled of fabric softener,
