Page 98 of Time to Bounce

Auden answered Maven’s earlier question once she was completely gone.

“Darryl Horton said, as he was fighting Gable, he was going to make sure he got a hit put out on his head just like his twin brother,” Auden murmured. “When Darryl stabbed him, he said he’d make sure that the amount was higher, though.”

That explained his need for Callena to be there.

He needed her to figure out what was going on with Garrett.

I guess I couldn’t blame him for being angry and scared.

That didn’t stop the hurt, though.

I was lost in my own thoughts when Maven screamed bloody murder.

I jolted out of my stupor and stared as Auden all but launched himself at her.

“What?”

“It burns!” she cried out. “Oh my God. It burns so bad!”

I had no clue what burned, but if this was how childbirth was going to go, I would never, ever get pregnant.

“What do you want me to…”

Maven grunted and started to yank her hospital gown over her body.

There were some things that I’d never seen before when it came to Maven, and her entire body was one of them.

I’d certainly never seen her vagina, and that ended today as well.

Because it was front and center when she said, “Oh my God. Is it burning?”

I couldn’t stop myself from looking.

That’s when I saw that she had a baby’s head nearly out of her vagina.

“Um,” I said Auden. “I’ll just go and get the n…”

She cried out, screamed really loud, and then she was holding on to me so tight there was no way in hell that I would be going anywhere.

Unless it was to the ER for my own doctor’s visit to make sure my hand wasn’t fractured later.

“Stay!” she growled low in her throat.

“Yes, ma’am,” I said at the same time that Auden said, “I’m not going anywhere.”

“Someone catch it,” she hissed.

Yet she didn’t let go of either one of our hands.

I looked at Auden, and he looked at me, and we went in together as one and caught the baby as she all but launched it out of her vagina at us.

Auden caught the head, and I caught the tush, and we scooped her up and deposited her on her mother’s chest.

The baby started to scream almost instantly, and finally, Maven let me go.

I tried not to let out a whimper as the blood flow returned to my hand.

All I did was hold my hand that was now covered in baby juices out to my side and reach for my phone.

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