Page 60 of Entangled By You
But when Harlow yanks it open, my bare feet glue themselves to the deck boards.
A trickle of warmth spreads down my legs. My mind lurches, panic flaring so hot I drag up my dress to stare in horror. For a split second, I think I’ve actually lost control of my bladder and pissed myself in front of them. But the truth slams into me before I can breathe.
My water broke.
The wet spot grows beneath me, and my heart slams intomy ribs hard enough to rival my daughter’s midnight somersaults.
“Oh, my God!” Harlow squeals, her voice shrill enough to rattle my eardrums.
“Oh, my God,” I echo, with a disbelieving, shaky whisper.
My hand squeezes Pierce’s like a lifeline, and his solid grip steadies me even as my knees threaten to give.
“Is that—?” His voice is cautious, like he’s not sure he should be asking the question.
“Well, I didn’t pee myself,” I manage to joke, though my voice wobbles.
He stiffens at my side with that confirmation.
“Silas!” Harlow shrieks, nearly blowing the glass out of the sliding door.
This late in the summer, the heat presses down on me, even though the sun’s tucked behind the trees around Silas’s property. My breathing picks up, shallow and too fast. My palms grow clammy, the edges of my vision tightening.
We didn’t bring the hospital bags. We aren’t ready. She wasn’t supposed to come this early.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Easy, baby.” Pierce’s lips brush my ear as his voice draws me back out of my head. He’s the calm in all my storms. Everything I’m not. “Deep breaths. There you go, stay with me.”
My brother barrels through the house, sliding to a stop beside his wife at the back door. His weapon gleams from the porch lights before he tucks it away, eyes darting between us like we’re under attack. “What’s going on?”
“Her water broke!” Harlow answers for me, bouncing in place like an excited toddler at the zoo.
“Oh, fuck.”
“Yeah, oh fuck!” My chest heaves. My wild gaze snaps toPierce’s. “It’s too early. She can’t do this. It’s too early.” My words tumble faster, spilling out like an overflowing cup.
I don’t know if I’m ready. What if I can’t do this?
One minute I was yawning on a lounger, the next I’m about to be responsible for a whole human being. A fragile, breathing, screaming person who will depend on me for everything. How the hell is that legal?
“Okay, that’s enough,” Pierce cuts in.
Before I can blink, my feet leave the ground. He cradles me against his chest, one arm hooked under my knees, the other braced behind my back. My body jostles with each stride, his long legs eating up the distance from the backyard to the car.
“Put me down,” I huff, but his arms only tighten.
“Not happening, Princess.” His voice rumbles against my ear, and for the first time since I felt that trickle of fluid, my panic ebbs.
Sixteen hours of screaming, sobbing, and laughing later, our daughter finally made her entrance into the world. Sienna Branly Everett is a tiny, pink bundle of perfection.
Pierce hasn’t let go of her, not for a second. But it didn’t matter. Harlow stayed glued to my side, supporting me through all the shit they don’t warn you about post pushing a bowling ball from your lady bits. Silas—my big, bad, unshakable brother—turned ghostly white and spent half my labor hunched in the corner with his head between his knees.
I’ll never let him live it down.
Harlow and Silas waited until the chaos passed, spent anhour staring at their niece as she slept safely in her father’s arms, before heading for home.
Now, it’s just the three of us—my little family.
I lie here in my sweat-stained, milk-soaked muumuu, hair tied haphazardly at the top of my head, watching Pierce carefully fold and repack Sienna’s impossibly tiny clothes so we can go home.
