Page 62 of The Homecoming

“Be careful on those back stairs and let me know when you’re back.”

She groaned. “I’ll be fine.” She pushed to her feet and slowly made her way out the back door and down the steps, stopping for a beat to let another twinge pass. This time, however, it ran through her entire stomach. Baby Danny felt lower, like he was trying to press her belly to her knees, and there was still another month of misery left. The grass under her swollen feet was still damp from the morning rain. She waddled around to the back side of the barn, past the vendors’ entrance to the storage shed. The door stood open and she surveyed the interior, discovering most of the round tables had been cleared out and set up for Hannah and Justin’s wedding in two days. Not only was it their friends’ wedding, but it was also the inaugural wedding at Huntington Farms. Autumn was certainly excited to get the events started after all the planning they’d done, but she was more than a tad nervous.

Autumn stepped into the supply shed and a sensation shot through her abdomen that made her pause.

Then her legs were wet.

Did she pee on herself? She’d heard stories of it happening to other women, but this was a surprise. Then another pain hit and her knees buckled as she dropped the walkie-talkie. She sat on her knees until the aching subsided.This is not good.She took two deep breaths and tried to stand, but her stomach clenched again and she could not convince her legs to move. She would have to call for help, something was wrong. Autumn picked up the walkie. “Brandon.”

“Yeah, what’s up?”

“I need you to come to the shed,” she said slowly. With the next pain, she wobbled onto her side as she pressed the button on her walkie-talkie again. “Now.”

“On my way.”

Pain swelled and subsided in waves.

Do not panic. Do. Not. Panic.

The next bout of agony caused her to cry out. It probably took Brandon mere minutes to get to the shed, but she felt she had been lying alone on the floor for an eternity before he appeared next to her on his knees.

“Hey, I’m here. Did you fall?” He looked her over, and his eyes visibly widened in terror when they settled on her bottom half. “Your water broke.”

All she could manage was a nod as she grimaced and held her breath.

“We gotta get you to the hospital. Can you move?” He grabbed her under both armpits and tried to help her up. A burning pain tore through her and she cried out, tears spilling down her face. She groaned and lost the ability to inhale.

“Breathe,” he blurted out. “They always tell women in labor to breathe.” He produced a cell phone from his pocket and dialed. “Yeah, Huntington Farms,” he said into the phone. “I need an ambulance, now. Woman in labor.” He listened. “Yeah, water broke. She can’t move.”

This baby might be about to break her in two. Autumn curled on the shed floor, letting out a sound she’d never heard from a human before. “Something’s not right,” she managed to say before she was held hostage by her pregnant body.

“Now,” Brandon demanded from the dispatcher on the phone. Autumn couldn’t concentrate on him, but he continued rambling into the phone, his tone angry and frantic.

She rolled to her back and struggled to sit upright. Brandon pressed his hand to her shoulder, gently suggesting she stay still. “They’re on the way, but it’s taking a while.”

“Yeah, I’m still here,” he said into the phone. “You want me to do what?” he exclaimed. “No, get an ambulance here now. I don’t have any medical training.” He scowled at the reply before turning his attention back to Autumn. “Hey.”

She replied with another painful cry.

“This lady wants me to look at your parts to see if I can see anything.”

Autumn gritted her teeth. “I don’t care if you show it to the whole damn world right now.” She bent her knees.

He nodded, lifting her dress as the light, wet fabric fell back to her waist as she pulled it up. She tried to help him shimmy her soaked-through underwear off. He stared between her knees, his face losing all color.

“Oh, for god’s sake, is it that horrifying?”

“It looks like a tiny little ass poking out,” he whispered.

“He’s breech,” she cried, lurching upward through another contraction.

“Baby’s breech,” he said into the phone. Brandon listened and appeared to grow more horrified the more the person on the other end spoke. “I can’t do that,” he yelled into the phone. “I can’t deliver a baby with my bare hands.” He listened again. “What the hell do you mean, I can’t reach in there.” They tried explaining something more to him, and he yelped, “Pull the legs?”

Autumn screamed through the next contraction. Brandon reached a fevered frenzy of panic by the time her contraction subsided. “Brandon, don’t you dare let me die on a shed floor.” She took a deep breath. “Pull your head out of your ass.”

They locked eyes and Brandon nodded. “Hang on,” he said into the phone. “I need to put something under her.” He disappeared for a moment and returned with a white tablecloth.

“We can’t use a new tablecloth, we’ll ruin it.”

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