Page 59 of Peach Cobbler Confessions

“That’s right.” Lainey pats her stomach. “You really dodged a baby bullet. This pregnancy stuff is no joke.”

Everett sighs as he starts to take off. “Let me get you ladies a seat.”

“Ooh”—Lainey calls after him—“make it a tall seat! If I get anywhere near the ground, it might take the entire fire department to get me back up!”

“Speaking of the fire department,” I say. “Where are Forest and Bear?”

“Work.” Lainey shrugs.

Keelie shrugs as well. “Bear is working, too. He’s putting the finishing touches on the bassinet he made for the baby. And he’d better hurry. My due date was a few days ago.”

Lainey laughs. “Mine was a week and a half ago.” She jumps a bit. “Oh, shoot. I gotta tinkle. I see Mom up by the bathrooms. I’ll have her pull me along so I can get there quicker.” She takes off, waddling like a penguin, and we share a laugh on her behalf.

Keelie gives a hard groan. “Oh no!” She looks down at her pretty pink dress as a whoosh of liquid lands at her feet.

“Oh, Keelie, that’s okay!” My mind reels as I take off the cardigan I have wrapped around my waist and give it to her. “Nobody expects you to hold it. You’ve got a whole baby sitting on your bladder.”

“Lottie?” Her voice hikes a notch. “I didn’t tinkle. I think my water just broke.”

Noah and I spring right up as we help her make her way down the sand.

“I’ll text Bear to meet us at the hospital!” I shout as I do just that.

“Lottie!” Keelie wails. “Something’s wrong! I feel pressure. I think I need to push!”

“No, no!” I scream right back. “Don’t do that. We need to get you to the hospital. It’s only a few minutes away. Just hold it in or something.”

A horrible groan comes from my sweet best friend as she sinks to her knees.

“Lottie”—Noah thunders—“lay that cardigan onto the ground and I’ll set her over it.”

I do as I’m told and Keelie lands on her elbows in the sand as she begins to pant and howl up a storm.

“I see a blanket a few feet away,” I say. “I’ll be right back.”

My feet move swiftly like a gazelle in flight because that blanket just so happens to feel a mile away at the moment.

Everett heads this way with a chair in each arm, and I wave for him to hurry with a marked sense of urgency.

“Keelie’s having her baby!”

“What?” He helps me snap up the blanket and we make a mad dash back to where we see Noah holding a writhing little being just as the tiny creature lets out the bleat of a cry.

“Keelie!” I drop next to her and pick up her hand. “You did it!”

“Noah did it,” she whimpers as she struggles to look at the tiny babe wriggling in Noah’s hands. “What is it, Noah? Do I have a son or a daughter?”

Noah holds up the precious little lamb. “It’s a boy!”

We let out a cheer as Everett whips off his shirt and wraps the sweet angel in it before laying him over his mother’s chest.

The wail of an ambulance sears through the night as a crowd swells around us.

Soon enough, Keelie is taken on a gurney, and I ride in the ambulance with her and her sweet baby boy—who has his mama’s eyebrows and cute bowtie lips, his daddy’s pointy ears and ornery growl, and I fall more in love with him by the minute.

Once we arrive, Keelie and the baby are met with a frantic Bear, who is elated to have a son to call his own, and I watch as the three of them are taken behind a set of metal doors.

“Lemon.”