AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Hannah, your baby is going to be perfect,” she said. “Have you and Luke thought of a name?”
“We’re going to name him Robert,” Hannah said, bending to lift the table up onto its legs. “Ben and Tammy text Luke every day to find out if we’ve had him yet. I think they’re more excited than my own parents.” Honestly, Hannah didn’t think that was terribly hard to do, though her mother had cried when Hannah had called to tell her about her engagement.
Perhaps she’d cried about the fact that Hannah wanted the wedding to be planned and completed in less than three months. She’d wanted to get married before her next birthday, and that meant they had a deadline of February twentieth.
She and Luke had been married on the eighteenth, right there at Hope Eternal Ranch, with a few friends and their families. Luke definitely had more family than her, and it had grown to include the Housers.
“Robert is such a good name,” Sabrina said.
Hannah nodded, perfectly happy with the choice. She knew it meant something to Luke—and more importantly Ben and Tammy—and she wanted to provide healing and relief to anyone she could.
“Mom,” Jill called, and Sabrina turned toward her voice. “I need you over here to see if this is straight.”
“I’m never coming here to help her set up for this thing again,” Sabrina said with an edge in her eye. “She’s so demanding. Is she always like this here?”
Hannah burst out laughing and shrugged. “She knows what she wants when it comes to the Howdy Holiday Festival, I suppose.”
“I’m even baking mint brownies to sell every weekend,” Sabrina grumbled as she walked away. Hannah would be sure to sneak a few of those from the tray before they went out, because Sabrina made the best mint brownies in the whole world.
She continued to set up her part of the festival, which included a small cabinet where she’d keep non-perishable items like Ziplock bags and mixing bowls. Once the tent arrived, she’d hang her sign and then she’d be ready for next weekend’s guests to the ranch.
Hannah bent down to pat Ursula, then looked around. “Where’s your mama, huh?”
Ursula whined and tipped her head up to look at Hannah. Her heartbeat bounced in her chest. “Is she okay?”
She pulled out her phone, because she was far too big to go running down the road toward the cabin where Ginger and Nate lived. Ginger answered on the first ring, perfectly pleasant. “What’s up?”
“Did you know Ursula is out here? She’s whining at me.”
“I let her out a few minutes ago. She was pacing in front of the door.”
“Okay, well I’ve got her.”
“All right.” Ginger hung up, and Hannah looked down at Ursula. “Should we go find Luke? I think he’s out working on the front gate.”
It had been damaged in a terrible wind storm that had blown across the Gulf and then the state, leaving plenty of debris in its wake. He’d been fixing things around the ranch since, and she started in her slow waddle toward the road that led onto the ranch.
The noise and chatter of those setting up for the festival died, and only the sound of her own labored breathing and Ursula’s panting filled the November air.
On her next step, a pain sliced through Hannah’s abdomen, sending her to her knees. She cried out and flung out her hands as if there would be something there she could grab onto.
There wasn’t.
She fell forward, landing hard on her hands and knees in the dirt.
Ursula barked, and Hannah looked at her but couldn’t make sense of the situation. Before she could get a proper breath, another pain tore through her. Tears sprang to her eyes, and she tried to contain the cry, but it flew from her throat in an almost primal way.
Ursula licked her face and whined, then stood straight and tall and barked. She barked and barked and barked, and Hannah tried to quiet her.
“It’s okay,” she panted, but she knew it wasn’t. Something definitely wasn’t okay.
She wasn’t due for another month.
Babies come early, she thought, and that was the last thing in her mind before another horrible, wrenching pain that ripped her open from her belly button to her spine sent her into unconsciousness.
