Page 71 of Hell In A Handbasket
“We won the dare.” Lazy, I allow my lips to curl into a goofy smile. “You didn’t steal anything.”
“Cato broke in and stole a belly dancer statue thingy from the drug store.”
“That’s not grand larceny.” I fall into the grips of a yawn, squeezing my eyes shut and stretching my mouth wide. When it’s gone, I blink through the moisture in my lashes. “You were so focused on us, you completely failed the dare.”
“Our statue beats your sweet fuck all.” Cato shoves his way back to the doorway of my cubby. “You grabbed nothing, Mayet. We won.”
Snorting, Ellie shakes her head and clamps her lips shut.
“Go to sleep.” Archer lays his fingertips over my eyelids. “I’ll join you soon.”
FELIX
Christabelle surges up in bed with a start, a hiss exploding from her throat and her elbow slamming to the center of my stomach until the pain feels like a thousand fire ants crawling just beneath my skin. I’ve woken like this a million times in my life, a million different torments and a million more promises of worse to come.
Like those times, I swing from dead asleep to wide awake in the space of a single heartbeat. But never have I woken in a fucking bus before. Never in a tiny cubby, twined with my pregnant wife on a mattress thinner than her arm.
And then I remember.
“Darling?”
“Argh!” She clutches her stomach, her long hair falling forward in the shadows, and her wide eyes, two moons in the dark, come around to mine in panic. “Felix…”
“W-what’s wrong?” I slap the button on the back wall of our bed and blink as the dark turns to light. As shadows make way for eye-aching brightness. But then I get a good look at Christabelle’s expression and the rosy red blush in her cheeks. Gulping, I follow the beaded sweat on her brow and the tremble of her lips, and when she cries out a third time, I speed my study and whip the sheet off her swollen belly and discover what my psyche already knew.
“Fuck!” I jump up and slam my back to the roof of our cubby, the moist slick of water touching my feet, and the cold patch on the side of my leg tingling when fresh air touches my uncovered skin. “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” The baby’s coming.
THE BABY’S COMING!
I climb over Christabelle, careful not to crush her, only to fall out of the fucking opening and onto the floor in the middle aisle, tearing the curtain clear off the side of the wall. “THE BABY’S COMING!” I bound up again and sprint toward Minka’s cubby in nothing more than my shorts, rip the curtain open, and shout until my voice turns hoarse. “Mayet! MAYET! Wake up.” I spin and run back to Christabelle. “Alright, Darling. Let’s be calm.”
“I am calm, you jackass!” She holds her belly as lights come on throughout the bus. One by one, cubbies illuminate and people wake. “It’s too soon for the baby. We still have a few weeks.” Pained, she turns on the bed and dangles her legs over the side. So I help her set her hands on my shoulders, then I take her weight and carefully, so fucking delicately, place her on her feet. “You overreacted,” she breathes, breathes,breathes. She inhales, expanding her chest, then exhales again, though it comes out on a wounded shudder. “I was calm, and you climbed over me so you could fall out of bed.”
“The hell is going on?” Minka stumbles along the galley hall, scrubbing her eyes and using her hand on the wall to guide her way. “It’s too early for your shit, Lix.”
“She’s having the baby!” I release Christabelle and latch on to Minka instead, shaking her with such ferocity, her head snaps around and her teeth clatter. “The baby is coming!”
Not nearly as fucking interested as she should be, she peels just one eye open and looks Christabelle up and down. Then she studies our bed and yawns. “Water broke or peed your pants?”
“Her water?—”
“Shhh.” She pinches my lips shut. “Water broke or peed your pants?”
“Uh… water, I guess.” Christabelle wrinkles her face, a new wave of pain rolling across her abdomen as she pants and clutches the side of the bed. “Pretty sure these are contractions. Kinda hurt.”
“Panic!” I shake Minka again and wait for her to actually give a shit. “Mayet, my baby is coming!”
She brushes my hand off, too fucking casually. “So?”
“So, you’re a doctor!” I whirl around and look past Christabelle in search of the other one. The one who might be better. “Aubree! Help us.”
“You need to calm the hell down.” Christabelle snags my hand, squeezing it on a contraction and shaking her head side to side. “They’re kinda close together though, so maybe we should…” She rolls her wrist, gesturing nowhere. “I dunno. Hospital, maybe.”
“The baby is coming!” Cato bounds into the hallway, waving his shirt in the air. “Hooooooooly shit! The baby is coming! It’s my niece or nephew. But it’s my cousin!” He claps his hands to his face,Home-Alone-Aftershave-esque. “I’m so confused right now, guys!”
“See!He’sappropriately interested! Now give me my pants.” I tap my thighs, then I look at the bed. “Where are my pants?”
“Good lord.” Yawning, Minka turns and heads back to her bed. The most fucking relaxed I’ve ever seen her in her whole life. She climbs into her cubby and shatters my heart.
