“Got any more of those?” she asked.

“No, but there’s a flashlight in the kitchen drawer that you can use to get dressed,” Amanda told her. “What a time to get those stupid false labor pains again. I’m going to go lie down on my left side like they told me to do. It’s early yet, but after a day of cleaning, I feel like I can sleep until morning.”

“Good night, then,” Kate said.

“I’ll take that flashlight when you are done with it,” Jamie said. “Gracie and I are going to turn in, too, and I’m going to use the light to read books to her.”

“Take it now. The candle will throw off enough light for me to find my nightshirt,” Kate told her.

With the wind sounding like a freight train coming down the rolling hills and the rain pounding on the roof and against the windows, she couldn’t read, not even on her Kindle. Finally, she decided to call her mother, but there was no service. Next week she would check into buying a generator, because she was taking the sabbatical even if it pissed her mother off to the point that she fired her.

She fell asleep thinking about being there for the baby’s birth and for Gracie’s first day of school in the new place. At first she thought that she was dreaming, but then the screaming that had awoken her got louder. She sat up in bed so fast that her head spun in the semidarkness. Then she recognized Amanda’s voice yelling out her name. She stumbled across the hallway to find Amanda sitting up in bed and panting.

“This is the real thing. My water just broke. Call an ambulance. I don’t want to try to go to Wichita Falls. Just call the one from Seymour.”

“No phone service,” Kate said.

“What’s happening over here? Oh, my God!” Jamie asked. “Oh, no! Is it time? I’ll get dressed. We’ll have to drive her to Seymour.”

“How close are the pains?” Kate asked.

“Another one right now. Maybe a minute,” Amanda said.

“We’d better hurry, Kate. You drive. In a pinch I can deliver the baby on the way.” Jamie raced across the hall, throwing off her night clothes on the way.

Kate was so nervous that she headed out the door in her nightshirt and bare feet and had to run back inside to hurriedly dress in jeans and a T-shirt and slip on a pair of sandals. “You ever delivered a baby before?”

Jamie appeared out of her bedroom, fully dressed with Gracie in her arms. “One time I helped Mama Rita when her neighbor’s daughter went into labor like this. I mostly just watched, but I could do it if I had to. My van or your car?”

“Your van. It’s bigger,” Kate said.

Jamie threw a blanket over Gracie and headed outside in the wind and rain. “I’ll get her situated and then come back and help with Amanda.”

What should have been a ten-minute trip took thirty minutes because of the driving rain and Kate’s inability to see more than one foot in front of the vehicle at any time. It didn’t help when she missed the turn to the hospital and had to go around a block to get back to it.

“I—need—to—push!” Amanda screamed as Kate pulled up beside the emergency room doors.

Kate turned off the engine and slung the door open in one motion before she headed toward the big doors in a run. “Hold on, Amanda. I’ll bring help.”

The lady behind the desk covered a yawn with her hand. “Fill out the form and I’ll need your insurance cards and—”

“I don’t have time for that. My friend is in the car and starting to push. Her baby is coming right now and we need help,” Kate yelled.

“Okay, settle down.” The woman picked up the phone and pushed a button. “I need a wheelchair and a nurse right now.”

An older lady pushing a wheelchair arrived in less than two minutes, but it seemed like an eternity to Kate, who paced the floor the whole time. She shot a knowing smile toward Kate, one that said babies took a lot of time, so don’t get your panties in a twist. When she returned with a sweat-covered, screaming Amanda, she was doing double time and hollering at the check-in woman to tell the on-call doctor to hurry.

“I want Kate and Jamie to go with me. I can’t do this by myself,” Amanda squealed.

“I’ll come and get them as soon as we get you on a bed and check you, I promise,” the nurse told her as they disappeared through double doors.

“Me, too? I want to be there to see my baby sister,” Gracie said.

“After the baby is born, you can go see it all you want,” Jamie said. “When they call for us, I’ll stay with Gracie and you go.”

“We’ll take fifteen-minute turnarounds.” Kate nodded. “That way Gracie can stay updated all the time.”

“Look at us.” Jamie plopped down in a chair in the waiting room. “We are drowned rats.”

Kate smiled. “At least we have on shirts and shoes. They can’t refuse us admittance.”

Gracie held up a bare foot. “I don’t have on shoes.”

“But you are under twelve years old, so the rules don’t apply,” Kate said.

The doors opened, and the nurse that had taken Amanda away stepped out. “She’s going straight to delivery. The baby is crowning and the doctor is on the way. She’s yelling for Jamie.”

Jamie stood up and tucked her wet hair behind her ears. “That would be me.”

“Then you need to come with me.”

Kate looked up at the big digital clock hanging on the wall. In fifteen minutes it would be two thirty, and then it would be her turn to go help with Amanda. Cold sweat popped out on her forehead, and her hands went clammy. She had no idea what to do. Jamie had had a child, so she had some inkling of what happened in the delivery room. Kate had never even seen kittens born, and that video of a birth she’d seen in college was more than twenty years ago.

The time came and went and another five minutes passed. Kate’s mind went into overdrive. Amanda had died back there and Jamie was trying to get a handle on her composure before she came out and told Gracie. Another ten minutes went by, and suddenly the doors opened.

Jamie was smiling so big that she could have been posing for one of those stock photos they put up in the dentist’s office. “It’s a girl for sure, and she’s here. Six pounds even and eighteen inches long. Doc says she’s about three weeks early, but everything looks good.”

“Red hair?” Kate asked.

“Oh, yeah. Y’all can come back and see Amanda, but the baby is in the nursery. You can see her through the window, though, Gracie.”

“I can’t hold her or kiss her on the forehead tonight?”

“You can tomorrow. Doc says since she’s a little early, they’ll keep Amanda until a day or two at the most and then we can take her home.” Jamie talked as she led them down the hallway to the maternity area. “Then I’m sure Amanda will let you hold her.”

When they reached Amanda’s room, they found her holding the new baby next to her chest. A pink blanket was wrapped around them both, and Amanda’s face glowed. “Look, it’s called skin-on-skin bonding. As soon as they got her cleaned up, they brought her back to me. She’s perfect. I counted all her fingers and toes. Come on over here, Gracie, and look at your little sister.”

Joy filled Kate’s soul for Amanda and for Gracie. The sisters would always have each other.

“What are you waiting for, Kate?” Amanda asked. “I didn’t have time to get invitations ready for this party. Come and meet Lia Beth, named after you two and Gracie.”

Gracie crawled up on the bed beside Amanda. “I like that better than Rachel.”

“Fits her better, doesn’t it?” Amanda grinned.

Family does not have to be blood, and sisters do not have to be born of the same parents, the voice in Kate’s head said loudly.

“I’m honored,” Kate said as she crossed the room to meet her niece.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Is it Monday’s child that is fair of face?” Kate asked as she rocked Miss Lia on Saturday evening. “Jamie, how does the rest of that thing go?”

“I don’t remember, but I do know that a child born on the Sabbath is fair and wise and good in every way, because Mama Rita told me that when Gracie was born on Sunday,” Jamie yelled from the kitchen.