Total pages in book: 18
Estimated words: 16571 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 83(@200wpm)___ 66(@250wpm)___ 55(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 16571 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 83(@200wpm)___ 66(@250wpm)___ 55(@300wpm)
"There you go, almost there," I promise her, even though I know it’s a lie. She lets out another howl of pain, and then, all at once, I hear movement behind me. Glancing around, I expect to see Elias there with the towels – but instead, my heart stops when I see who’s standing in the doorway.
"Boone?" I gasp. His jaw is set tight, his face grim.
"What do you need?" he demands, dropping down by my side. He’s here. He’s actually here...
And I can figure out what that means later. Right now, I only have one priority, and it’s making sure this woman and her child survive.
"Go support her head," I tell him. "Get Elias through with the towels to clean her up-"
"Got them," Elias calls to me, voice strained to its breaking point as he dives back into the room. He shoots a look at Boone, and, in that moment, I can see a history between them, a history that might explain why his animosity ran so deep. Whatever it is, it doesn’t matter one little bit right now.
"June, you’re doing great," I tell her, as I lift her hips again, applying pressure to her vaginal opening to try and keep things moving. "Just another couple of repetitions, and-"
And then, like the clouds have just parted above us, I see it – the baby’s head, a tuft of blonde-red hair, slick with viscera, but eyes open.
"Push, June!” I yell to her, as Boone drops behind her and pulls her head on to his lap. "Push! Just a few more seconds, I promise, and-"
June lets out another cry as she pushes again, and again, and again, and then -
And then, the room fills with the sound of a baby’s wail. And it’s the most beautiful goddamn thing in the world.
June slumps back as I swiftly cut the cord, bringing the child into my arms and checking them over – she looks perfect, a beautiful baby girl, fat rolls in all the right places, eyes bright even as she yells for her mother.
"Is she...?”
"She’s fine," I promise June, as I quickly set about cleaning her up as best I can. "You did amazing, Momma. Here..."
And, as I hand the baby over to June, I catch Boone’s eye. And I can tell from the look in his eyes that something has changed since the last time I saw him. Not just for him to have come here in the first place, but because this woman has not faced the same fate as his wife, nor the woman who I left bereft back home.
No, because this child is a new start.
Not just for her newfound family, but for us, too.
I don’t know exactly what that means – but I sure as hell know that I want to find out.
CHAPTER 11
Boone
As June and Daisy rest in the room next door, I watch as Elias paces the floor before me.
"Are you two going to tell me what the hell the problem is," Cora cuts in, after a long silence. "Or are you just going to sit here all night acting like stubborn teenagers?”
I frown. I might not know what she’s talking about, but I know that she’s got a point. A sudden rainstorm outside made it impossible for me to take back off to the cabin as soon as I wanted to, leaving Cora and I here overnight, even though June’s labor is well and truly over. I doubt Cora would have been in any rush to get out of here even if we could – she's got Woodward on her lap next to the fire, and seems as relieved as Elias does that all of this has come to an end less horrible than the ones we’ve faced before.
I glance over at Elias, who has hardly been able to look me in the eye since I got here. If I hadn’t told him that I was here with Cora, shit, he might have told me to get my ass out and never come back – not that I could have blamed him, not after everything. Maybe I deserve it, the way he has pulled back from me, given that I pushed him away when he tried to help.
"I don’t know, Boone," he replies, after a long pause. "You want to say goodbye to your second-cousin first, or what?”
The words hang in the air, heavy with meaning. Cora’s eyes fly open in shock, and even Woodward seems to sit up a little straighter.
"Your second cousin?” she gasps. "Does that mean-"
She clamps a hand over her face as it hits her. Elias and I glare each other down for a moment before I grit out a few words in response.
"Yes," I mutter. "He’s my cousin.”
Those words carry a weight to them, a weight that neither of us have dared content with in so long. It’s true – we came up here together, back when we lost our family, and he tried his best to bridge the gap between us. But, when I married Anna, I thought I had found a family of my own, a family I couldn’t lose to illness the way ours had been taken from us.