Only One Mistake (Only One 6)

“Would you knock it off?” Alex hits his arm with his own hat, coming to me, a towel wrapped around her body.

“It’s gushing out of her,” Dylan says. I’m still standing in shock, looking down to make sure I didn’t imagine it. Michael hasn’t moved either, and his color is getting whiter. “Is it pee?”

“Her water just broke,” she says without panic in her voice. She puts her hand in mine. “Let’s go get you dressed.” She looks over at Michael. “You come with me.” Alex then looks at Dylan. “You start the phone chain.” He just looks at her. “Call my mother, and she’ll start it.” She turns back to me and smiles to comfort me. “How are you doing?” she asks as she walks with me into the house. The whole time, water keeps leaking out.

“My water broke,” I say, shocked, and I feel like I’m in a daze while we walk to my bedroom.

“Julia!” Michael yells from the hallway, and when she doesn’t answer after the first time, he yells her name again. She comes out of the room, and I can imagine her annoyed expression. “It’s time.”

I stand in the middle of our bedroom, looking over at Michael, who is standing with his hands on his hips. The sound of Julia running to us fills the hallway. “Oh my God, why isn’t she dressed?”

“I’m getting her dressed,” Alex says, walking to the closet and grabbing me a big dress. “Michael, you need to load the car.”

The sound of running up the stairs causes us to all look over. “Your mother is on her way,” Dylan says, huffing out.

“I need to shower,” I finally say, and all eyes are looking at me. “We had sex this morning.” I look at Michael while the other three just groan.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” Dylan mumbles beside him. “You can’t keep it in your pants. Look at her. Does she look like she wants to have sex with you?”

“Enough,” Alex says when the front door opens, and the sound of more feet fills the house.

“What’s going on?” Allison says, pushing through Dylan and Michael to get to me. “Why isn’t she dressed and in the car?”

“She needs to shower because Michael had sex with her this morning.” Dylan fills them in, and I close my eyes from embarrassment but also the pain that shoots through my vagina. I put my hand on my stomach, and it’s hard as a rock.

“That is probably what started the labor,” Max says, as if this is an everyday thing. Out of all of us, I would never imagine Max and Alex to be the calm, cool ones. “We did the same thing with Michael.”

Dylan puts his hands to his mouth again. “This time, I’m really going to be sick.” He gags.

“There are things you share,” Alex says with clenched teeth. “And there are things you never ever say in your whole life.” She points at him. “That is one of them.”

I pant through the pain, and when I open my eyes, I look at Allison. “That was a contraction.” She nods her head and looks over at Michael.

“Start the clock,” she tells him, and he takes out his phone.

“Should we call an ambulance?” Dylan asks with his phone in his hand as he contemplates calling 911. “I think we need like a police escort or something.” He looks over at Max, who just nods and takes out his phone.

“I’m going to call Matthew.” The whole family is on baby watch with us, and his uncle Matthew was not kidding when he said they would take their vacation in Dallas. The whole clan is here, and that is a lot of people.

“No!” we all yell at him, and he looks at us.

“We need to just get her in the car and then we can go,” Allison says, and I nod. “Let’s just throw this dress over her and get her in the car.”

“Can I please shower?” I look at her. “I smell like coconut, and I’m lathered in oil. They might think I’m a stripper.”

“Doubtful,” Dylan says, and we all glare at him. “Who would be stripping past their due date?” He tries to take it back. “They stop at least a couple of months before.”

“Of course you would know this.” Alex glares at him, shaking her head. “Why don’t you get one of your stripper girlfriends on the phone and ask her.”

“I don’t have a girlfriend.” He smiles at her proudly.

“You two,” Max says to them. “Do this later.”

I walk to the bathroom, turning on the shower. “I really don’t think that is a good idea,” Michael says, standing at the doorway. “Like I don’t have any ideas, but I’m sure doing that is not good.”

“It’s going to take me two seconds,” I say, and I close my eyes because another contraction comes. I focus on my breathing like they taught me during Lamaze class. “That was not too bad,” I say, untying my top and bottoms. “Go make sure that everything is in the car.”