“What?” Camilla shrieked. “How can the baby be on its way? It’s too soon.”

Honey and Allie helped Dawn over to the leather sofa in the corner of the café and she sat down, cradling her bump.

“Not really, Camilla.” Dawn shook her head. “I’m thirty-eight weeks along.”

“Noooooo!” Camilla was shaking her head vigorously as if she couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “It should be forty.”

“That’s not strictly true, Camilla.” Allie placed a hand on Camilla’s arm. “Anything from thirty-eight to forty weeks… sometimes up to forty-two weeks, is considered acceptable.”

“Nope.” Camilla had paled and her green eyes seemed huge in her pretty face.

“What do you mean, nope?” Dawn scowled at her sister from the sofa where Honey was holding her hand. “You don’t have power over this, Camilla. Your niece is on the way… Ouch!”

Dawn started to pant and Camilla stumbled forwards but Allie caught her.

“It’s all right, Camilla. Dawn will be fine but we do need to call Rick and probably an ambulance.”

“No time!” Dawn squeezed Honey’s hand as she panted. Honey bit down on her own lip to prevent herself from crying out as her knuckles were squashed together. “But call Rick… and tell him to hurry.”

Allie helped Camilla to sit down opposite Dawn, then ran to the counter and grabbed her mobile from behind the till. Honey heard her mutter into the mobile, clearly telling Rick to get there immediately.

“Oh… oh…” Dawn panted and squeezed Honey’s hand tighter. “I’d forgotten how much this hurts. The stinging! The awful stinging…”

“Are you sure the baby is coming now?” Honey tried to keep her voice calm, but the pain in her hand and the fluid that ran down Dawn’s legs every time her belly tightened to a point under her fitted dress, were all making her own panic rise.

“Have a look!” Dawn said as she spread her legs and pulled her skirt up to her thighs.

“I can’t look!” Honey replied. “I don’t know what I’m looking for.”

“Camilla?” Dawn asked her sister but Camilla buried her face in her palms.

“I can’t, Dawnie. I feel faint.”

“It’s all right, I’ve got this.” Allie pushed the coffee table out of the way. “Honey, you keep holding her hand and Camilla… CAMILLA!”

“What?” Camilla raised her head but kept her eyes averted from her sister. “Go through to the cottage and get some clean towels. Jordan and Max should have some in the kitchen but if not, check upstairs.”

“Can Jordan help with this?” Camilla asked hopefully.

“He’s not here. Max has taken him into London for a night out.”

“Oh… okay.”

“Hurry up!”

Camilla nodded then disappeared through to the living quarters that formed the rear of the cottage. Allie had lived there with her son, until Chris returned to the village and had asked Allie to move in with him. Since then, Jordan’s boyfriend Max had moved in.

“Right, Dawnie, Rick is on his way. He’s going to drop the children with your mum and dad then come straight here.”

“Okay.” Dawn nodded then closed her eyes, squeezing Honey’s hand again as another pain overwhelmed her body.

“I’m going to remove your underwear and have a look now. Is that okay?”

“Yes.” Dawn’s lips blanched as she pressed them together.

“Can I do anything else?” Honey asked, feeling utterly helpless as she watched her friend in pain.

“Just hold her hand and say comforting things,” Allie said.

What classed as comforting to a woman in labour?

“There, there, Dawnie. It’ll all be fine.” Honey grimaced as the words sounded so weak in the face of what Dawn was going through. “You’ve done this twice, so third time’ll be a doddle.”

Dawn opened her eyes and guffawed. “A doddle? Shit, Honey, you can tell you haven’t done this. Childbirth is never a doddle.”

“Sorry.” Honey’s cheeks burned. “I just didn’t know what to say.”

“Ouch!” Dawn jolted on the sofa.

“Oh god, Dawnie, I can see the head!”

Honey leaned forwards and gasped. “Is that the baby’s hair?”

Allie pursed her lips but her shoulders shook.

“No, that’s not the baby’s hair…” She gestured at the place where Honey was looking, and Honey realised that what she’d seen was in fact hair that belonged to Dawn. “Come around a bit and look… there.”

Honey peered at where Allie was pointing.

“Oh… I see it! I can see the baby’s head. You’re having a baby, Dawnie!”

“Gaaaahhhhh!” Dawn groaned and Honey quickly looked away as the baby’s head stretched parts of her friend that she’d never wanted to see.

“Arghhh!” Honey cried as Dawn crunched her fingers together.

“Hurry up, Camilla!” Allie shouted.

Camilla appeared, clutching a pile of multi-coloured towels and threw them down in front of Allie, who quickly tucked some under her friend then draped one over her arm.

“Here. We. Go.” Dawn pressed her chin to her chest and emitted a sound that Honey could only describe as raw animal pain. The noise was echoed by Camilla as she swooned to the floor, while the door to the café swung open and Rick appeared, his eyes wide and his face coated in a sheen of sweat.

“Dawnie!” he cried as he dashed to his wife’s side.

“Rick… You made it.” Dawn’s voice was full of relief.

“You have a beautiful baby girl.”

A cry filled the room as the newborn took her first breath, and something inside Honey fluttered like the wings of a moth about to take flight. She swallowed it down, refusing to acknowledge the surge of emotion and deep sense of loss.

Allie carefully wrapped the baby in a towel then placed her on Dawn’s stomach, and Honey slumped against the wall as the pain in her hand subsided now that Dawn had released it.

“Where’s Camilla?” Allie asked.

“Over here.” Camilla emerged from behind the coffee table rubbing her forehead.

“Are you all right?”

“I think so. I just can’t stand to see Dawnie in pain and I must’ve fainted.”

“We’d better get you checked out,” Allie said as she helped Camilla to sit on a chair.

“Me too,” Honey said as she held out her squashed hand.

“Welcome to The Cosy Cottage Café little one,” Dawn said as she gazed into the face of her tiny baby. “Say hello to your daddy and three aunties.”

Honey smiled in response, but she couldn’t see a thing because her eyes were filled with tears.

Dawn’s midwife made it to the café before the paramedics. She’d been in the area seeing her own pregnant daughter, and Rick had called her straight after Allie had spoken to him.

Once she’d checked Dawn and the baby over, cut the cord and ensured that the placenta had come away, she accepted a cup of tea from Allie and sat opposite Dawn and Rick who were cuddled up on the sofa with their new baby.

Honey was on the chair next to the midwife, nursing her own cup of tea and wondering when she’d be able to talk properly again. She was so overwhelmed that she kept choking up. Dawn had just given birth to her third child in Allie’s café and everyone was fine. It was all fine. Sometimes things did work out the way they were supposed to.

Honey turned to the midwife, a rosy-cheeked woman in her early fifties who seemed to have a permanent smile on her lovely face.

“Will…” She cleared her throat. “Will they both be okay?”

“Yes, dear, of course they will. That was a very straightforward labour. Dawn’s done it twice before so third time was a charm.”

“They don’t need to go to hospital?”

“Not at all. Many women have successful home births, and although this is a café, she had no problems in her labour and the baby is feeding well.”

Honey nodded and returned her gaze to Dawn, who was cradling her daughter in her arms as she took her first feed. Allie had replaced the wet and bloodied towels with clean dry ones and fetched a soft blanket from the café cottage to wrap around Dawn. Rick had brought Dawn’s delivery bag along, so Dawn would be able to change into fresh pyjamas before they made their way home.

“Hello!” Chris, Allie’s partner, entered the café and grinned at everyone. “I hear there’s a new baby in the village?”

“Hi love.” Honey watched as Chris’s eyes lit up when they roamed Allie’s face.

“I’ve brought a little something to celebrate.” Chris held up two bottles of champagne. “We had them in the fridge at home ready for a special occasion and this is evidently the right time.”

“I’ll get some glasses,” Allie said.

“I think you’d better change too, Allie.” Chris pulled a face as he pointed at her jeans.

“I hadn’t even noticed.” Allie looked down at the dark damp patches on her legs.

Honey suspected that they’d need to give the sofa and café a thorough clean the next day before opening, but knew that big-hearted Allie wouldn’t mind. Her best friend’s baby had just made its way into the world in her café; there was nothing negative in that at all.

Honey had to blink hard again as tears flooded her eyes. She wasn’t usually so emotional but this… this was incredible and, of course, it brought some of her suppressed emotions to the surface. How could it not? But right now she was extremely happy for her friends. She also realised that she wished Dane was there to share this perfect moment.

“Right lovelies, the paramedics are here,” the midwife peered through the window, “so I’ll have a quick chat with them before they check you over, then we’ll leave you to it.”

“Thank you so much,” Rick said.

Twenty minutes later, the midwife and the paramedics had gone and Allie and Dawn had both changed; Dawn into the pyjamas from her delivery bag and Allie into one of Jordan’s large hoodies and a pair of his jogging bottoms that she’d retrieved from upstairs.

Chris had popped the cork on one of the bottles of champagne and poured the bubbly liquid into glasses that Honey had fetched from the kitchen while Allie and Dawn changed.

Chris handed everyone a glass, except for Dawn, who shook her head, then raised his own.

“Congratulations to Dawn and Rick on the birth of little… uh…” He frowned. “Do you have a name yet?”

Dawn and Rick looked at each other then back at Chris.

“Alison.” Dawn stroked her baby’s cheek. “For Allie because she helped me deliver this beautiful girl.”

“You don’t have to do that, Dawn. “ Allie shook her head.

“We want to. If we call her Allie, it’ll be too confusing, so we’ll go with Alison.”

“In fact,” Rick said, “her full name will be Alison Camilla Honey Dix-Beaumont.”

“Really?” Honey squealed then covered her mouth. “Oh my goodness. I can’t take any more emotion! It’s all just too lovely.”

“So,” Chris said, raising his glass once more, “congratulations to Dawn, Rick and little Alison Camilla Honey!”

They all clinked glasses then drank the cool, crisp champagne and Honey gazed around the café at her friends, old and new. Moments like these were so precious and she took a mental snapshot, intending to treasure it, and hoping she’d get the chance to tell Dane all about it soon.