As my mother collapsed into my father’s arms and my friends cheered, I turned my attention out the window and watched the shed, as it collapsed in on itself. All the clothes that hadn’t quite made it into my wash basket floated across the garden in a parade of slovenliness.

‘Could you help me up, Ros?’ Dad asked, stuck on the kitchen floor. I took hold of his hand and yanked him to his feet.

‘We’ll make it perfect, Dad,’ I promised, determined to see this right.

‘Not to throw a spanner in the works,’ Lucy said quietly, staring down between her knees. ‘But I think my waters just broke.’

‘That seems to me like something you need a definite answer on,’ Adrian asked from the seat beside her, leaping to his feet and climbing onto the chair as though expecting a second flood.

‘I was trying to be delicate,’ she replied, gripping the edge of the kitchen table and grimacing tightly. ‘But either my waters have broken or I’ve just wet myself.’

‘She hasn’t had a drink,’ Sumi commented, pushing her fingertips into her temples with her eyes closed. ‘So, I’d say it’s almost certainly the waters breaking thing.’

Mum wiped her face on the sleeve of her dressing gown and rushed over to Lucy’s side. ‘You’re all useless,’ she scolded lightly, throwing a tea towel onto the floor. ‘Let’s call Dave, he can come and pick you up.’

Lucy’s delicate face seized up again.

‘Perhaps just text him and tell him to meet me at the hospital,’ she suggested. ‘I don’t know that this is going to take very long.’

Everyone blanched at exactly the same time.

‘But you’re not due yet!’ I protested, forcing myself not to think of what would become of the new pyjama bottoms I’d lent her. ‘And people are usually in labour for hours, aren’t they? Days, even?’

‘Mum had me in two hours and my sister in three,’ Lucy replied. ‘And my sister had Lesley an hour after her waters broke. They both delivered early.’

I’d forgotten Lucy’s sister had called her baby Lesley. Baby Lesley. Honestly.

‘What do we do?’ I asked, looking straight to Mum and Dad.

‘I’ll drive you to the hospital,’ Adrian offered.

‘No!’ everyone shouted back at once.

‘Fine,’ he sniffed in response.

‘I’ll take her,’ Dad offered, grabbing his car keys from the kitchen counter. ‘Gwen, you’ve got your woman coming over to do your hair, I’ve only got to put my suit on. I’ll take her.’

‘I’ll come with you,’ I said, slamming my tea down on the table as Mum, unable to wait a second longer, reached for the mop.