All I can do is leave it up to him. Picking up my phone, I look at our last string of messages from two days ago. He promised he’d call when he could, and I know he’s warned me days can stretch between communications.
The uncertainty of everything is killing me, though. I have to be more resilient than this. I have to rest firm in the faith that our relationship’s enduring and will survive this. But I’d feel so much better if I could hear his voice and know one way or the other how he’s going to take the news.
Chapter Fourteen
TRAVIS
At least two days have passed since I last talked to Faith, and this is the first thirty-minute break I’ve taken today. I lie exhausted on the ground, covered head-to-toe in soot and gulping for oxygen in the orange and gray haze surrounding me.
I’d give anything to hear her voice, but my cell phone’s out of juice. Fortunately, I’ve got my satellite phone with me. As I dial her number, I pray she’ll pick up. It’s not a number I’ve called her from before, so I know she won’t recognize it.
I can tell by the way things are going that what should be a thirty-minute break will probably be more like five. The wildfire we’re working has been difficult to contain, thanks to shifting winds, which allow it to keep jumping our direct lines. Hours of work gone in an instant. It’s one of the toughest parts of this job.
She doesn’t answer.Dammit!
I watch distant flames sparkle in the treetops above like Roman Candles, cresting up and blowing over the line before getting sucked back in by the fire. It’s a stunning sight against the backlit night and a comforting one. The fire’s doing what we expect for once. I haven’t been able to say this much over the past two weeks.
I dial her number again, my heart racing as it rings, and I pray she’ll pick up. I need to hear her voice, even if it’s only for a moment.
“Travis!” Her voice sounds like liquid sunshine coming through the phone. It’s the only glimmer of light I’ve seen in days, apart from the glow of the flames, shrouded in the thick, opaque darkness of this inferno.
“How are you, my love?” I ask between breaths.
“I’m okay,” she says quietly, but I immediately know she’s holding back.
A pit forms in my stomach as I watch my fellow Hotshots battling to hold the line. I only have a couple more minutes if I’m lucky.
“Sugar, what’s wrong?”
She’s quiet for a long moment, and it frustrates the hell out of me that I can’t see her face or try to figure out what’s going on.
“Faith, are you there?”
“Yes.”
“Please tell me what’s wrong. I don’t have long, but I need to know.” I’m trying to sound calm but I haven’t slept in days, and I’m exhausted in every way a human can be.
Her voice is so quiet, I almost don’t hear her next words. “You’re going to be a daddy.”
Out of everything she could possibly say, her words blindside me, as if I just got clocked in the jaw by an unknown assailant. I squeeze my eyes shut, taking a couple of deep breaths.
Between the news and thick smoke in the air, I probably sound like I’m hyperventilating, and my ears ring. I wonder if I’ve somehow imagined the whole thing.
“Come again,” I say breathlessly.
“I’m pregnant, Travis.”
I shake my head still trying to take it all in. “But we’ve only been together for six weeks. How could you know so soon?”Two of those weeks, we haven’t even been in the same county.This is pure shock and denial talking now. As a trained firefighter and paramedic, I know one time’s enough.
Fortunately, Faith handles my dumbass question graciously. “I missed my period, so I took a test.”
I don’t know how to process the tumult of emotions rocking me. So, I start with the most obvious question. “You told me you were on birth control pills. I mean, what happened?”
Her voice sounds unreadable as she explains, “I was until this morning. I don’t know what happened, Trav. Birdie thinks it might have something to do with some of the vitamins I’ve been taking. I didn’t know this until today but something as simple as vitamin C or melatonin can lower the effectiveness of the pill.”
“Shit,” escapes my lips before I can choose my words more carefully.
I hear her let out a ragged sob, breaking down over the line. I know I should react better to the news, but my head is spinning. The way I mapped out our life together isn’t what’s unfolding before me.
