Expectant Father (7 page)

“And your feet propped up? Which is just the way I found you.”

“—then you need to learn what a Fire Behavior Analyst really does.”

“And if you think I’ve got nothing to bring to this tea party, then you need to learn what a Hot Shot really does.” And then he smiled, as if he were a used-car salesman and she were an easy mark.

To think that he’d fathered her child.

Irrationally, Becca wished she had something more lethal than a pencil to throw at Aiden. She gave him what she hoped was an intimidating glare, wishing him gone.

Her glare was so powerful, he didn’t even blink. They stared at each other for what seemed like an hour of tense silence until Becca realized that Julia was a rapt spectator of the pair of them making fools of themselves.

Sirus stuck his head in the tent. “Everything all right in here?”

“Sirus.” Ignoring Aiden, Becca walked out the door with ungainly steps, forcing Sirus to move back. “Can you explain to me why I need a Hot Shot?”

He gazed down at Becca for a long time, his expression closed, before saying, “He’s here to help.”

“Help with what?”

“Download his experiences and give his perspective. Look, you’ve relied on firefighters for information before, haven’t you?”

“Yes, but—”

“You’re always talking about information you’ve collected from places other than the computer, right?”

“Yes, but—”

Someone called to Sirus, and he almost looked relieved as he stepped back. “He’s here to help. Use him.” And then he left her standing alone in front of the tent.

“So, Sirus sent you.” Becca tapped her chin with her forefinger after she returned to the tent. If Sirus thought Becca needed a Hot Shot, she’d go along with it until she could get rid of Aiden. And if she couldn’t get rid of her Hot Shot, maybe Becca could convince Sirus that Aiden wasn’t the right Hot Shot to help her. Becca drew a deep breath, attempting to swallow her pride.

Think of the job in Boise.

“Yes, Socrates sent me.” With a disdainful grimace, Aiden looked just as unhappy to be here as she was to have him. Hot
Shots were such pompous pains in the ass. Most believed they were a class above the overhead and support crews in base camp simply because they fought fires up close and personal.

“Well, since you’re here and we’ve got a
few
minutes, why don’t you tell us all you know.” Becca mirrored his earlier smile with one of her own. She could be professional and courteous, and still be a bit intimidating. They weren’t going to be best buddies after this assignment, or ever.

Aiden’s lips stretched as he struggled to hold his smile. “Wow. It might take me more than a few minutes to share it all, especially if you don’t get it on the first try.”

“I’d love to hear what you have to say.” Julia gazed up at Aiden as if he were a Greek god, clearly not helping Becca’s case. Not that this was a surprise.

Aiden cocked an eyebrow in Becca’s direction, waiting for her assent.

A large map was tacked onto the back of the door. The body of the fire was indicated by red lines and in a very few places on its northern flank where they’d contained it, there were lines formed by thick black
X
s.

Part of her wanted nothing more than to kick him out—not wise when she was looking to impress Sirus or when she was trying to curtail Aiden’s involvement with her baby. Part of her wondered about what he had to say, what he’d been through. She was curious about his curt, smart-ass answers to Carl at the debrief the other day. Had he noticed something more than he’d admitted to?

With a reluctant nod of her head, Becca indicated Aiden should begin. “Why don’t you start with today’s map.”

“You were making a fire line out on the southern flank today, right?” The assistant Fire Behavior Analyst asked with
eyes as large as big blue quarters, just begging for Spider’s attention.

“Right.” Out of courtesy, he thrust his hand in her direction and introduced himself, promptly forgetting her name because his attention was on Becca Thomas.

This close, it struck him again that she was very pregnant. Her green T-shirt was a bit snug, revealing curves where Becca hadn’t had any before, curves that beckoned to be explored by a man’s hand. Yet, her legs looked almost as fit and trim beneath her black shorts as they had several months ago. Except for a fringe of bangs over her stitches, her blond hair was pulled back into that thick braid she seemed to prefer, taming those long, wild locks into something more civilized.

Pregnant and sexy. There was a new one for Spider. When he noticed pregnant women, if he noticed them at all, he wasn’t aroused.

Becca took a step closer to the map with her belly thrust forward and a crease in her brow as if she didn’t quite trust him.

Not trust him? Now that was a laugh. He was sure she was the reason he’d been given this assignment. She probably wanted to exert control over him. Fat chance.

“The way I figure it, the line we were working on today is in the middle of the black right now,” he said, meaning the burned-over ground that was the fire’s wake. “We were working in the trees when they started going up like Roman candles. We had to make a hasty retreat.”

The winds had picked up in the early afternoon and breathed energy into the fire. A couple of the newer Silver Bend Hot Shots were complaining that the IC was building fire lines too close to the front. They hadn’t yet realized how frequently they’d be working in the fire’s shadow. With more
seasons under his belt, Spider knew the tricky, angled terrain made fire prediction, and weather prediction for that matter, a crapshoot. You made do with the information you had.

“Was anyone hurt?” Becca asked, looking him over—not in the come-to-me way her assistant had—but with concern, as if checking for injuries, as if she cared.

The notion that Becca might not want to see him drop off the face of the earth gave him pause. Women he’d slept with didn’t usually look at him with tender emotion, perhaps because he didn’t usually pursue a relationship after the itch had been scratched.

“We’re all safe and accounted for,” he told her. Once more, he’d practically dragged Victoria to the safety zone.

Instead of snapping back at him, Becca moved with swaying steps over to one of the desks and began flipping through stacks of paper, mumbling, “Wind shifts? Ridge incline? Fuels?”

He looked at her assistant, who shrugged and said, “She talks to herself a lot.”

“I heard that.” Becca turned to Spider. “Where did we go wrong?”

“The winds whipped up.” Trying to be casual, he shrugged. “By the time it reached the trigger point, it had quite a bit of speed and height.” That was certainly an understatement.

Although the meteorologist had predicted the winds would pick up this afternoon, he couldn’t predict the exact hour or give the task a time tag, indicating when they should retreat.

The women looked at him expectantly. He’d said his piece and they didn’t appear any more upbeat than when he’d come in. That seemed to be about all Spider had to contribute. Sirus would consider this a failure.

Spider almost smiled. Failing at a bogus assignment wasn’t really failure, was it?

Becca passed a hand over her belly, bringing his thoughts away from the fire.

She’s carrying my baby.

He had to decide what his role would be. If he chose fatherhood, there’d be custody to explore, financial support to arrange, not to mention a lot of learning on his part about how to be a dad. No more late-night parties or taking off for days with no plan and nothing more than his car keys, because dads didn’t do things like that. A myriad of next steps and potential lifestyle changes awaited his decision of whether or not to be involved in his child’s life.

Spider’s shoulders tensed and knotted as reality struck. What could Spider offer his kid that Becca couldn’t? She was educated, classy and capable. He didn’t even know how a diaper worked. He stared stupidly at Becca as feelings of inadequacy washed over him. Hell, he couldn’t even handle a simple base camp assignment.

In the midst of his circuit-frying thoughts, he caught Becca mumble, “Hopeless.”

Her defeated tone of voice shocked him out of his stupor. According to his grandmother, nothing was hopeless. Maybe Socrates had been right. Morale really was low. Spider was needed here. He’d been given a legit assignment. He straightened and looked at Becca in a new light, energized now that he believed there was something to be done here. There was a difference between being needed and being put in his place by a vengeful woman.

This should be easy enough. After all, he was used to building morale for his own team. A little positive reinforcement, a joke or two, bonding over a beer with some of the other support staff and snap—job done, back to the fire line.

Besides, it was to his advantage to make nice with Becca.

He eyed Becca speculatively. She looked like a nice girl, like someone who’d respect a guy who dealt with her fairly. Nice girls played fair, didn’t they? If only Spider could forget a few details, like Vegas, or that Becca hadn’t told him about the baby.

Spider put on his best trustworthy smile. “I think you ladies have been doing a great job. It’s not your fault that this fire changes its mind as often as a woman changes her hair color. So, let’s get to work. I’m here to help in whatever way you need me to.”

Becca’s expression turned stony, the woman knew how to give a visual put-down, and even her assistant looked at Spider as if he’d stripped down to a dirty pair of Skivvies. Again, he felt useless.

“And just what do you expect to do to help us? Choose a new hair color?” Becca’s stare might have daunted a lesser man, but Spider was used to rebounding from adversity.

Fighting the feeling that he was failing, he kept his smile in place. A good joke always diffused the tension. “I’m more qualified to choose nail color, but we can talk about that later. Don’t you want to ask me about my opinion and experiences on this fire?”

“No.” Becca moved over to a desk and began sorting a stack of paper, probably one that didn’t need sorting.

“No?” Socrates was going to have Spider’s hide if she refused his help. His smile faltered. Who was she to say he couldn’t help her—either with that kid or strategizing about the fire?

“No,” Becca reaffirmed. “We’ve heard all you’ve got to say. Now, if you’ll excuse us, we need to finalize our fire predictions before we meet the meteorologist.”

She was dismissing him? No way.

Becca glanced up, one eyebrow raised beneath that bandage, her unspoken question was clearly
Why are you still here?

He’d heard it said that there was just so much a man could take before he threw in the towel.

A glutton for punishment, Spider wasn’t even close to that point. He had a purpose here in camp, and the sooner he accomplished it, the sooner he’d be back where he belonged.

“Maybe if I hang around awhile, I’ll have a few questions.” With a smile that now felt like a grimace, he sat down on Becca’s chair, propped his aching dogs up on the milk crate as she’d done and let Becca know that he wasn’t about to be pushed aside like an errand boy.

“I
SUPPOSE THE WINDS
will blow it somewhere around here,” Julia observed, pointing to an area at the southern tip of the fire on the map.

“Yes, it’s nearly at the head of this west-facing ridge. It could head anywhere and everywhere.” Becca tried hard to ignore Aiden—hard to do under normal circumstances, but harder still when he was reclining in her space. If he said anything to give away her secret, she’d…she’d… Well, she’d make him sorry. If it got back to Boise that he’d fathered her child, her chances at the management job would be ruined. Men could sleep around with younger women, but Becca was certain that the conservative NIFC wouldn’t accept the reverse. Oh, if NIFC found out, they’d come up with some legitimate excuse for not offering Becca the job, but she’d know the real reason.

“What do you think the fire will do, Julia?” Becca asked

Julia shrugged and Becca wanted to strangle her. The baby bopped her belly, as if advising her to be patient. To keep
herself from answering for Julia or cracking under the pressure of anticipation that Aiden would expose her, Becca took a swig of water. Then another.

“I suppose…with these winds…it would head south faster.” There was the slightest hint of interest in her voice, almost as if Julia were afraid to show it.

“Good,” Becca encouraged. “Why?”

“The southern exposure from the sun will have dried the forest out more than on the northern side. Winds blowing in from the west would push a fire quicker, possibly creating a crown fire on the drier face of the ridge.” The words spilled out of Julia quicker toward the end of her speech, and then Julia looked as surprised as Becca was.

Of course, there was no one important around to notice how much progress Becca was making with Julia. Just Aiden.

“Good answer, don’t you think, Bec?” Aiden said, sounding like a bad imitation of a motivational speaker.

“Let’s compare that to the model.” Becca was pleased with Julia’s answer. She was certainly on the right track. For a moment, there was hope…if she could just forget that Aiden could ruin things for her with NIFC…or the possibility that he might want this baby.

“The model doesn’t predict the winds as accurately as they have on other fires I’ve been on,” Julia noted a few minutes later.

Becca almost fainted with relief at Julia’s revelation. “It’s the slopes. All bets are off on ground-wind prediction when the topography is so severe.” Okay, that was a bit of an overstatement, but wind predictions certainly hadn’t been accurate here.

Aiden raised his eyebrows with a quirky smile and a nod,
indicating this was not news. Becca ignored him. She couldn’t admit that Carl was pulling predictions out of his worn baseball cap.

“Why don’t we hike up the ridge a bit and take some readings? Carl’s going to be up there, and you might change your predictions after being out in the field,” Becca suggested when they’d reviewed the model some more. She wanted to show both Julia and Carl the dangers of keeping to their current strategy, and hoped Carl would agree to support her recommended strategy in front of Sirus.