Second Chance Cowboy

Chapter 18

Lanie was a mess.  The news reports were vague.  She couldn’t seem to get any real information, like a map of the affected areas, or a list of towns affected.   She knew that she shouldn’t be so sick over this.  Wildfires were a normal part of living in remote-access areas near large forested areas.  She guessed Pete had probably faced fire threats before.

She had stripped to her underwear and lay on her hotel bed with the air conditioner’s settings set to FAN-HI and TEMP-COLDEST.  Still, she was sweltering.  She wondered briefly if she might be coming down with something again.  Just then, her Google search hit pay-dirt.  She opened the article gleaning the pertinent facts.  When she was finished, she felt ill and wished she hadn’t read the article.

Not only were the fires near Pete, they were out of control.  Pete’s area had been evacuated.  Road blocks were set up and the little airport was closed to all except the fire-traffic.  She lay on her tummy, a cold wet cloth on the back of her neck to help with her nausea.  It didn’t work.  She leapt from the bed, nearly knocking her laptop to the floor as she ran for the bathroom.

After rinsing her mouth, she reached for her overnight bag and dug out the crackers she had begun to keep there with a bottle of tums.  Her hand stopped before the crackers cleared the top of the bag.  She had moved things around enough; she saw the wrapper of a tampon and swallowed hard. 

She dropped the crackers and ran for her wallet and the pocket calendar she kept there.  She flipped the pages frantically and when she found what she was looking for, she plopped down on the edge of the bed and just stared at the pages. 

Her mind was telling her it was a simple oversight.  She had just forgotten to write it down.  Her heart knew better.  Her emotional pendulum swung swiftly between a growing feeling bordering on excitement and absolute terror.   Her mind finally caught up, after having exhausted all other possibilities.  Her mind finally processed all of the misread symptoms with clarity. 

She was struck with a new and terrifying thought.  She and Pierce had always used protection, even though he had assured her that he had surgery to assure he would produce no further offspring.  As a single dad with two daughters, he was far too busy to even entertain the possibility.  It was a fact she was grateful for, because prior to this very moment, she had never considered the possibility either.

She groaned.  There was only one possible explanation.  And something she thought was complicated just became an irrevocable, virtually impossible situation.  She remembered sitting in her window seat looking out the window watching Las Vegas grow smaller as she whispered “What Happens in Vegas…”

She fell back, her knees hanging off the edge of the bed, and covered her eyes with her forearm as she groaned aloud.  Pete was…

Lanie sat up suddenly.  Feeling dizzy, she leaned forward resting her elbows on her knees and propped up her head.   Pete was in the middle of a wild fire.  She knew that for certain, because his name was mentioned specifically in one of the articles along with a few quotes from Jake. 

Finally she determined a plan of action.  She picked up her cell phone from the nightstand and hit speed-dial.  When her boss picked up, she informed him that she had a family situation come up, that she was sorry, but he would have to send someone else on the assignment.    She clicked off that call and dialed directory assistance.  Half an hour later, she was in a taxi on the way back to the airport.  She had a flight to catch.  But first a quick detour to a drugstore to pick up a test. 

As she handed her boarding pass to the attendant and stepped through the doorway her heart skipped a beat.  She had reservations at an airport hotel where she could keep her vigil, watching for anything on Pete.  It seemed so unreal.  If one of her friends had cried on her shoulder, claiming circumstances like these, Lanie doubted she would have been able to really believe it.

It was like something out of a badly written afternoon soap-opera!  A busy career-driven woman breaks of a relationship with an unreliable but incredibly cute cowboy.  She gets into a relationship with a handsome successful widower and then discovers she is pregnant by the ex- who happens to be in a perilous battle with a wildfire that is threatening his home and livelihood.  She sighed and tipped her head back.  It would be several hours before she landed and she was exhausted.

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Ron Baker reluctantly agreed to allow PT to join his crew.  PT was not a stranger to the wildfire scene, and that was the deciding factor for Ron.  PT had no trouble with the fifty pounds of equipment or the five mile uphill hike to the site.   Secretly Ron was pleased.  There was a serious shortage of help.  The fire season had fire crews spread out dangerously thin. 

When a fire made a splash in the media, there was never any shortage of volunteers.  Keeping them alive without risking any professionals meant a very careful screening before allowing them to go out with fire crews.  Even then, it wasn’t very common.  PT Jerome, however, had come highly recommended.  He knew this fire, since he had been fighting it for over a week.  He was up to the physical demands, and he knew the importance of following orders.

They had been working for about four hours on a hotspot.  Above them on the steep incline were the charred remains of lodge pole pines.  PT was assigned to shadow Ron.  PT didn’t mind.  He knew that if he was to come out of this alive, he would need Ron’s knowledge.  Besides, he liked the man.  PT stopped suddenly.  He thought he heard something.  It sounded like a creaking door.  The sound was faint, like it was far off.  He shrugged and bent once more his work.  A sharp and sudden POP sounded. 

PT stood again and looked in Ron’s direction.  Ron was still and listening.  The seconds ticked by.  There was no other sound, just the faint CREEEEEEAK and the POP.  Smoke and ash hung heavily in the air and the fading sunlight filtered through such a mixture did little to illuminate this part of the forest.  Suddenly through the dark haze a thunderous crash.  PT felt the earth tremble beneath his feet.   Somewhere above a tree had fallen.  Branches broke off and skittered downhill with rocks and loose dirt. 

Ron shouted and PT didn’t need a second warning.  He ran after Ron and the two of them ran, weaving their way through a cluster of pine.  Ron stopped dead just on the other side when a tree bounced through the clearing where they had just been working.

PT was a little shaken as he watched the tree slam into a few more pines, sheering off the charred tops and it continued downhill. 

“RON! PT!  You guys okay?”

“Yeah.  We’re good!”

“Roll-call!”

“RON!”

“PT” shouted. 

He and Ron returned to work as the rest of their crew continued to shout out roll-call to see if everyone was okay.   Ron paused and gave PT thumbs up as the last man called out his name.  They all made it through that one okay. 

PT continued working through the night by the light of his headlamp.  Every nerve in his body was tingling.  His ears were tuned to the sounds all around him.  He heard every crack and rustle.  He heard the shovels of the men working near him.  He heard Ron’s breathing.  Adrenaline coursed through his blood driving fatigue from his system.

The remainder of his shift was spent dodging unseen trees.  He wondered if sometimes he imagined he heard them.  Nobody bothered to count how many trees actually fell during the night.  There was no need to.  All of them were acutely aware that it would only take ONE.

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“I’m impressed PT.  I have to admit, I had my reservations, but you handled yourself well out there tonight.  You kept a level head and we got a lot accomplished.  I’m particularly impressed since this was your first experience with dodging pines.  You handled yourself like a pro.”

“Thanks.” PT fell quiet for the remainder of the hike.  He was recalling the day he had seen Jake after the rock incident at the stream.  PT had a deeper understanding of the feeling that must have settled over Jake.  It was a strange sense of mortality, coming that close to death.  To literally be inches from certain death was as sobering as it was difficult to wrap your brain around.  But for six inches and the grace of God…