The call came in as he was pulling into a rest stop, the phone dancing on the passenger seat, the ID flashing ‘Margie’. He was due a break. The jittery, artificial buzz from the Waklert tablets was wearing off, and he was close to crashing. If he didn’t pace himself, take a power-nap, he was liable to run the truck off the road. With no snow tyres, and the weather turning, he’d need his wits about him.
Taking a sip of Coke to blast the fog out of his voice, he made himself smile. ‘Hey. I was just about to call you.’
‘Tasha knows.’
‘Knows what?’
‘About the pregnancy. Gary told her.’
This news slapped him fully alert. ‘You told Gary about it?’
‘I know we were planning on waiting until the second trimester, but he was being his usual asshole self and it just came out.’
‘She okay? How did she take it?’
‘She was better than okay. Says she can’t wait to tell her friends she’s going to have a baby brother or sister.’ That didn’t sound like the Tash he knew. ‘How about we fly down and meet you? We can spend Sunday together.’
‘I’d love that, hon, but Millet’s not in a good place. Fact that I’ve got my life on track is kinda bringing it home to him that his is a total mess. Tell you what, how about I cut short the trip? We can have a celebration when I get back.’
‘You sure?’
‘Course. Millet will understand. Hey, can I talk to Tash?’
‘She’s with her dad. Where are you?’
‘I can hear traffic.’
‘Me and Millet are thinking of heading up to Silver Lake. I’m en route to pick him up. If you can’t get hold of me it’s cos I’m on the slopes.’
‘Oh that sounds like fun. We’ll have to go skiing one day.’
‘We will.’ He pictured himself picking out a snowboard with Tasha, lounging in a high-end chalet, sipping hot chocolate and playing board games. The baby–his baby–wasn’t included in this little scene of privileged family bliss. When he thought about it at all, all that came up was a nebulous, sexless blob. Keeping it at a distance, not letting it become real to him, was a calculated defence mechanism.
There was nothing stopping him turning around. Now Rainbowbrite and the gang were on the Kastriber trail, his options were narrowing, but it wasn’t too late. Push-pull, push-pull.