SOFIA SOL

The rumble of my Triumph feels different as I ride with Luke, Celia, Sean and Atlas to El Paso, Texas, where we heard about a crisis that’s on the verge of turning worse.

I tighten my fists on the bars, but slow down despite my will power. My husband glances over as I break formation. Weird for me to since nobody’s on the road but us at this hour, a little after four o’clock in the morning on a Tuesday.

“Something wrong with your bike?” he calls over the roar.

“Dunno!” I wince as things go funky. “Stop a second.”

He nods, gives the signal. The five of us pull onto the shoulder. Everyone but Luke leaves their machines running as he throws his leg over, dismounts, and strolls to me, bending to inspect my tires, the hoses, anything that might on first inspection look ‘off’ to him.

“It’s not the bike.” I tell him, finally remembering to shift into neutral. “I feel weird. Like the engine is making me dizzy or something.”

He pulls his glove off and places his cool palm on my hand. “You hot, Soph?”

“Am I?”

“Feel normal. But what do I know?”

Celia shuts her engine down, hurries over. “Sofia, you sick?”

“Um…maybe ate something bad?” As she touches my forehead, too, I roll my eyes. “I don’t have a fever, he just checked.”

“I want to see if you’re clammy.” She puts her fingers on my neck, behind my hair, braided under my helmet. It’s a cold night, late into fall, so she touches her own skin to see if we’re different, if it’s just the wind that’s done this to my temperature. “Feels the same as me. Like you need a scarf, but that’s it.”

Smiling, “I don’t need a scarf,” I shrug it off and tell them all, “I’m all good. Let’s go.”

“Stay close,” Luke says.

“I will.”

We’re on the road in no time, same formation but now I’m their person of interest, and it’s no fun.

It’s hard to hold on.

Like I could use a nap.

And some Tums.

My husband keeps checking on me, calls over the engines, “We’re pulling off at the next stop where there’s lodging, fuck this!”

Usually I’d argue, but not tonight. “Okay,” I nod, frowning.

“Pull over! You’ll get on the back of my bike. We’ll get yours later!”

“Okay.”

That answer freaks him out. He raises his arm and signals for us to pull off the road right now. Atlas and Sean watch, faces grim as Ceels grabs my keys, stashes them in her Ciphers jacket. Luke piles my saddlebags onto his, mounts his Harley and looks over his shoulder as I climb on behind him, wrap my arms around his ribs and breathe deeply in and out. He starts to go, but I squeeze him.

“Stop! Hold on!”

“What’s up?”

I climb off, lean over, vomit everywhere. “Okay, I’m good,” I mutter as he looks at me, horrified. I motion to Celia to stay on her damn bike, shoot her a look that makes her lips tighten, knuckles white as she waits.

“We’re getting you to a hospital,” Luke growls.

“No, just some bad fish or something.”

“It’s not a debate. I’m put on this planet to watch out for you and that’s what I’m gonna do.” He tears onto the freeway with them right behind.

Three miles down the road we come up on a hotel, some convenience stores, nothing fancy. But up ahead is a long stretch of dead road we know too well. No hospitals for miles.

“Luke, I just need some sleep. And to get off this bike!”

He growls at me, but tilts us, turning onto the exit with the others following into the hotel parking lot. He shuts off the engine, says, “I’ll get a doctor, bring them here to you.”

“You’re being over-protective.”

“This is love. Deal with it,” he mutters, lifting me up and carrying me in.

There’s no one behind the desk. He hits the bell with his elbow as I hold onto him, my helmet feeling like it weighs a hundred pounds all of a sudden.

“Anyone here?!”

A sleazy guy walks out of the back room, probably watching porn, eyes us. “Need a room?”

Luke bites the guy’s head off. “Yes!”

“Okay, okay, don’t have to get so desperate. We’ve got plenty of ‘em. She’ll wait five minutes.”

If I was in a better state I’d show this jerk how patient I am with low-class dirtbags like him. But since my husband’s in control, I just give the guy the finger as Luke snarls, “Get me a key and shut the fuck up.”

Sean walks in. “Need a card?”

“In my wallet.”

He reaches into Luke’s back pocket, digs out the Ciphers credit card, under the name of someone who died in 1939, hands it over to the toe-jam-faced clerk.

The three of us head to Room 11.

“Where’s Celia? Atlas?” I ask.

Sean slows down. “Said she wanted to get you some water and stuff from the market. He went with her.”

“Go tell ‘em where we are.”

“Right.” Sean flips around and takes quick strides back.

Inside a cheap room like you find in the middle of nowhere, Luke lays me down as I argue, “You’re making a big deal out of nothing. See?” I sit up, dust off my legs. “All better.”

He kneels down, pulls my eyelids back. Laughing I swat him away, but hold onto his hand for a second to reassure him, “You don’t have to worry. I’m not dying.”

“Soph,” he rasps, fingers freed and sliding down my legs to grip my calves. “Don’t even say that out loud.”

The door bangs and he flies up, ushering our crew inside. Celia holds out a wrinkled paper bag she must have been trying to strangle, then whips a pregnancy test from it. “You ready for this?”

My jaw drops.

Luke freezes.

Atlas is staring at his brother, already in on the suspicion.

Sean bites his lips.

“Oh my God,” I whisper as Luke spins around and drops down in front of me again.

“Is it possible?”

“I had my period last month.” Pausing I stare at a wall. “Wait, I had it after the wedding, remember? Then once more. But I don’t think…”

“Is it possible,” he demands again.

“How many times have we used protection?”

His dark eyes go huge and he practically throws me at Celia. “Go go go!”

“Jeezus,” I mutter, disappearing with her, locking the bathroom door and exchanging a look as I lower my voice. “Ceels, what if I am?”

Tearing the cardboard open she mumbles, “Then it’s going to be a beautiful baby.”

I snatch it from her hands, whisper, “What if I’m not any good at it? What if I’m a terrible mother?”

Her shoulders relax. “Sofia, you overestimate yourself in some places and you underestimate yourself in others. Open it. Take the test.”

“Couldn’t you get the cheek swab one? Did you have to go old-school with the pee stick?”

“It’s all they had.”

“What if it’s ancient? Gives the wrong results?”

She points at the toilet. “Go!”

As soon as I pull my jeans up I’m rushing for the door. “He has to watch it turn colors with me.”

Pacing, Luke drops his arms when he sees me, rushes forward. “Well?”

I hold it up. “In two minutes our lives could change forever?”

He grabs my wrist. “Look!”

The damn thing is already a plus symbol.

We stare at it.

Dumbfounded.

Shocked.

Luke locks onto me at the same time I look at him. We go ape shit, jumping and screaming with joy.

Ceels starts laughing. Atlas, too. Sean just grins and shakes his head.

My husband wraps me in his arms, lifts me off the ground and murmurs into my heart, “We’re starting a family of our own, Soph! We’re going to have a baby.”

Maybe it’s the onset of morning sickness. Maybe I’m tired. But tears stream down my face in an avalanche that takes me and everyone but Luke, by surprise. “I’m going to be a mother! God help the little soul.”

Laughing, Luke kisses the tears from my cheeks. “I love you, Soph.”

Throwing my arms around his neck I burrow into him. “I think I want this.”

“Pretty sure you do,” he whispers. “You didn’t cry at our wedding.”

“You, I knew! This baby is a whole new person. What if she doesn’t like me?”

“She?”

“With all the hell I gave my mother, it’s gonna be a girl, Luke!”

He reassures me, “We’re having a baby, and whoever he or she is, we’re gonna love ‘em like crazy. And not just us, but the whole, huge, Cipher family will help us find our way.”

Like the antidote to doubt, his reminder about the Ciphers and all of the support they give us and each other, relaxes my shoulders, expels doubt from my heart, and gives me the ability to be shockingly happy I’m going to be a mother.

And that Luke—my friend from childhood, now lover, husband and partner until the end—will be the father of my child.

Even through all of the terrifying situations I’ve been in, and all the good I’ve done in the world, when I told Luke I loved him, that was when I began the scariest and most rewarding adventure of my life.

* * *

Seven months later, Karma hands me a beautiful kick in the ass, with ten tiny toes and fingers, the middle one extended.

Kenzie Luna-Sol Cocker-Martinez blinks up at me with a dark fringe of eyelashes and the cutest smile with silent promises of how she’ll change our lives.

For better or worse…not sure yet.

We love a challenge.