The Doctor's Unexpected Family: (Inspirational Romance) (Port Provident: Hurricane Hope) (16 page)

“It’s about Celina. This is no place to raise a kid, Angela.” He pointed straight at the white RV with a gray and blue stripe pattern down the side which had been designated as Angela’s. “Plus, with your new role as mayor, you’re going to have too much work to do to keep an eye on her in a place like this.”

“A place like this? David, this isn’t a maximum security prison. It’s an RV park. And it’s full of Port Provident residents. You know, like you used to be. The people here are good people.” She adjusted her arms, crossing them even more tightly around her ribcage. “I’ve kept an eye on Celina just fine for the last six years. I don’t need parenting advice from someone who isn’t a parent.”

He spoke with measured, newscaster tones. “I am now, Angela. I remarried three years ago. She has a five-year-old and we have a two-year-old of our own.”

Angela’s arms dropped to her sides. “What are you getting at?”

“I never terminated my parental rights, Angela. She needs to be in a place where she’s safe, not in some refugee camp. I’m happy to have my lawyer explain it to yours if I need to.”

“Six years without an in-person visit. You even forgot Christmas, David.
Christmas.
You really think you have her best interests at heart?”

“I do,” he said with no irony in his voice.

Pete saw Angela’s face blanch. Standing back on the curb was not an option. He could clearly see that the time for waiting and seeing had passed. This situation needed a change, stat.

He covered the distance between them in four quick strides, keeping Celina on his shoulders. She thought it was a game. He thanked God as he walked that she had no idea what they were heading toward—or who they were heading toward.

“It’s not fair of you to put Angela on the spot like that. Of course she’s not going to agree to anything at the site of a press conference.” Pete held on tight to Celina. He reminded himself that he would never let go. “You can come back after she’s had time to think about it.”

“Who’s this? The babysitter?” David threw a gaze at Pete, but never changed his granite-hard expression as he took in the face of his daughter.

“Dr. Pete Shipley, Medical Director of The Grace Space.”

The TV anchor extended his hand in a cursory way. Pete refused to shake it. To do so would have meant moving his hand from where it steadied Celina.

And he was never letting go.

David recognized they were at an impasse and lowered his hand. “Two days, Angela. I’ll be back on Wednesday.”

He turned around and walked back toward the white van with the brightly colored news station logo on the side.

“Who was that, Mama?”

Angela looked up at her daughter and looked back at the man who had given the little girl half her DNA. “Just someone I used to know, Celina. Don’t worry about him.”

Pete finally moved his hand from Celina’s leg, but only to cup it around the curve of Angela’s shoulder.

“You don’t need to worry about him, either.”

They dropped Celina off at the hotel room where Angela’s sister Emmy was staying. Emmy had agreed to watch Celina and feed her dinner while Angela cleared her head.

What a rollercoaster of a day.

It all crushed down on her as Pete drove them back down Gulf view Boulevard. She was so thankful she was in the passenger seat, because there was no way she could concentrate on anything except David’s ugly threat right now.

Angela bit her lip. The last thing she needed was to let her emotions get the best of her and to start crying. But that’s what she wanted to do.

She just wanted a good cry, a warm bath with some scented bath crystals, a chocolate-covered strawberry or two, and the chance to just dump out all the emotions she’d been carrying since the storm hit. She could handle the pile-on of official things, as they related to her role in city government. But an insult to her parenting and a threat to take her daughter away—that was just too much. It tipped the scales, and violently so.

Pete pulled the truck into a parking spot along the wide sidewalk that topped the seawall which defined the edge of Port Provident, right where the city met the sand and surf.

“Let’s get you out of the car and into the fresh air. We’re going for a walk.”

“Pete, I don’t really want to walk…” Angela trailed off. She didn’t know what she wanted to do exactly. Well, except maybe run somewhere far away where no one would ever make threats to take her baby girl from her ever again.

“I know you don’t. But I need you to trust me.”

Staring blankly out the passenger side window, Angela couldn’t even bring herself to look at him—at anything. Finally, she heard the driver’s side door open and then shut after Pete got out of the truck. He came over to her side and popped the door. He offered his hand through the opening, then took hers and gently coaxed her out.

Locking the door behind him, they walked down the narrow staircase from the raised seawall to the beach.

“They’ve gotten this area pretty well cleaned up,” he said. “It’s amazing how much work has been done in such a short period of time.”

Angela nodded, not trusting herself to speak.  They walked along in silence for a few minutes. She continued to hold Pete’s hand, his fingers lightly threaded through hers. The clasp was so loose that she feared a strong breeze might blow their hands apart. In spite of the fragility, she took a great deal of strength from it.

They reached a large granite chunk that had been displaced from a grouping at the base of the seawall.

“Let’s sit right here,” Pete said. He helped her perch on the pink-flecked stone, then sat down beside her, taking her hand again once they were both settled.

She watched the waves roll from the horizon to the shore, all the words she wanted to say welling up inside her just like the tide.

“I’ve lost just about everything,” she finally said in a low voice. The words pushed out of her, matching the ebb and flow of the surf. “I’ve lost my home. I’ve had everything inside of it taken away. I’m not going to let my daughter be taken away too.”

Pete gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. “I know. It’s not what I want for either of you.”

“He hasn’t laid eyes on her in six years then he decides to show up for a press conference he wouldn’t normally ever attend—just so he has an opening to get to me. He knew I wouldn’t be able to get away, not with the other media and the rest of the crowd. He knew I’d be cornered.”

Her shoulders shook with a chill that had nothing to do with the weather.

“Can I play devil’s advocate for a minute?”

Angela wanted to tell him no, she’d already come face-to-face with a devilish scheme today and she wasn’t interested in any more. But that was more of a fight than she could put up right now, so instead, she just nodded her head affirmatively.

“Don’t hate me for saying this, Angela, but what if he’s right? I’ve been thinking about it. I saw him almost immediately once Celina and I staked out our spot this afternoon. I watched him like a hawk during the press conference. When he started talking to you, I just held on to Celina, ready to take off running if I needed to in order to protect her. I’d do anything to protect her, and I hope you know that.”

Angela nodded again, this time with much more conviction. She couldn’t question the bond that had developed between the doctor and her daughter in the short time they’d known each other.

“So I don’t get it. Why did you say he might be right? I thought you were on my side.” His assertion burned, like the brush of tentacles on a jelly fish.

“I am on your side. Always. But I’m on Celina’s side too.”

“No,” the syllable came out on a choked sniffle. “If you’re for him, you’re not for either one of us.” Angela pulled her hand away and relocated it squarely on top of her knee.

“I don’t know him, other than watching the ten o’clock news cast from time to time. I don’t know if he’s a good person or a bad person. Only you can be the judge of that. You did say you let him go because he’d always been upfront with you on the subject of children and his career.” Pete paused, but didn’t make a move to reach for her hand. He looked out at the water. “Look, I’m not expressing myself well here. I don’t know him. All I do know is that I lost someone I loved. I know what it’s like to live with regret, wondering why you didn’t say or do something when you had the chance. If he’s gotten married and had a change of heart and now knows what a blessing that kids are, what if this storm is the crazy opportunity for him to change his relationship with Celina? What if one of the hopeful things that comes out of Hurricane Hope is the chance for Celina to grow up without regretting that she didn’t have the chance to know her father?”

He stopped abruptly, as though holding himself back from saying anymore.

“No.” There wasn’t anything more for Angela to say than that. “He hasn’t done anything to show he deserves a role in her life. Just because he has a role in some other kids’ lives doesn’t mean he’s done anything to deserve a role in my kid’s life.”

Angela slid awkwardly off the rock, feeling the rasp and pull of the rough edges against the fabric of her pants.

“I’m ready to go now. Drop me off at Emmy’s hotel room. I’ll just spend the night there. With my daughter.”

The wet sand sucked at her shoes with every footstep, but she had no intention of slowing down. Pete needed to understand she was serious—about leaving and about how wrong he was. This whole conversation had been a waste of her time.

As she waited for the door of the truck to unlock, Angela looked down at her feet.

She didn’t dare look up at the stars.

Chapter Eight

On Wednesday morning, Pete didn’t see Angela’s car in its usual parking space under the house. He didn’t hear any sounds coming from the apartment, either—which led to a suspicion he couldn’t shake. 

Feeling a little bit like a super spy, he raised up on his toes and gave a glance through the kitchen window. The apartment was neat as a pin. Too neat, in fact.

Brownie the Bear was gone from his perch of honor on the bed.

Pete knew it meant one thing and one thing only: Angela had moved out without saying a word. And while it bothered him, he knew he only had himself to blame. Although he knew he was playing devil’s advocate while they talked on the granite rock, he didn’t know he was going to upset Angela quite so deeply. He’d brought it up strictly because he knew the pain of missing someone who should have been a part of your life. He loved Celina too much to let her possibly grow up with a hole in her heart if that could be avoided.

He stopped himself and reprocessed his last thought—
he loved Celina too much…

And then it hit him, it wasn’t just Celina. He loved Angela too much to just say what she wanted to hear. He loved her too much not to speak the truth on his heart and his mind. He loved her too much to…

Wait.

He stopped himself.

The bottom line was Pete loved Angela too much.

He didn’t think he could ever fall in love with another woman again, not after losing all his hopes and dreams with Anna to the beast known as cancer. But he’d been proven wrong. Love could change form, love could extend to others, love could expand and transform—but the essence of love remained, just as Marco had said. A heart that had known love once, had known the joy brought by love and the dreams inspired by love, would one day wake up and realize a thirst for love again.

Who would have known it would take the deluge of a hurricane to finally relieve his parched heart?

But now he had a problem. And he had to make it right.

He had patients waiting for him at The Grace Space, but before the day was over, everything would change. He would see to it.

Pete put his handwritten notes from Mrs. Diaz’s appointment into her folder. Due to the conditions on the island, the record system at The Grace Space clinic was pretty primitive. But Pete took detailed notes on everyone he saw, filed them all in individual folders donated by a church in Austin, and would be turning them over to everyone’s primary physician at Provident Medical once the doors reopened. He did what he could for now to safeguard all patient information and as more infrastructure came back to the island, he would apply that to his recordkeeping here.