The Doctor's Unexpected Family: (Inspirational Romance) (Port Provident: Hurricane Hope) (11 page)

Still processing her thoughts, Angela left her purse on the table, taking only the set of keys so she could lock the front door behind her. As she set out down the street to join her daughter and Pete in this new, unspoiled moment, Angela heard the echo of her footsteps over and over. But as she got closer and closer to the picnic table at the bend in the road, the little voice in her head began to drown out the grind of her shoes on the concrete.

And with every passing step, the still small voice asked Angela if she’d been wrong in keeping Celina’s primary relationships inside a small circle of trusted old friends and family. Who had she been trying to protect more—Celina or herself?

After the sun had set in the sky, Pete and Angela followed behind Celina as she skipped back toward the house.  Once they were back at the house, Angela scooted her daughter toward the door to the studio apartment and told her to take a quick shower and get her pajamas on. Celina scampered off with a smile on her face and a skip in her step—but not before she ran with open arms to Pete and gave him a bear hug-style exuberant embrace.

“Whoo-wee.” Pete dragged each letter out as long as he could. “You smell like a crab net. Go get a shower, kiddo.”

“Can we go again, Pete?” Her smile lit the space under the beach house brighter than a thousand fireflies.

“Well, not right now. You stink. You’d scare all the fish off.”

“Fish don’t have noses, Pete,” Celina said, matter-of-factly.

He shook his head. “I don’t think it would matter. There isn’t a living creature out there who wouldn’t know you were coming. Scoot, kiddo. We can go again someday soon. As long as you and your mom stay here in the apartment, the fishing spot is always right at the end of the street. It’s not going anywhere.”

He gave her a playful push on the shoulder. And surprisingly, the little girl ducked inside the apartment with nothing more than a nod of agreement and a big thumbs-up.

Angela watched the whole exchange and the fear she’d felt creep in earlier—that she hadn’t done enough, been enough for her daughter—faded away. A warmth like the perfect cup of coffee flooded the veins under her skin, and she noticed the liquid gratitude. She wished she could bottle it and bring it out for all those other moments she knew would come when she questioned her parenting.

“Thank you,” she said simply.

Pete nodded, the yellow hue of the bug light making his hair glow like a highlighter marker she kept in her desk. “Anytime.”

“No, really, I mean it.”

The color in Pete’s eyes shifted to something that reminded her of flint. If she hadn’t been trying to be deliberate in expressing the simple gratitude she felt inside, she’d have missed the subtle straightening of Pete’s shoulders as they shifted down and back.

“I meant it too, Angela. I don’t say things I don’t mean.” He kept his gaze locked on her face. “She’s a good kid. Helping look after her has not been a burden.”

It wasn’t just what he said, but how he said it, that made the warmth of the gratitude in her veins tick up a few degrees and stretch all the way from a tingle over the curve of the tops of her ears all the way down to her feet.

“I know she is.” Angela tried to focus but kept getting lost in the feeling that was pooling into her heart. “It’s just been me and her for so long. Her own father doesn’t even give her the time of day. He even forgot to send a Christmas present two years ago. When he does remember, he’s like Disneyland Dad, trying to throw stuff at her so he doesn’t have to invest in any time with her. We hear from him once or twice a year, if that.”

The glint of steel fell from Pete’s eyes. “So he doesn’t have anything to do with Celina at all?”

“Not really. He didn’t want her. He told me before we got married that he didn’t want kids, he wanted a career—he’s an anchor with Channel Four up in Houston. I agreed because I thought that’s what I wanted too. Then I found out I was pregnant. Everything changed for me, but for him, it didn’t. He left before Celina was born.”

“He just left you?”

Angela took a deep, fortifying breath before speaking. She never talked about this period of her life. Not with her mother, her sister, anyone.

She couldn’t explain why she was confessing all this to Pete. Except that he cared. He cared about her, he cared about Celina. That much was clear, even if nothing else was since the hurricane blew through her island home.

“He was offered a promotion at the station at the same time. They wanted to promote him from reporter to an anchor on their morning show. It was a huge step forward on his career path. He’d always been clear about what he wanted. I’d grown up in the shadow of a marriage that was held together for the sake of the kids, where one parent resented the other one. I didn’t want that for my daughter.” She shrugged. It seemed like the only thing to do. “So I let him go. I told him to go.”

“Oh.” Pete’s tone conveyed an uncertainty about the whole situation. “But he never came back? For Celina?”

Angela felt the corner of her mouth twist. “Well, no. His career took off after that. Everyone in southeast Texas knows David Carbajal. I guess he just had other things to do. But I can’t resent it, Pete. He was clear with me from day one, before we were even married, and I’m the one who told him to go.”

“David Carbajal? Celina’s father is David Carbajal?” Pete raised his eyebrows. “Wow, when you say his career took off, you weren’t kidding.”

The squeak of the saltwater-rusted hinges on the apartment’s door broke up the trail of conversation.

“Mama? Can you come tuck me in? Brownie and I have our pajamas on. Well, Brownie just has fur. But fur means he’s not naked, right, Mama?” She helpfully held the bear out for inspection.

Angela shook her head. “No, sweetie, Brownie is perfect the way he is. Just like you are. Perfect the way God made you. I’ll be right in.”

 “Bedtime.” She pointed over her shoulder at the door, while giving Pete one last glance. “Thanks again for taking her fishing today.”

 “Like I said—anytime.” Dual creases cut vertically between Pete’s eyebrows. “Hey, Angela…”

She stopped, torn between bedtime duties for a bear and his best friend, and wanting to know the rest of what Pete had to say.

“Hmm?”

“After you tuck Celina in, if you want to come sit up on the deck for a little bit, I think I’m going to get out my telescope and look at the stars. There’s supposed to be a small meteor shower tonight. I’ve seen a few before out here. It’s amazing to watch the stars falling from out here.”

Angela stood still and looked right at Pete’s face. She only gave herself a second, but she looked at the gray eyes that lit up at the sight of her daughter, at the brow that furrowed when she revealed how Celina’s father had left them both behind, at the jaw saved from being square by a thick dusting of post-hurricane stubble. She looked lower at the hands that had treated her when her blood sugar had dropped, the hands that had carried Celina to a safe bed to sleep in and had pulled in a small, wriggling fish on her fishing line.

“Okay. Give me a few minutes. I think she’ll crash pretty quickly. She’s had a big day.”

Angela turned and walked the few steps to the door of her temporary home. And as she tugged at the door knob, a realization hit her like the splash of a stormy wave.

The stars in the sky weren’t the only thing falling.

Pete placed two bottles of water on the top of the small round table between the two Adirondack chairs on the deck. The telescope was in the corner, and all there was left to do was wait.

He tried to tell himself he was waiting on the light show in the heavens, but as he checked his watch for the third time since sitting down, he knew he was really waiting on Angela.

But waiting for what?

He lived his professional life asking questions, getting answers, and then tying it all together for a diagnosis. That’s what he’d been trained to do as a doctor. But this…this was something he couldn’t identify.

What he knew for sure was that he admired Angela’s steadfast resolve. Whether it was taking care of her daughter or fighting for the citizens who’d elected her, she picked up every burden in her path and shouldered it seriously, but with an unmistakable dose of grace. He also knew that the last few days, spending one-on-one time with Celina, had brought just as much of a smile to his face as it had to the little girl’s.

And speaking of smiles, Angela hadn’t cracked too many of them since they’d met, but when she did, Pete forced himself to admit that they stayed on his mind, running in a replay loop.  He’d been intrigued by her since the moment he met her. He knew if Gloria considered her a friend, then Angela met a very high standard. Gloria had been through so many upheavals and tragedies in her life that she didn’t trust easily. But Angela was in her inner circle, and that spoke volumes to Pete about the kind of woman she was on the inside.

A shuffling of feet up the stairs at the far edge of the deck announced Angela’s presence before she reached the top.

“Wow. What an amazing view,” she said as she stepped one foot onto the deck and looked up. Specks like a child’s spilled container of glitter covered the sky as far as the eye could see.

“Without any light pollution, it’s amazing. All of our street lights out here are pretty dim and designed to shine straight down, instead of illuminating a greater area.” Pete pointed off the front and side of the deck. “And with the gulf out front and the bay at the end of the street, it makes it even darker. I love sitting out here. If I’ve had a long day, it’s the best way I know to decompress.”

“I could sit here and not move for a year and still probably not completely decompress,” Angela said as she sat in the empty Adirondack chair. “I’m not even sure I know how to relax anymore.”

Pete cracked open both bottles of water and offered one to Angela. “I know it’s been busy for you since the forecasts showed Hope coming this way. But it won’t always be like this. Things will settle down.”

She took a sip of the water, then screwed the lid back on and played with the bottle absently as she stared up at the sky. “Maybe for some people. They’ll get order back in their lives. They’ll rebuild their homes, go back to work, start to get back to normal. But that won’t happen for me.”

The sadness in her voice couldn’t be missed.

“Why not? Of course things will get back to normal.”

“I sit in meetings all day long right now. I know what we’re up against. Once we get temporary housing settled, then there’s just another problem to solve. Then another and another and another. How will our businesses in downtown come back to life? Will the tourists return? They drive our economy. What about Provident College and the students there? We’re still assessing the damage to Provident Medical Center and the medical school. The brief I was provided yesterday gave a conservative estimate of a year to get Provident Medical back open. You’re connected there, Pete. I don’t have to tell you this—Provident Medical is our largest employer. We can’t have the place that provides more than a third of the jobs on this island closed for a year.”

She looked squarely at Pete, and he thought he could make out a sheen of liquid along the lower lids of her eyes. There was no doubt that she took her responsibility seriously.

Maybe almost too seriously. He definitely didn’t want Angela to get so stressed out that she couldn’t manage her blood sugar efficiently.

He shifted in his chair slightly, turning his knees so they faced hers, separated by only a few inches. Pete felt a pull akin to the tide that flowed through the surf, and he acted on it, taking Angela’s hand in his own.

In medical school, he’d received surgical training. He knew how to keep his hands still, to focus on the job in front of him. But the frisson of electricity that sparked between his palm and the curve at the base of Angela’s thumb almost caused him to lose his train of thought.

All he remained aware of was the stars in the sky and the softness of her skin as she allowed her hand to rest in his.

She didn’t pull back. He noticed that, and with that realization, he relaxed just enough to let out his breath.

“You don’t have to carry the burdens of everyone on the island, Angela. If there’s one thing I’ve learned about Port Provident in the time I’ve lived here, it’s that this is a true community. There is always a helping hand on this island.” He held her hand lightly, indulging the connection just a little longer. “I know you hear all the commentary and see all the briefs, but no one expects you to take them all on. You’re leading the charge on temporary housing. Focus on that, then when you get to a good point, find another focus area.”