The Doctor's Unexpected Family: (Inspirational Romance) (Port Provident: Hurricane Hope) (21 page)

At the end of the week, Angela held Celina’s hand as they walked in the door of the new location of The Grace Space. Someone had taken one of the emergency roof tarps and created a giant blue bow to hang out front. It made Angela smile a little bit to see a little whimsy coming out of something that was so ubiquitous and utilitarian all across the town.

Celina patted the puff of the bow as they passed. Angela decided to bring her daughter to the opening, even though she herself was here in an official capacity. She wanted Celina to see how a community could come together for good. As mayor, Angela was grateful for all the help Port Provident had received. But, seeing the citizens of Port Provident work together in a grassroots way made her the most proud.

“Mama! Look!” Celina tugged on Angela’s hand as soon as they walked through the front door. “It’s Pete! He’s here!”

Angela felt her stomach plummet down to her toes. He was supposed to be gone. He had chosen Guatemala. Why was he here?

Celina let go of her mother’s hand and took off toward Pete down one of the aisles of merchandise in this lower floor of The Grace Space that clearly served as the store part of the operation. Angela hesitated. Her heart wouldn’t let her follow. But her mind reminded her that she looked ridiculous standing in the doorway.

She looked around for someone to talk to, but everyone nearby already seemed engaged in their own conversations.

Didn’t anyone want to talk to the mayor?

Wasn’t there a baby she could kiss somewhere in this place?

She needed something…anything to shake the feeling that Dr. Pete Shipley was looking in her direction.

“Angela.” She’d been trying to shake the memory of that voice out of her head for two weeks. Now she knew it was never going to happen, no matter how far away he went or how long he was gone.

“I thought you had a plane to catch.”

“I did,” he said.

A staffer from the Peoples Family Foundation tapped him on the shoulder before he could say anything more. “Dr. Shipley? It’s time to start the ceremony. Jake is going to introduce you so that you can speak.”

Good. Angela scanned the room, resuming her search for a baby to plant a smooch on. She didn’t have a role to play in this, so she could stand as far away from Pete as possible and still be inside the building and do the mayor support thing. That suited her just fine.

What no longer suited her just fine was bringing Celina. Today should have been a great teachable moment to show her what a special community she lived in. Instead, now Angela was going to be facing more days, and possibly weeks, of questions about Pete from a little girl who had to learn the hard way that people could make a place in your heart and then just leave without a trace.

Jake said a few words and then handed the microphone over to Pete. Angela didn’t hear any of them. All she heard were the running arguments in her head about why was Pete Shipley still here and what was she going to do about it?

Angela tried to look out the window. It was blocked by a display, but that was better than looking straight ahead at Pete. Because every time she did that, she noticed how just a little bit of chest hair showed at the point of the v-neck of his light blue scrubs. And she certainly didn’t need to notice how the light from the front windows played on the highlights of his hair where it was streaked with those early streaks of silver that she’d once thought made him look distinguished and thoughtful. And downright attractive.

Most importantly of all, not looking at his face as he spoke kept her from remembering the times when both their faces had been a feather’s width apart as they stood under the glitter of the stars off the Texas coast.

Too bad that turning her head didn’t turn off her ears, though.

“I came to be a part of The Grace Space almost by accident. I had some extra time on my hands after my own medical practice was wiped out by the storm, and Pastor Marco Ruiz at
La Iglesia de la Luz del Mundo
needed some help organizing a few trucks of donations that had flooded in. While I was there, I met some members of
La Iglesia
who had a pressing need for some basic medical care that we were lacking on the island with the close of our major medical facilities. After some brainstorming, the idea for The Grace Space came together, and I’m proud to say this is a homegrown initiative.”

The crowd clapped and Angela found herself clapping along with them. She also found herself looking straight ahead, straight at Pete.

He caught her eye and pointed, then waved for her to join him. She hesitated, but the crowd parted a bit to allow her clearance and she knew she couldn’t just stay put at her spot in the back of the room.

“I’d like to invite the acting mayor of Port Provident, Angela Ruiz, to join me up here. Most of you in this room probably know Angela. She doesn’t just care about Port Provident. She loves Port Provident. And if there’s one thing I’ve learned in my time as a resident of Port Provident—especially since Hurricane Hope came to town—it’s that you can never have too many people who love you. Right, Angela?”

Angela felt a reflexive smile pop across her face. She couldn’t let the citizens in front of her know how his words caught her off-guard. They couldn’t know the memories his words stirred in her heart.

She’d thought she was falling in love with this man. And then...he just planned to leave after telling her he wanted to stay. She just didn’t know.

All she knew was that she had to just stand here and smile, support The Grace Space and the people in her community who came through here. The rest, she’d figure out later—after Pete got on a plane to Guatemala and she wouldn’t be caught off-guard like this ever again where this particular doctor was concerned.

Pete began to speak again. “For a long time, I’ve been interested in serving in a medical mission overseas. A few weeks ago, I was offered the opportunity to direct a clinic in Guatemala. But during the past two weeks, as I started to put together transition plans for another colleague of mine to take over the running of The Grace Space, I realized I didn’t want to just go serve in any community. I wanted to serve
this
community. Port Provident has become a second family to me. And I’m looking forward to staying here, putting down roots, and growing the good that can be done through The Grace Space.”

The crowd began to clap again. The enthusiasm across the room rang in Angela’s ears.

And so did Pete’s words.

He wasn’t going to Guatemala. He was staying in Port Provident to serve the people of Port Provident.

The smile dropped from Angela’s face because she needed to bite her lip in order to keep her emotions in check. Pete wrapped up his remarks and then took Angela’s hand.

It was the middle of the afternoon. There were no shooting stars around. But there was no denying the crackle of electricity that shot across her palm and back up through her wrist as Pete’s hand cupped around hers. It was as potent as the energy generated by a million solar systems out in the sky.

“Can I talk to you for a moment?” His voice lowered and hovered somewhere just above a whisper. “Come over here. We can talk over here on the house wares aisle.”

Pete guided her to the end of the aisle, dishes on one side and drinking glasses on the other. It felt completely ordinary and domestic. Angela wished she could say the same, but nothing about her emotions or her racing heart felt ordinary.

“I’m not going to Guatemala.”

“I heard that.” She hoped he couldn’t hear the quiver in her voice. Maybe if she didn’t say much, he wouldn’t notice.

“I meant what I said up there. Port Provident has become like a second family to me. I realized I belong here.” He held her hand a little tighter. “But another thing I realized while I was thinking everything over was that I don’t want a second family. I want a first family. I want to grill dinner on the deck with you and unwind at the end of a day. I want to take Celina fishing. I want to put down roots in Port Provident so I can watch Celina grow and I can see how your vision to rebuild this city comes to play out. I don’t just want to be a part of Port Provident, Angela. I want to be a part of your life, Celina’s life.
Our life
. I want to serve in this community because it’s your community—because it’s
our
community, our daughter’s community. I’ve had a dream to do medical mission work for a long time, but God has shown me that I don’t need to go halfway around the world to make a difference. It came down to what your nephew Marco told me early on—that verse from Jeremiah—if you seek the welfare of the city where you are, you’ll find your own welfare there too.”

As Angela tried to sort through the tumble and roll of her feelings, Celina came running up and crashed into her with a hug.

“Mama! Pete’s staying here! Isn’t it great?” Her little girl’s eyes twinkled just like the stars which had occupied so many of her thoughts lately.

In the end, it all came back to the stars.

They couldn’t shine enough on their own, but together, they were powerful. She looked over Pete’s shoulder at the store and clinic he’d brought to life, then thought of the ideas she wanted to bring to life for Port Provident. And then she looked down at her daughter, the gift she loved more than life itself.

She couldn’t do everything she wanted to do for her daughter or her city alone. But together? The sky was the limit.

“It is great, Sweetie. You can never have too many people to love.”

Epilogue

Angela looked around the gymnasium of Provident High School. Rows and rows of tables had been set with turkeys and dressing and sweet potatoes and gravy and salad and cranberries. The doors were about to open for the first-ever Port Provident Thanksgiving Feast, a community-wide celebration of thanks for all the progress the residents of Port Provident had made in rebuilding the city they called home.

This had all been Pete’s idea, and he’d worked with contacts from all across the state that he’d met through The Grace Space. Everything here had been donated by churches and generous people from across Texas who wanted to help the citizens of Port Provident have a holiday truly worth celebrating.

Jennifer Parker from the
Port Provident Herald
strode purposefully across the gym. Angela took a deep breath, hoping for some softball questions today. After all, it was Thanksgiving. And this was a celebration. Hopefully, Jennifer would go easy on her.

“Hi, Jennifer.” Angela greeted her City Hall beat reporter as Jennifer’s photographer walked behind her, setting up for a photo. Angela noticed Pete and Celina putting the finishing touches on a basket full of rolls at the table closest to her. The
click-click-click
of the camera echoed in the large room.

“Hi, Mayor Ruiz. Happy Thanksgiving.”

Angela smoothed the front of her brown sweater. “I think they’re getting ready to open the doors, so we should probably make this quick—I try not to stand between people and a room full of turkeys.”

Jennifer chuckled a bit. “Actually, I’ve got most everything I need for this story. But I was talking with Dr. Shipley earlier and it turns out there is a pretty pressing question that needs to be asked about the future of Port Provident.”

So much for the holiday softball line of questioning she’d hoped for. Jennifer Parker never took a day off.

“That’s fine, Jennifer. You know I’ll always answer if I’m able.”

Pete and Celina finished their photo op with the rolls and walked over just to the side of Angela and the reporter.

“Dr. Shipley, did you want to ask?” The reporter gestured toward Pete.

Angela looked at Pete, then over at Jennifer, then back at Pete again. “Since when did you get a press pass?”

She tried to laugh at her own joke, but Angela couldn’t brush off the butterflies in her stomach. She’d been asked hundreds of questions by Jennifer Parker over the years. Something wasn’t adding up here.

“Jennifer’s letting me borrow hers, just this once.”

“You can’t borrow media credentials, Pete. That’s not how it works.”

He smiled, then took a step closer and reached for her hand. Before she registered what was happening, Pete dropped to one knee on the gray-and-white flecked vinyl tile.

“Well, if you want to tell your Public Information Officer on me, I guess you can. But I think you might want to listen to what I have to say.”

The butterflies in her stomach began to circle madly.

“Angela, today’s a day when we are supposed to give thanks for the blessings in our lives, and the biggest one in my life this year has been Hurricane Hope. I know it sounds crazy, but because of the storm, I had the chance to open The Grace Space and I met you. Not long after the hurricane, a very wise little girl said that you can never have too many people who love you. She was right. And I love you and her. There are plenty of people who love you both, but I love you both
more
, and I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”

He pulled out a box from his pocket and flipped it open to reveal three diamonds together on a platinum band.

“One for you. One for Celina. One for me. I picked this one to represent the family I never expected I’d be so blessed to have. Angela Ruiz, will you marry me?”

Pete plucked the ring out of the velvet box and held it right at the tip of her ring finger, waiting. Angela hadn’t seen anything shine that brightly since the night of the meteor shower on his deck.

“Yes. Absolutely yes.” She held out her hand, separating her fingers just enough for Pete to slide the ring on.  “You can never have too much love.”