Read Online The Doctor's Unexpected Family: (Inspirational Romance) (Port Provident: Hurricane Hope) by Kristen Ethridge - Free Book Online

but I do still have two good ears.”
    It had been years since anyone asked Pete if he wanted to talk about Anna. He hadn’t needed to put up any defenses or excuses in a long time.
    He was glad to see that reflex was still second nature. “No, no, I’m fine, Pastor. Just fine.”
    “Come with me.” The pastor sidestepped piles of donations, and led Pete to a window on the far side of the room. “Look out there. Do you see them?”
    “Mmm-hmm.” Pete nodded. About twenty people were gathered on the lawn of La Iglesia de la Luz del Mundo. Some were seated on metal folding chairs under a white utility tent, others were milling around. A handful of kids chased each other in circles around an area of the grass that had been cleared of debris. Pete saw Celina’s dark ponytail bobbing behind her as she dashed with her friends. He smiled a bit as he saw her new bear secured in the crook of her elbow and held firmly against her body.“They’re here because they have nothing now. Some of them owned homes in the neighborhood and others lived in complexes that received government assistance. The common denominator now is that whatever their circumstances were before Hurricane Hope, it’s all been swept away. Everyone out there is an equal. I don’t know if there’s anyone on this island who hasn’t lost something.”
    “I don’t disagree, Pastor Ruiz. But I’m still trying to work through in my mind how we handle all this fairly. If everyone needs something, we need to make sure the process is equitable.”
    “Not really, Hermano Shipley.”
    “You can just call me Pete, Pastor Ruiz. “Brother Shipley” sounds pretty formal. But I’m not following you. Are you saying you’ve already got people tapped for all this? I don’t think that’s fair at all.”
    The pastor shook his head, then turned to Pete with a genuine smile. “I was praying over all these donations late last night. As I stood here, a verse came to mind—Jeremiah 29:7. Do you know that one?”
    Pete had spent a lot of time in Sunday school as a kid. He figured he could still sing the preschool classics with the best of them, like “Jesus Loves Me” and the little ditty about Zacchaeus being a wee little man and climbing in a sycamore tree.
    But he’d been away from regularly attending church for a long time now. College, then residency with shifts in a busy emergency room hadn’t left much time for activities, especially after Anna got sick. And of course, when he came to Port Provident to shift professional gears and become the medical director of the birthing center so his uncle could transition into retirement, not only had there not been time to go to church, there really hadn’t been the inclination.
    He liked to blame it on the unpredictability of babies being born.
    But if he was honest, it wasn’t that at all.
    “No, I don’t know it, Pastor. What does it say?” Pete volleyed the conversation back over to Pastor Ruiz before he caught himself talking about things that were better left packed up in the past.
    “’Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare, you will find your welfare’.” He looked out at his congregants on the lawn as he quoted. “We have a lot of needs right now. Obviously people have lost their homes and their worldly goods. Many of them have lost their doctors and have medical needs and are concerned about how they’re going to get their medicines and checkups and such now that the hospital is closed indefinitely. Others are concerned about their children, since the schools are closed. Many are concerned about their jobs. There’s not just one need we have here right now. And between you and me, Dr. Shipley—I mean, Pete— I don’t know where to start.”
    Pete nodded. He knew that feeling of inertia the pastor was talking about all too well. “What’s your gut feeling?”
    “Oh, I don’t listen to it,” the pastor said, with