The Doctor's Unexpected Family: (Inspirational Romance) (Port Provident: Hurricane Hope) Read Online Free PDF

woman next to him. She had fine, classic features, but he could tell she was frayed and worn out.
    Quickly, he pricked the edge of her finger with the lancet, then fixed up a test strip and popped it in the monitor. He smiled a bit when he saw the reading.
    “Rebounding nicely, just as I’d hoped.” He showed Angela the digital display. A slow smile appeared across her face.
    “Thanks, I’m sorry I made you come all the way back over here.” She kept stroking the hair of the little girl sitting quietly in her lap. “I’ll be fine. Thanks again for getting everything taken care of for Marisa at Mainland Medical Center. That was very generous of you.”
     “It was the right thing to do.” Pete tucked all his supplies back in the blue bag. “And the right thing for you to do is get some rest and let your body get back to normal. I’d feel better if I saw you back to your house and got you settled before I go to my house for the evening.”
    “We can go home, Mama?” The little girl’s eyes took on the look of donuts—perfectly round and sugar-glazed—as she lifted her head off Angela’s shoulder. “I can see Huggy Lovey!”
    Angela’s own glance skimmed the top of her daughter’s forehead, careful to not make eye contact before looking blankly out toward some trees in the distance. “Not today, sweetie, remember?”
    The little girl shook her head, black pigtails flapping assertively.
    “We have a lot of work to do before we can go home.”
    “Home probably wasn’t the best choice of words. I can get you settled wherever you’re staying, and then I can head back to what I was doing at the clinic.”
    “Really, Dr. Shipley, that’s not necessary.” Angela shifted her weight from her left hip to her right and twitched her shoulders.
    “The name’s Pete, remember? And it is necessary. You’re my patient now. And I take care of my patients. Especially now, when this corner of the world’s a big mess.” Pete stood up. “Now, where are you staying?”
    Angela pursed her lips and the corner of her mouth twisted downward. She looked hesitant, a far cry from the stereotype that would be attached to someone in politics.
    “There.” The little girl pointed in the direction of the area behind Pete’s foot.
    He turned around furrowed his brow in concentration. He was beginning to put two and two together, and he didn’t like how the equation was adding up.
    “That’s a sleeping bag. Is it yours?” Pete knelt down and got at eye level with the little face.
    She nodded.
    He’d been terribly wrong in his assumption when he walked up and knocked on the wall of the tent. “So, where is your house?”
    “We live at 404 Houston Street. Huggy Lovey is still there and I miss her.” She spoke with the distinct syllables of childhood.
    Houston Street. If he wasn’t mistaken, that area, where streets were named for the heroes of the Texas Revolution, was one of the hardest-hit in all of Port Provident. That’s where Gloria’s house was. “You live in Alamo Court?”
    “Lived.” Angela jumped into the conversation with one charged syllable. Her voice sounded stronger, which Pete took as a good sign. “As Celina pointed out, we’re staying here for right now.”
    Pete had a hard time believing his ears. “But you’re a member of City Council. Surely there’s someplace better for you to stay.”
    She fixed her gaze squarely on Pete’s face. “This is where most of my constituents without homes are. They elected me to represent them. That doesn’t make me better than them, or worthy of staying someplace special when they’re stuck in a tent city because they don’t have anywhere else to go and there’s too much red tape keeping the people who are supposed to be helping from actually doing anything.”
    He could hear the conviction in her voice. It bordered on anger when she talked about the inefficiency of aid.
    “I understand, and I didn’t mean to say otherwise, Angela. But you’re