Second Chance Sweethearts (Love Inspired) by Kristen Ethridge Page B

everything away from me.” Her voice sounded quiet, even to her own ears. The syllables sounded flat. Just like her spirit the past two years.
    Inez gave her hand a light squeeze, just like Gloria had seen her do earlier today to comfort Tanna through the pain of childbirth. It felt unexpectedly reassuring. “Just like you, I’ve lost a husband. And I’ve lost a son. I know how much it hurts.”
    Gloria stayed unusually silent. She didn’t even know how to take in what Inez was saying. Part of her wanted to bristle at her words and her assumptions about Gloria’s heart and life. But that prickly feeling was smoothed over a bit by knowing Inez was just an older woman who wanted to do some good.
    If only words could wash away things as easily as the rain. But even though she wanted to believe what Inez was saying, it just wasn’t that simple.
    “If a hurricane tears off a roof or washes away a building, you can fix it up or build it back. It just takes some time and the right materials.” Gloria looked down at her feet. She couldn’t meet Inez’s gaze. “But Felipe and my Mateo, they’re not coming back. There’s no work I can do to change that.”
    Inez put a finger under Gloria’s chin and pressed upward, forcing her to look up.
    “You’re right. There’s nothing you can do. But that’s not what I said. I said
He
works all things to good. Why don’t you try letting
Him
work for a change? You don’t have to do everything. Think about what I’m saying.” She pulled her hand away. “Now, then. It’s been a long night for all of us. I’d like to get some rest. Can you go see if they’ve found my dry clothes?”
    * * *
    Gloria left Inez’s makeshift bed in search of the young doctor who had been attending them earlier. As she stepped into the main hallway of the hotel, she spotted Rigo talking with some officers near a table covered in piles of papers. He’d changed into a new pair of swim trunks and a T-shirt with a blue Port Provident Beach Patrol logo on the back. A pair of cheap black flip-flops had replaced the soggy work boots on his feet.
    She was drawn to the cuts on the back of his tanned calves. Some were superficial scrapes, but a few were deeper and covered with new scabs. Clearly, they’d all happened sometime between shuttling her and Tanna to safety and protecting all of Port Provident from Mother Nature. She knew all the salt water he’d walked in had to have stung each and every one of those scrapes and exposed them to infection. And yet, he never said a word.
    What had Inez meant when she’d said he’d had to learn some lessons the hard way? Not for the first time in the past day or so, Gloria wondered just where Rigo had been before he returned to take the chief’s role at Beach Patrol. Was that what Inez spoke of? Or something else?
    Dr. Stephenson, the young ER doctor who had been checking on Inez, turned the corner. In her hands was a pile of shorts and T-shirts with some socks on top. Gloria chuckled inside at the thought of proper Inez Vasquez in a pair of board shorts and an old T-shirt instead of the floral embroidered dresses she wore every day of her life. But at least they’d be dry.
    “Gloria. I finally found what I was looking for. I have clothes for you and for Mrs. Vasquez and Tanna. For now, we’re just going to have to use what spare towels and T-shirts we can find as swaddling and diapers for the baby. We hadn’t planned on having a newborn here at the city government command center, but we should have everyone taken care of in no time.” Dr. Stephenson reached out a pair of blue shorts and a T-shirt and handed them to Gloria. “I think the shorts are going to be a little big for you, but they have a drawstring, so you should be able to get them to fit, more or less. Most of the spare clothes they had in the workroom were in men’s sizes. Here’s a blanket, too, in case you’re still cold.”
    Gloria smiled. It would be good to peel off some of the