The Doctor's Unexpected Family: (Inspirational Romance) (Port Provident: Hurricane Hope) by Kristen Ethridge Page B

remembered crawling up in the narrow hospital bed with Anna during those too-long, yet too-short three months of failed chemotherapy. He’d held her close and promised her he’d take away the pain if he could. As always, as soon as the regret squeezed his heart, he reminded himself that they’d stretched the boundaries of medicine as far as they could, but he wasn’t God. None of his colleagues in the medical profession were.
    He remembered thinking only a few short moments ago that at least he was a good doctor. As he pushed the memories of osteosarcoma out of his mind, he tried to push away the self-doubt that snuck in with it.  He knew he wasn’t an oncologist—and the very good ones Anna had did everything they could.
    But this time, that gray cloud that pushed into his heart wouldn’t leave. He missed the way that tightly holding someone you loved could make you forget everything else.
    “You can keep the bear,” he said simply, giving an absent ruffle to the hair on Celina’s head. He wished it had been that easy to hold on to his heart.
    The petite, dark-headed little pixie twirled and skipped with her new bear, then ran off to show it to some of the older ladies of the church who were gathered outside.
    “Dr. Shipley?” Pastor Ruiz walked into the sanctuary as Celina and the bear fluttered out. “It looks amazing in here.”
    Pete looked around the room and took in the transformation. He and his ad-hoc team had worked hard today to make sense of what had come their way. “I think we’ve made a good start, but I am not quite sure what to do with it all yet.”
    “Are you ready for more?” He met Pete’s eyes with a look of wariness wrapped in a thin blanket of hope.
    “More?” Pete wasn’t quite sure what the pastor was getting at.
    “Two more trucks are coming today. I just got off the phone with the pastor of one of our sister churches. They’re apparently bringing furniture and some other large items. One of their members owns a regional furniture chain and decided to make a sizeable donation. Plus, several other members decided to clean out pieces they weren’t using. I think we’re going to have a full house, so to speak, by the end of the afternoon.”
    Pete looked around the room. He saw a lot of hard work and progress—he was proud of the order he’d been able to bring to the chaos in just a few hours. But in his mind’s eye, he could see all the work still to be done at the clinic. He had gotten things pretty far along there, but he still had an obligation to get everything wrapped up and get the property on the market so he could be ready to move into the next phase of his life as soon as he got the call from Mercy Medical Mission.
    “I can help out for the rest of the day, Pastor Ruiz. But I’m not sure how much I can commit to beyond that. I still have a few things I need to wrap up for myself and my clinic. But for today, I’m at your disposal.”
    The pastor reached out, clapped a hand on Pete’s shoulder and gave it a lightning-quick squeeze. “I understand, hermano . Our entire church family is grateful for any time you have to give. We all have more to do than we have time to do it in these days. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could multiply the hours in the day like Jesus multiplied the loaves and fishes?”
    Again, thoughts of Anna flickered through Pete’s mind. If only he could have multiplied time. If he could have, he’d have given them the lifetime together they’d planned for, instead of the twelve, crazy, short, hectic weeks they’d wound up with after her diagnosis was confirmed.
    Twelve weeks wasn’t enough time with the woman you loved. Twelve weeks wasn’t enough to have a wedding, or a family, or to grow old together.
    Pete wasn’t sure a lifetime would have been enough, either. 
    He shrugged, reflexively trying to dust off the thoughts and the what-ifs.
    “Something troubling you, Dr. Shipley? I don’t have a functioning church building anymore,