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

stairs.
    “Where are we going?” Angela questioned Pete as he closed the front door behind them.
    “You’ll see,” he said, with a mischievous twinkle in his eye. Angela caught the white sparkle of the light and thought it perfectly complimented the salt in his light brown hair. It felt somehow disloyal to her constituents to be thinking of anything other than how to get their lives back to normal, but at the same time, it felt almost soothing to be thinking about something other than the aftermath of the hurricane.
    Pete stopped at a plain door among the stilts that elevated his beach house more than ten feet off the ground. It was slightly hidden behind the garage area.
    “Open it, Mama! Open it!” Celina couldn’t keep her feet on the ground. She bounced with excitement. Angela couldn’t think of anything that would get her daughter that excited, except maybe having Huggy Lovey back.
    She reached her hand out slowly and put it on the door knob. The orange light from earlier filtered through the spaces in between the boards of the deck and made a pattern on the dirt and concrete here below the house.
    “Go ahead. Nothing in there will bite.” Pete gave a little chuckle.
    She turned the knob, and then Celina gave the door a strong shove, pushing it wide open. Angela looked around. She saw a small kitchenette with a narrow, rectangular window across the room. Closer to her were two chairs and an older-model television on a low stand. Behind that area was a double bed covered in a blue and maroon patterned quilt with a large brown teddy bear sitting in a place of honor atop two white pillows. She recognized it as the guest bed Pete had laid Celina on last night when they’d arrived at her house. A small walled off area with a plain white door was tucked in the corner, which based on the layout, was probably a small bathroom.
    It looked like an efficiency apartment—sparsely, yet fully furnished.
    “What do you think?” Pete leaned against the door frame. “I’d moved the furniture upstairs when the storm came through and had just moved it all back down here about two days ago after scrubbing out the mud on the floors.  It’s hard to believe, but there wasn’t much damage down here. This room was built to handle some flooding. Celina helped me clean—she’s great with a mop—and my next door neighbor helped me move the guest bed down here. I had a twin-sized bed in here before the storm, but I knew that wouldn’t work for the two of you, so I made a switch.”
    Angela didn’t know what to make of the goose bumps popping up on the skin of her forearms. “But what is all this?”
    “Well, Brownie the Bear needed a good home.” Pete shrugged. The half-cocked smile never left the corners of his lips.
    His answer left her with another question. Nothing really made sense. “Who is Brownie the Bear?”
    “Mama! Brownie’s right there on the bed.” Celina gave the direct and obvious answer, in true six-year-old fashion.
    “I see that. But where did Brownie come from, and why does he need an apartment?”
    “Brownie came from the good people at the First Cornerstone Church of Spring, Texas. They’re the ones who sent that first truck. Brownie was on it, and he and Celina became fast friends. And Brownie needs a place to crash because Celina needs a place to crash. They’re pretty inseparable.” Pete’s smile morphed into a full ear-to-ear grin. “And Brownie said he can’t live in a tent. Humidity isn’t good for his fur.”
    “Isn’t it great, Mama? We can stay with Pete! We don’t have to go back to the shelter or the tent!” Celina gave a little bounce, followed by a twirl.
    The goose bumps had multiplied and turned into one big lump in Angela’s throat. “No, really, we can’t. I told you this was temporary. I can’t take advantage of things my constituents don’t have available to them. It’s just not right.”
    “Not right?” The smile fell from Pete’s face. He looked at her