Second Chance Sweethearts (Love Inspired)

by Kristen Ethridge

  She knew every word of that report by heart. “Semantics don’t matter. He should have been there at the hospital. With me. With Mateo. You knew he was on his way to us in the hospital. You should have called someone else for backup.”

  “He was nearby and there was no one else I trusted like Felipe. I knew they had drugs in the car. I knew something was going on. What I didn’t know was that they had a guy with a gun in the trunk who was going to pop out and start shooting.” He paused, then looked at her, but his brown eyes were blank. “Felipe was my partner. My best friend.”

  Gloria felt her heart drain, as if she’d been shot point-blank in the chest. “No. He was my partner. My best friend. My husband. And now he’s gone.”

  She couldn’t control herself. She buried her head in her hands. She would not cry in front of Rigo. “The memories in this house are all I have.”

  Tanna laid on the couch and gave a soft moan that jarred Gloria out of the argument and out of the past. “Five minutes. I’m going out to start the truck while you pack and gather what you’ll need for the birth. Then we’ve got to go. I’m not about to leave you here so you can drown and go join him.”

  Rigo walked back out in the rain, and Gloria took in one more panoramic view of the main area of the 1930s-era house she and Felipe had loved so much and bought and spent countless hours updating and renovating.

  Even years after that terrible night when everything changed, Gloria had never had enough heart to change Mateo’s nursery. So everything had remained neat as a pin, and more or less just how it had been the last time Felipe walked out the door to go on patrol and Gloria had gone out to get a quick check from her OB because her kick counts were off.

  Gloria looked out the little window again and saw that her street was now best described as a river. Rigo wasn’t exaggerating about the situation getting more dire by the minute. The water covered the front yard and would most likely continue to rise, then be creeping under the front door sooner rather than later. And when that happened, her orderly little house and orderly little life—the one she managed so tightly and fiercely because the alternative was too much to bear—would change tonight. And just thinking about it made an indescribable heaviness fill her chest, like thick cement reaching slowly to all corners of a mold.

  Tanna exhaled deeply from her spot on the couch. “I knew I’d be nervous when labor finally got here. I just never imagined I’d be this nervous.”

  “Well, Tanna, there’s a lot going on. It’s understandable that you’re scared. But I’m here and I’m not leaving your side and we’ll get through this together.” Gloria knew she couldn’t show Tanna her own burden about leaving this house and the memories she’d shared here. Tanna had enough worries of her own today.

  “Lie down while I gather my things. I’ll check your dilation and other vitals as soon as we get to Inez’s house. You’re going to do great, Mama. Babies have been born in all kinds of conditions, and the vast majority of them throughout history haven’t had electricity, either. Your body knows exactly what to do, and it’s telling us that it’s almost there.”

  Gloria opened the door to the storage closet in the hall where she kept the suitcases and pulled one out along with the plastic storage bin of birth supplies she kept packed at all times. Everything she needed—even shots of Pitocin in case of bleeding and a small tank of oxygen for mom or baby—was inside.

  She made herself keep going, pulling a few shirts and shorts and pairs of sturdy shoes out of the closet. She grabbed a pair of pajamas and carefully folded them on top of the stack. Then she went into the bathroom and filled her toiletries bag with a few overnight essentials.

  Gloria decided to walk through the house to see if there was anything else she needed to bring. As she passed by her desk, she reached in the drawer and grabbed the folder that Felipe had always kept their important papers in. From the bookshelf, she grabbed her own Bible and the family Bible, given to her by her abuela in Mexico. Gloria walked robot-like through each room of the house, not seeing much, until she stepped into the small blue room and stopped. She hardly ever came in this room. Most weeks, she just ran the vacuum across the carpet as quickly as possible.

  Some weeks, she still had to stop the vacuum in the hall.

  The rocking chair she’d planned to rock her own baby in had never moved from the corner. Without realizing what she was doing, Gloria crossed the room, sat in the chair and started rocking.

  She picked up the oversize light brown teddy bear from the floor next to the chair and cradled it in her arms, the same way she’d been able to hold Mateo after he’d been stillborn—just the one time, with his eyes closed and no butterfly whispers of baby breaths in his lungs.

  Fire pushed into her throat and collected like lava. Hot, slick, overpowering. The memories burned her mind and her soul.

  This room was the last connection she had to her son who had died before he’d ever had a chance to live. Her darling baby. The only baby she would ever have.

  What if she woke up tomorrow and this room was gone?

  What if she woke up tomorrow and the last place she could feel Mateo’s presence and see Felipe’s labor of love in every stroke of paint on these walls...what if it was all gone?

  Gloria hugged the teddy bear fiercely, then leaned over and bit the stuffed ear tightly to muffle the sobs that she couldn’t muster the fight to keep inside.

  Tanna waddled into the doorway. “Whose room is this?”

  A cottony feeling choked Gloria’s throat and she tried to wipe the tears off her cheeks with the bear’s ear. “It belonged to my son, Mateo.”

  “Did he evacuate already?”

  Gloria lifted her eyes. “I guess you could say that. He’s in Heaven.” She struggled to hold her emotions inside. Tanna had her own journey to motherhood today. She didn’t need to know the details of the birth of Gloria’s son.

  Gloria rose from the chair, walked a few steps and climbed on a nearby box, stretching her arms as far as she could to tuck the bear on the top shelf of the narrow closet.

  “I’m so sorry. I didn’t know. I didn’t mean to interrupt.” Tanna frowned and looked around the perfectly arranged room, so clearly at odds with a baby being gone for years. “I just came to tell you that Rigo says we have to go.”

  Chapter Three

  Rigo considered Gloria and Tanna one more rescue in a long line of them he’d be doing for another couple of hours. The 9-1-1 switchboard was overrun tonight with people who thought they’d throw bravado in the face of Hurricane Hope, then found her might thrown right back at them with wind-whipped fury. He got the two ladies dropped off safely at Tía Inez’s house and then got right back in his truck and out on the streets to do what he could.

  He didn’t like that there were still people on the island, and he didn’t know how much longer they’d be able to rescue stranded citizens. At some point, those in charge would call off the rescues because they would start to endanger those conducting them.

  But until that call was made, the Provident Island Beach Patrol team was on the front line. As seasoned lifeguards and water-rescue professionals, they were deferred to by even the high-ranking members of the police and sheriff’s departments at times like these.

  Still, eight people couldn’t save the world.

  But they’d keep trying until they were told to stop.

  Conditions around the island were deteriorating rapidly. As he tried to decide where to head next, he looked in the distance to the lights on inside the Grand Provident Hotel, where city officials had set up their command center. As he watched, the lights flickered, blinked twice, then all went out, taking the streetlights and the rest of the electricity with them.

  His radio popped once more with static. The command center would be running on generator power now, and like the radio’s reception, it was spotty. Rigo could barely
make out the words. “Attention all units. The power grid is now down.” The whole island was now in darkness, just awaiting the full wrath of Hope. “You are mandated to take shelter.”

  He’d been working the La Misión neighborhood, checking every home for people staying behind in the community where he’d grown up. Gloria and Inez were alone in a sea of water with a very pregnant woman in a house only four blocks behind him.

  The command center, where he was expected to be as the storm blew in, was about twelve blocks ahead.

  In his younger days, Rigo knew his reputation had been something of a hothead. And those hasty decisions had impacted Gloria’s life not once, but twice. Once when they were eighteen and he left her behind with a broken heart. And again, two years ago, when her life was shattered and he didn’t have the courage to face her.

  Gloria didn’t know he’d changed, and no words he could say would convince her. Only actions and time could make up for the hurt he’d caused. He wasn’t going to leave Gloria to face one more uncertain night by herself.

  Rigo knew he’d come back to follow the rules, not to hide anymore.

  “This is Vasquez. I can’t make it back to the hotel.”

  “10-4, Vasquez. Can you get to the shelter at the high school?” The voice on the radio went in and out as the weather conditions cut at the ties of electronic contact.

  “No. I’ll take shelter at my aunt’s house in the La Misión neighborhood. I’m not far from there.”

  “10-4. God keep you safe, Vasquez. Get here if you can.”

  “Amen.” Rigo agreed out loud into the night and hoped that God could hear him over the howl and thrash all around.

  The radio’s crackle went silent and Rigo knew this was it. The fury of nature had been building to an extreme all day, but it was now about to be unleashed in a way that Port Provident hadn’t seen since 1910.

  Without streetlights, it was impossible to judge the depth or speed of the water. Rigo hadn’t been lying when he said he couldn’t make it to the Grand Provident. Conditions had been precarious for hours, but now it was definitely not safe to drive.

  He pulled his truck into what was left of the closest driveway, climbed into the truck bed, and untied the small boat he carried. A flat-bottomed johnboat, it was convenient for search and rescue because the design meant he could maneuver easily in shallow water. He generally carried it everywhere in the bed of his work truck. He’d hauled it out a few times already tonight when he couldn’t reach someone begging for help. Water and waves slapped at him from the sky and the land and he struggled with the plastic boat in the fiercely whipping wind.

  With a growl, he righted the boat on the surface of the water which now stood more than bottom-of-tailgate deep. He got himself inside, powered up the motor and set off in the direction of Tía Inez’s house.

  Alone on the waterlogged streets, he had everything to lose.

  And everything to prove.

  * * *

  “Gloria?” Tanna’s shrill voice came from the bedroom. “The contractions. They’re stronger.” Ever since Tanna’s water had broken, all of the telltale physical signs had followed quickly one after another. This baby was coming and it wasn’t waiting for a sunny day.

  Tonight, Gloria and Tanna were going to face the greatest storm Port Provident had seen in more than a century and they were going to face the greatest force Tanna had ever known as she brought her baby into this crazy, rain-soaked world.

  And they would do it with no power, no modern conveniences and no medical backup.

  It would take every ounce of skill and training Gloria had. She knew this test would actually take more than that. It would take every word of prayer Gloria knew to utter.

  Except she didn’t know how to utter many anymore.

  Since the night she’d lost both Felipe and Mateo, she’d become convinced God had better things to do than to work in her life the way He used to. He’d taken everything and she hadn’t known what to say back to Him in reply.

  They were pretty far apart these days, Gloria and God.

  And now there stood the wrath and fury of the storm in the gap. There was no bridge that could cross that. She was alone with one pregnant woman and one elderly aunt who went to bed an hour ago saying she “always liked sleeping to the sound of the rain.”

  Crazy lady.

  Of course, Gloria wondered what was more crazy: Inez’s idea of ideal sleeping weather or Gloria’s idea that she could deliver this baby under these circumstances.

  She felt pretty sure the answer was not Inez.

  There must have been a lot of cries being lifted from the citizens of Port Provident tonight. Gloria didn’t think it mattered much, but the icy chill in the pit of her stomach and the howl of the wind outside came together and nudged her to add one more request from Port Provident to Heaven.

  “Querido Dios, dear God, give us the strength we need to get through tonight.” She closed her eyes and let out a sigh. “Please.”

  She didn’t have anything more to add. Talking to God for basically the first time in two years was much like placing that call to Rigo earlier. Awkward. And just a reminder of the bad times, when she was all but abandoned by someone she thought would never leave her.

  “I’m coming, Tanna. I’ll check you again. You may be getting closer to transition.” Gloria tried to master the fear inside as she walked down the hall. First-time labor brought enough uncertainty to a mama. Tanna at least deserved a midwife who sounded confident, even if the midwife was scared to death on the inside of the conditions all around.

  Gloria paused and looked over the railing and down the stairs. On the level below, the water had risen to more than a foot deep. Gloria could no longer see the baseboards. Since the turn-of-the-century home stood on pilings that were about six feet high, plus the slope of the lawn down to the street, Gloria estimated the storm surge was easily already more than ten feet deep outside.

  She rummaged through the boxes that had been stowed earlier at the open area at the top of the stairs, both for easy access and the hope they’d remain high and dry. Inez had packed a box with food and some supplies like batteries and candles, and there also was a smaller box. Inez said Rigo had packed it with things like a hammer and a small plastic sheet that could be used like a tarp.

  Shortly after arriving at the house, Gloria had pulled together another box with sheets, blankets, a coil of twine, extra scissors and some bottled water, just in case she needed to use it. And she’d also placed her box of midwifery supplies alongside these critical supplies.

  As she grabbed a sheet and a new pair of disposable gloves, something crashed into the front door with a thud.

  Her breath came short. Surely someone wasn’t trying to break in on a night like this. Was it debris? The thud hit again and rattled the doorknob, then the front door swung partway open. The sky behind it glowed strangely red and a familiar figure stood silhouetted in the frame, water lapping almost to his knees as he stood a step or two down on the stairs at the front door.

  “Rigo?” She’d never been more thankful to see him. Not when she was madly in love with him as a teenager. Not even when he showed up at the seedy apartment complex to help get Tanna to safety. The world seemed to be collapsing all around her, but at least she wouldn’t be alone as Tanna’s labor progressed. His presence was better than nothing.

  Maybe a lot better than nothing. But she didn’t want to admit that quite yet, not even to herself.

  “The power’s out completely now. I couldn’t make it up to the command center at the Grand Provident. The streets are like rivers. I barely made it back here. Is Tanna okay?”

  At that moment, Tanna let out a low moan. The guttural noise told Gloria’s trained ears that Tanna was moving toward the next phase of labor, the one where instinct and the body took over and left the thinking
, controlling mind behind.

  “Yes, she’s been having steady contractions since we got settled and things seem to be picking up. I was just gathering what I needed to check her again.”

  Gloria needed to get to Tanna but stood rooted, drinking in the sight of Rigo’s silhouette, dark with untold layers of rain, framed by crimson in the sky behind.

  “Rigo?”

  “Yes?”

  “Why is the sky red? Is that normal?”

  “It is if a marina is on fire.” He kicked the door shut with his foot and began to cross the room toward the kitchen as he answered. “Although I’ve been told the sky’s color in hurricanes can range from midnight blue to teal and even shades like pink.”

  “The marina is on fire?”

  “Yes. The whole thing. The fire department can’t get to it, so they’re just letting it burn. It will be a complete loss.”

  She rolled her eyes in disbelief. More destruction, in ways she never imagined. “My sister Gracie’s sister-in-law has a really nice boat down there.”

  “I’m sorry, Gloria. I’m afraid that boat is gone. They’re not expecting anything to be left. One of my guys talked to an assistant fire chief about an hour and a half ago and told me.” She needed to stop thinking about the way looking at his silhouette in the fire glow a few minutes ago had made something inside of her spark. She had to remind herself that at age eighteen she’d promised herself she was never going to take notice of him again.

  “I’m coming up,” Rigo said. “Is there anything you need?”

  Gloria shook her head, not trusting herself to answer with words.

  As Rigo waded across the entry and placed his shoe on the first soaked stair, a crackle sounded behind her. She turned around to see water shoot from the nonfunctioning electrical outlets like the jets on a Jacuzzi tub.

  “Rigo! The house!” Gloria screamed, terrified she was about to find herself in the same situation as the doomed marina.