Stranger's Gift by Anna Schmidt Read Free Book Online

hurricane wasn’t a male name. She was all set to name the baby after the storm. I do not even begin to understand why we would wish that on a kid.”
    â€œIt’s a boy, then?”
    â€œYep. You know what she told me this morning? She said there’s still a month before the baby is supposed to come, and even if the little guy is late, hurricane season goes through October.” He shook his head, but his smile told the real story of his abiding love for his wife. Hester couldn’t help feeling a twinge of envy. Over the years she’d pretty much given up on the idea that she would ever know the kind of deep commitment and love that bound Grady to Amy. The two had so much in common, and in many ways it was hard to imagine one without the other.
    Hester had always thought that she had more in common with males like her brothers and the boys she’d gone to school with than she did with the girls she’d known. Guys all seemed to like her, like having her around. But when it came to one of them considering her as spouse material, things changed—fast. She was thirty-three years old now, well past the age when most women of her faith had settled down to the business of making a home and raising a family. Many people thought she had missed her chance at marital happiness when she had insisted on going to college and getting her nursing degree. Others thought that it was her devotion to caring for her sick mother that had made her miss out on the opportunity to meet a suitable young man.
    There had been one young man, a farmer from Indiana she’d met after she’d completed her nurse’s training and had returned to Pinecraft. He had even proposed. But just a week before their wedding, he had made it clear that while he had found her unorthodox behavior appealing when they first met, it simply would not do to continue along that path once she became his wife and the mother of his children. Hester had called off the wedding, once again setting tongues to wagging throughout the little community. But shortly after that, her mother’s battle with Lou Gehrig’s disease had begun its downward spiral, and the tide of sympathy had turned in Hester’s favor. Many had seen it as part of God’s plan that Hester should be free to care for her beloved mother.
    â€œI’d go myself,” Grady was saying. “But there are still dozens of people unaccounted for, and …”
    â€œIt’s your job to account for them.”
    Grady puffed out his cheeks and then blew out a breath of frustration. “Yeah. I have to admit that at times like these I sometimes question my career choice, but this is the path I chose.”
    And I chose my path
, Hester reminded herself sternly.
Just as staying put in a hurricane was the choice of John Steiner. Judge not, Hester Detlef
.
    â€œOkay. Tell Dad I’ll meet him at the shop. I need to let Emma know she needs to take full charge of things here for a while.”
    â€œBe careful out there, okay?” Grady said. “The area is still unstable with all those downed trees, and, of course, there’s no power or water. Don’t go poking around. Just see if you see any sign of Steiner. If you find him, do what you can to get him stabilized, and then call in the evacuation chopper.”
    â€œUnless he’s okay,” Hester corrected.
    â€œEither way,” Grady said, “call the chopper and get him to a hospital. I’m not taking any chances.”
    â€œGot it,” she said. “Do you have any further information about him? Anything else that might help in case he’s—you know—confused or delirious?”
    â€œNot really. Word has it that his mother—the congresswoman’s sister—was some sort of hippie who abandoned the high-society life for a simpler style. She married this Amish farmer and moved out to his place in Indiana.”
    â€œSo John Steiner’s father is