A Very Special Delivery

additions to the room. All filled with kids’ stuff.
    “What is all this?” he murmured, gazing around at the surprising contents.
    A stack of new sweatshirts and jeans and several pairs of tennis shoes had been transferred from their original packages into a larger box addressed to Hillside Children’s Home. Another box appeared to be a work in progress, containing only a handful of toys. Catalogs lay strewn about, open to the kids’ pages with certain items circled in red pen.
    Either Molly belonged to some sort of charitable group that collected clothes and toys for needy children or she spent a lot of time and money doing the job on her own.
    Either option seemed strange to him, considering her reaction to Laney.
    What was the truth about Molly and kids?
    More curious than ever about his hostess, he left the room to complete his original errand, returning to the kitchen with two stainless steel pots in hand and a lot of unanswered questions in his head.
    He found Molly still in the kitchen, except now she stood on a chair rummaging in the upper cabinets.
    Holding up the pots, he said, “Found them.”
    She looked down at him and smiled. “I know I have some candles up here somewhere. Oh, here we go.” She handed him a tall pillar. “I was thinking. What about Laney? Do you have everything you need for her?”
    “Enough formula and diapers to last a day or two—maybe more.” No point worrying about that yet.
    She stuck her head back inside the cabinet, muffling her voice. “Then we’ll just pray we can get out of here before she runs out.”
    “God won’t let us down. He brought us this far.”
    Molly closed the cabinet door and turned, frowning. “Are you saying God had something to do with you getting stranded here?”
    She started down from her perch and Ethan reached to offer a hand. Her cool skin felt almost as soft as Laney’s.
    “All I know is that I was meant to deliver that gamma last night.”
    She took the candles from him. “Because God told you to?”
    He shifted uncomfortably. Some of his friends and family rolled their eyes when he tried to explain that still, small voice that spoke from somewhere deep inside him. Would she?
    “Not in audible words, no. But somehow, on the inside of me—” he tapped his chest “—I heard Him.”
    Molly’s tea-colored eyes grew thoughtful. “That’s true. Sometimes you just know.”
    Relieved that she understood, Ethan smiled. “Exactly.”
    Lots of people thought he’d gone goofy since accepting Christ. And sometimes the criticism, the veiled sarcasm, hurt. He’d gone goofy all right, but in a way that filled him with a peace and reassurance he’d searched for all his adult life.
    “What about Chester?” she peered inside a lower cabinet, came out with box of matches which she set on the counter. “If you were supposed to give his chemo and you’re stuck here, how he is going to get his next dose?”
    “By some miracle the Stubbses still had phone service. I contacted my company. They’ll make arrangements for a chopper to take him to the hospital for treatments until the roads clear.”
    He didn’t want to think about what might happen if the storm cranked up again. He’d done all he could. The rest was in God’s hands.
    “I’m glad. The Stubbses are good people.” She glanced out the window above the sink. Two parallel lines between her pale brown eyebrows deepened. “What about the broken power line? Are we safe with all those volts bouncing around?”
    “As long as we stay away from the garage.” Years of flying low and watching out for electrical lines had taught him to be wary, but Ethan was still amazed that he had heard the sizzling electricity in time. What if he had touched that garage door? He shuddered to think what might have happened. Not just to him, but to Molly.
    Which brought him back to her earlier question.
    Was being stranded here, on this particular farm, with this particular woman, a part of some divine plan?
    * * *
    Snow fell for the rest of the day, but the sleet
and wind seemed, mercifully, to have passed. Regardless of the discomfort of having a stranger—and a baby—in her house, Molly thought the day progressed reasonably well. In truth, Ethan Hunter was easy to be around and his masculine presence was a comfort. The fact that he spoke openly about his faith reassured her in ways she didn’t understand or question.
    The baby was another matter altogether, but with Ethan present, Laney was