When he’d first agreed to spend two months in Ohio, it had seemed like a prison sentence. He couldn’t imagine being away from his beloved ocean for so long. Now he wished he had more time to spend with Amber. They had done one more delivery together, a first baby for a non-Amish couple. In spite of Phillip’s worries, Amber conducted the whole experience so that both the young woman and her nervous husband had a happy and successful birthing experience. As Amber and Hope Springs worked their way deeper into his heart, it became increasingly clear why Harold refused to give up medicine in this place. There was something so soothing and rich about the way these people lived. He sat in his grandfather’s kitchen, absently tapping a pen on the table. He didn’t have to leave. He could be the man to work with his grandfather. Tempting as the thought was, he knew it wouldn’t work. This wasn’t the kind of medicine he saw himself doing into his seventies. He imagined himself working in the finest modern medical center, diagnosing diseases and treating his patients with the best tools available.
