Page 1 of A Hidden Hope

She should’ve known it was too good to be true. Evie Miller had been floating on air ... until she crashed back down to earth with a thud.

She had landed her top choice as a traveling nurse at the Stoney Ridge Family Practice, with an incredible doctor named Ruth Stoltzfus.

Just a few months ago, Evie had seen a television news feature on Dok Stoltzfus—and decided to apply for a traveling job with her rural practice.

Imagine having time with a doctor who still made house calls . .. among the Amish!

But then the story got even better.

Charlie King, fresh out of med school, had stopped by her nursing station at Penn State Hershey with news.

Big news. After coming up empty on Match Day in March, he’d scrambled to find an unfulfilled residency.

And he had. A great one, he said—serving an underserved area, with the added bonus of medical school loan forgiveness.

Assuming, of course, he completed the residency, passed his final board exam, and checked all the right boxes.

“Where is it?” Evie had asked.

Charlie leaned over the counter, his eyes lighting up. “Stoney Ridge Family Practice.”

Stunned, Evie could only stare at him, suspended in shock. Was this truly happening? Was she dreaming? No words came out of her mouth. She had to just pause at the impossibility of it.

Charlie King was going to Stoney Ridge. To a sleepy little Amish village. To the same medical practice as Evie.

The Charlie King.

And then Wren Baker showed up at the nurse’s station, leaning on the counter right next to Charlie. Evie wasn’t surprised—Wren always seemed to hover around him, like a shadow that never quite left his side.

But what she said next did surprise Evie. “Did you tell her yet?” Before Charlie could answer, Wren said, “We’re both going to be residents at Stoney Ridge Family Practice in Lancaster County.”

Thud. Back to reality. Evie plummeted face-first back down to earth.

So many questions. She didn’t know where to start.

It didn’t make sense! Wren Baker seemed like the type who was destined for a top-notch residency in a sought-after teaching hospital. Hardly one for a farming village.

Then again, Wren Baker had claimed Charlie for herself.

Even more disheartening—Wren did not like Evie.

Wren probably thought Evie was crushing on Charlie.

She wouldn’t be wrong.

Ever since Evie first met Charlie at the hospital—his third year as a medical student, her first year as a nursing student—she’d fallen hard for him.

It felt like Cupid had struck her with an arrow, and two years later, her feelings hadn’t faded one bit.

She sensed Charlie might feel something for her as well.

They’d had a few “moments” here and there, exchanged smiles, snatches of conversations. Moments that had felt genuine.

Evie sighed, turning to face the half-packed boxes in her bedroom apartment.

She needed to keep going, but her heart was no longer in it.

Grabbing extra hangers from her closet, she headed to the living room where her best friend and roommate, Darcy, was wrapping the television remote in bubble wrap.

Evie set the spare hangers on the coffee table. “Pretty sure I won’t be needing these.”

Darcy wrinkled her nose. “Doesn’t the old-timey village have closets?”

“Amish village. Well, it has both Amish and non-Amish. More Amish than not, though.” Darcy was the reason Evie had become a traveling nurse in the first place.

She had talked her into joining her for an adventure.

But Darcy was thinking Alaska. When Evie came home and said she’d applied for a contract to go to an Amish village not far from Penn State, Darcy questioned her mental health.

Evie plopped down on the couch. “Apparently Charlie King’s residency is going to be the Stoney Ridge practice.” She scrunched up her face. “The exact same place!”

“What?!” Darcy gave her a puzzled expression. “But ... isn’t that good news?”

“Yeessss,” Evie said slowly. It was, somehow—at the exact same time—both the best and worst news she’d ever heard.

“So you’re both off to Stoney Ridge. Why aren’t you happy?”

“Because Wren Baker is going to Stoney Ridge for her residency too.”

Darcy rocked back on her heels. “Whoaaa. Wren Baker? I would’ve bet money she’d end up in Beverly Hills doing nose jobs for celebrities ... not an Amish farm.”

“Right? Everyone assumed she’d land a top-tier surgical residency. She wanted one.”

“So what happened?”

“She didn’t get a match.”

“No way! Just like Charlie?”

“Not exactly. Charlie didn’t match because .

.. well, he probably just didn’t stand out enough.

Wren, on the other hand, aimed too high.

She went for the most competitive programs and didn’t get a match.

But she never told anyone—Charlie’s the one who spilled.

Apparently, they both figured, why not apply to Dok Stoltzfus’s program?

No one else did, so ... that’s where they’ll be.

” Evie groaned, rubbing her cheeks. “How am I supposed to compete with Wren Baker?”

Darcy set down the bubble wrap to give Evie a look.

“You’re not,” she said simply. “Evie, you’re an amazing person.

You have a huge heart, and you genuinely care about people.

If Charlie doesn’t see that, then he’s the one missing out.

” She picked up the remote to start wrapping again.

“You could always tell him how you feel about him.”

No, she couldn’t. Whenever Charlie was around, Evie became the most awkward version of herself, and that was saying a lot.

The mix of longing, desire, and excitement she experienced when he was near left her completely flustered.

She couldn’t even say hi to him in an elevator.

She’d freeze up, go silent, and end up staring at him, unblinking, like an oddball.

And yet ... despite how socially awkward she acted around him, she kept getting some kind of undercurrent of attraction between them, like a spark of electricity. She was sure of it.

Or maybe she just imagined it.

And then there was Wren Baker. Ever present, highly territorial. Whenever Evie tried to work up the courage to ask Charlie if he wanted to get a coffee during his break— boom! —Wren would appear out of nowhere and whisk him off.

Evie sighed, wrapping her arms around a pillow. “I don’t stand a chance. Wren is Velcroed to Charlie.”

“But you don’t absolutely, positively know they’re a couple. No PDA, right?”

“I hardly think two medical students would show public affection in a hospital setting. But everybody talks like they’re a couple. Like Wren-and-Charlie is one word.”

“Watercooler gossip,” Darcy said, rolling her eyes. “Personally, I never have understood what you’ve seen in Charlie King.”

Where to start? Charlie was basically the most kindhearted human on this earth.

He had remarkable tenderness and patience with patients, even the worst ones.

He had this almost superpower to lighten up a serious moment.

Then there was his goofiness, like wearing an enormous stick-on mustache when he was on the pediatric ward.

Or his crazy patchwork pants. And his humility—so rare among physicians.

Unlike most, Charlie never hesitated to ask for assistance when he was in over his head.

That’s how Evie had been officially introduced to Charlie—he asked for her help putting an IV into the arm of an elderly woman with nearly invisible veins.

What med student ever asked a nurse for help? None!

But Darcy wouldn’t know that side of Charlie—she only knew the Charlie-and-Wren-joined-at-the-hip side.

“He does have a good jawline.”

Evie sighed. “Doesn’t he?”

“Did he really pass all his classes?”

“Yes, of course.” Just by a whisker. Evie knew that because Charlie was working on her floor at the hospital when the email came in that he had barely squeaked by with a pass in Human Anatomy and Physiology, the class that had him worried.

(In his defense, that class was the most repeated one in medical school, because of the crazy amount of detail to be memorized.) He had let out a whoop, picked up Evie (who happened to be standing nearby), and twirled her around.

It was the most wonderful moment of her life. So far.

“Well, here’s one positive,” Darcy said. “If you discover that Wren and Charlie are truly a couple, maybe that will convince you to finally drop your obsession with him.”

“Obsession is a bit much. I’m not obsessed.”

Darcy squinted at her. “Yeah, pretty obsessed.”

“It’s not an obsession. Just a regular, all-American crush.”

“Call it whatever you want. I think this experience will finally help wash that man out of your hair. He’s not that cute,” Darcy said. “And he’s definitely not that smart.” Darcy placed a high value on book smarts. The highest.

Evie had a different take on intelligence.

She believed in all kinds of smarts, each valuable in its own way.

Book smarts opened doors, sure, but fixer smarts—the ability to fix anything—were just as important.

And then there were people smarts, which might be the best one of all.

That’s where she placed Charlie. He just had a way with people. Charming Charlie.

“Look, I get it,” Darcy said, returning to her task.

“Just don’t let Wren Baker get in your head.

Focus on why you’re a traveling nurse in the first place.

The experience, the adventure, the chance to make a difference.

And your contract is only for three months in Stoney Ridge, right?

When things don’t pan out with Charlie, you can pack up and move in with me in Alaska. That’s the beauty of our jobs.”

Evie gave her a thanks-for-trying smile.

A sly look came over Darcy. “But who knows what’s waiting for you there in your old-timey village? Maybe you’ll fall madly in love with an Amish farmer.”