Page 107 of Sing with Me

“It means Iwilltickle you some more.” And Diehl did.

“Stop! Stop!” Ethan laughed and laughed.

Diehl glanced over at Skye. “Want to join us?”

“Nope. I’m not getting sand in my hair.” Skye stood where she was, about five safe feet away.

“Take a picture of us?” Diehl asked, reaching for his phone.

“I’ll use mine.” Skye retrieved her phone from her pocket, and then realized that she had left her purse in the kitchen back at Brooks Cottage. She hoped it was safe there.

She took several snapshots of Diehl and his son posing in the sand. She wondered how long they could distract Ethan from the reality of his life.

That story that Ethan had told them in the garden wasn’t a fairytale, was it? It was Isobel’s tragedy. How awful it must have been for her not to be with the person she loved.

Skye wasn’t privy to all the details but it seemed like a strange tale of love found and love lost. Caught in the middle of it was Diehl. What kind of loveless marriage had he been in? Had Isobel married him for his fortune?

She could not see Diehl as a tortured hero, but the poor man had an unfulfilled marriage. He had told her last Monday, when they made breakfast together, that he had married Isobel when she was pregnant with their first child. That child died, but they stayed together.

If Ethan’s story was to be believed, then Isobel had continued her affair with her boyfriend throughout their marriage in a twisted tale of deceit and deception, producing two children whom she had passed off as belonging to Diehl.

How could she do that to him? How could he not know, though? Had his work taken so much of his time that he could not get away to be at home?

Skye remembered Brinley mentioning that her sister-in-law often stayed for months on end in Hawaii and Italy while Diehl worked in Atlanta, not taking any vacation in years.

If Skye were his wife, she would love him and only him for the rest of her life. She would love no one else, be with no other. She would always stay with him and raise their kids together.

Of course, it was all hypothetical.

Nothing could come out of their summer fling. Skye felt that there was still something holding Diehl back from showing her whether he really wanted to be with her or whether she was only a filler for his lonely summer days before he returned to his corporate world in Atlanta.

Perhaps his heart had been broken to the point that it had hardened toward things related to love.

And things of God.

Until Diehl was aligned with God again and experienced the full measure of God’s love, he could never truly love another person. He wouldn’t know what it meant for Christ to love the church, and for a Christian man to love his wife.

“Thank you.” Diehl brushed off sand from his shirt, pants, and knees.

Ethan was running again. This time, toward the ocean.

“Ethan!” Diehl kicked off his shoes, and went after him.

Skye stood where she was, looking at the private beach. There was no one else out here at this time. Diehl and Ethan played at the ocean’s edge, the waves swirling around their ankles. Above them, the morning sun shone through puffy clouds against a sky-blue backdrop.

Mom had told her that they named her after the sky.

She had rarely mentioned her middle name to anyone. Who wouldn’t laugh to hear that her full name was Skye Blue Langston. At least Sebastian had a normal name.

Skye made her way across the packed beach sand toward Diehl and Ethan. They had plunged into the ocean in the clothes they were in.

Ethan splashed water with his palm. “I wish Elisa was here!”

And then it started all over again. Tears streamed down his face.

“Shhh.” Diehl put an arm around his son’s shoulders. “We’ll get her back.”

Skye motioned for them to get out of the water.

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