Page 119 of Sing with Me

Well, at least she was asleep.

Diehl could not.

Maybe it was all that sugar in the sweet tea that kept him awake. Maybe he was worried about Elisa’s well-being. Maybe he was even more worried that Ethan had kept secrets from the family—secrets that could very well determine whether Elisa was dead or alive.

He had called Dr. Endecott on his private line after dinner, and the family doctor promised to send a child psychologist after church on Sunday to have a talk with Ethan.

Past midnight, Diehl still couldn’t sleep. He was in his old childhood bedroom again, facing the ocean. This was his sister’s favorite room in the entire cottage. It might be why she had constructed a similar top-floor main bedroom in her beach house to echo this design, where French doors opened to a balcony that overlooked the beach and ocean.

He sat outside on the open deck, listening to the waves of the ocean. The moonlight cast a pale, charcoal-like hue across the entire beach and ocean.

Diehl felt nothing.

He didn’t feel any sorrow about Isobel anymore, not after what she had done to him for the last fourteen years. The secrets she had hidden from him. The lies. The deceit.

He could shed no tears for her.

Also gone was his desire to run to the bottle tonight. Two floors down from here was the pit of despair. Right now, all he wanted to do was run to God—like Skye would do.

Indeed, Skye had been a good spiritual influence on him.

Diehl also had good feelings toward Elisa and Ethan, in spite of their circumstances. They had come to the world through no fault of their own. At least Isobel hadn’t aborted them. Once they found Elisa, he would take them both home to Atlanta, and they could start over.

God, let us find Elisa safely. If You would do that for me, I’ll go to church the rest of my life.

As he said it aloud in the wind, he wondered if God heard his offer to bargain.

Would Skye have approved such a prayer?

He wondered what she would say. The strong Christian that she was, Skye might tell him not to test God. Something Grandpa Brooks had said so long go.

Never test God, kids.

Diehl knew he could not begin to approach the spiritual maturity that Skye had. How long had she studied the Bible to get there?

She recalled the conversation they had on FaceTime on a Friday night, when she questioned his salvation. Well, she hadn’t put it that bluntly, but what was he to think when she told him at least twice how to accept Jesus. He was sure he had done so back in his college years.

Pre-Isobel.

Diehl remembered thinking that he had been too good for Isobel. Now he thought that Skye was too good for him.

Had he fallen in love with a woman he could not have?

Skye seemed to be set on living on St. Simon’s Island. He had a job in Atlanta he could not leave. Although the two places were only five hours of driving each way, Diehl had made up his mind not to be separated from his significant other ever again.

Was Skye his significant other?

He wanted her to be.

“God, I think she’s the one.” Diehl could tell right away. In his mind, she was perfect.

Her Christian faith was stronger than his—wait. He wasn’t sure if he had faith in God at all. For the last fourteen years, he had only reserved faith for himself. He hadn’t been to church in years—except for funerals and weddings—until two weeks ago when he suddenly attended all services at Seaside Chapel.

Thanks to Skye.

The songs she sang, the trio she organized, had both drawn Diehl back to church. Who’d think that at forty years old he’d start playing accompaniment for a couple of Christians at a church he had rarely frequented since Grandpa Brooks died.

“Welcome home,” Pastor Gonzalez had said to him the first Sunday they ran into each other two weeks ago.

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