Page 136 of Sing with Me

“If I had been passed out upstairs in my bedroom, you would never have known that I sometimes drink—or drank, though not as much as I used to when Isobel was alive, probably because I need to be a sober single dad for my kids’ sake.”

“The terrible news pushed you back to an old habit that you had done away with. Is that what you’re saying?” Skye tried to keep her voice calm, but it was cracking.

Diehl reached for her hand. “Again, I’m sorry. I should have run to God instead of to the bottle.”

“I will pray for you that you will not be where my parents were.” Skye drew a deep breath. “They tried to solve all their woes with wine. When that didn’t work, they tried something stronger and stronger. Next thing they knew, bam. Train wreck. Literally.”

She wasn’t smiling. Tears pooled in her eyes. “I don’t want you to be like that.”

Diehl remembered that day when she sang “His Eye is on the Sparrow” at the beach house while he accompanied her on the piano. Afterwards, she was in such sorrow that he felt compelled to wipe the tear from her cheek.

There it was again.

For the first time in his life, he wanted to be her champion and protector, to be her alert watchman on a tower to keep her safe from the cruel world out there. To do that, he had to be aware of her every concern. He had to be alert.

And sober.

“If all the solution you can see is through the cylindrical glass on the bottle, your perspective will always be distorted,” Skye said quietly as Diehl kissed her softly on her forehead. “See your problems through the eyes of God, and you will not have a vision problem. Or a hangover.”

She said it matter-of-factly, like she had no bone in the fight. Her objectivism frightened Diehl because he wondered if she could compartmentalize him out of her life.

He didn’t want that.

At the same time, what she said was true.

This paternity problem was here to stay. He had to deal with it. If he hadn’t been drunk out of his mind on Friday night, he wouldn’t have been passed out on Saturday morning when his family tried to contact him.

If Skye hadn’t shown up, his mom would have. And then she’d be totally disappointed in his lack of control. Then again, was Skye disappointed too?

“Are you…uh…” Diehl couldn’t get the words out.

“What, Diehl?”

Diehl cleared his throat. “Are you disappointed in me?”

To be fair, he only drank when he wasn’t working. That was why he had to work all the time so that he didn’t have time to waste on things like getting drunk. There was so much work to do, but he had lost control of himself on Friday night.

And Thursday night.

Dad’s cellar was potent. He should never have gone down there. The temptation had been too great.

Once upon a time, he and Jared had been drinking buddies. He replaced Jared with Isobel, who could knock down way more than Diehl. Since they had a chauffeur, Diehl didn’t have to worry about being the designated driver.

He couldn’t remember drinking the nights away with Isobel, but the last sermon he had heard in a church while he was in college was about a “strange woman” in Proverbs 2. Two verses jumped out at him then, and had stayed with him to this day.

For her house leads down to death,

And her paths to the dead;

None who go to her return,

Nor do they regain the paths of life…

Proverbs 2:18-19 had convicted him much, but the nail in the coffin had come in Proverbs 7. Somehow at this minute, he recalled the elderly pastor Reverend Cole—still standing at that time but with a cane in one hand and a Bible in another—preaching God’s Word to him.

With her enticing speech she caused him to yield,

With her flattering lips she seduced him.

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