Page 208 of Sing with Me

“Oh, that’s too bad.”

“Yeah. I would have liked to see what my dad wrote all those years ago.”

“Have you checked Brinley’s music vault? Maybe your dad put them in there.”

“Hmm. I’ll check. Dad didn’t say a word about it at dinner.” Diehl tented his fingers together. “So you think I should stay here for eleven months to run the company with my dad until Riley can move to Atlanta and take over.”

“Pray about it. Does it make sense to you?” Skye finished her shrimp bowl. She decided not to get seconds.

“I’m leaning that way.”

“But?” She put the empty bowl in the sink. “Keep talking. I’m looking for two containers to put away my shrimp and rice.”

In between the opening and closing of cabinet doors, Skye heard Diehl talk about his relationship with his dad.

“Dad worked all his life to pass on the company to Brinley and me. If Parker were alive, he’d probably get the lion share. However, he’s dead. I get the feeling that Dad wants me to carry on after he’s gone. He doesn’t want me to sell Brooks Investments.”

Skye put away the leftovers in the refrigerator and decided to do the dishes after she finished talking with Diehl.

“You know, I’m glad Sebastian and I were able to spend some years with our aunt and uncle.” Skye sat down at the island with a glass of water. “We made good memories, the four of us.”

Diehl nodded.

“Every now and then I have a question that I thought my aunt would know the answer to, but she’s gone. I can’t hug her anymore. I can’t see my uncle laugh. I can still hear his laughter in my mind and memory, but he’s not here anymore.”

“Some day, Dad will be gone,” Diehl said.

“And we don’t know when. Perhaps for such a time as this, your job is to encourage him. I don’t know. You need to pray and ask God about your role,” Skye said. “After my uncle died, my aunt was never the same again. We tried to spend time with her, but we were busy with college. She passed away a few years later, just when we were about done with school.”

“That’s sad.”

“They were both saved. They’re in heaven now. Thank God.”

“What about us?” Diehl leaned toward the camera. “The Bible says that we’re not promised tomorrow either.”

Skye wiped the island with a damp dish rag. “Well, there is a time for everything. A time to work, a time to rest. A time to be apart, and a time to be together.”

“Is that in Ecclesiastes?” Diehl swiped his phone.

“I mixed it all up. Look up chapter three.”

As Diehl read Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, Skye listened to his calm reading voice and wished she could record it to listen to it again later.

To everything there is a season,

A time for every purpose under heaven:

A time to be born,

And a time to die;

A time to plant,

And a time to pluck what is planted;

A time to kill,

And a time to heal;

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