Page 220 of Sing with Me

“Well, a sale is a sale.”

Avery shrugged. “It’s past four o’clock on a Friday afternoon. I’m heading over to Brinley’s house. How about you meet me there?”

“Nope. I have to get the menu done. Sorry. Tell Brinley I said hello.” Skye turned on the car ignition. “I’ll talk to you later, okay?”

“All right. Don’t say I didn’t try.” Avery sounded disappointed.

Skye let her go. She backed out of the small office complex, where the other car belonged to Gillian, who stayed at the office until five o’clock.

Before Skye knew it, she was at Seaside Organics. Pushing a cart down the aisles, she smiled as she remembered that Sunday afternoon in June when Diehl surprised her by showing up to help her shop for groceries. It might seem mundane to other people, but to Skye it was a memory she would cherish forever, even if they did not come together ever again.

I miss you, Diehl. I miss you so much.

Skye had no idea why she couldn’t tell Diehl the truth. On the other hand, he had indicated with his attention and kisses that he loved her. Not only visually, but he had texted her—and she screenshot and saved it on her phone, and memorized his words.

With God’s love, I can love you. I may be imperfect, but Christ is perfect. His love is what I give to you. Together we can help each other through the journey of life.

It would be a wonderful wedding vow—for some couple out there.

From that statement, Skye was convinced that Diehl was a true believer in Christ and that Diehl loved her.

How could she love him back? She had never been with any man intimately in her life. Her past boyfriends had kissed her and held her hands—like Diehl had done several times—but she had remained a pure Christian woman all her life, wishing for the day when God would bring to her doorsteps a Christian man who would love and cherish her the rest of her life, and be the father of her children.

Diehl was further along than Skye. He had so much more experience in life and love—having married before, although twice to the same woman. Thirteen or fourteen years of marriage. That was a lot of experience.

Also, he had kids. Whether they were biologically his or not, he was raising them as his own. Compared to him, Skye had zero knowledge in that department. She had tried to talk to Elisa the other day—before she was abducted—but Skye knew it was nothing like real parenting. Ethan was easier to deal with since he was always bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. But Skye hadn’t been there from the beginning when they were still infants.

Thirty-four and single, Skye felt that God had kept her this way for a reason. Perhaps a special someone would come along and sweep her off her feet…

Seriously?

Skye sighed all the way to the seafood section, where she picked up a generous filet of Icelandic cod for her new test dish. Next to the fish was a mound of shrimp with heads, tails, legs all attached.

“Are those fresh?” Skye couldn’t believe her eyes.

“Yes,” the fishmonger replied. “Caught this morning.”

“Give me ten pounds.” An overkill, perhaps, but she could binge on shrimp and put it in everything. She remembered how Aunt Irma would sneak shrimp into stir-fried vegetables, soups, salad, fried noodles, whatever she could “stick shrimp in,” as she would say.

“It won’t be a lot once you peel off the shells.”

Skye agreed with the fishmonger. “Please put them in a bag of ice.”

Skye began to think of all the new shrimp dishes she could conjure up for STL. Her mind was going a mile a minute, but she felt relaxed. Yeah, cooking was therapeutic for her—just as playing the guitar and singing also were.

Cooking was easier than playing the guitar or singing because Skye could cover up mistakes in the kitchen, even while cooking for someone. She could get creative and come up with a variation of the dish, and it would still work.

If she hit the wrong note while singing at church, or mess up on her guitar chords, the microphone would broadcast it to the ends of the church building, and she would be embarrassed. Not that it had happened often. In fact, she had almost always given a “perfect” performance at church.

That was because she practiced a lot for days and weeks.

Almost like what she was doing this evening. Practice making these dishes. If she could cook them well, then her chefs could too. The happier their customers, the more they would tell others about STL.

Skye was on the other side of the store in the bread section before she realized she had forgotten to buy some beef bone broth. The small amount was only for tonight’s test menu. If the dish passed her test, she’d ask Marlo to cook their own bone broth from scratch. Right now she had chicken broth stored up at the Sage Café freezer, but not beef.

Even though cooking was easy, she wished she had someone she could invite to taste the food. Gillian had other things to do. Brinley just had a baby. Avery was busy tonight. Skye wondered how objective she might be tasting and rating her own cooking.

Then again, she cooked alone most of the time. No one else needed to know the dishes that did not turn out—that she had to either eat it herself or throw out because it was absolutely inedible.

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