Page 226 of Sing with Me

When Diehl came around the island, Skye was washing some odd-looking things in a bowl. Leaning to see what they were, Diehl pecked her on the cheek.

Skye smiled. “So what did Pastor Fizz tell you—if it’s something you can talk about.”

“Only you because it affects us.”

“Oh?”

“I have failed in past relationships—as you well know, considering I just found out today that my sister told you everything about my sorry life.”

“Well, not everything.” Skye stirred the rice again and turned the heat to medium before she partially covered the top.

“Just about,” Diehl replied. “You knew about my bizarre marriage, the children who are not biologically mine, and my career that nearly killed me. You also saw me all hungover…”

Skye put finger on his lips. “Shh. It’s over. In the past.”

Diehl held her hand over his heart.

“You weren’t saved,” Skye said. “You did what you knew to do to the best of your knowledge without God’s help.”

“True. And my first wife wasn’t saved either. Between the two of us, we made a mess of things. And when times got tough, we hit the bottle.”

“You’ve told me that before,” Skye said. “There’s no reason to repeat what you said. Besides, your wife has been dead for more than a year. Your marriage to her ended when she died.”

“I guess I want to remind myself how far I’ve come.” Diehl reached for Skye. He held her hand. “God is putting an armor of protection around me for our sake.”

“And the sake of your children.”

Skye put a squash on her chopping board and showed him how to bias slice the squash after cutting off the ends.

Diehl tried to follow to the best of his ability. His squash slices were uneven.

Skye handed him another squash. “Please slice up all the squash. And the zucchini the same way.”

While Diehl cut up the vegetables, Skye moved on to her bowl of strange roots.

“What’s that?” Diehl asked. “That doesn’t look like ginger.”

“No, it’s turmeric.” Skye lifted the root in the air.

“Its looks like an orange cocoon.”

“It does not. You’re used to dried turmeric, right? This is where it came from.”

Skye chopped up the turmeric and put it into a small container. Then she showed Diehl another root. “This is ginger.”

“I know ginger.”

Skye moved on to cut up what looked like green sticks.

“What are those sticks?” Diehl asked.

“Lemongrass stalks.” Skye sliced off the root base and lifted it to Diehl’s nose. “What do you think it smells like?”

He took a whiff of it. And kissed Skye’s fingers. “Lemony.”

Skye retracted the lemongrass and made a face. “You’re contaminating everything!”

She washed the lemongrass stalk in the sink again as Diehl laughed.

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