Page 235 of Sing with Me

Skye began to sob.

“Ecclesiastes 3:4 says there is ‘a time to weep, and a time to laugh, a time to mourn, and a time to dance.’ Our time to weep and mourn is over, Skye. Our time to laugh and dance is here. This is our time to heal, to embrace, and to love.” Diehl paused, his mind going blank. “I forget everything else I wanted to say. Will you marry me anyway?”

Skye smiled through her tears. She barely nodded.

“I can’t hear you. The surf’s too loud.” Diehl reached for Skye’s hand.

“I love you too, and yes, I’ll marry you, Diehl Jeremiah Brooks.” Skye extended her left hand toward Diehl.

“Ah, you know my middle name.”

“Brinley told me you were named after the first Brooks who arrived in Savannah in the eighteenth century.”

Diehl smiled. “Jeremiah Brooks bought his wife, Damaris, a Stradivarius violin. I bought you something smaller.”

He placed the rare twelve-carat blue diamond on Skye’s ring finger. It was worth trading in his 1964 Ferrari 250 GTO for.

Technically, he had sold the sports car to Dad, who had room left in his garage for yet another vehicle he wouldn’t have time to drive. Diehl then exchanged half of the forty-eight million-dollar profit for this blue diamond the color of the sky above St. Simon’s Island.

Its previous owner—an Asian collector who had paid thirty-eight million for it at a London auction some years before—almost refused to sell it at less than what he had paid for it, until Diehl told him his love story. Diehl managed to negotiate seven million off the price because the diamond wasn’t as deep a blue as the most expensive blue diamond ever sold. This one was sky blue, not lapis lazuli blue.

Diehl knew he had to have it. If the collector had stayed his position, Diehl would have paid for it because this was the diamond he wanted to give to Skye.

And it fitted perfectly on a gold ring.

Skye stared at the diamond. “It’s my favorite blue.”

“Is it?” He learned new things about her every day.“Perfect.”

“Sky blue.”

“Like your name.” Diehl got off his knee and stepped toward Skye.

“No, like the sky above us and the sea in front of us.” Skye touched the ring. “It fits perfectly. How did you know what size ring I wear?”

“I asked your brother, and his wife said you have the same jeweler as Brinley.”

“Wait. You talked to my brother?”

“He gave me his blessing.”

Skye’s eyes widened. “When?”

“Last week.”

“Last week?”

“As soon as my ring arrived.” Diehl didn’t say that he sent Malik to Tokyo to pick up the ring in person.

“You’ve been planning this.”

“All month long.” Diehl brushed strands of hair away from Skye’s face. He glanced at her lips again. They were pink and smiling, beckoning him to—

A rush of air made Diehl turn toward the noise only to find a frisbee flying past his head.

“Sorry!” someone said, running around the couple toward the frisbee.

In an instant, he was tackled into the sand by a bigger man. Both of them splashed into the ocean waves.

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