Page 53 of Sing with Me

“Not to you?”

Instead of answering his question, Skye simply said, “I’ll continue to pray for you.”

Chapter Fifteen

Usually, Skye slept in on Saturday mornings, but today, she rose early to try to look halfway decent for the picnic with Diehl and his kids. Even as she painted new nail polish on her toes and looked for matching flip-flops to go with her summer blouse, she felt out of place.

“Lord, I don’t know about this.” She hadn’t asked Diehl if anyone else would be there.

The last thing she wanted would be to give Diehl the wrong idea about where she stood with him.

Which was nowhere.

Skye admitted that she was a little bit attracted to Diehl. He was single, and so was she. However, she knew that some things were never meant to be. Sebastian’s catering company had cooked for the Brooks before in their numerous Christmas functions, and Skye helped whenever she had time.

She had seen what inherited money looked like. She didn’t want to say that the Brooks had it easy, but they certainly didn’t have to scrape and make do from scratch all the way up to middle class. They had begun at a different plane than she and Sebastian had.

Then again, Skye wasn’t poor. Uncle Miller had paid for chef school for both Skye and her brother. After their uncle died, he left them an established Sage Café, which Sebastian still owned. From there, Sebastian started the highly successful Saffron on Jekyll, which Skye still partly owned.

Sebastian also maintained a catering business while. Skye ran her personal chef establishment. Neither of them were short for money.

On her way to the bathtub, she swiped her iPad to check her bank account. Saffron on Jekyll turned a profit yet again—five years in a row. Her personal chef business was vibrant, although she wasn’t sure what the future held. She wanted to start that cooking show, but she wasn’t sure if she was up to the task.

“I mean, that’s one more thing to an already full plate,” she said aloud to no one.

The hot bath soothed her muscles and bones. Skye had worked as hard as her brother, but he knew how to relax and have fun too. In fact, he still managed his Sage Café on St. Simon’s Island, even though he spent most of his time in Athens and Atlanta now.

He promised to come home to St. Simon’s for Christmas, but that wasn’t for another six months.

In other words, Skye had to find ways to fill her lonely days since she couldn’t hang out with her brother anymore.

Happily married, Sebastian couldn’t wait for his wife to finish her graduate school because they were planning to have a baby afterwards.

Marriage.

Babies.

Family.

Those things seemed so far away to Skye. Almost unattainable.

She had told herself once before that she had plenty of time. Well, at the age of thirty-four, she hoped she still had plenty of time for marriage and family.

For now, she looked forward to being a doting aunt to her future nieces and nephews.

Speaking of which…

Babies!

She got out of the tub, took a shower, and went straight to her schedule. How could she almost totally forget about it? Brinley’s baby shower was in three weeks!

She dried her hair and threw on a cotton T-shirt and shorts—because she wasn’t sure what she wanted to wear to the picnic yet.

She texted Avery.

Avery called back on FaceTime. “I’m on it.”

Skye felt relieved. “I’ve been so busy cooking that I forgot all about the prep work.”

---