Page 59 of Sing with Me

“Go, Diehl,” Avery said. “I’ll stay here with Ethan. I’m sure our handsome gentleman is going to help me eat the rest of the cheesecake right now, and then we’ll pack up and see you at the house. Right, Mr. Ethan?”

Ethan made a face. “If we eat the rest of the cheesecake we’ll be so sick.”

“Shall we find out?” Avery asked.

“Really?” Ethan didn’t even look at Diehl.

Diehl gasped. But he turned to go. “Thanks, Avery. I owe you one.”

“You owe me nothing. Go find your daughter.”

Chapter Seventeen

Thank God she’s wearing black.

Elisa stood out from the crowd on the boardwalk heading toward the public entrance to the beach.

Skye found it hard to walk fast in her flip-flops. She took them off and carried them as she ran barefoot across the boardwalk.

Ahead of her, Elisa made a sharp left turn and illegally crossed someone’s yard. She disappeared somewhere in the front of the house which was next door to Diehl’s cottage.

Skye picked up pace and followed Elisa across the driveway to Brinley’s beach house.

When Skye rounded the corner, Elisa stood there, waiting for her.

“Why are you following me?” Elisa snapped.

“Because my mother died when I was thirteen and I never had a chance say goodbye.” How all those words tumbled out of her mouth, Skye would never know, but she wasn’t going to retract them.

Elisa’s jaw dropped. “You too?”

Her words were a confirmation to Skye regarding why she had to come to the picnic today. She had something Elisa needed. She had the comfort that God had given her way back then, as it was written in 2 Corinthians 1:3-4.

“In my darkest time of need, my aunt sat down with me on the back porch and comforted me,” Skye said.

“You’re not my aunt.” Elisa started walking again.

“Does it matter?” Skye went after her.

At the base of an old live oak tree on the other side of the bird feeder and bird bath, Elisa sat down on a protruding root.

“It took me years to heal,” Skye said. “However, I believe that it would have taken me longer if my aunt had not talked with me.”

“Don’t talk to me.”

“How about if I listen?” Skye found a patch of green grass within earshot of Elisa. She dropped her flip-flops to the grass, and sat down.

She was six or seven feet away from Elisa. “Go on.”

“Go on what?”

“Talk to me. I’m here.”

Elisa didn’t say a word.

Skye checked the grass around her. It was dry. She lay down on the grass, with her face looking up at the canopy of spreading branches.

“You know, this tree has been here for at least a hundred years. It has seen many life cycles in human lives. Maybe deaths, destruction, rebuilding, and so forth. What do you think it has seen?”

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