Page 83 of Sing with Me

Now Isobel kept surprising Diehl long after she had died.

Like mother, like daughter.

Diehl pursed his lips. Mom opened her mouth to say something, but Diehl shook his head slightly. She closed her mouth again. Wiped her nose a bit.

Mom turned to Diehl. “Can Mark come over for dinner tonight?”

“I’ll ask.” Diehl texted the attorney. Of course, he could come. The Brooks family had him on a retainer, even though most of the time, they had called him only to update a will or something benign like that.

“Mark will be here at 6:30 p.m. Is that okay?” Diehl asked.

Mom nodded. She looked relieved. “I’m sure we can come up with a win-win solution.”

Is there such a thing?

There were no winners here.

The kids lost their mother. The Bishops lost their daughter. Diehl lost his wife—regardless of how she had dishonored their marriage twice.

“Zeta, we’re friends,” Mom said. “You can have the entire guest cottage next door. The kids can stay in their rooms in this cottage, and we can have dinner together.”

When Zeta didn’t say anything, Mom continued. “We’d want to wait until Friday when Diehl’s DNA results come in. Just for peace of mind.”

Wilson glanced at Zeta. “Well, Zeta, what’s a couple of days? We had a long flight. At my age, I’d rather not just turn around and fly back.”

“I’ll have the Gulfstream fueled and waiting for you whenever you go home to Hawaii,” Mom sweetened the deal.

“Even better,” Wilson said. “I’m tired of waiting at airports to catch a flight.”

Something didn’t seem right, but Diehl didn’t know what it was. Elisa and Ethan would automatically lose over ten billion dollars worth of inheritance each if they were taken from him—which they legally could not do. The Bishop name and their pineapple plantation could not come close to Diehl’s fortune.

Why were they doing this then?

Why did they want the grandchildren so badly?

“I want to see my grandkids now.” Zeta stood up.

Wilson did too, stretching.

“Of course,” Mom said. “We can join them in the pool, if you want. Dinner isn’t for another hour.”

“Could you get someone to bring my luggage from the limo to our rooms?” Zeta asked.

Mom nodded. She waved to Cara.

Cara’s eyes were red. Diehl could see them from where he was standing. For as long as he had known his once-nanny, Cara had always had a soft spot for children—especially those left behind in empty houses while their parents frolicked around the world.

For many years, Diehl and his siblings had been left with Cara. She practically raised them. Grandpa Brooks would take them to church, but Cara would feed and clothe them.

Diehl watched them leave, but stayed behind in the sunroom to catch his breath.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Diehl could use some company about now. Maybe a hug from Skye. He couldn’t remember the last time he had been attracted to someone this quickly.

Back in graduate school, it had been Isobel who had enticed him to her bed. Once that happened, he was attached to her. Isobel had played on his weakness, his sense of obligation and responsibility, and the rest of their relationship had been based on her playing psychological tricks on him, manipulating his feelings of guilt for having bedded her before they married. To Isobel, she had done something wild and illegal, wrong and secretive: she had slept with a professed Christian and ruined his testimony.

He thought he could never set foot in church again.

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