Page 87 of Sing with Me

Would it be the right thing to do?

She had thought about it on and off, but hadn’t prayed much about it.

Perhaps Chef Onada and other chefs could come together to buy Skye’s share of Saffron. The restaurant was profitable, but Skye had lost interest in it since her brother didn’t want it back.

She kept reminding herself that if not for Sebastian, she wouldn’t have become a co-owner of Saffron.

“I’ll see you at noon then,” Jared said.

“Please don’t be late. The meeting has to end at one o’clock.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

Skye finished her breakfast. She had two hours before she had to start driving to Saffron for the meeting. If she could get an hour of guitar practice in, she would be much better prepared for the quartet’s performance at the Christmas festival in December. She liked to be prepared early and not worry about it—even though December was over five months away.

Her mind was anywhere but on driving when she got into her van. Fortunately, traffic was still light going away from the beaches and pier. She did not turn on the radio because she wanted to think through a few things and pray along the way.

“Most of all, Lord, I want to be in Your perfect will for my life,” Skyed prayed in the van.

The windows were rolled up, the AC was on, and she was alone with her thoughts and prayers.

“I don’t know why Diehl canceled today, but I pray that if he has some unspoken prayers, please answer them. May Your perfect will be done there as well, whatever his problem might be.”

Skye turned in to her tree-lined street. As pretty as this road might be, Skye still preferred a beach house any day. She had been keeping an eye on Brinley’s beach house for a few years, but there were other houses along the oceanfront too.

If she sold her shares of Saffron, she could buy herself a beach house with a nice kitchen in it, like the one she had helped Brinley design. It would beat renting any day.

Sometimes she would pass by her old house near the pier and wish she hadn’t sold it. However, she had to do it.

It made her happy to have helped her brother—although now she was stuck with two business partners she’d rather not have anything to do with.

“I know You can do anything, Lord,” Skye prayed. “Is there something You can do about my Saffron situation? Soon, please?”

She entered her empty house, kicked off her shoes, and padded across the wood floor to her guitar propped up on its stand in the small living room.

She had pulled back the curtains before she left the house this morning. And now sunshine streamed into the living room, exposing the scratches on the pine floor and the coffee table.

She found her guitar pick.

“His Eye is on the Sparrow” came to mind, and she recalled how she had almost fallen in love with Diehl after she sang the song with him on the piano, when he wiped tears from her check that Friday when he first came to town.

One week and a day later, they had kissed.

Five days after that, Diehl abruptly canceled his meals for two days.

What did it all mean?

Skye reminded herself not to read too much into it. She picked up her guitar and began practicing the first parts of the classical piece she had agreed to play. The difficult piece kept her occupied for a good hour, during which time she did not think of Diehl.

At all.

Chapter Twenty-Six

After his DNA results came early on Thursday evening, the next two days fused together for Diehl since he returned from his parents’ house on Seaside Island to his sister’s beach house on St. Simon’s Island.

It was problematic that he hadn’t come home alone. With him were at least several bottles from Dad’s cellar, and half a dozen of Mom’s assorted finds at auctions she had frequented when she was too bored with nothing better to do. A couple of the bottles looked like they had diamonds on the glass carving, but he’d make sure to return those to Mom, just in case she wanted to leave them in the cabinet for show.

He couldn’t recall which bottle he had emptied first, but he saved the most expensive booze for last—in honor of the mother who had birthed him.

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