“You could lead the gospel band.”
“I didn’t do so great last night, but I’d try again.” At once, she remembered she was hungry and took a bite of her toast. Plenty of peanut butter and the toast had cooled enough so as not to melt the butter and peanut butter. “Caleb, this is a perfect piece of toast.”
“I wouldn’t be such a bad innkeeper if I could make good toast every time, right?”
She smiled at his little joke, checked the time on the bookcase clock. Almost eight. The band would trickle in soon. “Tomorrow at this time, the stage crew will start setting up. The next morning, I’ll leave. By myself, if my aunt hasn’t come back.”
“Looking forward to going home?”
“I’m not sure. Maybe.” She nibbled at her toast, stalling for time. How much more of her personal life should she share with a man who wouldn’t consider a relationship with her?
If she wanted to tell him, she had to do it now, before the band arrived. “I thought the island, or at least the farm, would feel like home. I came here looking for a sense of heritage, but it didn’t happen.”
“You’ve been gone a long time.”
“True. Maybe my hopes were unrealistic. But I also wanted to connect with my family. I didn’t realize a working vacation would amount to a lot of work and not much vacation.”
Caleb laid down his fork. “You didn’t get to spend much time with them.”
“I feel disconnected. I’m a lot younger than my siblings, but I still want a relationship with them. It’s hard since we’ve had separate lives since I was ten. Most of the time, I don’t feel important to them.”
“Things would be different if you lived closer and were in each other’s lives.”
“Right. Charlotte can’t come to the concert, and I had to beg Ethan for a maybe. Mama calls me two or three times a week. But I never hear my father’s or my siblings’ voices unless I call them, and then it’s awkward.” She hesitated. “It’s not their fault. We simply don’t have a lot in common.” It felt good to tell someone, though.
The longing for a home of her own crept up on her again. She wanted to push aside the feeling. Instead, she embraced it, acknowledged that she wanted—needed—to live the life the Lord intended.
Time to stop longing for closeness with siblings she barely knew. To stop living in Aunt Dahlia’s giant shadow.
The thought surprised her. Maybe it meant she really could lead a new band, one with more of her personality and less of Aunt Dahlia’s.
It was time to become—truly become—Ariel Denton Sullivan.
Ariel Denton Sullivan…
Wasn’t that her true essence? A Sullivan by birth. A Denton in scope.
And Ariel? That was her core, her heart. The intangible that defined her, set her apart from her father’s heritage and her aunt’s legacy.
And wouldn’t it look nice on a record?
Chapter Seventeen
Caleb had one chance to fix things with Ariel. Because the morning after the concert, she’d board the plane for Nashville.
He texted Oscar, the sound man in charge of the concert’s live feed, and asked him to cut the mic after “Amazing Grace.” Then, after a three-hour rehearsal that gave Caleb zero chances to talk with her, the band took off for a farewell picnic lunch at the lighthouse. Just the place for him to take Blake’s advice and admit to Ariel that he was a fool.
Well, that wasn’t exactly what Blake said, but it was the truth.
Out here on the beach, her hair a little messy, Ariel walked barefoot, carrying her sandals, her perfect smile even more beautiful than before.
She simply took his breath. If only he could see that face every day for the rest of his life…
Yes. The rest of his life. Because now he knew the truth: he’d never love another woman.
Finally, when the band prepared to leave, she hung back a moment, taking one last look at the lake view. Caleb stepped closer. “Stay behind and talk for a few minutes?”
“A few.” She caught the driver’s attention and waved him on. “We could go out on the boardwalk.”
