Sal and I jogged the rest of the way home together, and as we ran up the steps, I could hear the phone ringing inside. I grabbed the portable just in time; it was Tom, about to hang up.

“I see you made it home okay,” he said.

“I was just picking up the dog,” I replied, still out of breath. As we talked, I went to the cabinet, pulled out a strip of beef jerky, and gave it to Sal. She took it gratefully and carried it to her favorite spot by the sliding glass door to settle down and munch.

Tom said that he had just spoken at length to Derek. After some anguished soul-searching, Tom said, Derek had decided to step down as CEO of Feed the Need. Apparently, he and Sidra had been doing a lot of talking about their current lifestyle, and they had reached a compromise: Though Derek had no desire to reenter the foreign mission field, he did feel compelled to move into home missions. They planned to start some sort of local ministry together—something on a much smaller scale than Feed the Need.

“Of course, he’ll remain on Feed the Need’s board of directors and continue to serve in a consulting capacity,” Tom said, “but the day-to-day operations will be overseen by the new CEO.”

“Who’s that?” I asked.

“Gwen Harding!” Tom laughed. “Apparently, that was Wendell’s directive, and Derek is in full agreement. He said that Gwen was a bit shocked when he first told her this morning, but she’s been warming up to the idea all day.”

“Strike a blow for secretaries everywhere,” I said, smiling. “They practically run their companies anyway.”

I grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and headed out to the deck. Sliding the door shut behind me, I turned to face one of the most gorgeous sunsets I had ever seen. Of course, I thought almost every sunset on my inlet was the most gorgeous I had ever seen, but this one seemed especially beautiful.

“You’ll be glad to know that Derek and Sidra are going to go to counseling,” he continued. “The events of the last few days have really made them both take stock. But Derek said you started it all with a good tongue lashing—one that made a lot of sense.”

I smiled, picturing myself fussing at Derek in the diner.

“Yeah,” I said, “as Harriet would say, I really gave him ‘what-for.’”

Tom laughed the easy, warm laugh I knew so well.

“I wish you could see the sunset right now,” I said, sitting in my favorite deck chair. “It has the most incredible colors, and every one of them is reflected in the water.”

“Sounds gorgeous.”

“It is.”

He was quiet for a moment, and I closed my eyes, trying to picture him here with me, wondering if it was a place he could ever belong to.