I reached for the remote and turned the volume up on the television, until I could no longer hear the sounds from down the street. Taking another bite of my sandwich, I leaned back on the sofa with my feet crossed in front of me and didn’t give Saul or Drake one more thought. At least I tried my best not to give them one more thought.
Four
The third request on Gran’s list was my goal for the day, then I thought I might find the library and spend a few hours there. I was procrastinating and I realized that but there were only seven things on Gran’s list and yesterday I had completed two of them. This process made me feel as if I had Gran here with me. I needed to slow it down. Once I finished it, I was afraid it would feel as if she had truly left.
Standing outside Signed Sips, I held the letter in my hand that I was supposed to bring to a Mrs. Hillya Garry. Gran had said I was to tell Hillya Garry it was from Honey and that I was to wait on her to read the letter. Again, another awkward request. Thanks a lot, Gran.
Signed Sips however was interesting. From outside you could see the walls lined in books. There were thousands of books inside. In front of all the books was what looked like a coffee shop with bakery items. The place was unique as was the name. Luckily it didn’t appear to be too terribly busy at the moment.
I opened the door and instead of the smell of coffee hitting me in the face, it was the books and I decided this was the best coffee place I had ever been. Don’t get me wrong, I love the smell of coffee but nothing beats the smell of a physical book that you can hold in your hands.
An older lady was placing muffins into the bakery display and looked up at me as the door bells chimed.
“Welcome to Signed Sips. How can I help you?” she asked smiling brightly. Her hair was the purest color white I had ever seen. She had it styled in a short bob that made her face look as if it were heart-shaped.
“I’m looking for a Mrs. Hillya Garry,” I said, returning her smile, glad to have found a friendly face since I was about to be annoying for a few moments.
The lady continued to smile. “You found her,” she replied.
This was even better. The nice lady was Hillya. She looked to be my gran’s age. This made sense. Another one of her friends. The kind I could picture my gran being friends with, unlike Lily who I visited yesterday at the penthouse.
I stepped up to the counter. “Hello, I am Henley Warren. My grandmother was Honey. She left me a list of things she’d like me to do after she passed away. I am to give you this letter,” I said and held out my hand to Hillya. When she reached out to take it, there was an odd expression on her face. She wasn’t close to tears or emotional. She seemed concerned almost. As if my gran had left her words she wasn’t sure she wanted to read. Knowing I had to follow this through I continued, “I’m also supposed to stand here while you read it. I’m sorry.” I added the last part because Hillya truly looked like she did not want to read the letter from my gran. Let alone have an audience.
Everyone loved Honey Warren or so I thought. Perhaps I was visiting the one person in this town who didn’t love my gran. Was this Gran’s way of making amends for something she had done. Hillya looked at the letter in her hand several moments then slowly opened it. I had expected her to ask me some questions first or tell me she didn’t have time to open it now.
Not wanting to stare at Hillya while she read the letter, I focused on the options in her bakery display. She had blueberry, banana, and praline pecan muffins. The cake donuts came in chocolate glaze, strawberry, and maple cream. Her cupcakes were works of art with pieces of candy bars, cookies and even tiny cupcakes as toppings. I glanced up as a girl came from the back carrying a tray of cookies and sat them down before helping the customer who had just walked in the door.
Hillya cleared her throat and I turned my attention back to her, hoping this wasn’t going to be something Gran had walked me into that was unsalvageable. If they had a grudge between them, I did hope Hillya could forgive Gran. She was gone now. There was no reason to hold a grudge. However, Gran doing anything to someone that would make them hold a grudge seemed unlikely.