Page 2 of Honey Bee Library
“Find things that were a part of her life back when Leonard was around. You never know what might jog her memory. I can’t guarantee anything, but she’s still in there. I don’t want to give you false hope, but hope, even if it’s small, is important.”
That wasn’t the first time I’d heard that advice. Her doctors had told us the same. It was just hard to hear that I wasn’t important enough to bring her back. I cleared my throat and nodded. “Thanks.”
She reached out and patted my arm again. “Of course. And welcome to the family.”
Gran started complaining, so Faith gave us one last smile and a nod before she hurried over to comfort Gran. I glanced at Dad, who nodded, and we both walked out of the room. It felt surreal, walking out of that place knowing that we were leaving Gran behind. Part of me wanted to turn around and head back in to get her.
She was family. You don’t leave family behind.
We were fifteen minutes down the road when Dad declared that he was hungry. It was then that I realized I was famished as well. We settled on a local hamburger joint, and I took a left to head in its direction. Once I found a parking spot, I lingered in the car for a moment so I could text Maddie to let her know I was stopping to get dinner and that I was still planning on being at Obsidian later. I trusted my assistant to make sure that the club opened on time.
She sent me back a salute emoji as I opened the car door and climbed out.
The restaurant was in full dinner mode when we pulled open the front door. We slipped in behind the groups of people that were lingering by the door, waiting for the hostess to seat them. Thankfully, the wait wasn’t too long, and we were seated fifteen minutes later.
We both ordered quickly and handed the menus to the waitress. A few minutes later, our drinks were dropped off, and Dad and I kept quiet as we sipped on our sodas and glanced around.
“I have a confession to make,” Dad finally said, drawing my attention over to him. He was fiddling with his straw.
I frowned. “Okay.” Dad’s tone was ominous, and I wasn’t sure how many more surprises I could take.
He shifted in his seat and removed something from his back pocket. A folded-up piece of paper. “I want you to have this.” He slid the paper across the table and left it right in front of me.
“What is this?” I asked as I picked up the paper and unfolded it. It looked like some sort of hand-written contract. “I, Doug Gentlesman, acknowledge that Nicholas Watkins is the rightful co-owner of the Harmony Island Diner, a.k.a. The Sunny Side Up Diner. He won it in a hand of poker.” There were two signatures and a date at the bottom. I glanced up at him. “What is this?” I asked again. Even though I’d read the words, none of them were making any sort of sense to me.
“I found some of your mother’s old diaries in your grandmother’s attic before we sold the house. She wrote about your grandparents bringing her to some small island town called Harmony Island when she was a kid. She talked about the diner there, that it was a place that brought her peace.” He scrubbed his face. “I thought she might be there.”
“At the diner?”
“In Harmony.”
“Ah.”
“When I got there, I went to the diner, but I didn’t see her. I spent a few days in town, found a little underground gambling circle. When I met Doug, I knew what I needed to do. If we wanted a chance to find your mom again, I needed to make sure that Doug didn’t gamble his diner away. It’s our only connection to her.” He reached forward and tapped the paper. “The diner is half ours.”
My emotions were on high alert now. I’d never spoken about Mom this much with Dad, and I’d never been this close to something that had been important to her. I was already emotionally raw from dropping off Gran. What Dad was saying was almost too much for me to process.
“What did Faith say? Bring something to Gran that’s from the time period she’s stuck in?” Dad leaned back and folded his arms. “What if that thing is…your mom.” The last two words were barely a whisper.
I stared hard at the contract as if it held answers to the questions I wasn’t sure I was ready to ask. Was my mom still alive? Did she frequent the diner? Could I find her? Would it help Gran?
So much pain was wrapped up in my past, and I wasn’t sure I was ready to face any of it. But I didn’t have the time to process my feelings. Every day Gran’s condition got worse. If I wanted a chance to see my grandmother again before she passed, I needed to do everything in my power to make it happen.
There was going to come a time when the window of opportunity would close. Forever.
“So, what am I supposed to do?”
The waitress delivered our food. Thankfully, she seemed to sense that she was interrupting an important conversation, so she didn’t linger. She dropped off our food, quickly checked that it matched our order, and then hurried off to help another table.
I was grateful for the reprieve. It gave me enough time to process everything Dad had told me. By the time my dinner was halfway consumed, I was ready to talk.
“What’s the town called?” I asked as I picked up my soda and took a drink.
“Harmony Island. It’s off the coast of North Carolina.”
I nodded as I committed it to memory. Then I wiped my hands on my napkin, folded the contract, and slid it into my back pocket. I returned to my plate and took another bite of my burger.
After I swallowed, I nodded. “I’ll head there tomorrow.”
