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I expected her to be gushing about graduation and her plans for the bakery. Instead, she just sounds… sad.
“How’s your grandma?” I ask her as I grab my second cup of coffee from the pot.
Talking about her grams can always put Hartley in a good mood. It’s one of the biggest things that we bonded over as kids.
“She passed away a week ago,” Hartley says after a pause and my stomach clenches.
“Hartley… I’m so sorry,” I say sincerely.
“I know. Thanks,” she says as she clears her throat.
“Can I do anything?”
“No, we… we’re having the funeral this Tuesday. I already made all of the arrangements,” she says before I can offer to help with them.
“I’m so sorry,” I say again.
It feels useless. I know firsthand that those words don’t really help. Not when you’ve lost someone as important as Grams was to Hartley.
“I know,” she chokes out and I feel tears sting my own eyes.
“Maybe I can come down for the funeral,” I suggest. “I can stay and help with whatever you need.”
“Flights are going to be crazy expensive,” she says and I know that she’s right. “I don’t really have a place for you to stay either. I’m working on packing up our apartment.”
“Are you moving?” I ask her with a frown.
I can’t imagine leaving my grandma’s cabin or this place that reminds me so much of her. Being around her things, her town, makes me feel closer to her. It gives me comfort being around the same things that she was.
“Yeah. I just… I just need a change,” she says and I can tell that she’s holding back tears.
My heart breaks for her and I bite my bottom lip, trying to hold back my own tears. A few slip free and I hurry to wipe them away.
“I get it,” I admit. Being around Destiny Falls and living in her cabin was hard for me at first too. I just missed her so much, but over time it got a little easier. “I’m really sorry. I loved your grandma and I know how much she meant to you.”
“She loved you too,” she tells me and I smile slightly.
“You should come up here and visit me. You can see if you like Michigan.”
“Maybe. I don’t know where I want to go yet.”
“How are you going to decide? Just travel around for a bit?”
“Nah, I think that I’ll just throw a dart at a map,” she says and I grin.
That sounds like Hartley. I think that the reason that I clicked with Hartley so fast was because she reminds me so much of Madelyn. Both of them are more go with the flow than I am. They tend to leap before they look.
“Well, let me know where you wind up and if you need anything, just let me know. I mean it, Hartley.”
“I know. Thanks. I miss you.”
“I miss you too,” I tell her and we catch up for a few more minutes before she has to hang up.
She tells me about graduation and I tell her about the robbery. She has a million questions about that and if we’ve caught the guys yet. She promises to check in once she gets to wherever she’s going and I know that I’ll be texting and calling her more over the next few weeks to make sure she doesn’t feel alone.
“I’ll talk to you soon,” I tell her.
“Yeah, I’ll call you once I’m settled.”
“Sounds good.”
We hang up and I try to clear my head as I head back to work.
It isn’t until Arlo walks in the front door of Blast From The Past that I start to freak out about what happened last night.
