Apple of My Eye (Tiger's Eye Mystery #7) - Alyssa Day Page 0,33

Jacksonville. He was unfortunately shaped, kind of like a bowling pin, Uncle Mike had said one time, and the image had stuck in my mind. Tall, with a rounded belly and a slightly too-small head. But he was just as nice as Mellie, so I'd always liked him.

"Here's your GYST order, Tess," he said, handing me a bag with two boxes inside. "Mellie gave me specific instructions. And I added a special jelly donut just for you."'

He beamed, and I returned his smile. "Thanks, Vern. It's good of you to help Mellie out. How's she doing?"

"Not great. It might take her all week to get over this one," he said, frowning a little.

The man behind me, who was one of the Jenkins's cousins from out of town, I thought—we get lots of relatives in town on festival week—whistled.

"Yeah, seems like half the town has a cold. I hope it doesn't ruin the weekend."

"Me too." I thanked Vern and paid and then headed out, hoping my donut order was at least partly right but figuring it wasn't the most important thing in the world if not. I knew one thing for sure: I would not be eating the 'special' jelly donut.

When I pulled up in front of Dead End Pawn, I was pleased to see that Eleanor was already there. I was lucky to have her, even part-time, and spent a lot of time hoping that she wouldn't decide to quit working altogether to spend more time with her grandson.

"The decorations look great," she said, looking up from polishing the glass countertop next to the cash register when I walked in. "Nice job. I hear Jack is back. How was the date? Did you get me a chocolate glazed?"

She must have talked to Aunt Ruby. My date hadn't had time to hit the general gossip mill.

I laughed and put the bags on the counter. "Let me lock my tote bag in the back, okay? And thanks, yes, Jack is back, the date was great, and I have no idea what donuts are in here. Poor Vern was having a hard time keeping up. He gave me a 'special' jelly donut."

She raised her eyebrows. "You hate jelly donuts!"

"Right? But the poor guy is overwhelmed. I wasn't about to tell him that when he was so pleased with himself." I grinned at her and headed to the back room, where I locked my purse away in the vault and started a pot of coffee.

Eleanor pushed open the door and stood in the doorway, and in the bright light I noticed that she looked tired.

"Are you okay? You're not getting sick too, are you?" I studied her. "If you don't feel well, please go home and get some rest. I can handle this group on my own. And you know you'll need to feel better by Friday so you can take Zane all over the festival. I hear he and Shelley are planning to eat one of every single different type of fair food."

She smiled a little but then bit her lip. "No, Tess, I'm not sick. I wouldn't bring something contagious here for you to catch. No, it's just… I…"

The chimes over the front door sounded, and she shook her head. "Nothing. I'll tell you later. Time to get to work."

But it was Susan, not Mr. Holby, who walked in the door just as my phone rang.

"Hey, Susan. Have a donut. Coffee's on too." I reached for my phone, surprised to see Mr. Holby's face on the screen.

"Hello?"

"Good morning, Tess. I'm calling to say that we're having some logistical problems here. Both of our buses are in the shop unexpectedly, so we're going to be coming through tomorrow instead of today, if that's okay?"

"I hope it's nothing serious?" The GYST tour ran on a shoestring, and I imagined fixing mechanical issues on those buses wasn't cheap.

"Not too serious, luckily. One bus is having routine maintenance, but the other is running choppy, and I'm not going to get out on the road in a faulty bus with a couple dozen senior citizens." He chuckled. "Not that I'm a spring chicken myself."

"You'll never get old, Mr. Holby," I said, smiling. "Take care. We'll see you tomorrow."

I looked up to see Eleanor waving frantically and pointing at herself. "And Eleanor says hi."

"Tell her hello. See you in the morning, kiddo."

We hung up, and I sighed. "Well, you may as well take one of these boxes of donuts back to the office with you, Susan. I won't