Julia's Journey (A Coming Home Again Novel Book 2) (16 page)

Chapter Twenty-One

Greyson

It’s another great day. Absolutely great! I officially
have no pants that fit. I’ve just gone through each pair and cannot button even
one single pair. This makes me a happy man. I’m getting stronger and healthier.
I unlock my bedroom door and go to find Julia. I always lock the door when I’m
changing because I think it’s clearly noted that my prissy companion has no
concerns with just barging in on me. I find her sitting at the table, flipping
through her journal.

“Okay,
Thorton
. I’ve
put this off for as long as I can.” I sigh deeply and she looks up at me
cautiously. “We’ve got to go shopping.” I can’t keep the smile off my face.

She smiles approvingly at me, because she knows
how hard I’ve been working to put my weight back on. “Is that why you’ve been
wearing your swim trunks all week?” she asks with a raised eyebrow.

“That it is.” I’m wearing them now.

Julia closes her journal and eases around me.
She rears her hand back and pops me on my backside playfully. “Okay, fatty.
Let’s go find you some big boy pants.”

I laugh as I head out to pull the mopeds out of
storage. I’ve not missed the fact that Julia has only been wearing yoga pants
for the past two weeks. This makes me smile even more. She’s looking healthier
too. The woman is getting sexier right before my eyes and I know I need to get
those thoughts in check before they get me in trouble.

Julia meets me outside and climbs on her moped
without muttering one word of complaint. She’s claimed that moped as hers only
and tied a pink scarf to the handlebars a few weeks back.
Fine
by me as long as she will ride it without whining.

I find us a mall and we head straight to a
popular apparel store with both men and women’s clothing. Julia sets off
towards the women’s section and I head to the men’s. I was a size twenty-eight
waist so I go with size thirty-two today. That should give me room to grow
into. I grab up a half dozen pairs of jeans, another half dozen shorts and a
few pairs of slacks for good measure. I scoop up several large extra-long
T-shirts since the mediums are getting too tight and add some button downs to
the pile.
As I walk around, my gaze lands on a table with
vintage T-shirts with various themes—old fashioned food brands, antique car
logos, and superhero emblems.
They’re pretty cool, but I pass them up.
I’m a guy and so I don’t require the wasted time with a dressing room. I’ve got
an armload of selections within fifteen minutes. I haul it to the register and
ask the cute little redhead to hold my stuff while I wait on Julia. I already
know this is going to take longer than I want.

I wander over to the accessories to check out
the hat selections. My collection is well into the hundreds already. Online
shopping for hats had become a thing for me and my mom for a while. Really, I
couldn’t do anything else while I was laid up sick. So we ordered every type of
hat and beanie knit cap you can find. I lost my hair early on in the treatments
and remained bald for the duration. Hats were my friend in those years.

A neon green fedora calls
out boldly from the rack—no lie
. I slip it on and take a goofy selfie and send it to my mom.
After I send it, I glance up and see Julia disappear into the dressing room. I
place the hat back on the rack and wander around some more. My phone
pings
and it’s a smiling emoji from my mom. I look around
some more and notice a familiar couple on a large black and white poster that
covers most of a wall. I raise my phone and snap a picture of it and send it to
my mom and dad with the text –
Wild.
Couple in this shot is shopping in this store as we speak
.

It’s a classic shot that has no trending style
stigma, so it really doesn’t go out of date. Julia and I are dressed in white
button-down dress shirts that are untucked and faded denim jeans. The shot is
at least three years old. It was one of the last shoots I posed with her. My
shirt is unbuttoned completely, but barely gaped open and Julia’s is in the
same manner except for one button. It is secured in a strategic place at her
breasts. The photographer gave us direction to look sultry and serious, but
right in the middle of the shoot, I told Julia a lame joke and cracked us both
up. We figured those shots were trashed, but were surprised when the company
actually picked this shot as the main ad for the campaign. I love it, too. The
photo captures Julia with her head thrown back against my chest laughing—her
long hair spilling all over the place from the fan they were using. It looks
like we are outside on some ordinary street. I am standing slightly behind her
with one arm wrapped around her waist, grinning right at the camera.

My phone interrupts the
memory with text messages.

Mom –
So
good looking.

Dad –
Of course.
He looks just like his dad.

Mom –
Sure
he does. ;-)

Dad –
What
are you doing hanging out in a store. What about your adventure?

Me –
Got
too big for my breeches.

I crack up at the next message my dad sends. He
and I have this thing with Bible verses. That is why I started doing it with
Julia. He sends Proverbs 25:16.
If he only knew the
significance of the word
honey
to me
now.
It’s my favorite word actually.

Dad -
If you find honey, eat just enough-- too much of it, and you
will vomit.

I laugh so loud that I have drawn attention. I pipe down and
look around for Julia. I’ve already been in this place for longer than I want.
I’m past my limit on patience. I slip into the dressing room and spot her flip
flops under the door of one room. I’m about to bang on the door and demand she
speed it up when I realize Julia is in there crying and that thing hits me in
the pit of my stomach. I open the door and ease into the dressing stall with
her. I stand behind her as she checks out a pair of jeans she’s wearing in the
mirror. She wipes her cheeks dry and won’t meet my eyes. She looks killer in
the new jeans she’s trying on, making it hard for me to swallow.

“What’s wrong?”

She meets my eyes through the mirror and just shakes her
head before going back to inspecting the jeans in distaste.

“Come on,
Thorton
. Spit it out.”

She doesn’t answer right away, but when she does it’s just
over a whisper. “I’ve gone up three sizes.” This quiet confession makes me
smile, but Julia’s not happy at all. She’s gone from a double zero to a two.

Tears spill over her cheeks again and I swear it breaks
something in me. Before I think better of it, I turn her around to me and walk
us until I’ve pressed her against the mirror. My hands travel over her sides
and pause at her hips. I drag her closer to my own, giving in to my own wants
some and just love on her.

I bend slightly to look her in the eyes. “You have no idea
how healthy and feminine you look right now… Never have I seen you more
beautiful than
right now
.” I press my
hips into hers to emphasize the point. Her breath catches and comes out close
to a moan, and so I know she gets my point loud and clear. “You’re driving me
crazy with these sweet little curves,” I whisper into her ear. Then I let my
reserve slip a little further and do what I’ve wanted to do since the day I met
this woman—well, one of the things anyway. I allow my mouth to travel down the
length of her long delicate neck before slowly returning to her ear and nipping
at it. She gasps in surprise. “Please do me a favor,” I beg before going back
to nibbling on her neck.

“What?” she breathes out. And I think it’s the sexiest
what
I have ever heard.

“Please buy a few pairs of size four. I can only imagine how
delicious you would look filling out those jeans. Babe, you could
kill
me with size four curves.” My words
come out rough and strained.

I say no more. Instead, I let my mouth work the other side
of her sweet neck while my hands explore those newly formed hips. They have a
long way to go, but at least I feel more than just a bone under my palm. I
place her hand over my pounding heart in hopes that my actions talk her into
those other jeans.

I’m starting to fall for this woman hard. And I know this
fall is going to be painful. But I can’t help it. She feels so fragile in my
arms and all I want to do is save her from this world, and hopefully from
herself. With all these thoughts whirling around my head, I’m close to taking
this too far, so I take a deep breath and reluctantly let her go. She’s leaning
against the mirror, looking a bit shocked, but definitely turned on, too. Her
cheeks are flushed a beautiful pink and her chest is rising with her rapid
breathing. It’s all I can do to not pull her back into my arms. I take another
step back to be on the safe side while I try to collect myself.

After I calm down, I slip back out of the dressing room and
see we have drawn an audience. Nearly a dozen hot-eyed women look up at me in
awe for some reason.

“Ladies,” I say, nodding my head at them as I stroll out of
the dressing room.

“Baby, you can talk me into going up a pant size anytime,”
one woman says boldly, she fanning
herself
as I pass
her.

“That’s the sexist thing I’ve ever heard a man say to a
woman,” another speaks up.

“That’s one lucky girl,” says another.

I look over my shoulder to address my audience with another
smile and see Julia making her way out of the dressing room. Her cheeks are
still painted a perfect pink, but she’s smiling. Boy, do I feel like Superman
in this very moment.

All the women give her their commentary on her being so
lucky to have me. I laugh when she rolls her eyes at me.
If
these women only knew what this chick and I have been through together…

Julia moves past me without a word so I follow behind her to
the denim table where she grabs up a few more pairs of size twos. As she passes
the stack of fours, she pauses long enough to snag a pair. That makes me
hopeful so I grab three more pairs. This has turned out to be a pretty tight
shopping trip. The best I have ever endured.

We pass back by the vintage T-shirts. Man, I just can’t help
myself. I have to have the faded blue one with the Superman emblem on the
front. I add it and Julia’s stuff to my pile at the register.

I wink at her and say, “I got this.”

The sales chick says, “Aww…” She fishes some long cards out
from under the counter. “Can I get your autographs? We have these rack cards
with your picture on it.” I notice it’s the same photo as the one on the wall.

“Sure. As long as you let me have one of them,” Julia
agrees.

We get back to the RV and I start pulling all the old
clothes out to make room for the new ones. Julia
peeps
her head in and asks for glue while I’m stacking the old clothes in a garbage
bag. I head outside and grab the only glue I have, Gorilla Glue, out of one of
the supply compartments. That stuff promises to hold its own so I figured it
would cover all my bases. I hand it over to her with no thought and go back to
my room. Once I’m done, I haul the bag to the living room space and see what
this girl has been up to. She has cut the store logo off the photo card and has
glued—
yes, glued
—the photo to the
fridge.

“Good grief,
Thorton
. You could
have used one of the millions of magnets you’ve bought along the way. Or simply
some tape would have done the job.” I go over and run my fingers along the
photo. That sucker is for sure not going anywhere.

She says nothing and goes to sorting her clothes too. She’s
not had much to say since we’ve got back. I know I crossed a line in the
dressing room, but I wouldn’t take it back for anything. I guess we will just
have to deal.

“What do you think we should do with these clothes?” I ask,
bending down and tugging on her hair softly. My hands seem to not be able to
help themselves.

She shrugs her shoulder. “We could always set up a yard sale
like some campers do on Saturdays. Except we can just let it be for free.”

“Sounds good to me.”

Saturday arrives and we are excited to set out our free
table in front of the RV, but we didn’t think this through. We sit for two
hours, with people passing us up. Who in the real world wears a double zero
size in jeans in women or a size twenty-eight with inseam of thirty-eight in
men’s pants? Yeah. We didn’t think it through at all.

We have just decided to pack it up when a teenage girl comes
dragging her mom up to the table. “I told you, Mom! It’s Greyson Stone and
Julia Rose!” She squeals.

I glance at Julia with a grin and turn to welcome them. I
extend my hand and this causes the girl to giggle and blush. Her mom shakes my
hand,
then
the girl reins in her enthusiasm some and
shakes it as well. Julia does the same with her killer smile poised on her
face. It’s her greet the fans face.