Julia's Journey (A Coming Home Again Novel Book 2) (18 page)

I eventually dry my tears and go inside. I find my journal
resting on my pillow and know he has left me another gift. I open it and find
the verse Proverbs 20:15 -
 
There is gold,
and a multitude of rubies: but the lips of knowledge are a precious jewel.
Underneath that Greyson has written –
Please know that you are loved. You are a
precious jewel to me. But greater than my love could ever be for you is the
love that can only come from God. Let Him, as well as me, love you. Let us in.
You are a precious jewel to me, and I want you to never forget that
.

I start to cry all over again. I want
both Greyson and God to love me. I just don’t think I’m worthy of it. I’ve done
a lot of things I’m ashamed of… I think this through a minute and realize
Greyson knows most of it—the poor choices—and chooses to love me anyway. Maybe
God does too.

I set my journal down and look up love
in my Bible about. I need to understand that foreign word better. I find
abundance on the topic, but one section really touches me. It is 1 Corinthians
13:4-7 -
 
Love is patient,
love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud.
It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered,
it
keeps no record of wrongs.
Love
does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.
It
always protects, always trusts, always hopes,
always
perseveres.
I’ve never read words that describe Greyson Stone so perfectly. I scribble
these verses below his in my journal and seek out some more. The next one I
find stops me in my tracks. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that this is
where I need to be. I need to understand these verses before I can understand
anything else.

I write down Romans 5:8 -
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we
were still sinners, Christ died for us.
I study it for the longest time.
Something is nagging me about it, but I can’t figure it out. I just cannot
understand a love so intense it would make you want to die for it. I get up to
go discuss it with Greyson, but change my mind when I find him sleeping soundly
as he always does. The man lives in a peace and I’m really starting to crave it
too. I just don’t know how to obtain it.

I sit on
the edge of the bed and look him over with help from the small hints of light
filtering in from the other room. I study the scar on his bare chest and long
to touch it, but I don’t want to wake him. His hands are thrown over his head
and I can see the faint scar under his arm. I hurt just looking at them. And I
hurt for what he had to endure. I wish I could take that from him. I wish I
could have lived that pain for him. I wish I could have saved him from it.

The verse
comes back to mind;
But God demonstrates
his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Maybe I don’t totally understand it yet, but I feel it clearing up. I love
Greyson enough to be willing to suffer for his betterment. Is that what God
desires for all of us? It sure feels that way…

Chapter
Twenty-Three

Greyson

Today is another one of those days I want to bottle up and
take out anytime I need, wanting none of it to fade. It started out with
another great morning. I awoke and found my lovely girl snuggled up beside me
sound asleep. This is a first. I don’t even remember her coming in here last
night. She’s been staying up most of the night for the last few nights.
Something is bothering her and she seems to be trying to work it out during the
dark hours. I know she’ll come to me when she’s ready, so I decide not to bug
her about it just yet. I watch her sleep awhile before disentangling myself
from her. Being this close is too much temptation, so I leave her to sleep and
head to the small kitchen to start up some coffee.

I stop at what I find and just have to smile. Well, I can
guarantee I’m out of Gorilla Glue. Yesterday Julia went through my phone while
we were in town and had several of the photos I’ve taken of our trip printed
out at a pharmacy with one of those photo machines. These photos are now
glued
to my fridge, covering the entire
stainless steel door. I stand before it and look it over. There’s a selfie pic
we took at the concert where we turned around so we could get Dillon Bleu
singing in the background. There is another one from the white water rafting
day that the guide took for us. We are both soggy from falling in, standing by
the water’s edge with our arms wrapped around each other. I smile as I see she
has the one from the Witching Woods added. I had that guy Scotty take one while
we were wandering around in the dark woods. Julia is smiling very little and
I’m smiling a lot. There’s a picture that marks each leg of our trip together.
The mugshots of us smiling like idiots are tucked into the collage as well. I
grab my phone from the counter and take a picture of the collage. I send it to
my parents and text—
My
adventure.

My dad texts back almost immediately.
Didn’t know Julia was your adventure?

My mom texts back a little after him.
I think she’s a perfect adventure for you
!

I hadn’t meant the picture to have that meaning, but the
more I study the collage, the more I can see my parents are completely right.
Julia
Thorton
has been my adventure for a very long
time. And it’s an adventure I certainly never want to end.

Later today, I finally rouse sleeping beauty out of the bed
and talk her into to joining me at the pool. We’ve been swimming a good long
while as the day passes us by. Julia is now wrapped in my arms with those long
legs secured around my waist. I walk us in the six-foot-deep section with no
problem. Kids kept swimming by earlier wanting to know how I was doing it. I
said I was just standing. Then they called me a giant and swam off.

“What’s on your mind,” I ask as I watch her study me.

Julia runs her hands through my wet hair. “You don’t look
like a vampire anymore.”

“No?” I playfully nip at her neck, causing her to squirm and
giggle. “With this lovely neck on display, I feel like one.”

She keeps running her hands through my hair and I’m almost
lost in it when she says, “You need a haircut something awful, honey.”

I smile weakly at her before looking away. I know Julia has
picked up on the slight mood change when she pulls my face back towards hers
with a raised eyebrow. I shake my head. “I’ve not…” I stop at the unexpected
emotions this one statement conjures up. “I’ve not had a haircut in almost
three years.”

Julia says nothing at this confession, but starts dragging
me out of the pool. Once we are out she throws me my towel and grins. “Come on,
Stone. We need to get your shaggy hair cut this instant.” She starts walking
towards our RV.

I follow behind her a little baffled.
“Right
now?”
I was really enjoying our pool time.

“Yes. Hurry up.”

Before I know what’s happening, we are at a mall hair salon,
and I am sitting in a stylist’s chair—still smelling like chlorine. Julia
wouldn’t even give me a chance to wash.

As the stylist straps a cape around my neck, Julia gives her
instructions. “Sweetie, just clean this baby doll up a bit. Leave me plenty to
run my fingers through.” She winks at me and all I can do is smile. She’s such
a
priss
.

“Sure thing,” the stylist agrees. Several other stylists
have eased over to watch this haircut. They all know who we are, so that
answers why we have an audience.

“I’ll be right back,” Julia says as she kisses me on the
cheek. I have to smile wider, because it’s not slipped my attention that my
girl just laid claim to me in front of these other ladies. “Treat him special.
Today is
very
special,” she says over
her shoulder before she disappears out of the salon.

I sit back in the chair and try not to worry where she may
have gone. I almost fall asleep as the stylist takes to heart what Julia has
said. She takes her time washing my hair, massaging the shampoo in and rinsing,
and then repeating the process with the conditioner. I can barely hold my eyes
open as she works slow circles along my scalp. She eventually gets to trimming
and styling my hair. I think it’s the best haircut I’ve ever received. I tip
her generously and head to the front to pay the receptionist. I find Julia
sitting here waiting for me with a large white box.

She stands up and asks all of the stylists to join us in
celebrating my haircut. They look at us curiously, but Julia breathes not a
word as to why we would be celebrating a mere haircut. She opens the box and
presents me with gourmet chocolate on chocolate cupcakes bigger than my fist.
I’m almost seven feet tall with hands to match so you can just imagine the size
of these suckers.

Everyone takes one, but what surprises me the most is by the
time we leave, Julia has managed to eat half of one. And she seems to actually
have enjoyed it. That has to be the best gift of the day. We’ve come a long way
in a short time.

So like I said, it’s a day I want to relive over and over.
It was perfect.

~~~~

I’m sleeping and just want to keep sleeping some more, but
something wet keeps touching my face. I brush it off, but my effort is
fruitless. I open my eyes and try to make sense of what I am looking at. It’s a
white fur ball and that’s making no sense. I guess I’m dreaming so I close my
eyes. A squeaky yapping wakes
me
back up. I reach a
hand out and pet the unexpected guest to make sure I’m not dreaming as I rub
the sleep out of my eyes with the other.

“
Fifi
, what are you doing here?”

“I stole her,” Julia says. I look over and find her lying
beside me, petting the little dog too.

“How’d you pull that off?”

“I went for a walk and there she was in her outdoor run. I
couldn’t help it. I swiped her.”

“A walk?”
I ask skeptically. I think she probably snuck off for a
run.

She corrects my thinking when she holds her long leg up and
shows off her flip-flops. She pulls
Fifi
off my chest
and gets up. “I need to return her before Mrs. Betty finds her missing and
panics.”

“You took her without letting them know?” I ask as I sit up
and sling my feet to the floor.

“I got excited.” She shrugs.

“Hold up and I’ll go with you.” I grab some clothes and do
quick work in the bathroom.

We head out down the road as Julia asks, “What are the odds
we would run into them again?”

“Pretty good.
I wrote down all of the Georgia stops for them before they
left Maine. They said they would catch up with us. I was beginning to think we
may have missed them in passing.”

I spot Stan making his way out of their camper. We make it
to the yard by the time he’s made it down the few steps.

“Stan Gore. How’s it going?” We shake hands and he gives
Julia a hug. It feels like he and Betty have become dear friends to us.

“Where’s Mrs. Betty? I can’t wait to see her,” Julia says as
she passes
Fifi
over to me.

Stan pales at this and sits down abruptly in a chair. “My
sweet girl passed away two months ago.” He looks up at me through watery eyes,
causing my stomach to seize up.

I set
Fifi
down and clamp my hand
on his shoulder. “Stan… I’m so sorry…”

“Me too, son.
Me too.”

I look over and find Julia on her knees, looking as stunned
as I feel. I run my hand through her hair before turning back to Stan. “What
happened?” I ask.

The little old man shakes his head. “She went right out with
no warning. She went to bed after we had spent
a normal
day flea marketing and never woke back up again.”

“I’m so sorry,” I repeat again. I just don’t know what else
to say.

We remain silent for a while until Stan clears his throat
and tries to smile. “Betty would have been tickled to find you two kids looking
so healthy. We prayed every night for you after we met. I hate she missed
seeing the fruits of our prayers. You kids look really good.
Much
better than last time.”

“Thank you for praying for us,” I say as I reach down and
grasp him in a long hug. When I release him, I look around and discover Julia
gone. It’s either fall apart or run with Julia. She’s chosen to flee this time.
I figure she needs time alone so I take a seat in the chair beside Stan.

I look around and ask, “You’re not traveling alone are you?”
I know he’s probably capable, but this man is well into his eighties and just
lost the love of his life. I don’t feel so easy about him being alone.

“Just for this short trip.
My son and his wife came to me in Colorado and brought me
and my girl home to Savannah. My Betty was so looking forward to seeing you
kids, and I just couldn’t let her down. So I loaded up yesterday and headed
here with the hopes I hadn’t already missed
y’all
.”

“God wouldn’t let us miss this divine appointment,” I say as
I clamp him on the shoulder again. I believe in these divine appointments too.
This entire trip is one as a matter of fact.

“No, son.
I suppose not. You and that pretty girl of yours seem to be
getting on good.”

I have to laugh at this.
“Yes, sir.
We’ve had a few bumps in the road, but that just makes the journey even
sweeter, doesn’t it?”

“Yes, it does,” Stan agrees.

I fill him in on all those bumps minus me getting my butt
handed to me. He gets a kick out of the whole arrest debacle and the haunted
woods. I ramble on until my stomach starts growling mean. I’m about to head
back for some late breakfast when I see Julia coming down the road on her
moped.

She climbs off and
starts pulling white
boxes out from the seat compartment along with a thermos of what I’m guessing
is
coffee. I go over to help and give her a questioning look. I can tell
she’s been crying, and she’ll only look at me in glances.

She clears her throat and says, “This is a southern thing.
When someone special passes away, southerners set out to fatten up the
deceased’s loved ones.” She shrugs her shoulder and heads over to the picnic
table.

Julia places a kiss on Stan’s cheek. “Stan, I’m sorry to say
I don’t know how to cook, but I’ve found us some biscuits and pastries from the
little diner down the road.”

As I watch her divvying out breakfast, all I can think about
is wanting
to kiss her. This woman is stealing my
heart little by little. I rein my emotions in and say grace.

We lift our heads and Stan just smiles. “I sure hate Betty
missed this. She would have been so proud.”

“Tell us about how you two met?” Julia asks. She’s sitting
beside him. I’m on the other side of the picnic table. I don’t even taste the
food I’m eating; I’m so lost in watching her.

I try to focus on Stan as he tells us about the love of his
life. “I had over sixty years with that sweet woman. I met her when I was just
a young feller at a church revival. One look in those dancing blue eyes, and
that’s all it took. I courted her diligently until she finally agreed to be my
bride. We were only separated in those sixty years once while I had to go off
to war. But other than that we never left each other’s sides. She was my air.
Now most days I can barely breathe.”

The little old man chokes up. Julia wraps her arms around
him to offer comfort. I stay on my side of the table and keep swiping my own
tears away, but they keep on coming.

He eventually regains his composure and adds, “My days are
numbered, so I know I’ll be back with my Betty soon. I sure am
gonna
miss her until then.”

“Sounds like you two had a good life together,” I comment.

He smiles another weak smile and shakes his head.
“The best.
I thank God for every day He let me have her. I
hope you two kids do the same.”