Julia's Journey (A Coming Home Again Novel Book 2) (25 page)

“I’m dyslexic,” he repeats.

I think about this for a
minute, before assuming, “You read backwards?”

He shakes his head.
“Letters get jumbled up. My mom caught on to it pretty early, and so she got me
help.” He keeps working his fingers through my hair as though it brings him
comfort. “I still struggled in school. Had kids call me stupid or retard when I
had to be pulled out of class to attend my special learning classes.” He shrugs
his shoulder with his brows furrowed. This is clearly a sore spot for him.

“You’re one of the smartest
people I know, Greyson.”

“It still sucked. I hated
being treated like I was dumb. It was pretty jacked up. So that’s why I jumped
at the modeling opportunity. All I had to do was look at the camera a certain
way. My brain didn’t have to unscramble anything to do that.”

“I’m sorry, honey.” I reach
over and hold his hand. He tucks our clasped hands under his chin.

“I finally let go of the
hurt from being teased and decided to go back and finish high school. I still
had to have special classes, but there’s no describing that feeling when I held
that diploma in my hands. I turned my sights towards college after that. It
took me six years to earn a four year degree, but I didn’t give up.”

We get still and quiet
after this for a while when I feel this uneasiness creep over me. “I’m scared,”
I whisper.

Greyson pulls me over and
holds me. “I’m right here.” He places a kiss in my hair.

“I’m scared about my future
with Ignited,” I clarify. “I don’t think I can handle it anymore. But I don’t
know anything else. It’s scary.”

“What about
your
acting career?”

I scoff at that notion.
“That was nothing more than me proving to myself I could do it. I did it and
now I’m over it. Acting didn’t fulfill me like I thought it would.” Nothing
has, if I’m going to be honest here.

“Well.
You’ve proved you can do anything you set your mind to. Really, Julia, the
sky’s the limit. You can do anything you want.”
                                                                 

“Like what?” I feel close
to crying again.

“Well…You could totally
pull off a career as a professional shopper. Or lead a course on proper
whining. Sweetheart, you have that down to an art. Or…” He starts tickling me
and gives up on verbally teasing me. I tickle him back.

“Okay, I’ll worry about
that another day.” I laugh and push his hands from my side. We settle back
down. I lay my head on his chest and watch as the new day begins on hues of
soft gray outside the window. I can think of no one else I would ever want to
share a new dawn with more than this man holding me. “You’re my best friend,” I
mumble before dozing off.

And I could almost swear he
says, “But I want more.”

Chapter
Twenty-Eight

Greyson

An alarm wakes us up at
four in the afternoon, and it’s all I can do to pull myself away from this
woman snuggled up to me. Last night was definitely a challenge. Julia being in my
bed has never affected me as it did last night. As our feelings grow stronger
for one another, I feel myself growing weak from wanting her.

I ease out of the bed and
head to the table to record my thoughts. I can do a better job at writing them
down when there are no distractions. I write in mine for a while about my new
friend Robbie Zombie. He’s a pretty cool dude and I saw great potential, so I
text my agent his contact information. I think Robbie is going places and I
hope I helped put him on the right path. He seemed pretty smitten with Julia.
She didn’t help the matter how she kept teasing him. I could see the poor guy
blushing under his zombie makeup.

I write about overreacting
about her texting my parents. But all I could think about is how it probably
scared them to death to receive that at such an odd hour. They both sleep with
their phones on full volume by the bed in case I ever need them. I’m their only
child and so I hate to think about how worried they are about losing me.

I finish writing about that
and move on to my honey. That woman just makes me melt. She gave me hope last
night when she started questioning her career. I wasn’t sure she would ever
consider leaving Ignited, but now that she voiced her doubts I’m going to
encourage her all I can. I finish up in my journal and grab hers to add a
verse. It’s one of my favorite go-to verses. I write Philippians 4:13 -
 
I
can do all things through Christ which
strengtheneth
me.
I write underneath that –
You
can do anything you want. Be brave, honey!

 
I put away the journals and try to rouse her.
We’ve got a fishing date, and I’m starving. I walk back in and find Julia
snuggled to my side of the bed. Her long blonde hair seems to be cascading
everywhere. She looks like a sleeping Rapunzel. I walk over and my hand reaches
to entwine in those locks on its own accord.

“It’s time to get up,
Princess.”

She mumbles a no and pulls
the blanket over her head. I snatch the covers completely off the bed and find
long bare legs all the way up to those smooth thighs and come close to throwing
the covers back on her to hide the temptation from sight. She goes to grumbling
as she sits up. I grab some clean clothes and make haste to the bathroom to get
away from those legs… Yeah. It is so getting harder to resist.

We are seated at this cool
restaurant called Bernie’s Oyster House. There’s newspapers lining the tables
and we have Mason jars brimming with ice tea. I just ordered some oysters on
the half shell and the low country boil for Julia and me to share. She’s quiet
this evening and seems distracted.

“What’s on your mind,
Thorton
?”

She takes a sip of her tea
and shrugs her shoulder. “I’m sorry about the text.”

Ah man do I feel like a
jerk about that. “No worries. I’m the one who should apologize. I overreacted.”

“Still—” she starts, but I
interrupt her.

“I’ve put them through too
much, and so I try not to cause them more worry than needed.” I think back to
me calling my mom while we were in Bay Creek about upping the date for my
scans. She’s been a nervous wreck ever since. I wish I had just handled it on
my own now.

The food arrives so we drop
the conversation, pray, and dig in. The low country boil has an abundance of
shrimp, crawfish, smoked sausage and new potatoes. Julia surprises me by
setting in on the shrimp, but refuses the oysters. I eat all of them and finish
off the low country boil.

By the time I settle the
bill, it’s time to head over to the marina for our fishing excursion. Once I
park the moped and we set out down the dock, Julia has lots of questions.

“What kind of fishing do
you do at night, and why did I have to wear my sneakers?”

“We are flounder gigging,”
I answer as I pull her along.

She stops abruptly and her
prissy face is all scrunched up. “Gagging? That sounds awful.”

“
Gigging
,” I correct her as I grab her hand and start us back to
walking down the dock.

“Well, that doesn’t sound
very nice either,” she whines from behind me.

“Stop dragging your feet,
Thorton
. We need to catch some fish for Stan. He’s going to
cook them up for us tomorrow.”

“Let’s just go buy some and
call it a day. I’m still sleepy.”

“No. Now drop it.” We make
it to the designated boat and I add, “You’re about to be wide awake, honey.”

“I don’t feel so good about
this,” she mutters as a weathered guy hops off the boat and joins us. He’s got
one crazy-cool goatee. It’s the longest one I’ve ever seen. The tip of it
touches his chest, no lie. Plus he’s completely bald with a fishing hook as an
earring through the top of his ear. I kid you not!

“Kevin
Rause
.
You must be Greyson,” he says as he shakes my hand.

“Nice
to meet you.
This is Julia.” I point
over to her. She still doesn’t look too pleased.

“This should be fun.” Kevin
laughs as he helps her aboard the boat. It looks to be a flat bottomed boat
like the ones I saw on the Internet ads for flounder gigging.

There’s another guy sitting
on a seat, fiddling with a spotlight. He looks up and smiles. I can’t help but
smile back. He’s got a bushy salt and pepper beard, wearing overalls that have
been cut off as makeshift shorts over a plain but very holey shirt. He stands
to shake my hand and I notice he’s one that falls in the short round category.
This little dude has a shock of black hair going all kinds of ways. A tattered
sun visor is planted haphazardly in the midst of it. When he grins up at us I
see a few teeth are missing. I instantly like him. These two guys certainly
look like they will be interesting. I doubt boredom will be a factor tonight.

“This is my Uncle
Jax
. He’s the best flounder man on this coast,” Kevin
introduces.

Uncle
Jax
shakes my hand and looks over at Julia and laughs. “Sonny boy, it’s best when
you leave your baby doll at home.”

Julia huffs at this, but I
laugh. This is going to be entertaining. She just sits down and seems to be in
no mood for pleasantries.

I sit beside her and she
leans over to whisper, “Is this even legal?” Her voice is all accusation and
sass.

“Yes ma’am. I’ve got the
fishing licenses in my wallet. We’re good to go.”

Kevin maneuvers the boat
out of the marina and sets a short course down the coast until we reach a
sandbar.

“Okay, out you kids go,”
Uncle
Jax
instructs.

“Out?
And where’s the fishing poles?” Julia whines.

“We got to walk in the
shallows to find the flounder and you need to pipe it down ‘fore you scare ‘
em
off,” he says back with a toothless grin. I grin too.

I place my wallet under my
seat and ease off the side of the boat and help Julia down into the ocean
water. I look around and it is just glorious. There’s a full moon reflecting
off the low tide, making it fairly easy to see. If it was just me and Julia on
this sandbar I would be inclined to dance her around. It’s warm tonight too
with no chill like last night, and the water is a comfortable temperature.

“Here you go,” Kevin says
as he hands Julia and me a four prong gig. The gig sort of reminds me of King
Triton’s spear.

“What in the world is this
thing?” Julia asks and that face is still all pinched.

Uncle
Jax
has slipped into the water and is holding his own gig. “
It’s
how you get them flounder.” He demonstrates by stabbing at the water, adding
sound effects too. I can’t stop grinning at him.

“I think we should take him
home,” I whisper over to Julia.

She cuts those prissy eyes
at me. “No.” She’s holding the gig like it’s the nastiest thing ever. I hope
she doesn’t drop it.

Kevin hops in and starts
walking around while shining a spot light in the shallow water.
“Now a few things to keep in mind.
You
gotta
be fast and remember there’s other fish that live in this water. So it’s best
you keep on your toes.”

“What do you mean other
fish?” Julia asks as she looks around her legs.

“Sweetheart, it’s the
ocean.
Whatcha
reckon is in these here waters?” Uncle
Jax
answers and I wish he didn’t because now Julia is
on my heels.

Kevin eases near her and
starts shining the light. “Look right there, Julia.” We both study where his
light is directed and I see the reflection of the flounder’s eyes. “You ready?”
he asks her and she’s shaking her head aggressively.

“Come on,
Thorton
. Give it a try,” I encourage her.

She eases away from me some
and barely stabs at it. The fish is gone in a flash.

“Don’t tickle the flounder,
girl. You
gotta
be quicker than that.” Uncle
Jax
chuckles out.

She looks like a nervous
wreck, shaking her head as she hands Kevin the gig. “I tried it. I’m done.”

He hands her the spotlight.
“You mind being our light guy then?”

“I’ll try to be your light
woman
,” she corrects, causing us all to
laugh. She walks around slowly and stops the light on something. “Here,” she
says.

Kevin eases over and takes
a look.
“Stingray.”

“What?” Julia asks and
makes quick work of getting away from it.

“It won’t bother you if you
don’t bother it,” Uncle
Jax
comments between
snickers. It’s obvious this man is having a blast at Julia’s expense.

We all walk around with
Julia shining a light in one direction while Kevin works another. I have my
back turned away from Julia when I hear her scream. Before I can turn around
she has launched herself on my back. I wasn’t expecting it so we both take a
dip in the ocean.

Uncle
Jax
is wailing in laughter when I resurface. Kevin comes over and helps us get up
and he can’t help but laugh, too.

“What got into you,
Thorton
?” I snap as I try wiping the salt water out of my
eyes.

“Something touched me.” She
whimpers while digging her fingernails into my forearm.

I’ve had enough, so I lift
her up and place her back in the boat. “How about you just sit? Think you can
handle that?”

“She probably gone an' ran
all the flounder off,” Uncle
Jax
wheezes out. He’s
pure winded from laughing.

“He’s probably right. Let’s
load up and head to another sandbar,” Kevin says, and so we load up and do just
that.

For the remainder of the
fishing trip, Julia isn’t allowed out of the boat. That still doesn’t stop her
from whining. Every time she sees a shadow in the water she goes to squealing
in hysterics, thinking a shark is about to get us. It didn’t help matters when
Uncle
Jax
shared about having his leg bit one time by
a small shark. Julia started demanding I get out of the water on the spot.
Bowing my chest out, I told her I was a grown man and I’d get back in that boat
when I was good and ready. I
was
ready to get back in, but I wouldn’t admit that to anyone. I’m a man. I got my
pride…

“It’s all right girly, that
shark just wanted a taste. I didn’t need but seven stitches.” Uncle
Jax
tried to reassure her and failed miserably.

I still manage to gig five
good-sized flounders. One tops out at over ten pounds. I think
it’s
closer to twenty but everyone else seems to think
differently.

We manage to get back to
the marina in one piece. After we are unloaded and I receive my Styrofoam
cooler full of iced-down fish, I’m pretty wiped out. I’m about to head to the
end of the dock where Julia is already waiting when Uncle
Jax
stops me.

“
Whatcha
learned tonight, sonny boy?”

I look down at him and say,
“Next time, leave the baby doll at home.” We both chuckle and he hobbles away.

I meet Julia at the end of
the dock. “I’m due a nice hotel suite after all of this mess.” She keeps
mumbling complaints as she dumps water from her shoes.

“I can book us rooms at the
Marshall House,” I offer with a grin.

“You’re not funny, Stone!”

I think I’m hilarious. It’s
been one heck of a night. I’m ready to shower the ocean off and get to bed. We
get to spend tomorrow with Stan and I can’t wait.