Julia's Journey (A Coming Home Again Novel Book 2) (4 page)

I lightly pat his bare shoulder. “Greyson, it’s time to wake
up…” I push his shoulder with a bit more force when he doesn’t respond. “Honey,
you’re sleeping your life away,” I nearly whine.

He finally rolls over and squints up at me. “You smell a lot
better,” he mutters in that husky voice as he looks through half-shut eyes. I
guess that’s an insult, but I don’t play along.

I need him awake and his eyes are dangerously close to
drifting back shut. Well, I know how to open them completely. “I look a lot
better too,” I croon, as I let the towel fall to the floor.

Greyson shocks me by immediately closing his eyes and
slinging his arm over them. “Seriously, Julia,” he grouches out. “Put your
clothes on.”

I laugh in disbelief. “Well… I’ve never heard that statement
spoke to me
ever
before. Leave it to
you, Stone.” I swipe the towel off the floor, but don’t bother with covering
myself with it. I pop him with it before heading to my suitcase. The door slams
shut behind me, so I storm back to it and yank it open. I find him sitting on
the side of the bed in just his boxers. He slings the covers over himself in my
surprise return and clamps his eyes shut once again. I think it’s right silly
how modest he is for a world-renowned model.

“Get out!” He has the nerve to snap at me.

“Look, buddy. This adventure was your big idea. It’s time
you get your butt up and explain it to me.” I stand my ground with my hands
perched on my naked hips.

He rolls back on the bed and faces away from me. I hear him
mutter from under the pillow, “What have I gotten myself into?”

Chapter
Four

Greyson

“What have I gotten myself into?” I moan to myself. I don’t
have enough energy to put up with this chick. In seconds flat of listening to
her whine, I’m already bone-tired.

“I’m not dressing until you get up out of that bed.” She’s
gonna
keep on nagging, and I know she won’t leave me alone
until I do.

I roll over with my eyes firmly shut and stretch my sore
body, trying to work all the kinks out from driving through the night. “I’ll
take you back to New York tomorrow. I promise,” I grunt out, hoping to appease
her, but it doesn’t.
Of
course.

“No. I’ve decided to give this little trip a shot.”

I don’t know whether to be relieved or to cry like a baby.
This was supposed to be a solo trip for me to get myself straightened out—not a
Julia intervention. I had no plans on any guests, especially Miss High
Maintenance. I know she won’t leave me alone, so I try to keep my eyes averted
from her naked body and grab a change of clothes from a drawer by my bed. I
hold the clothes in front of me as a barrier between us and head for the door.
I’m brushing past her while staring at the ceiling when I hear her gasp. I try
darting out the door to get away from her, but I feel her hand graze along my
back.

“Honey, you are way too puny.” She continues to run her hand
down my back and I jerk away from her touch. No guy ever wants to hear those
words, especially from a naked woman.

Man, she
really needs to put her clothes on.

I hear the concern in her voice, but snap off anyway. “Well,
that makes two of us,” I mutter before slamming the bathroom door shut. I toss
the clothes on the counter and backtrack to the door to lock it. Julia doesn’t
understand boundaries and that’s going to make for more aggravation than I care
to deal with. I peel my boxers off and toss them by her discarded clothes,
stopping to stare at them, because this isn’t the outfit I left her in. They
are wet through and I can guess she has put in her exercise for the day. This
frustrates me even more, causing me to scrub my hand over my head and take a
few deep breaths to rein in my anger. She’s killing herself slowly and I’ve
spent years trying to stop it. I’m at a point in my life I’m not sure I can
keep trying.

I let it go for now and climb into the shower to try to wash
off my fatigue, but all I really feel like doing is going right back to bed.
This body sucks. I’m tired of being tired. I pushed it yesterday with not
resting before the party, and then taking on the epic challenge on the other
side of this door.
I’m an idiot.

I’m out and dressed relatively quickly, but I’m not really
up to facing Julia yet, so I take my time flossing and brushing my teeth. After
that’s done, I study my horrible hairdo. I’ll be glad when it grows back. It
definitely wasn’t my idea, but I had no choice. I rub my hand over it before
pulling on a hat I had under the cabinet. I’ve become a hat freak and have
them
tucked all over the place. Taking a deep breath, I walk
out the bathroom with my eyes closed.

“You can open your eyes, sir.” Julia laughs.

“You dressed?” I ask without opening them. I don’t trust
her.

“
Yes
.” I can hear
the eye roll in her prissy tone.

I peep open an eye and confirm she is actually telling the
truth. It wouldn’t surprise me if she walked around naked all day just to get
back at me for sort of kidnapping her. She’s wearing jeans and a plain shirt.
No make-up, because I
accidentally
forgot to pack it along with most of her arsenal of beauty crap. Peeling my
eyes away from her, I move over to the fridge and grab one of the protein
shakes I mixed up yesterday. I chug a bottle in one shot and start taking stuff
out for a sandwich. This body needs fuel and lots of it. Julia is standing by
my side watching me, so I shoot her a sideways glance. “What? You want a
protein shake?”

She thinks about it for a minute and I know what she’s going
to ask before those prissy lips part. “How many calories does it have?”

I shrug my shoulders, “Don’t know. I just mixed them up and
tossed the container.” I pull one out of the fridge and hand it over to her and
silently beg her to drink it. She actually takes it from me, but only holds it
suspiciously. I’m not big on lying, but I’ve found that’s the only way to deal
with Julia sometimes. It’s high in calories, but she doesn’t need to know it.

Leaving me alone, Julia plops down on her bed that is really
a leather sleeper sofa folded out. I had the entire RV customized and had a
decent mattress specially ordered for the couch in case my parents decide to
pop in for a visit. I want them comfortable. Now Miss Princess will get to
enjoy it, I suppose. I slap together a chicken sandwich that I pile with
spinach and tomatoes.

“Why do you get a bedroom and I don’t?” she whines. Leave it
to her try to guilt trip me right off the bat.
Typical Julia.

I nod my head towards the bedroom. “You started out in there
last night until you blew chunks all over the bathroom.” I toss the sandwich
supplies back in the fridge without offering her anything. She’ll say no. At
least I have her holding a shake, which says a lot.

“I did that?” Julia asks, unconvinced.

“Yep.”
I sit at the dining table with the custom leather bench
seat. I’m a tall dude and so I had it elevated to accommodate me. Designing
this getup was the highlight of this past year for me.
That
and planning this trip.
I glance over at my unexpected companion and try
to stifle a disappointed sigh. Julia
Thorton
was not
part of the plan. She is sitting on the bed cross-
legged,
staring at the bottle like it might be poisonous. “I had to park on the side of
the interstate to clean it up. You owe me for that.” I give her a pointed look.

“Sorry.” She looks a bit guilty. Good.

I shrug my shoulders. “I moved you out here so I could keep
a better eye on you while I drove.” I take a bite of the sandwich and chew,
trying to think about something other than the mess with the puke.

“I guess I didn’t have to run those eight miles,” she
mumbles absently to herself.

I look over at her, confused. She’s still studying the
stupid shake. “When exactly did you run
eight
miles?” I say this slowly, trying not to lose my cool.

Julia cuts her eyes my way. “You slept the entire day away,
Stone. I’ve had plenty of time.”

“It wouldn’t have hurt you to rest, too.” I point at the
bottle. “Don’t waste my shake. Drink it!” I bark. Ok.
Just
lost my cool.
She glares at me but goes to unscrew the cap, and the
tremor in her hand doesn’t escape my attention. I don’t see how she functions.
Eight miles
?
How
does her heart take it?

This is the reason I swiped her last night. No. She didn’t
beg to come with me. She was incoherent and I was scared to leave her. I can’t
go to another friend’s funeral—especially Julia
Thorton’s
.
But she’s heading that way fast. So now this trip is going to have to include
her, whether we like it or not.

I polish off the sandwich while eyeing her. She is taking
baby sips of the shake to appease me. I gather my empty plate and think how
pathetic it is that only a sandwich has me so stuffed. Shrugging that off, I
head over to the cabinet by the sink to ration out my daily vitamins for the
day.

“What’s all that?”

I glance over and find that Julia has polished off only a
quarter of the shake—not enough. “Vitamins,” I mutter.

“That’s a lot of vitamins.”

“Yeah.”
I know she wants answers about the last two years, but I
don’t have any desire to relive any of it so that’s all she’s getting. I put my
body through hell and I just want to be over it and be whole again. I feel like
Satan had become my constant companion during this nightmare, and I want to be
completely rid of him.

“Greyson Stone,” she says in a snappy tone to get my
attention.

I continue to ignore her and pop the handful of pills in my
mouth and wash it down with a few gulps of water before heading out of the
door. She’s right on my heels. I walk over and pop open one of the side
compartments and fish out a camping chair. I’m about to close the door, but
figure I might as well grab Julia one too. She won’t be leaving me in peace.

“Where you going?” she asks.

“Over to the lake,” I answer and start moving in that
direction.

“What for?”
She continues with the nagging.

“To watch it.
Now lay off the questions before I’m tempted to drown you
in it.” I pull the chairs out of the storage bags and set them on the sandy
shore. It’s getting late in the day, the sun looks as tired as I feel, and I
just want to keep it and this peaceful lake company for a while. Too bad my
nagging company won’t shut up.

As we sit down, she starts up again. She didn’t even make it
a minute. “I’ll knock it off, if you just give me some answers about where
you’ve been and why you look so awful.”

“I already told you. It was for a role.” I wave towards my
body.

“You’re not an actor,” she sasses.

She’s not satisfied with my answer. Well…
Too
bad.

“You know as well as I do that models are silent actors. We
play the part for the camera to capture. I’ve portrayed a rock star, a business
exec, a cowboy,” I tick off. “Now I can add vampire to my accomplishments.”

“What company did you work for?” she asks suspiciously. She
won’t
lay
off.

“I’m not at liberty to disclose that information yet,” I
mumble as I look around the place, avoiding her questioning eyes. The air is so
fresh and crisp out here. I take a deep cleansing breath, trying to let go of
the anxiety this woman is causing me.

We sit quietly for a while and watch the calm water glide by
the shore. I’m relieved and feel proudly sly when Julia sets the now-empty
bottle in the cup holder of her chair. This chick would be ready to kill me if
she knew how many calories she just drank. That bottle contained over nine
hundred calories. I guarantee that’s more than three days’ worth of her normal
caloric intake. I fend off the smile that wants to slip out.

It’s been an hour or two with us making small talk and
watching the leisurely day conclude. “I’ll be back. You want anything?” I ask
as I stand and start walking back to the RV.

“A jacket would be great. It’s a little nippy.”

I head in and dig out a container of cottage cheese and a
jar of tropical fruit. I pull out a bowl and dump both in. After grabbing a
spoon and two bottles of water, I snatch my jacket and head back out. I hand
Julia a water and jacket before sitting down.

“
Thanks,
honey,” she says, eyeing
the bowl.

I push it her way. “You want some?” I know she’s hungry. Her
stomach has been moaning the entire time we’ve been sitting out here. How does
she put up with it?

“No. I think you need it worse.” She looks away from my
offer.

“I’m not so sure about that.” I give up and dig in. I’m on a
mission to put weight on. No man as tall as I am should weigh in at a puny one
hundred and thirty pounds. I’m having a hard time getting it going though. I
just can’t stomach a lot of food yet.

We sit out here for a little longer while I work my way
through the bowl. The night sky has arrived and I’m having a hard time keeping
my eyes open.

“I’m out,” I inform Julia and gather my chair.

“What? You just got up only a few hours ago.” She stands so
I grab up her chair, too. I walk them over and place them under the RV awning.

“Julia, I’m beat.
Really.
I need to
go to bed.” I let out a huge yawn as I head back inside.

“You are the most boring, rudest host I have ever been stuck
with!” she says with a prissy growl. I look over my shoulder and catch the
sharp glare she’s giving me.

I don’t argue the point that I’m boring. I get it and am on
this trip to get over it. “I overdid it yesterday,
Thorton
.
Get off my back.” I place my dishes in the dishwasher and set it on a cycle.

“Greyson,” she whines.

“Good night,” I whine back. I don’t bother with any more
commentary. I go do my bathroom business and practically fall back into bed.