Page 36 of Barefoot Dreams
“I’ll give you a freebie this once. No magical herbs this time. Mom just knows it doesn’t work on me and never will… So, what are your plans now? You said you’re staying in Loverly Cave for good.” Julie shifts the conversation, and I clear my suddenly parched throat.
“Yeah, and I’m not sure what I’ll be doing, to be honest.” My hand reaches for the back of my neck when I catch Julie’s mouth tilting in one corner as she watches me, slightly amused. “What?” I ask.
“Nothing.” She shakes her head, still wearing that small smile and doesn’t answer until I keep staring her down with one eyebrow raised. “You didn’t lose your nervous habit.”
“My what?”
Julie lifts her hand to her slender neck, pointing. “Whenever you’d get nervous or stressed, you’d always rub your neck, and I think it’s cute you still do it.” Even in the night, her fair skin can’t hide the blush coloring her cheeks and if the heat filling mine is anything to go by, I’m wearing a matching one.
She noticed that?
“Damn, and here I thought I was sneaky all these years.”
“Oh, you are.” She giggles in that magical fairy-like way. “I don’t think anyone is onto you.”
“You are,” I state, and she shifts once again, her bottom lip disappearing between her teeth.
“I’m perceptive, that’s all,” she says, and before I can respond or overthink what it means, Julie is once again shifts the conversation. “So, no ideas on what you’d like to do?”
My hand reaches for the back of my neck out of that stupid habit, but I stop midway, dropping it as I steal a glance at noiselessly chuckling Julie. “Frank Lovehill actually just approached me at LPs, offering a job at the fire station.”
“Wow, I don’t know why I didn’t expect that but now that I’m thinking about it, you’d be perfect for that job. This is exciting!” She claps her hands, but the broad smile drops from her face when she sees mine. “What’s wrong? Is it not something you’d like to do?”
Quite honestly, I don’t know how to answer because I don’t have any answers. My life wasn’t supposed to make this turn. I didn’t plan on it and now I’m scrambling to survive the proverbial winter without any supplies. However, I can’t bring myself to give Julie some bullshit excuse I would everyone else, so I opt for the only truth that sounds sane.
“I don’t know,” I admit with a sigh. And fucking hell, if it’s not the motto of my life.
“Hmm,” she hums pensively as if my three-word answer is some kind of code she wants to crack.
“Hmm?” I arch an eyebrow, waiting for her to elaborate.
“Well,I don’t knowis a complicated answer. It’s not a no. It’s not a yes. So that means there’s something holding you from leaning in either direction. What’s holding you back, Griff?”
I gape at her. How did she just manage to see so deep? I thought no one could see me in the night. But I didn’t consider Julie owning night vision glasses and see right through me. Through my every flaw and secret. And I find myself wanting to give her all the answers.
“Fear,” I croak out, stealing a small glance her way. My raspy voice barely audible but I know she heard me.
“Griffin Owling is actually afraid of something?” Julie jokes, and I appreciate that more than she knows.
Or maybe she knows exactly how hard that admission was for me without knowingsheis part of the “fear package.”
“I might be the biggest coward you’ve ever met, little J,” I admit, looking straight into her mossy-green eyes that look so soft and comforting, I could lay down my weapons and never get up again.
“Fear doesn’t make you a coward, it makes you human. It’s also normal to fear the unknown. What isn’t though, is letting it stop you. If there’s no way for you to conquer it, find a way around it,” Julie states so plainly as if it’s the most natural thing.
“That…” I falter. “When did you get so smart?”
A small hint of a smile pulls at the corner of her lips but it’s not just a smile. It’s one holding a secret. “I know no one thought I was that bright growing up—”
“No one thoughtthat,” I cut her off, the protest rushing out of me before she has a chance to finish her thought, but Julie just shakes her head slightly.
“They did.” I open my mouth to protest again but the look she spares me shuts me up. “It’s okay, though. People can think whatever they want. In truth, it never bothered me.”
“It didn’t?” How could it not? Some of the things kids used to call her back then were cruel. So, so cruel, yet Julie harbors no ill will?
“No.” She shrugs. “Why would it? I live my life for myself, carving out my own path in unity with the universe. Most of those people left LC as soon as they could anyway. And all the rest eventually stopped. They found their way and mine was no longer so strange to them.”
“Is that why you’re now dating Owen?” I ask, unable to hold the question inside any longer and as soon as the words fall from my lips her eyes widen.
