Chapter Sixteen - Julianna

Julianna didn’t know what to make of Scott. The night before, he’d been so real—so raw. That could be the only explanation for why they had kissed the way they had, and how he’d sung as if nothing else mattered.

And then he’d had her friends practically kidnap her—okay, she had gone willingly, but now she couldn’t think of a plausible explanation for why she had agreed to a ride on a tractor without even questioning it. Because, seriously, if she’d thought about it for longer than a second, she would have realized that she was going as a third wheel. And no one wants that.

But now, with the lights and the food and the blanket—he was trying. And it seemed to be the real him, not the Scott Dallenforth that everyone else seemed to think they knew. Because that guy would have been dressed up in some ridiculous outfit, throwing money on a butler and a pristine location and caviar or something.

Not in his dirty work clothes, eating chicken salad sandwiches in a rundown barn.

And she couldn’t think of anything she’d have liked better.

“What is your favorite color?” Scott asked her as he stood and stretched out his legs. He then held out a hand to Julianna to help her stand. She hadn’t realized how cramped her legs were until she tried using them and they immediately buckled. Scott tightened an arm around her waist and held her until she could find her feet again.

“Um…blue. No, pink. Pink and blue. But not combined. Though, maybe in a design, with a little white splashed in there.”

Really? She couldn’t answer a question as simple as what her favorite color was? She was hopeless.

“What about you?” she asked, not sure how their conversation had regressed to the point of asking about each other’s favorite colors.

“Orange.”

“Only orange? No accent colors?”

Scott walked over to a stage that lined one side of the room and hopped onto it so that he sat on the edge. “Isn’t one enough?”

“For some people.” Julianna walked over and hopped up next to him.

“Fine. Orange and lime green.”

Julianna wrinkled her nose, then laughed. “That’s quite the combination.”

“Favorite movie?”

She didn’t answer right away, instead focused on the movement of their feet, which had since synchronized. It wasn’t that she didn’t know what her favorite movie was, but she didn’t understand why Scott was asking. “Why all the questions?”

Scott’s movements slowed, and he looked at her, uncertainty etched in his expression. “Because I’ve never known any of this stuff with girls I’ve dated. I’ve never known the little things—what their favorite color was, if they preferred the ocean or the desert, or even if they had brothers or sisters. They’ve always just been a distraction—a ticket to a good time.” He paused, then jumped from the stage. “Man, I really sound like the world’s biggest jerk, don’t I? I told you you’re too good for me.” He moved toward the picnic blanket he’d laid out. He started collecting the trash and shoving it back into the picnic basket.

This was definitely the guy from the night before, and the guy from the hiking trip through the Narrows. The guy she was falling for. The guy who wasn’t the biggest jerk in the world, but the one she couldn’t stop thinking about. The one she didn’t want to be without.

“The ocean,” she called after him. He paused. “And I’m an only child. No siblings.” Scott turned toward her, and she jumped from the stage. “My favorite movie is Rocketman—not the one about Elton John. An old nineties slapstick comedy that I watch anytime I need a reason to smile.”

She moved toward Scott, who was watching her with a look of incredulous wonder. “I can’t open biscuit cans—you know, the pressurized kind you have to unwrap and press with a spoon. I never know when the stupid thing is going to pop, and I have to have someone else do it. Can’t even be in the same room when they pop it open.”

Julianna now stood directly in front of him. She took both his hands in hers. “And my two favorite things about being at the ranch are being able to shoot things, and spending time with you.”

Scott’s lips twitched up into a half-smile. “What do you say we get out of here? I have something I want to show you.”