Epilogue - One year later

Julianna buried her head into Scott’s arm. “This is so embarrassing.” They were sitting on the couch in the top of the barn, and they were surrounded by half the people who had worked at the ranch the previous year. The big-screen TV in front of them began playing the home video that Blair and Cameron had taken of the girls when they’d discovered the rattlesnake.

“You realize how wrong this is, right?” Penny said, throwing a scowl at Blair. “What if we had been changing clothes?”

Cameron threw his arm around Amanda’s shoulders and gave her a little squeeze. “Relax. I asked Amanda to make sure that didn’t happen. And we wouldn’t be here watching it if anything risqué happened. This video is rated PG.”

“Amanda wasn’t even there,” Julianna said, lifting her head.

Amanda threw them an apologetic smile. “You guys were in the pool forever. I got tired of waiting.”

“Why are we even watching this? This was so last year,” Penny groaned.

“Because you’re adorable in it,” Andy said. “Look at me, dating a movie star.” And then he sneaked in a kiss that was so quick, Julianna almost missed it. Those two were seriously adorable and had the whole long-distance dating thing down, but because they’d spent most of it apart, they hadn’t figured out the whole public-displays-of-affection thing. Even holding hands in public embarrassed them.

In the video, Scott entered the apartment, and Julianna realized what was about to happen. This was when Scott had returned from California—when Julianna had still been angry with him. They’d been completely awkward, and then she’d thrown the rattlesnake at Scott, instructing him to put it in Blair’s bed.

She leaped up from the couch. “Well, I think we got all our reactions. Sandra apparently cursed it with every type of voodoo magic she knows before running out of the apartment prior to our arrival, and we all saw Penny’s brave exit.” Julianna grabbed the remote out of Blair’s hand and turned off the TV.

“Hey, we were watching that,” Cameron protested.

“The rest of it is boring. Besides, don’t we have newbies to train?” She tossed a smile at Scott. “And by newbies, I mean you. You’ve been on the road so long I may have to retrain you how to use that lasso of yours.”

Scott laughed. “One, you were on the road with me, so you have no room to talk. And two, I can still out-lasso you any day of the week.”

It wasn’t hard when neither of them had ever figured out what the heck to do with a rope. But they had figured out what to do in the back of a tour bus, stealing kisses when everyone else was asleep. And when they were awake. The past year had changed Julianna’s life for the better—and Scott’s.

He’d somehow managed to completely transform his (Julianna had helped with that, given that Scott was now a one-woman kind of man) and his sound, and everyone was going nuts for it. Even his bandmates, who had been a bit skeptical at first, had to admit that they loved the changes. They weren’t the only ones. Scott’s band was more famous now, and more liked, than when Scott had been trying so hard to make everyone happy.

The best part? He’d hired Julianna as an assistant tour manager, which meant that for the time being, she was doing school virtually, and she never had to say good-bye. Everyone else had thought they’d be sick of each other by now. But if anything, the opposite was true.

Julianna smiled and jumped back onto the couch next to Scott.

“You’re trying to change the subject,” Blair said, and grabbed the remote back from her. “Don’t forget, I’ve seen the whole video. And yes, I know the rattlesnake in my bed was your doing.”

Sandra nodded. “True. But I don’t think the whole ranch needs to see it. You already got to show our completely fake reactions to your obviously dead rattlesnake. That should be enough.”

“You did not know it was dead,” Blair said with a laugh. “But I’ll go with it, mostly because Jules is right. We have our first staff meeting of the summer to get to.”

“Since when does anyone but me call you Jules?” Scott whispered.

Julianna didn’t know when things had changed, but sometime in the last year, she’d become less Julianna and more Jules. And people had noticed.

She gave him a teasing smile. “I kind of like it. Like you said when we first met, it suits me.”

“But what am I going to call you now?” Scott asked with mock frustration. “I can’t call you the same thing everyone else is.”

Jules kissed his pursed lips. “You have the rest of forever to figure it out.”