Follow My Lead (Stepping Up 2)

Oh, thank you, Meagan! But Blake barked more laughter, and the rest of the group was looking their way. Darla considered kicking him again, only she hadn’t kicked him in the first place, so for safety’s sake, she settled for a glower and a silent promise that she was going to kill him. He laughed louder. “Stop laughing!” Lana ordered Blake. “It hurts.”

“I’m so sorry, Lana,” Meagan said, squeezing Darla’s leg under the table, telling her she knew darn well who had kicked Lana. Meagan eyed her husband. “Sam. Apologize.”

“I didn’t—” Sam grunted, and Darla had a feeling Sam had just gotten pinched or kicked himself “—mean to,” Sam finished. “I didn’t mean to kick you, Lana. I’ll be more careful. Sorry about that.”

Lana scowled at poor Sam. “Remind me not to sit next to you. I’m going to have a giant bruise.”

“Yeah,” Sam said. “Sorry again.” His gaze slid curiously between Blake and Darla. “I think I want to hear about this deal—ouch.” He grimaced at Meagan. “Would you stop that?”

Darla’s heart leaped. She couldn’t speak and couldn’t breathe for that matter.

The deal was about to be exposed.

7

“DEAL?” BLAKE ASKED IN REPLY to Sam, but his attentionstayed on Darla a moment before flickering to the other man. “Did I say deal? Imeant truce. Darla has agreed to forgive me for our past ‘incident’ for the goodof the show. Rick is on his own, though. Where is he, by the way?”

“I don’t remember saying that I forgave you,” Darla said andeyed Meagan. “And yes. Where is Rick? I’m looking forward to giving him a nicewarm greeting.”

“He’s doing a charity baseball game and won’t arrive until latetonight,” Meagan said and pursed her lips. “And you better behave when hearrives. You promised me you two would play nice.”

“Of course,” Darla assured her. “I just want to have a littleone-on-one chat with him to make sure I don’t become the brunt of any more ofhis attention-grabbing schemes.”

“I already tackled that,” Meagan promised, lowering her voice.“Rick knows I’m trying to keep this a top-quality talent show, not an extensionof a tabloid.”

“Which, as Meagan mentioned,” Sam added, “is a tough task onceyou get six young men and women in a contestant house for eight weeks. Thecameras are rolling, the hormones are high, and the weekly live competitions andeliminations are always hanging in the air. But Meagan and I learned from lastseason. We’re determined to run things better this year.”

“Even if the studio doesn’t believe they’re better,” Meagancommented. “They love scandal because they think it equals ratings when, inreality, it’s our ability to appeal to families that gets us powerfuladvertisers we’d lose in the long run if we tainted our image. It amazes me thatthe suits are so blinded by short spikes in numbers, rather than the bigpicture. Yet, they’ll cut us in a heartbeat if I let their strategy dominate theshow and it fails.”

“Back to the topic of Darla and Rick,” Blake said. “The pressis absolutely going to try and stir up their past conflict. It’s what theydo—stir the pot. So even if you talked to Rick, they’re going to bait him andDarla, and they’ll likely make stuff up if that doesn’t work.”

Meagan sighed. “I assumed as much.”

“Yeah, I know, which is why I say I interview Darla and Ricktogether tomorrow and address the past then, where I can control the outcome.We’ll be able to shut down all speculation and rumor because all three of uswill be together.” Blake gave Darla a quick nod. “I’ll cut extra footage thatyou can use exclusively on your show and some on mine. Then we both win.Everyone wins.”

“It’s a good plan,” Sam agreed quickly. “We then head off atleast one story the press will be chasing and maybe stop one headache.”

It was a good plan, Darla thought,and she actually found herself wondering if she’d wanted an excuse to see himagain all along, that tonight had never been about just one night. Good grief,she was so clearly not good at handling men. “How do you feel about the idea?”Meagan asked, studying Darla.

“How do you feel about it?” Darlaasked.

“I think it’s a good idea,” Meagan said. “If you’re okay withit.”

Darla nodded and glanced at Blake. “But I want us to talk toRick in advance. I want to know what’s going to come out of his big mouth beforehe says it.”

“Expected and understood,” Blake agreed, gaze raking her face.“Now I just have to convince you to do a full interview on my show before I haveto head back to New York.”

It felt as if her stomach had done a somersault, which set offall kinds of warning bells. She couldn’t risk a bad judgment call—a missteptonight that might hurt her contract over something that was going nowhere. Heclearly had an agenda and she was part of that agenda. His deal had convenientlybeen made when she’d been distracted. By his hands. His mouth. His body.