Follow My Lead (Stepping Up 2)

Her phone buzzed again. Meagan’s buzzed at the same time and she laughed as she looked at the screen. “Sam.”

Darla looked at her phone, warming inside as she shared this moment with Meagan, as they both returned messages to the men in their lives.

Darla read Blake’s text. Trust me. Put the shade down and close your eyes. You’re exhausted. You’ll fall asleep. Hello? Are you there?

I can’t, Blake, she typed.

You can. Do it now before takeoff. You will barely feel takeoff then. Then close your eyes and think about last night. I am.

Darla glanced out of the window and drew a breath before deciding to take another risk, to believe in Blake. She pulled her shade down. She just had to believe she wouldn’t crash and burn—with Blake and without.

18

TWO WEEKS AFTER DARLA and Blake’s New York encounter, which had been followed by daily texting and phone calls, Darla sat at the judges’ table in San Diego with morning auditions well underway.

“I do not understand why we let that girl have a Vegas pass,” Lana complained of the contestant who’d just left. “She was a moth, not a butterfly.”

“A moth?” Darla laughed, not about to let Lana get to her today. She had too many reasons to be in a good mood. Like finally seeing Blake again when he arrived later in the day. Not only that, she’d bought time on her parents’ ranch by negotiating ridiculously high payments she’d sworn to her parents she could handle. “Hmm, well then,” Darla continued, “I guess I should rebut by saying she’s a caterpillar who will become a beautiful butterfly.”

“I’m with Darla on this one,” Ellie agreed, flipping her ever-changing hair—it was pink and blue today, yesterday it was some form of purple—over her shoulders. “Butterfly in the making all the way. That girl is going to spread her wings and fly.”

“You’re always with Darla,” Lana sneered. “One might think you have a crush on her.”

Ellie grinned and wrapped an arm around Darla. “A girl crush,” she joked. “I lurve her so much.” She dropped her arm from Darla. “Sorry, Lana. I just agree with her choices and not yours.”

“I guess I have a crush on her, too, then,” Jason said, grabbing his cell phone to check his email, as he often did. “I thought that young woman had talent. Where the heck is the next audition?”

“Technical difficulties, guys,” Meagan said over a speaker. “Three minutes and we’re taping again.”

Lana and Ellie started to argue over what made a butterfly. Darla tuned them out as her cell vibrated with a text. She snatched it from the table, expecting a message from her New York producer about a special guest for one of her shows. The text was from Blake instead. I have a crush on you, too.

She blinked at the text. How had he known what had been said? He wasn’t supposed to be in until late afternoon. Her gaze jerked toward the door, half expecting him to walk in any second. Blake was here. He had to be here. Was he here?

Her phone vibrated with another message that read Yes. I’m here, as if he’d read her mind. She smiled, liking the way he really understood. This long-distance thing had been good. Instead of heating up the sheets, they’d spent hours just talking, getting to know each other. It was all Darla could do not to push to her feet to leave the room. She was nervous. She was excited. Wait, suddenly, she was very nervous. What if their chemistry had been a temporary illusion? What if the magic was gone? What if they’d imagined it in the first place?

The lights in the room flickered and then went dark. “Now that’s what I call a technical difficulty,” Jason commented.

One of the crew announced, “The entire hotel is dark. Meagan says to take fifteen minutes and not a second longer. We have a line of contestants to get through and a plane to catch to Washington for tomorrow’s auditions.”

Washington. That was where she and Blake were going to stay overnight together, before he went back to New York and she had to go to Nashville. The thought sent her to her feet, eager to freshen up before she saw Blake. She grabbed her purse and excused herself, heading toward the judges’ private exit.

She’d never been this excited, and this nervous, over a man before. That had to be a good sign. Please let it be a good sign.

* * *

THE INSTANT DARLA REACHED the hallway where Blake was waiting, he reached for her.

“Darla,” he whispered, trying not to scare her. He gently pulled her through the door and then behind it, before someone else entered.

She gasped and stiffened, only to sink into him. “Blake—”

He kissed his name from her lips, drinking in her sweetness and absorbing her soft, warm body into his. His hand caressed her backside over her snug black jeans. She whimpered into his mouth—a sexy, feminine sound that had him wishing they could escape and be alone, where he could hold her, touch her, be with her without fear of observation.