Follow My Lead (Stepping Up 2)

Blake didn’t move as Meagan departed. He just sat there staring at her, and he wasn’t happy. In fact, she was pretty sure he was downright unhappy.

“What’s wrong?”

“What aren’t you telling me, Darla?”

20

“WHAT AREN’T YOU TELLING ME, Darla?” Blake repeated.

Darla swallowed the dryness in her throat. “I don’t know what you mean.”

“Yes, you do. You’re too desperate to keep this job.”

“Blake,” she reasoned, “this is a big opportunity.”

“Yet you say you only wanted to be in casting, that you never wanted to be a star. You know, I’ve beat my head against the wall, wondering what’s kept me from confessing my love for you, but I know now. Something doesn’t add up, Darla.”

He didn’t love her. Or he did. She didn’t know, but she was pretty sure that if he did, he was about to talk himself out of it. She moved to the edge of the bed. “Blake. I—”

“Do you remember when you asked me who burned me?”

Her throat was dry again. “Yes.”

“Lara Wright.”

“Lara,” she repeated, feeling stunned. “Wright, as in the movie star?”

“Only, she wasn’t a movie star when we were seeing each other.”

Darla’s stomach tightened. “She used you.”

“Right.”

She sat there, unable to speak, her mind racing. If she told him about the ranch, would he think she wanted his help? God. Had she told him before, would he have thought she was after his money?

Blake made a sound of frustration at her silence and pushed off the dresser, starting toward the door. “You’re not being fair,” she shouted, confused. “You’re judging me because of her. I’m not her. I’m not.”

He didn’t turn. “I just need to think, Darla.”

His back to her felt like a slap and her eyes started to burn. “What is wrong with me wanting this to work out? What is wrong with me wanting to work in casting, which I love, but instead of earning pennies, I get to give my family a better life?”

He turned to her. “Darla—”

“They aren’t rich, Blake. They struggle. I have great parents. The best. I want to give back to them everything they’ve given to me.” Tears started to stream down her face. She didn’t mean to cry, but she was still sick and she was worried and overwhelmed by everything that had happened. “I’m not Lara, and if you think—”

Suddenly, he was on the bed, on his knees with her, pulling her close. “I’m sorry.” He wiped away her tears with his thumbs. “I’m so sorry, Darla. I’m not too much of a man to admit I got scared.”

“I’m not her.”

“I know.”

“No,” she said, her heart twisting. “You don’t.” She pushed out of his arms. She was damned if she did and damned if she didn’t with him, and she knew it. He would think she wanted his money if she told him about the ranch. He would think she was about fame if she didn’t. In the end, he would turn his back on her and she wasn’t turning her back on her family. “I think…we have to get through this season and see where we stand.”

“Are you saying we shouldn’t see each other?”

“Yes.”

* * *

HOW BLAKE HAD STAYED AWAY FROM Darla for a full week, he didn’t know. But when he walked into the Vegas wrap party on the top floor of the hotel, he had one thing in his mind. He scanned the room bustling with cast, crew and finalists, with tables of food and drink and a busy dance floor, looking for Darla. Ready to end the week of hell that was his life without Darla. A week of regretting he’d allowed the past to taint the present. A week of regretting the moment he’d walked out of her room without fighting for her. When he’d let pride and stubbornness convince him that she’d pushed him away because she didn’t think he was worth fighting for, when the truth was, he’d been an ass and he knew it.

He found her standing at a table, talking with Lana and Jason. She was wearing a shimmery silver dress that hugged the curves he’d so intimately admired, her pale, silky hair a mass of silk spraying over her bare shoulders.

Her gaze lifted, sliding over his dark suit before connecting with his, as if she had sensed his presence. And like every other time this week when they found each other in a crowd, which had been often, he felt her tension, her pain and her reserve. It was that feeling, those emotions he felt in her, which had both convinced him she really cared about him, and convinced him how royally he’d screwed up by losing her. The only thing that had made him wait this long to pursue her was his fear that if he pushed her while she was under pressure for Vegas Week, he would end up pushing her away.