Shake It Up (Man of the Month 8)

"Okay. Now tell me more about Reggie."

"Oh." She frowned. She'd repeated the story so many times with so few questions, she hadn't been prepared to go deeper. "Well, I don't know much."

"You said he told you that he'd been working up the courage to ask you out, and you turned him down when he actually managed that."

She lifted her brows. "You're making me sound like a bitch."

"What? For not going out with a guy you weren't interested in? Definitely not a bitch. You did him a kindness. Unless he's a psychopath," he added, amusement flickering in his eyes. "In which case, you just triggered him into stalking you."

She bit back a laugh as she rolled her eyes, immediately feeling better. She hadn't realized how tense she'd been until that tiny bit of laughter loosened her up.

He flashed a mischievous smile, and that time she couldn't help it. She laughed out loud.

"Did he try to ask you out again?"

She shook her head. "Nope. That was it."

"Have you seen him with other girls since?"

She thought back, trying to picture the common area near the entrance to the drama department. "Yeah. I think so. But I'm not sure if he was dating any of them."

"And his full name?"

"Reginald Carter."

Landon tapped something onto his phone, then met her eyes. "We'll talk to him tomorrow, okay? Do you know when he'll be on campus?"

"Sure. Dr. Bishop's class meets tomorrow. I'm not scheduled to help him out, but we can go by."

"Good. That's step one of our plan. I'll see what I can find out about Reggie in the meantime."

A loose thread on her robe caught her attention, and she started to twist it around one finger. "Do we have a step two?"

"There's always a step two. This time it centers on you."

"On me?"

He nodded. "Anyone else come to mind?"

Taylor looked down, saw that the tip of her finger was purple, and sighed. She wanted to stay quiet--because God knew she didn't want to invite those ghosts into her life--but at the same time, she wasn't an idiot.

And the ghosts might already be there.

"There was a guy. Beau. He--well, he had a pretty intense crush on me about eight years ago."

"That's a long time." He leaned back, studying her. "The guy must be dangerous if he's still on your radar. Or if you're still on his."

Her mouth went dry. "Very. He's done time. He's--well, he's not a nice guy. And he wasn't happy when I, um, didn't return his affection. And he knows that I like musicals. I've liked them my whole life. So he could fit with the notes."

"He's here in Austin?"

"No, that's the thing. This was in Arkansas."

"You don't have an accent."

"I worked hard to lose it. Watched a lot of movies and tried to copy the stars' voices." She smiled, sliding into the memory. "I liked the idea of being someone else."

He cocked his head, his expression gentle. "That bad?"