Shake It Up (Man of the Month 8)

After that, it was easy to dive in and tell him the same story that she'd told Landon. He let her do most of the talking, only interrupting for clarification before he wrote a note on his yellow legal pad.

When she finally sat back, finished, Easton asked Landon about the results of the search for outstanding warrants.

"Several in Arkansas. Mostly drug related. But I got a text this morning. He's got an outstanding warrant in Louisiana. A murder charge. Apparently the prosecution had an airtight case, but the judge let him out on bail before trial. He skipped."

"You manage to catch him, then you can pretty much guarantee that between the Louisiana and Arkansas warrants, your buddy Beau will be going away for a nice, long time."

"Exactly," Landon said, then reached under the table for her hand and held it tight. "Hopefully so long his sorry face never sees the sky without there being bars or a fence between him and the view."

"Cheers to that," she said, then took a sip of the beer she'd ordered when they'd first arrived.

They moved on to the money next, and Easton's thoughts pretty much tracked what Landon had outlined, only in a lot more detail. Still, the bottom line was that she returned the money, but didn't end up with any dings against her because she'd also testify against him and her father. Not to mention Beau's entire organization.

"What about the money I spent?"

"I'm hoping that they'll consider your testimony valuable enough to call it even," Easton told her. "He shifted his attention to Landon. "No sign of Harkness recently?"

"Nothing, and we've been coming into Austin and being very public together at The Fix and around campus for over a week now."

Easton nodded slowly. "Could be he gave up and went home, but I don't believe it. He's biding his time. And you either wait, or you draw him out."

"Not much luck there," she said. "But I'm not sure what we're supposed to do. Strip naked and frolic on Sixth Street?"

"Maybe something close to that," Landon said.

She thought he was joking, but when she turned to shoot him a be serious look, she saw that he was looking through the open doorway into the main bar area ... and right at the stage that hosted the Man of the Month contests.

"Perfect," Easton said, without missing a beat. "Get Megan to include you in the flyer for this week's contest. He'll know exactly where you'll be--and when."

"And if I'm on that stage, then I'm not at Taylor's side."

"Exactly," Easton said.

"Um, hello? Doesn't this plan kind of suck for me?"

But Landon only grinned. "Trust me," he said.

And since she did, she nodded and said the only thing she could. "Okay."

Chapter Fourteen

Taylor sat cross-legged on the bed, her computer on her lap, wearing only plain cotton underwear and one of Landon's APD T-shirts. It was two in the afternoon, and she hadn't brushed her hair yet, much less thought about make-up.

Normally on a Wednesday, she'd be hurrying by now, getting dressed so that she could get to The Fix by five in order to set up with plenty of time before the contest. Tonight, though, she was playing the role of bait. Which was why Mina was once again stepping in as the stage manager--and Taylor was enjoying a lazy afternoon trolling the classified section of The Hollywood Reporter, checking out potential LA jobs.

For the last year or so, that had been her favorite mindless occupation--poking around and fantasizing about what sort of job she'd get right out of the gate in New York or LA after she graduated.

Lately, though--as in, post-Landon--she'd been less enthused by the New York and LA listings. Instead, the job postings from the Texas Film Commission seemed suddenly quite fascinating. There was even a job at the company where Mina had recently started working.

And, yeah, she was going to ask her friend for the scoop.

Or, maybe she wasn't.

The simple fact was that her entire perspective on her future had changed. Before, it had just been her, alone in the world even though she was surrounded by friends. Leaving town would be easy.

Now, the thought made her stomach ache. She didn't want to be just Taylor. She wanted to be Landon and Taylor.

Trouble was, she wasn't sure if Landon wanted the same thing.