Documentary (9 page)

             
After a check of her name on the list by the security at the front door, she was allowed inside. There were surfer boys everywhere. Lots more women everywhere. As always,
they
had gone to more trouble than the guys when came to fashion.

The inside of the house was sparse on furniture and none of it actually had that “lived in” look. Everything was leather or marble or wood, sleek or sharp-edged. The atmosphere was low-key, and she walked up to the bar on the second floor to get one of the purple-tinted drinks the bartender was serving. As soon as she slipped a dollar into the tip jar, Kai curled his arm around her shoulders and pulled her into a hug. He smelled faintly of alcohol and sweat, but there was also that indescribable
scent that made her skin tingle. Not the artificial clean scent of soap or aftershave, but it was the natural “very male” scent she was responding to. She also liked having him wrapped around her like this.

He was wearing ano
ther Lava hat, purple with black writing, and a plain black long-sleeved shirt. “You made it.” He was grinning. He took an appreciative gaze of her outfit, which sent an influx of heat through her body. Her attraction to him seemed to strengthen a little more every time she saw him.

“Thanks for inviting me.”

“You look beautiful.”

“Thanks.” She blushed. 

His brow creased as he looked around. “Where’s Lek?”

“He’s…
talking to a girl outside,” Dylan said, trying not to smile, but Leko bounded up the stairs just then. Kai lifted his hands in confusion. Leko slapped his hand hard and they pulled together for a one-armed hug.

“You were supposed to tell me she was here. What happened, dude?”

Leko ticked just one side of his mouth up. “Kelly happened.”

“She got really sad when you left. Every time someone pulled up she thought it was you,” Kai said. Dylan chuckled at Leko until his gaze met hers.

“What’s funny?” Leko asked her, even though he was wearing a broad grin.

“I thought you told me you didn’t have a girlfriend.”

“That’s definitely not my girl,” Leko said.

Kai’s hand closed around hers and she froze, tensing up for a bit
, but she soon relaxed and held his, too. She had expected to be the third wheel, tagging alongside him and some famous gorgeous girl. Way prior to the fight, he had been dating Yeardley “Lee” Casey of the affluent and well-known Democrat political family out of Connecticut. And it looked pretty serious in the tabloids. Dylan had found pictures of them together for about a two-year period. But if he was holding her hand right now, Lee wasn’t there—no other girl was there—and Dylan worked to control how excited she was about that.

“Why, you interested?” Leko aske
d, winking.

“Okay, killer. Settle down.” Kai shook Leko’s shoulder. “Thanks for bringing Dylan.” Then, he turned to her. “I want to introduce you to some people.”

“Nice meeting you, Leko. Thanks,” Dylan said as Kai led her away. They moved around from group to group where he introduced her to his “team,” the people he worked with from Lava Media, some of whom she would be interacting with through the web series. Kai introduced her as “Bob Dylan Carroll” and relayed the story behind her name. Everyone was genuinely nice and welcomed her, but she was dizzy after several rounds of meet-and-greet and a tight ball of anxiety was building in her gut. She was definitely the novice on this project, and there would be a lot of pressure to piece it together well. But she was up for the challenge because when it came to filming—to chasing this dream—nothing else mattered as much.

“You know you take the fun out of it when
you
tell the story about my name,” she told him when they finally had a few minutes alone. They went to the bar together for more of those purple drinks. On the same floor, they found two empty armchairs facing each other near a window when a couple got up and walked away.

“What? I can’t tell the story anymore?” Kai asked as they sat down. She k
icked her feet up on his seat out of habit, and he shook his head when she immediately tried to put them back down.

“You should tell them about my work—oh wait, you didn’t actually
watch my films,” she teased before dipping her lip over the edge of the white plastic rim of her cup. She tapped his thigh with her shoe.

Kai squeezed her leg just below her calf and she felt tingles from the touch. “Oh really? Don’t make me q
uiz you on Kai White trivia. So you really never listened to Evernight at all? That kind of hurt.” His thumb skimmed the bone of her ankle. “And we weren’t a boy band. We played instruments.”

“Fine, I did like one song,” she admitted with a smile. “‘Earthquake.’ But it was never released as a single, right?” She hadn’t been entirely truthful during the interview. She had liked Evernight, and she had fallen in love with the song, playing it on what had to have been a misery-inducing loop for her family when she belted it off-key through the walls.

Kai nodded then used his fingers to wipe his mouth. “‘Earthquake’ is the only one I ever sang lead on. That’s probably why my album isn’t doing well, because people don’t realize I can sing since it was all Jeremy.” His smile was bitter and his tone held a subtle acidic edge to it. In her magazine article research, she had discovered that in old interviews the two guys had definitely been involved in a serious bromance. To Jeremy, he had been “K, and to Kai, he was “Jer.” Together, they had been jokingly known as “Jerk.” There was not a single article where she had ever seen him refer to his old friend by his complete first name.

Dylan set her cup down on the windowsill. “Well, they need to! Your album is amazing, Kai.” She hoped he didn’t think she was being purely consolatory because she genuinely thought that he had told a beautiful story on his LP. She had listened to the album in its entirety without skipping any songs.

Kai pumped one fist in celebration. “I guess I can forgive you now for the whole Evernight thing.” She was relieved when his smile got friendlier than it had been a few seconds before. A period of silence followed before he leaned toward her, resting his elbows on his knees. “So, what was your ‘Screw Your Roommate’ costume?”

“The Mario Brothers mushroom.”

“Ha! What was your date’s?”

“The Princess.”

“Nice,” Kai said, laughing with a slow nod. “I can see a guy being okay with having to wear a pink dress for you.”

“Well,” Dylan lilted, as her face grew hot. “He didn’t know ahead of time it was going to be me.”

He gulped down and his eyes shifted from the left to the right. “So, you haven’t checked your phone once since you got here. ‘Screw Your Roommate’ guy isn’t waiting anxiously to hear from you?”

“Nope. I didn’t actually go,” she explained. “I met him though. Decided to apologize in person.”

“Anyone expecting your call at all?”

Was that a really longwinded way of asking if she had a boyfriend? Dylan’s face warmed up more. “Other than my two best friends?” She hadn’t dated anyone since last school year. His name was Danny and he went to the University of San Francisco, but that had been close to fizzling out before Christmas break that year, and when she got back to school she was so focused on the progression of Mac’s illness that she never returned any of his calls.

Kai sat back and smiled before he finished the rest of his drink.

“What? Why the smiling?” she asked, tapping his thigh with her
shoe and rolling her eyes. “I hope you’re not getting any ideas about me and my friends. That only happens in porn.”

Kai’s shoulders bounced as he laughed. “A beautiful—and funny—girl just told me she’s single and you expect me not to smile?”

Another rush of heat exploded all over her skin. “What about you?” she asked. Yeardley’s absence pretty much confirmed that they weren’t together, but she wanted to hear it from him.
Why does it matter? You shouldn’t even be concerned about that,
she thought.

“Well, my manager told me today that
Celebrity Daily
wanted me to go on the record about whether I’m dating Stephanie….” Kai’s brow furrowed when he trailed off. “…Whatever her last name is. She was just on the cover of
Sports Illustrated.
Someone snapped a picture of us in the same store last time I was in L.A. and now apparently we’re together. Models… they love putting me with models.” He shrugged.

“Sounds like a really hard life,” she joked. The knowledge that he was single made her heart beat a little faster. Sure, work had brought her here, but there was no denying that her attraction to Kai had factored in as well. He was sexy and really nice, but there were doubts about him, draping over her thoughts like gray storm clouds. She still didn’t know how to handle what happened outside the nightclub.

“Okay, I have one last person you have to meet,” he promised as a woman who had just been mingling walked in their direction. When they stood, Kai’s hand wrapped around Dylan’s almost instinctively. The woman was young but older than they were. She looked to be in her early thirties, and she had long straight black hair, and brown eyes that soaked up everything with particular attention. She wore a tight-fitting black dress, Christian Louboutins, and clutched a pack of Marlboros.

“This is Caroline Eckhart, the—”

“Daughter of Lava founder, Kenneth Eckhart, and head of Lava Surf,” Dylan said, taking over. Caroline looked impressed when they shook hands, and Dylan felt triumphant. She knew how to hold her own. She had memorized the names and faces of the important people in Kai’s circle, especially when they were high-ranking women.

“This is her house,” Kai explained.

“Not full time. This isn’t my primary residence. We really only rent it out when surfers are in town, or use it to host things,” Caroline added. She pulled a cigarette from the carton but didn’t light it. She pivoted toward Kai. “I can never keep up with who you’re dating these days. This isn’t Yeardley. I didn’t catch a name.”

Kai laughed but he looked as embarrassed as Dylan suddenly felt, and he dropped her hand. “This isn’t my girlfriend. She’s the one doing the web series.”

Understanding lit up in Caroline’s eyes beneath her heavy lashes, and she followed with an apologetic smile. “Oh! You must be Dylan Carroll. I’ve heard a lot about you.” Caroline held a knowing smile.

“Oh…” Dylan glanced over at Kai, and when he didn’t meet her eyes, she knew he was the one talking about her. “I’m excited to be working with
Lava’s media team. The Trent Aoku movie was amazing.” Aoku was a surfer who had chronicled his return to the sport after fracturing his spine and sustaining a concussion following a failed landing on a recreational BMX course. She had watched it a few days ago for the first time. Caroline appeared pleased.

Kai looked at his watch. “You promised me one game of beer pong,” he reminded her. Caroline’s face shifted to a look of annoyance that she probably flashed at Kai frequently because he was unmoved by it. He returned an expectant stare back.

“I’ve been out of college eleven years. I’m not playing beer pong with you. I said that so you would shut up about it,” she said matter-of-factly as she twirled the cigarette trapped between her fingers. “Plus, I need to smoke to keep from worrying about how much shit might get broken tonight. And please tell Abel and/or Wes to stop gawking at Clementine Barker before her boyfriend loses it.” She jutted her chin at Dylan. “How about her? I bet she’ll play.” She walked away without waiting for his retort, but Kai seemed to love the idea.

He held out his hand. “Come on…
be my beer pong partner!” Kai spoke in such a way that made it impossible to debate. She was already powerless when it came to that smile, especially with those blue eyes drilling into her.

“Okay, but only if it gets me in good with everyone at Lava,” Dylan said as their fingers locked. Kai’s palm was warm and she was surprised by how much she liked holding hands with him. They walked down to the first floor, to an area near the patio. Much like the floor above, the furniture angles were severely acute, and the hues rich.

Red plastic cups were scattered on each end of a netless table tennis table, and there were two guys on each side, too. Dylan recognized two of them as the identical twin Elliott brothers, Abel and Wesley. Wesley was a really good friend of Kai’s, but he had known them both since they were young teenagers, she had read. They were professional surfers sponsored by Lava Surf and had the stereotypical surfer boy features: Tattoos, light blue eyes, curly blond hair, and they were lean and muscular.

A woman was curled around Abel—he was the one with the shaggy hair—with one of her legs hooked over his. One of Abel’s hands had a pretty firm grip on her butt, and his tongue struck her lips before spearing through them. They didn’t look like they would actually leave the room before having sex.

“We’re playing,” Kai announced to the guys opposite the brothers.

“Just won’t accept your punishment, huh? And you can’t distract me with hot girls, dude,” Wesley said, but he trained his eyes on Dylan. “Wes Elliott.” He walked around the table to shake her hand and simultaneously check her out.

“Dylan. And I’m not here to distract you. I’m about to beat you,” she said without hiding her arrogance. The small group of spectators gave off a cheer in response. She had lost few beer pong games after the first one she ever played. Having to drink a beer you dipped your fingers in to retrieve a ball that had been in someone else’s hand was a high price to pay, even with the so-called ‘rinsing’ water cup, so she had mastered it.