Stand-in: Take 3 of the Kanyon and Daylen Series

by K. B. Draper

  “MRSA is ridiculous.”

  “I’m pretty sure Theo would have to have MRSA to give you MRSA,” Daylen stated as she unpeeled the last of the tape and slid the trash bag from Kanyon’s arm.

  “You saw what he yaked up. Just sayin’, it could happen.”

  Daylen shook her head as she wadded the tape and bags into a ball and tossed them in the trashcan. She diverted her eyes and thoughts from Kanyon standing in her kitchen in booty shorts, to the refrigerator. “Can I get you something to drink or …?”

  “No, thanks. I really should be …” Kanyon was having her own diversion problems with memories of waking up in Daylen’s bed after the Comic-Con replaying in her brain. She unconsciously glanced in the direction of Daylen’s bedroom and wondered if the picture of the two of them still sat on her bookshelf within the other photos of her family.

  “Right,” Daylen replied as she watched Kanyon grow increasingly uncomfortable. “Of course.”

  “Yeah, I need to– should, I mean, work and all,” Kanyon explained as she forced her feet in the direction of the living room versus Daylen’s bedroom. She glanced at the still sleeping Theo as she strode by and tried to distract herself with something, someone else. She started for the door. “So, tomorrow we try to figure out what made drool boy over there go all Don Juan?”

  Daylen looked back at Theo, letting out a little groan as she noticed Theo was drooling on her pillow. “Ugh.”

  “I’m telling ya, floor mat. Or it’s still not too late to put him in my trunk.”

  Daylen pulled a blanket from the back of a chair and tucked it under Theo’s head.

  Kanyon cringed. “I hope you’re going to biohazard that pillow and blanket. Heck, maybe the whole couch to be safe.”

  “I’ll think about it,” Daylen offered as she walked back toward Kanyon.

  Kanyon reached for the doorknob, and though she knew it was too soon, her body ached to stay. “Tomorrow,” she stated, stepping out onto Daylen’s porch. “Or I guess, later today. I have kind of a light day. If you want, you can come by the studio when he’s back amongst the living and non-drooling, then maybe we can talk to the other guys that were there tonight?”

  “That sounds like a plan.” Daylen smiled, though all she wanted to do was pull Kanyon back into her house, into her bedroom, into her bed.

  “Okay, then.” Kanyon hitched a thumb over her shoulder. “I should–” She began to step uncomfortably from foot to foot.

  Daylen’s heart leapt a little as she saw Kanyon hesitate. “You okay?”

  Kanyon fidgeted. “Daylen, I–” She fidgeted again, in slight duress. “I need …” Daylen’s heart went on full alert. “Can I, um,” Kanyon started pulling at the tattered ends of her shorts.

  Daylen looked down and broke out in a wide grin. “Borrow a pair of sweatpants?”

  “Oh my god, yes. Please!” Kanyon blurted out as she began to yank at her crotch. “I think I got a little over-zealous when I was cutting them off. They are,” she danced again, trying to dislodge the shorts, “starting to chafe. A few more steps and these suckers are going to have to buy me dinner.”

  Daylen stepped back, laughing as she watched Kanyon hop around as she yanked at her shorts.

  “Holy shit, how does Miley do this?”

  “I was wondering when that thought might occur to you. Hold on, I’ll grab you something.”

  Daylen returned a few minutes later, with a pair of sweats and flip flops, to find Kanyon standing shorts-less in her living room, her shirt covering more than the shorts had. Damn it.

  Kanyon gave her a guilty smile, pulling her shirttail even further down. “Sorry. Any more time in those and we would’ve been picking out wedding invitations.”

  Daylen chuckled, forced her legs to start forward again, and held out the sweats.

  “Thanks.”

  Daylen watched as Kanyon’s legs disappeared and a groan of regret and missed opportunity slipped from her lips.

  Kanyon looked at her with a questioning smile and Daylen quickly diverted her gaze. The sweats barely made it to Kanyon’s ankles so she pulled them up so they rested just below her knees. “Much better.”

  Daylen begged to differ. “Good.”

  Kanyon stepped to Daylen. “Thank you.”

  “Thank you for being there tonight.”

  “Always. I’m just sorry you didn’t get to finish your bar dance.” Kanyon whispered as she slid a hand into Daylen’s hair.

  “Oh yeah. That would’ve been something to see.” Daylen chuckled.

  Kanyon encouraged Daylen closer. Pulling her against her. “I think so.”

  Daylen slid her arms around Kanyon’s waist. “You and no one else.”

  “I want it to be just me,” Kanyon whispered against Daylen’s lips.

  “It is. Always has been,” Daylen whispered back.

  It was Kanyon who let out a soft groan this time as she closed the distance, pulling Daylen’s mouth against hers. The kiss was soft, yet powerful, a promise of commitment with a preview of soul melting passion.

  The third groan came from Theo and had Kanyon pulling away from Daylen’s mouth. She gave a sideways glance at Theo, who was now twisting and moaning on the couch. She brought hooded eyes, darkened with a veil of lust, back to Daylen. “I should go.”

  “You don’t–”

  Kanyon cut her off. “I should go.” She rubbed a thumb over Daylen’s bottom lip and smiled. “We’re going to get it right this time.”

  Chapter 11

  Daylen was sitting on her balcony looking out over the valley after leaving her aunt yet another message. “Where the heck are you?” She was just about to call out for Isadora when a crash came from behind her. She twisted in her chair to see Theo attempting to collect himself from the floor. “Theo?” she asked, coming into the living room. “You okay?”

  “Yeah, I ahhh.” Theo scrambled to his feet with the blanket she covered him with twisted around his legs. “Daylen, where are– Why are you– Did we … Please say we didn’t¬¬¬– Oh my god, who is doing the Vulcan death grip on my head?” he asked, pushing his palms into his temples.

  “You’re at my house. You slept on the couch. Alone,” Daylen clarified.

  “Okay, cool. Because you know, I wouldn’t want things to get–” He seesawed his head, then grabbed it with both hands and moaned. “–weird between us. I think my brain was liquidized. It’s sloshing around in my skull.”

  “Yes, we wouldn’t want things to get weird.” Daylen mocked as she guided him back down to the couch. “And welcome to Hangover City.”

  “I don’t like it. I want to leave,” he whined.

  Daylen laughed. “Sorry, partner. You’re going to be staying for a while.” She handed him a glass of water and pain relievers. “This will help.”

  Theo took a dutiful drink, nodded, grabbed his head, heaved, then held out the glass to Daylen.

  “Bathroom is that way.” She pointed.

  Theo bolted, tripped, groaned, then walked at a speedy yet cautious pace down the hall.

  Daylen was still shaking her head as she stood and moved into the kitchen. She made breakfast as she replayed last night’s events, focusing on the article and its possible powers. She came up with seven, none of them good. She thought about the reasons her aunt was not answering her calls and replayed no less than a dozen times her and Kanyon’s good-bye kiss before Theo returned.

  “Better?” Daylen asked.

  Theo dropped into a kitchen chair. “If better means Jabba the Hutt is playing croquet in my skull, then yes, I’m totally better.” He propped his head up on an elbow. “What happened last night? How’d I even get here?”

  “What’s the last thing you remember?”

  Theo furrowed his brows then immediately un-furrowed them. “Holy C-3PO, even my eyebrows hurt.”

  Daylen chuckled as she slid a plate of toast in front of him. “Try to eat a few bites. It’ll soak up some of the alcohol.” Theo looked at the toast as
if she’d just laid a plate of raw fish eyeballs in front of him. “Close your eyes and just take a few bites.”

  Theo did as instructed and managed to choke down a piece and a half while Daylen waited patiently.

  “About last night?” Daylen glanced at the wall clock. “Actually, hold that thought. If you can muster it, we need to get to the studio.” She reached out, putting a casual hand on his shoulder, then immediately jerked it back. She looked at her fingertips, which were now tingling, and rubbed her thumb across them. This was the same sensation she’d gotten in Cody’s bedroom.

  “I’m okay,” Theo said, wobbling slightly when he stood.

  “Good.” Daylen stated absently, still rubbing at her fingers. As if the events of the night hadn’t been enough, she was thoroughly convinced Theo had been exposed to the article. She’d touched Theo last night. Helped carry him in. Why hadn’t her super spidey senses gone off then? She looked at Theo and back at her hands. She reached out to touch him again. She patted his face, rubbed a hand up his arm, and took his hands in hers. She squeezed. Nothing.

  “Um, Daylen? I thought … I mean … the whole not getting weird thing?”

  “Sorry. I was just … never mind.” She shook out her hands. “We need to get to the set. Kanyon covered for you this morni–”

  Theo jolted so abruptly he knocked over his chair, his body immediately duplicating the same route. He righted himself. “Kanyon knows about last night? Me and last night?”

  “Afraid so. She even drove us home.” She didn’t figure she should divulge any more of last night’s events or he’d be back on the floor having dropped dead from embarrassment. “It’s all good. She was good,” she offered quickly as she saw him losing his color. “Right now, though, we need to get you to work.”

  “Right. They’re depending on me. I need to …” He looked around then down at his clothes, took a whiff of himself, and gagged. Twice. When he regained his composure, he asked, “You don’t have like a manly shirt I could borrow, do you?”

  Daylen looked at Theo’s current attire, which consisted of a vintage Spock T-shirt. “I think I could probably find something that won’t jeopardize the current masculinity you’re exuding.”

  “Cool, because this one kind of smells like bad perfume, dirty feet, and nachos.”

  After a quick shower, and dressed in an old Dark Savior T-shirt that Daylen received at some promotional event during the TV series, Theo sat quietly as they rode back into the city.

  Daylen had planned on waiting until she and Kanyon could talk to Theo about the events leading up to the strip club, but a forty-minute drive ahead had her asking, “Did you and the guys go anywhere else or just go straight to the strip club last night?”

  “We started at a bar near the studio. We got some food and a couple of beers.”

  “Anything exciting happen there?”

  “Exciting?”

  “Yeah, you know, exciting. Interesting. Something happen that’s never happened to you before in a bar?” Like hordes of women throwing themselves at you?

  Theo thought for a minute. “Oh, yeah! We all played darts and I got the eighth highest score.”

  “Nice. How many were playing?”

  “Nine,” he stated proudly.

  “Nine. Wow.” So, there are at least eight other guys they’d need to talk to. “Good job.”

  “I probably could’ve gotten seventh, but a girl threw me off my game.”

  “A girl threw you off your game?”

  “Yeah. She walked by and shoved something in my pants. I probably still …” Theo lifted his butt from the seat to reach in his back pocket.

  Daylen glanced from the road to him as he began pulling things out and laying them on his lap. Her eyes went wide. There were at least ten pieces of paper and just as many folded cocktail napkins, and he was still digging.

  “Hers is in here somewhere.”

  Daylen’s tires went thumping across the warning track and she pulled the car and her eyes back on the road. “Those are all phone numbers from women last night?”

  “And two guys,” he said as he opened his wallet to pull out another five. “Ahh, yeah, here it is. Weird name.” He held it out for her to read. “J-Lo. It’s probably short for something else. Like Joanna, Joanne Lo. Jo Long, Long, Longinstien. Joanna Longinstien,” he offered.

  Daylen grabbed the napkin from him while he was playing fill-in-the-blank and looked at the signature. “You have got to freaking be kidding me.” She tossed the napkin back at him and took the exit to the studio.

  He started unfolding and straightening his stash, placing them in an organized stack. “I have like twenty-seven numbers. That’s totally enough people to start my own Warcraft game.”

  Daylen stopped at the light at the bottom of the ramp and looked at Theo. “Quick question, just ‘cause I’m curious. Do you often go out and get twenty-seven random women giving–”

  “Twenty-five women and two guys,” he corrected.

  Daylen smiled tightly. “Right. When you go out, do you often get twenty-five women and two guys’ phone numbers?”

  “Oh wait, I forgot one.” He lifted his shirt to expose his chest. Moooannna had apparently gotten creative and chose to draw a handcuff around each of his nipples then creatively used the digits of her phone number as the chain that linked the two.

  Daylen’s jaw dropped. How had she not seen that last night when Kanyon pulled his shirt over his head? She assumed Kanyon’s self-made booty shorts had a great deal to do with it. “Theo, Jesus. Why the hell did–” A horn blared behind them. Daylen shot a look at the light and moved forward quickly. It took a couple of blocks to get her thoughts unscrambled. “Okay, so,” she spoke slowly and patiently. “Let me get this straight. When I asked you if anything interesting happened last night, you thought coming in eighth was the most interesting thing, not” she waved a hand over the pile of numbers in his lap, “or,” she backhanded him lightly across the chest, “someone freaking chain-ganging your nipples together with a magic marker?”

  “But, I usually come in last,” he answered softly.

  If he hadn’t sounded completely sincere and completely pathetic, she might have yelled at him. “Right. Okay.” She took in a breath and let it out slowly. “Let’s try this again. Theo, is there anything else that happened last night? Anything out of the ordinary?”

  Theo sat in thought for a long moment. “Oh, yeah.” He leaned forward, fighting with his seat belt. The seat belt took the first two rounds. He finally pulled out two hundred dollar bills from his socks. “A lady from the strip club gave me these and asked me to get on stage with her.”

  Daylen glanced at Theo, the bills, then back at the road. “Just handed you two hundred bucks and asked you to dance on stage with her?”

  “Well, she didn’t really hand them to me.” He glanced at his crotch. “She kind of put them in,” he cleared his throat. “Umm, you know, Deep Space Nine.”

  Daylen couldn’t help but glance at Theo’s Deep Space Nice. “Again, I just have to ask why you chose the results of the little dart tourney versus a woman shoving two hundred bucks in your,” she wouldn’t say it, “pants?”

  “I should’ve led with that, huh?”

  Daylen scrunched up her nose and nodded. “Yeah, probably should’ve led with that.”

  “Here.” He held out one of the bills. “I want to give you gas money for coming to get me.”

  Daylen pushed herself against the door. “No, no. Really, it’s all good. Keep it.”

  They pulled into the studio lot a few minutes later. “Why don’t you text Kanyon that we’re pulling in?”

  “Okay.” Theo pulled out his phone and froze.

  When Daylen didn’t hear the click, click, click of letters being typed, she looked over. “Theo?” He was completely white. “Theo? You okay?”

  He groaned. “Did I say or do anything stupid in front of her?”

  “Nah.” She shook her head. “Can’t think of anythi
ng.”

  Chapter 12

  Theo split off as soon as he and Daylen arrived at the studio. Daylen headed toward Kanyon’s trailer, lost in the thought of seeing Kanyon after last night’s good-bye. She hoped their hellos were going to be just as tantalizing.

  “Well, well, well, what do we have here? Is someone making a sad attempt to get back into Hollywood or are you just here circling for my leftovers?” Lexi sneered as she stepped out into Daylen’s path.

  Daylen tried to step around, but Lexi simply slid over a step. “What? Don’t want to stay and talk? Catch up? We could share stories about Kanyon. Compare notes. I mean, I do have so many,” she purred a sexual moan, “deliciously satisfying notes.”

  Daylen reinforced her shields as she felt anger start to boil within her. “Lexi,” she warned, “you need to move out of my way.”

  “Ahh, come on, Day-Day.” Lexi put on a pout. “Don’t tell me you have hard feelings? You can’t blame me for,” she lowered her voice, “indulging. I mean Kanyon is just so …” She bit her lower lip in explanation. “Well, you know. Or maybe you don’t.” Lexi stepped close to Daylen and leaned into her. “I’m thinking about going for round two. But don’t worry, Day, you can have her when I’m done. If there’s anything left, that is.” She snapped her teeth close to Daylen’s ear, then straightened and smirked. “But until then, I recommend keeping your hands off my property. I’d hate to see all those nasty rumors about Kanyon start to resurface.” She patted Daylen’s cheek with false affection, winked, and slithered off in the opposite direction.

  Daylen stood rigid as she felt her shields weaken. She fought to keep the cracks in her defenses from spidering and shattering completely, but the fierce need to protect Kanyon had her losing the battle. She didn’t stop to heed the warning her brain was sending. “Lexi,” Daylen growled in a voice that didn’t sound like her own. The fierceness in the single word had Lexi pausing her hip swaying departure. “Kanyon’s choices are her own. She might have chosen you once, but I won’t stand by and let you hurt her again.”