Page 49 of One Kind Hand

They walked a bit more, but as soon as Berto made his morning deposit, Cody insisted they turn around and head back to the hotel. Austin supposed he did have to get to the set and do some work today so he obliged, but he hoped to get the chance to walk outdoors again.

Next time with Charlie.

Chapter Nine

Thanks to an emergency visit to Heather, Charlie now did have a fancy dress because she was in fact a New England redneck who didn’t own any expensive clothes. Austin didn’t need to know that though. She stuffed the garment bag containing one of Heather’s custom designs—fortunately one she had lying around that hadn’t been promised to anyone—into her SUV. She’d lucked out on price too. Not only had Heather given her the friends-and-family discount, but she’d also lowered the price because the dress had been made with leftover fabrics.

“This one was more of a passion project,” Heather had said. “I’d been fooling around, practicing some new techniques and the damn thing came out kinda cool. And it looks amazing on you.”

Good thing it looked amazing because Charlie had a feeling a fancy dinner with Austin was going to be Fancy. Yeah, with a capital F. She wasn’t an official fan of Fancy, but she also couldn’t honestly say she’d had adequate experience with it to make a solid determination. Sure, she’d gone to her senior prom and had been to several weddings, but that was the sum total of the occasions for which she’d had to dress up in her life.

Normally she would have fought a guy who wanted to take her somewhere upscale—particularly because it’d never happened before, but she was curious about what Austin had in mind for tonight. He hadn’t argued too much when she’d selected that steakhouse, though he had tried to get her to level up on that choice. He also hadn’t bitched when she’d ordered burgers from room service. The least she could do was let him choose this time. Hopefully he wasn’t trying to show off though.

He didn’t need to.

After last night’s bedroom festivities, she was definitely hooked on him. Probably totally stupid, especially because they had to work together on a few scenes in his movie, but she couldn’t help herself. Austin was what she’d expected from a movie star—handsome, charming, talented, passionate, sexy. But he was also a whole bunch of unexpected stuff too. Sweet, funny, vulnerable . . . interested in honey bees. She enjoyed his company and was intrigued enough to keep seeing him though she was a bit concerned by how much she craved him. Had she slept with him too soon? Was agreeing to see him tonight after spending so much time with him yesterday a bad move?

With these questions poking at her brain, she raced back to her house, grabbed the garment bag from her SUV, and jogged up her front steps.

Where her father was sitting.

“Dad?”

He looked up, his head having been in his hands as his elbows rested on his knees.

“What are you doing here?” It wasn’t like him to stop by. It also wasn’t like him to leave her mother alone. “What’s wrong?” She instantly thought something had happened to her mother. That her ALS had worsened and she’d met a new level of diminished mobility. It was going to happen. The question was when.

“I can’t do it anymore, Charlie.” Her father’s voice was ragged. “I can’t.” When his shoulders shook, Charlie hooked the garment bag on the railing lining the front steps and sat beside her father. They weren’t a hugging family, but when one’s father was crying on one’s steps, one got with the hugging program.

“I know it’s hard, Dad.” She rubbed his back.

His head shot up, his eyes full of unshed tears. “Hard? Hard? It’s fucking impossible, Charlie!” His voice was loud and Charlie glanced around, but fortunately her neighbors didn’t appear to be out and about. “I should have left years ago. Years.”

Charlie let her hand slip from her father’s back. Hugging and rubbing his back wasn’t going to cut it. She didn’t much feel like consoling him when he was yelling at her either.

“Why don’t you leave then?” She half wanted him to. Then Charlie could find her mother an appropriate care facility where she wouldn’t have to worry about her mother’s wheelchair falling through a ramshackle ramp.

Her father swiped at his cheeks. “Guilt. Guilt is why I don’t leave, Charlie.”

She could understand that. Thinking about putting her mother in a care facility a moment ago had sent a ripple of guilt through Charlie. Truthfully, however, it was the safest option. For everyone.

Charlie didn’t have any solid solutions or words that would make the situation any better. She heaved in a breath and pointed to the steel building that held her ATVs.

“Wanna tear up some trails?” she asked.

Her father’s lip twitched up a tiny fraction and he followed her gaze. “Yeah.”

Charlie and her father didn’t know how to truly have heart-to-heart conversations and they butted heads more than they didn’t, but they’d worked out a few issues over the years buzzing along the trails on four-wheelers. After all, her father was the guy who had taught her how to ride them.

They spent the next hour cutting through the wooded trails, leaves flying about as they stirred them up. Their helmets and jackets kept out the cool November wind and by the time they circled back to Charlie’s steel building, they both felt better.

“Thanks,” her father said. “I needed that.”

“Maybe I did too.”

Her father raised his brows. “Oh? What’s going on with you?” The concerned tone of his voice warmed Charlie a bit. Her father was gruff, often rude, and a bit of an asshole, but he was also protective of her and her mother. Hence why he couldn’t abandon his wife now.

“Nothing. I met a guy and he makes my head spin.” She told her father about her chopper being in a movie and about Austin.