Page 84 of One Kind Hand

“Smart man.” He looked at his sisters. “Where is your suite?”

Claire pointed diagonally across the hall. “That one right there.”

“So if you need anything or want to tell us the details of what happened with Charlie today,” Morgan said with a raised eyebrow, “we’re all in range.”

He hadn’t wanted to talk about his freakout this morning. Instead, he’d kept his sisters busy by asking them questions about what they’d been up to while he’d been shooting Hunting Justice.

“Are you going to call your sweetheart?” Brooke asked.

“I don’t know that she’s all that sweet,” Cody mumbled, but he clamped his mouth closed when Austin shot him a look.

“I’m going to call her as soon as I get inside.” He arrowed a thumb over his shoulder. “I should have called her already.”

“But you gave in to our peer pressure,” Claire said. “And I think it did you good. Who isn’t merrier after being with the Rayhill sisters?”

“Hey, what am I, dog food?” Cody angled his hands at his chest.

“Speaking of dog food,” Morgan said, “where’s Berto?”

“Melanie has him.” Cody pointed to his suite door.

“Melanie?” Brooke draped herself against Cody’s arm. “Is she your lady friend?”

Cody looked at Austin. “Did we let her drink too much?”

“We may have.”

Brooke giggled. “Introduce us to Melanie, Cody.”

“Yeah,” Claire said then she looked at Austin. “And we’ll take Berto tonight so you can do whatever you need to do with your girl, big brother.”

Austin gave his sisters each a hug then they all disappeared into Cody’s suite to the sound of Berto going wild. Maybe he should go see Berto too, but he quickly recognized that as a diversionary tactic.

Time to man up.

He pushed his keycard into the slot, wincing as he recalled Charlie had the spare one. With any luck, she’d use it again to come into this suite to be with him. He just had to get past sharing one stupid story. It sounded easy, but it was probably going to be one of the hardest things he’d ever done.

After shedding his jacket and guzzling water at the sink in the kitchen, Austin flopped onto the couch. Though the piece of furniture didn’t actually belong to him, he’d made enough memories on it with Charlie that it felt like a part of him now. He’d kissed her here, touched her here, made her writhe in ecstasy here, cuddled her here, and dammit, he wanted to do all those things again.

Yanking out his phone, he hit her contact, but it went directly to voicemail. He texted instead.

Austin: Are you available? I’d like to explain myself.

He waited a few moments, wondering if the lack of missed calls and texts from Charlie since he’d seen her at the set was cause for concern. Charlie had run off so quickly, but he’d figured that was because she’d seen him with his sisters.

Only . . . she didn’t know his sisters were here.

Austin sprang off the couch. “Shit! She thought . . .” He raked his hand through his hair, yanked on his jacket, and ripped open his suite door. He plowed into Morgan in the hallway, nearly knocking her off her feet.

“Jesus, Austin, where’s the fire?”

“Charlie!” he shouted. “She thinks I was with you.”

“You were with me,” Morgan said, her dark brows crinkling.

“No.” Austin paced away then stormed back. “On the set. She saw me with you, but she didn’t know you were you.”

Morgan’s brows furrowed deeper. “You’re losing me here, Austin.”