Page 87 of One Kind Hand

Charlie looked at Austin. Her gaze flitted to his arms and she couldn’t deny that she wanted them wrapped around her right now. That wouldn’t make any of the difficult decisions she needed to make easier, but she would sure feel better if she knew Austin was there for her.

And obviously he was. The man had come to the hospital to find her.

“Okay,” she said. “There’s a small nurses’ staff room down the hall.” No one would kick her out of it because she knew most of the staff here at the hospital due to her rescue choppering.

Austin didn’t say a word. He simply stepped aside as she walked forward then followed her out of the waiting room. He was quiet when they entered the staff room and while his face looked generally relieved she’d agreed to speak to him, something in his eyes was super unsettled.

They sat at opposite sides of a couch lining the back wall of the space. At first, the only noise was the hum of a refrigerator. Then Charlie figured she’d better start this conversation so she could deal with decisions for her mother next.

“I’m sorry,” she said, her throat dry and scratchy. “I shouldn’t have assumed that Morgan was your . . . your girlfriend or wife.”

He shook his head. “I can see why you came to that conclusion. My fault. I waited too long to contact you to talk about what happened this morning.”

“This morning. Right.” While his behavior was fresh in her mind, it all seemed as if it happened such a long time ago. This day was never-ending and one she didn’t want to repeat. “What exactly did happen this morning?”

Austin massaged his temples then slid his arms out of his jacket as he stood. He draped his jacket on the arm of the couch and paced in front of her.

Charlie didn’t stop him, figuring the movement helped him deal with whatever he was about to tell her. Part of her wanted to tell him to forget it. That he didn’t have to tell her anything. He could have his secrets. Now she knew he was afraid of the water and she’d never take him near it again.

“You don’t have to—”

“Yes, I do,” he interrupted. “You shared your family troubles with me. You let me in completely. I need to do the same and then you can decide what happens next.”

“Decide what happens next?”

He met her gaze, sadness radiating from his deep blue eyes. “Decide if you can be with me or not.”

Other than saying he had a girlfriend or a wife, what could he possibly say that would make her not want to be with him? Being in this small, private room with him made her want to feel his touch again.

“When I turned eighteen,” Austin began, “my parents took me on a special weekend trip to Cape Cod. It was just the three of us. No sisters.” A wry smile graced his lips. “I was pumped to have my parents all to myself. We went out for a massive seafood dinner, half to celebrate my birthday and half to celebrate that I’d gotten a scholarship to the University of Rhode Island.” He peeked at Charlie who was concentrating on his every word. So far it all seemed like good news. “I was going to be a psychologist. My parents were over the moon proud of me and we enjoyed a fantastic dinner together. One I’ll never forget. It was like a rite of passage, you know?”

She nodded though she’d never had anything like that with her parents. She’d spent her eighteenth birthday with Isabel and Eugene who hadn’t forgotten it was her birthday, unlike her parents. They’d baked her a chocolate cake and sang to her, but it wasn’t a rite of passage. Nothing momentous had signaled Charlie becoming an adult unless she counted the first time she’d bought her chopper. That certainly hadn’t been at the young age of eighteen though.

“Dinner ended,” Austin continued, swallowing loudly, “and we left the seaside restaurant.” He sat back on the couch, but at the edge of the cushion, his right knee bouncing as he jiggled his leg. His eyes darted back and forth as if he’d traveled back into his past to that night and was seeing it unfold in front of him. “It had rained while we’d been eating so the streets were soaked, big puddles everywhere, but that didn’t dampen our mood. My mother kept bursting into “Happy Birthday” every few minutes until my father turned on the car’s stereo to drown her out. Then all three of us sang whatever was on the radio, not caring if we got the lyrics right or not. Just having fun. The real kind. Genuine all the way through.”

He smoothed a palm over his bouncing knee as if to stop it, but the movement wasn’t under his conscious control. Austin stood again and walked to the door of the staff room and back. He blew out a long, shaky breath and all Charlie wanted to do was gather him in her arms. She could use some comforting as Morgan had said, but clearly Austin needed some too. She managed to stay seated though. Barely.

“One minute we were singing, the next we were swerving out of the way of a huge branch that had snapped off an oak tree and crashed down on the road from the windy storm. The street was slippery from the rain and my father lost control of the car. We shot forward onto a little bridge that led to our hotel, but we were on the wrong side of the road long enough for another car to hit us. Hard.” Austin raised a shaky hand and scratched at the crown of his head. “So hard that our vehicle slid up the guardrails of the bridge, looking almost like a seesaw. Another car hit the one that hit us and that tap was enough to send my parents’ car over the bridge and into the water below it.”

Charlie let out a gasp, imagining the scene he described. She’d seen her fair share of accidents, having airlifted injured people, but a car plunging into stormy waters was its own brand of nightmare. Of course Austin would fear the water after experiencing something like that.

His skin looked gray and his throat muscles worked as he fought to keep his composure. Charlie’s heart ached for him and fresh tears drizzled from her eyes.

“And I took you over the water and plunged toward it like a complete asshole,” she said, her voice strained. “I am so sorry, Austin.”

“You didn’t know.” He inhaled a deep breath and sifted it out slowly. “The part that no one knows is that I didn’t save them. I let them die, Charlie.” He ran an index finger under his left eye then did the same to the right one.

“What could you have done?” Charlie stood now too and closed the distance between them. She took his hand. “It’s a miracle you made it out alive.”

He shook his head and slipped his hand free of hers, creating more space between them. “The car filled with water quicker than I thought it would,” he said. “My parents were both unconscious. I think being in the front seats made them take the brunt of the impact while I was in the back seat.”

Austin wandered back to the couch so Charlie followed him and they both sat again.

“I managed to undo my seatbelt, but my lungs were out of air, so I swam to the surface, hoping to get a good gulp and head back down to free my parents. A Coast Guard boat was already in range though, having been patrolling the waters near the accident site.”

He lowered his head, his shoulders sagging as he leaned his elbows on his knees. Austin sniffed a few times and Charlie thought he might not be able to finish.

Screw it. She scooched to the cushion beside the one he was on and rubbed a slow circle on his back.