Page 9 of The Blowout

I’m so stunned, I don’t move a muscle. My hands are still clenched, like they’re holding the bowl still even though I’m looking at the stupid thing on the floor. In slow motion, I see an arm reach down and grab the offending object. Muscles flex and strain against blue fabric. Oh my.

My gaze wanders up the appendage. Up and up, until I meet the hypnotizing dark chocolate eyes of the man I can’t stop thinking about. Words escape me as I continue to gape at him.

“Did I catch you at a bad time?” Charlie asks, a small grin on his face at my reaction to him. Those words jolt me out of my haze and I straighten, grabbing the bowl from his hands.

“No. No. Of course not.” I turn away from him, needing space. I start randomly rearranging my whole workstation. My area is going to be out of sorts with my next client, but it will be worth it. I can’t look directly at Charlie right now. He’s like an eclipse. I can only face him when I have some protection—and right now I had no defenses when it came to him.

“Kim. Look at me.” Hearing him say my name for the first time rocks me to my core. My eyes fall closed, trying to commit this moment to memory. Letting out a deep breath, I square my shoulders. It was time to face the music.

I almost lose my nerve again when I look back at him. Hewasmore gorgeous then yesterday. Air escapes through my teeth making a hissing sound as I try to get myself together.

“Hey, Charlie,” I’m finally able to force out, my voice surprisingly normal sounding. “What brings you around these parts?” Okay, never mind. I just channeled a cowboy, Western accent and all.

One side of his lush lips tilt up. Not quite hitting grin status but almost. So he wasn’t completely angry with me.

“I think you know why I’m here.”

Yeah, I did. Which sparked me to ask another question. “Wait. How did you find me?”

“I have my ways.”

“Well, that sounds a bit disturbing.”

“Forgive me for going to extreme measures to find the woman who ran away from me without a word.”

The salon “ohhs” and “ahhs” behind me. I think I even hear someone slap their leg in glee. I wince. Well, when he said it like that it sounded bad.

“I didn’t run out on you,” I try to defend myself. “I just…” Damn, how could I put this nicely? “When I found out who you were, I panicked. I didn’t think you’d want to see me again, especially if you learned who I really was.”

He takes a step forward, causing my chin to tip up so I can keep our eyes locked. “What part of last night made you think I would be mad at learning who you were? That I wouldn’t want you to be there when I was done my speech, sunshine?”

That I couldn’t answer. Deep down, I knew sneaking out of the event was a mistake. A rational adult would have stayed, admitted the truth and prayed for the best. But my heart wouldn’t have been able to handle the rejection if he’d pushed me away. If he’d admitted to wanting Gillian over me. I should’ve never kissed him without telling him the truth. Without finding out his feelings for…my sister.

“Why didn’t you wait until Monday to ask my sister about…all this?”

“Your sister is on a Grecian beach right now and not accepting any calls. And why would I go to her when it’s you I want to talk to?”

I hear only the first part of his sentence. “She’s what!” I cry, my voice once again cutting through the chatter in the salon. “I thought she was, like”—my arms wave up then fall dramatically back at my sides—“in Brooklyn or something. I didn’t think she’d actually got on a plane!”

“She’s fine, if that’s what you’re worried about. She’s not alone.”

I wasn’t worried about her safety, but you better believesheshould be when she gets back to the city. Here I am, thinking that she needed to lay low for a while due to exhaustion or something when in reality she left me to do her dirty work so she could laze about on a beach. Oh, she was in big trouble. BIG trouble.

“Well, I guess that’s good news,” I mumble, rubbing the back of my neck.

When his hand comes up and runs down my hair in a soothing gesture, I feel my pulse kick up for a different reason. I wish I could be indifferent to him. I wish there wasn’t so much on the line and we had met in a different way.

“I knew you weren’t Gillian from the very beginning,” Charlie says, voice low and hypnotizing. “Everything that happened between us was real. It was you I was thinking of. Only you.”

And just like that, my greatest fear dissolves. He’d wanted time with me.

“How?” I ask, needing the answer. Not many people could tell Gill and me apart. Certainly, no past boyfriend or significant other had been able to. How had Charlie known?

“These,” he says, cradling my head and running a thumb along the smattering of freckles I have under my left eye. “And I’ve worked with your sister for over four years now. I know her mannerisms and voice. I knew the moment you fluffed up your gorgeous hair that you weren’t her.”

“She twirls her hair when she’s anxious,” I say, mostly to myself, realizing my error.

“Yeah. And you called me Charlie. No one calls me Charlie.”

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