Page 20 of Thrown

And speaking of Keith….

“That was brilliant,” Keith said with a big smile for Robbie.

Robbie wondered how much that smile meant, considering Keith held John’s hand as the two of them joined the conversation.

“Wasn’t it?” Dad jumped right in, as if Keith were still closely attached to the family instead of being a memory that needed to fade so everyone could move on. “It makes me think that we should put on more exhibition matches like that. Look, Lionel and the girls already have a line of people who want to give it a try.”

Robbie turned, and sure enough, two new competitors were already donning the padded armor while Lionel organized a line for others who wanted to give it a go.

“With a few additions, and maybe a check to be sure you’re following safety protocols, you could make this entire joust into much more of a crowd draw,” Tillman said, gesturing to the arena. “It might be as big a draw as the actual jousting.”

Robbie glanced briefly to the huge, sandy arena where the trained jousters were already walking their horses through the obstacles in preparation for later events, but his eyes quickly snapped back to Tillman.

Tillman looked entirely different when he was having a civil conversation with Dad, as opposed to when he was fighting with him. Even with his hair matted with sweat from wearing the helmet and his silly, velvet costume skewed, he really was hot.

That struck Robbie in odd ways. Tillman shouldn’t be hot. He certainly wasn’t the classical beauty that Keith was. Tillman was too short and scrappy. And who over the age of fifteen wore a lip ring, unless they were a criminal.

Or kinky.

Robbie sucked in a breath and forced his attention on something else besides Tillman.

Unfortunately for him, that something ended up being Keith.

“You looked like you were having a good time out there,” Keith told him, his smile particularly intense. “I haven’t seen you that intent on something in a while.”

Keith’s eyes darted quickly to Tillman, and his smile grew.

Robbie breathed in, pulling himself to his full height, like he needed to defend himself.

But defend himself against what? Against old memories and baseless suppositions?

“Apparently, my Robbie has been hard at work on a lot of things,” Dad said, thumping Robbie’s back again. “What’s this I’ve just heard about you appearing as a guest judge on The Ceramics Challenge?”

Robbie’s face heated. Keith actually looked impressed with him, for a change.

“It’s a last-minute thing,” Robbie explained. “The judge they had scheduled can’t make it, so they called me in as a replacement.”

“Either way,” Dad said, nudging him to walk a little farther from the jousting ring, since the next game was about to begin, “that’s quite an accomplishment. I’m proud of you, son.”

A grown man of Robbie’s age and accomplishments should not melt into a beaming smile with praise, but that was absolutely what Robbie did. Tillman could criticize him for still living at home or needle him about not being adventurous enough to go out into the world to find himself, like Rafe and Ryan had, or even Mum, but it was all worthwhile to have his father express his love and appreciation as openly as he did. Almost no one was lucky enough to have that kind of a father these days.

Tillman obviously knew it as well. Again, Robbie expected him to react with a sneer or a roll of his eyes, and maybe make some comment about the Hawthorne family being hoity-toity. Instead, he looked almost forlorn that the praise hadn’t been for him. However he felt about Robbie, Tillman obviously liked Dad.

“Clearly, these television people must have seen your work in a gallery or online and sought you out for your talent,” Dad wenton, almost like he was bragging to a room filled with potential donors. “They approached you, I take it?”

“They did, actually,” Robbie said.

He glanced to Keith, instinctively looking for his ex’s reaction and, much though he hated himself for it, wondering what he thought.

But instead of praising him like his father had, Keith took a step back, raising his hand like he was waving goodbye, and said, “Cheers. We need to head over to the stage for the play. It was nice catching up with you again, Robbie. Good luck with the show.”

“Thanks,” Robbie called after him, a moment too late.

The sense of betrayal he felt as Keith turned his back and walked away, holding John’s hand and leaning closer to him to whisper something with a smile was strong.

At the same time, Robbie hated it. Break-ups were hard enough without all the shit they stirred up lingering and lingering and stopping you from moving on. It didn’t make a lick of difference that he didn’t want to feel any residual need for Keith, and really, it wasn’t Keith specifically that he needed, but the hollowness was still there.

“You’re better off without him,” Dad said, dragging Robbie out of his thoughts and embarrassing the hell out of him as he did.

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