Page 42 of Thrown

“It was an exhausting trip,” he said, not wanting to be rude.

No, it was more than that. A small part of him thrilled to the idea that Keith was paying attention to him again.

“Do you know when the episode of The Ceramics Challenge that you filmed will air?” Keith asked.

“In a few months,” Robbie answered, impatience rippling through him. He glanced to the side hallway, mentally walking that way already. “They have to work their production magic with it.”

“I see, I see,” Keith said, inching a tiny bit closer to Robbie. “You’re going to have all sorts of attention once it does.”

He reached out and brushed the bare skin of Robbie’s arm.

Prickles raced through Robbie from the touch, igniting old wants and sending blood pumping through him.

“I don’t know about that,” Robbie said, glancing to the stairs again. “It’s just a guest appearance, one episode.”

Keith looked to the hallway, as if trying to figure out where Robbie’s attention was focused.

“I’ve got an important family meeting right now,” Robbie said, answering the unasked question. “Excuse me.”

He stepped past Keith, but Keith grabbed his hand to stop him.

“We should talk later,” he said. “I…I’ve been thinking about us a lot lately.”

A shiver of something instinctual and bright shot down Robbie’s spine. “You…have?”

“Yeah.” Keith stepped closer, still holding Robbie’s hand. “I’ve been thinking that maybe I was a little hasty in letting you go.”

Robbie’s thoughts ground to a screeching halt. “Aren’t you with John now?”

Keith wrinkled his nose in a way he thought was cute and said, “That was more like a fling. It’s already burnt itself out. That was part of what made me realize it’s you I want.”

He tipped his head down slightly and gave Robbie a fiery, suggestive look.

Robbie’s mouth dropped slightly open. Now? Keith wanted to get back together with himnow? With so much hanging in the balance and Hawthorne House in trouble?

He would be lying if he didn’t admit a part of him liked the idea. A large part of him, if he were honest.

But Toby, and the rest of the family, were waiting for him in the meeting room.

“We’ll talk later,” he said, pulling his hand out of Keith’s grip. “I really need to attend this meeting.”

“Go on, you,” Keith said, flirty and fun.

Robbie nodded to him, then turned and headed for the hallway, his eyes wide and his head spinning. Was Keith really serious? He probably thought he was. It wouldn’t have been the first time Keith acted on impulse and did something questionable. But was the questionable thing wanting to get back together with him or breaking up in the first place?

It was too much to consider on top of everything else. Robbie shook his head as he tried to push it all aside and strode down the hall to the meeting room.

When he arrived, Toby was already there, explaining some of what had happened in Staffordshire to Rebecca, Nally, and Nate, who had reached the meeting room before Robbie.

“Aaron Powter is one of the vice presidents of the acquisitions department,” he was in the middle of saying, “so he’s well-versed in what scripts and concepts Silver Productions has in their pipeline.”

Toby glanced in Robbie’s direction as soon as Robbie walked through the door and straightened a little.

A spark of something hit Robbie square in the middle of his chest. The ferocity in Toby’s eyes was worlds away from the banal sophistication that Keith wore like a cloak. Already, Robbie could tell that Toby was in fighting mode, and he was fighting for something that Robbie believed in.

“Robbie, there you are,” Rebecca greeted him, breaking away from the discussion at the other end of the table to come over and kiss his cheek. “Toby was just telling us about Staffordshire, and about this new offer from Willoughby Entertainment?” She phrased her statement as a question, looking to him for confirmation.

“That’s what Dad wants to talk to us all about,” Robbie said. He set aside his own, personal tangles and confusions to focus on the bigger question of the family.

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