Page 44 of Thrown

“All sorts of things,” Toby said. “He mentioned there’s a medieval drama in the works that may or may not be greenlighted soon. When I mentioned the jousting arena, his eyes lit up.”

“Cool!” Nally exclaimed with a smile.

Robbie thought back to the moment he’d stumbled across Toby and Powter in the green room. He’d thought Powter was interested in Toby and the feelings were mutual. Now, however,he could easily see how the interest had been in Hawthorne House.

More than that, it suddenly dawned on him that the comment about not being used to its full potential wasn’t about him, it was about the estate.

There wasn’t time for him to feel like a self-absorbed, moping idiot before Toby went on.

“Whether Silver Productions finds any use for Hawthorne House or not, I’ve spent the last two weeks analyzing and assessing all of Hawthorne House’s businesses, and I think I can safely say there is a way forward for all of you that does not involve selling a centuries’ old legacy to someone who would replace the trees with roller coasters and the gardens with concession stands.”

“Thank God for that,” Nally blurted.

Toby went on to detail half a dozen ideas. He apologized for being so rushed that he hadn’t put together a PowerPoint presentation, or anything else other than the story of his ideas, but Robbie was still impressed. Part of him had begun to think that Toby had been hanging around Hawthorne House for the past two weeks as a way to stay out of a cubicle in a London office building, but he’d actually be working his perfectly tight arse off for all of them.

“With any one or two of those ideas, I think you could make Hawthorne House profitable again,” he finished after a good twenty minutes. He glanced to Robbie and said, “And you could maintain the integrity of the school as well and continue on with top-notch art classes.”

A brief paused followed. Toby smiled at Robbie, as if he’d given the entire presentation exclusively for him.

Robbie smiled back, a whole new feeling of gratitude and respect filling him.

“I think it’s a given, then,” Dad said, sitting back in his chair as if he’d weathered a storm and come out in one piece. “We’ll reject Willoughby Entertainment’s offer and pursue the things Toby recommends.”

“Don’t reject the offer immediately,” Mum said, surprising everyone. “Wait and see if this Silver Productions will make an offer of their own first. But otherwise, I like it. I like all of it.”

“I’ve got a class in five minutes,” Rhys said, standing. “But I think we’re on the right track. Can we agree to not give Willoughby Entertainment an answer until after Toby has spoken to Silver Productions?”

“I think we can definitely agree to that,” Dad said.

That was the end of the meeting. Everyone got up to go, leaving the room in a hurry. Dad picked up the phone and continued his call with Mum, his expression turning frisky as he lowered his voice and left the room.

Robbie had his class and got up to go, but he stopped and turned back to Toby before he took more than two steps.

“Thank you,” he said, warmth and awkwardness running rampant inside him.

Toby shrugged, his face flushed slightly from the energy of his presentation. His eyes glittered more than a little as he glanced up and met Robbie’s eyes. “It’s what your family hired me to do.”

Robbie swallowed, feeling like he was standing on the edge of a precipice. “No, thank you for the paracetamol,” he said in a quieter voice. “Thank you for taking care of me, for…for not laughing at me or ditching me when I was like that.”

Toby glanced down for a second as he stepped out from the table. It was a simple gesture, but beautiful at the same time. Robbie’s heart thumped against his chest, and he had a hard time catching his breath for a moment, especially when Toby glanced up at him and smiled.

“You would have done the same for me,” he said.

He didn’t move any closer. Robbie wished he would. He wished Toby would brush his arm the way Keith had.

The silence between them stretched out, feeling more and more like a chasm between them that Robbie couldn’t figure out how to cross. He hadn’t entirely shed the feeling that Toby was the enemy, but he didn’t feel the same visceral need to bite and snap and get the upper hand over Toby. Staffordshire had changed things between them, but he didn’t know what to do about it yet.

And then there was Keith.

“Don’t you have a class to teach, too?” Toby asked with an almost teasing look, stepping back to the table to collect a few pages of notes he’d made on one of the room’s notepads.

“I do,” Robbie said, turning stiffly toward the door. “I should get down there.”

“Yeah, you should,” Toby said, grinning happily, though he wasn’t looking at Robbie anymore.

Robbie didn’t know how he’d missed the fact that Toby was so gorgeous.

“We’ll talk later, then, I guess,” he said, inching more toward the door.

---