Page 57 of Thrown

Everyone turned to Robbie.

Robbie blew out a breath and shoved a hand through his hair. It came away with a bit of clay on it. He must have gotten wet clay in his hair when he and Toby were fooling around at the pottery wheel.

Just thinking about that send a bolt of longing through Robbie’s gut. But rather than making him feel hopeless, like it might have a few weeks before, that visceral need for Toby filled him with the fire to get things sorted.

“Toby’s a bit upset at the moment,” he said, tapping the back of the chair he stood behind with one, agitated hand. “But I agree that he definitely needs to be a part of this discussion.”

“Part of it?” Dad said incredulously, his eyes alight with passion and determination of a sort Robbie hadn’t seen in him in years. “He needs to be at the center of this. He’s the one who negotiated things with Silver Productions to get the ball rolling. I want him here, working with us, to get that deal set up the rest of the way, and to find more.”

“Do you think he’d come work for us?” Rebecca asked. “Since that other place just sacked him?

“What do you think?” Dad asked Robbie.

It was a brilliant idea. The best anyone in the room had come up with so far. Toby had already spent the last two weeks more or less as an employee of Hawthorne House. Robbie had suspected all along that he’d gone above and beyond the call of duty to help the family. It seemed like a natural next step to bring him on as an employee.

“I’ll ask him,” he said, taking a step back from the table. “But I have to go after him first.”

“Go after him?” Ryan asked from one of the phones on the table. “Did he leave?”

“It’s too long a story to tell now,” Robbie sighed, taking another step back. “If I’m not back in time for my morning class, can someone either cancel it or let the kids know I won’t make it today?”

“We’ll do that,” Rebecca said as Robbie turned to go.

Too much time had passed already, but he raced through the house anyhow, hoping he could catch Toby before he got in his car and left.

He almost made it. As he launched himself out the side door that the family used and into the private parking lot, Toby had just turned his car around and started down the drive. Robbie waved, but Toby didn’t stop.

With a curse, Robbie dashed back into the house and up to his flat to fetch his car keys. It felt like a painful waste of time. Every second that ticked by was another second of Toby misunderstanding the situation between them.

The only positive in the moment was that Robbie was reasonably certain Toby would just go home. He wasn’t likely to head into London for any sort of confrontation with Johnson, Johnson, and Inez. A few times along the way, Robbie thought he saw Toby’s car ahead of him on the road, but traffic kept him from truly catching up or being certain.

Robbie was out of breath and anxious by the time he pulled onto the road where Toby and his family lived. Toby’s car was parked like it had been there for ages, but when Robbie parked his own car and headed to the front door, he heard the distinct sound of the engine clicking as the metal cooled, proving Toby had just arrived.

“Toby?” he called out while knocking on the door, desperate to be let in.

He heard movement and conversation on the other side of the door, along with a baby crying. That went on for a worrying amount of time, which told Robbie that Toby was trying to avoid him.

It was Toby’s mother who finally answered the door. “Oh, hello, Robbie,” she said with a nervous flutter, glancing over her shoulder into the house. “Toby’s a bit out of sorts at the moment and doesn’t want to talk to you.”

“I appreciate that, Mrs. Tillman,” Robbie said, debating how horrifically rude it would be to push past the woman into the house, “but Toby misunderstands the situation, and I don’t want that misunderstanding to go on for a second longer.” He raised his voice in the hope that Toby was nearby and would hear him.

Sure enough, Toby called back, “I’m not misunderstanding anything.”

A moment later, his mum stepped aside, and Toby took her place, scowling.

“I’m not together with Keith,” Robbie said, searching frantically for the magic words that would make everything better. “I’d forgotten I said I would have lunch with him today. He texted me about it days ago, but too much has been going on, so I forgot to cancel.”

Toby snorted a laugh. “Right. You just happened to forget that the love of your life wanted to wine you and dine you and get back together with you. Was that before or after you—” He stopped himself abruptly, glancing back over his shoulder to where his mum and Gerry were watching.

“It’s not like that at all,” Robbie said as Toby stepped out onto the front steps, shutting the door behind him. “Keith is a wanker. I definitely see that now. He’s gone.”

Toby glared at him like he didn’t quite believe it. “Forgive me if I don’t believe you when you have a moony look in your eyes for him one moment, then say he’s history the next.”

“Moony look?” Robbie shook his head, confused.

“That’s what it was, wasn’t it? The way you looked at him when he slithered up the hall, ready to take you out for a night on the town?”

Robbie frowned. Toby was angry to the point of hyperbole. It was also strangely sexy. Robbie definitely didn’t consider himself the sort who was turned on by a partner’s jealousy, but the fire in Toby’s eyes and the memory of what they could do with that sort of energy only made Robbie want him more.

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