There was a clearing of throats, and then Vince said gruffly, “Let me talk to your uncle for a minute, yeah?”
Sawyer passed by Robbie on the way to the door, head down, wiping at his face. Robbie didn’t try to comfort him here; they’d both fall apart. They could do that at home.
He took a few steps closer to his brother. “Hey, Vince.”
Vince gave him a tired smile. “Hey, Robbie. So, look, I wanna just—”
Fuck it. Robbie pulled him to his feet and hugged him across the table. At the doorway, the guard stared out into thehall, impassive. Unmoved. In Robbie’s arms, his older brother shook a little.
“I already missed half his life, feels like,” Vince said. Finally he pulled back. Neither of them acknowledged the wetness on their cheeks. “Probably gonna miss a lot more. But it’s better this way. If he’s with you, his old man’s crap can’t come down on him.”
Robbie swallowed the lump in his throat. “I’ll take care of him,” he promised hoarsely.
“Never any doubt, man.” He blew out a deep breath and squared his shoulders, schooled his expression. “Now get out of here. I know you got better things to do than watch me rot all day.”
Somehow Robbie managed a mirthless laugh. “I’ll see you around, Vince.”
Needless to say he didn’t have his whole heart in dress rehearsal that day. After the third time Robbie missed the cue where he was supposed to grab Finn’s hand for a step sequence, Finn snowed to a stop.
Robbie winced. “Sorry, I fucked it up again. I—”
“Look like you didn’t sleep all weekend,” Finn interrupted. “Rough day with Sawyer?”
You could say that. “I don’t think he even wants to come tonight. Imogen might drag him anyway, but he’s pretty, uh….”
“His dad’s going to prison.”
Robbie exhaled roughly. “Yeah.”
“His dad who’s also your brother,” Finn pointed out.
“Not that you’d know it by how close we are.” Honestly Robbie hardly felt like he had a right to feel some kind of way about this.
“It affects Sawyer, so it affects you. That’s how it is.”
He didn’t reach out, which Robbie understood. They were technically not allowed to fraternize. They were at work. But given the circumstances, he was pretty sure Holly and even her uber-bosses would’ve forgiven them. They’d already bent over backward to help Robbie schedule today so Sawyer could be at the arraignment and Robbie could be there for Sawyer.
But God, Robbie could’ve done with a hug—or even just a text here and there over the weekend. He’d barely spoken to Finn outside of work, it felt like.
Maybe he could fix that now. “What did you do this weekend? I mean, aside from the usual work stuff.”
Finn shook his head. “Nothing important. Hey, why don’t you go home? Get some more sleep. We can do one last run-through before they let the audience in.”
“It’s going to be a disaster.” Robbie hadn’t come this far to throw it all away now. “Let’s go again.”
Finn bit his lip. “Okay. One more. Then rest. You know better than to try to push through the pain.”
“Are you suggesting I’m not a macho athlete?”
“I’m suggesting that you know playing through the pain can only lead to injury.”
Ouch. Snipe and a goal. Slipping past the goalie’s undefended underbelly. “Twice more. Then a break,” Robbie offered.
Finn narrowed his eyes. “And you leave the building.”
“Fine.”
“Great. Deal.”
