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I’d Kiss You in the Rain

Page 52

by Jordan Victoria

“I just like them,” he shrugs.

Richard smacks me on the chest with the back of his hand.

“What the hell⁠—”

“There’s been an accident at sea?” he asks into the phone, his brow creasing with worry.

My breath catches in my throat.

Robbie.

I feel like a bucket of iced water has been tipped over my head. I can’t move as I listen to the one-sided conversation.

“Yeah, we’re only a few miles down the road from Broadford. We’ll be at the hospital in fifteen.”

“Who?” I smack Richard back.

He pushes my hand away. “I love you too. We’ll meet you there, drive safe.”

“WHO?” I shout. Pressure builds in my chest, and it makes me feel like I’m going to burst into flames.

“Theo,” Richard says as he hangs up and puts his phone in his pocket.

Theo—not Robbie. Relief washes over me.

“He’s been taken to the hospital. Isla doesn’t know anything else yet. Robbie called her, he’s on his way there too, with Bailey.”

Bailey …

Oh, God—I’m an awful friend. I was so relieved it wasn’t Robbie that I didn’t think about Bailey, or how it could affect him. The last time I saw him, he was kissing Theo on the dance floor.

Fuck.

I don’t want to think about why I reacted like that to the thought of Robbie being hurt, but if Bailey’s feeling even a fraction of that, then I need to be there for him.

“Let’s go,” I demand, heading to the car in the rain.

At the hospital, Isla is with Theo’s parents, talking to a doctor. He points us in the direction of the ICU, and we silently make our way through the endless corridors until we find Bailey pacing in the waiting room.

My eyes flick over to Robbie, where he’s sitting with his head buried in his hands. There’s a pull inside my chest, and I’m torn between going to him and going to Bailey.

Robbie makes the decision for me. As soon as he sees us, he gets to his feet and goes straight to Isla, ignoring me completely. I move to Bailey’s side, pretending that my sister-in-law holding Robbie’s face to soothe him doesn’t make me a little murderous.

“Hey, he’s okay. It’s not the same as last time,” Isla reassures Robbie before they walk off alone down a corridor.

Bailey looks at me questioningly, as if I’d know what that was about. I shake my head.

“Lost his da at sea when he was fourteen,” Theo’s dad, John, says. “He came to live with us for a few years before he went to university.”

Oh.

Oh, crap.

Last night, Robbie tried to talk to me about Mum and Jamie—he said he knew what it was like.

And I told him to go fuck himself.

Oh, God, I knew it too—Richard told me about Robbie’s parents dying years ago.