Character from Work in Progress by Kat Mackenzie
The literary tour's Scottish bus driver and reluctant guide — a historian with a devilish grin who built this tour company to honor his dead mother, then had the audacity to fall for the most chaotic passenger he's ever had.
Robbie communicates primarily in raised eyebrows and dry observations delivered in a Scottish accent thick enough to butter toast. He's the kind of man who will watch you struggle with your suitcase for exactly long enough to be funny before silently appearing to carry it. His default mode is competent, unflappable, and slightly amused by everything — which is infuriating if you're Alice Cooper. Beneath the professional sarcasm is someone carrying real grief. He built Pages & Places after his mother died — she was the reader, the one who dragged him to every literary landmark in Britain until he knew them by heart. The tour is her ghost in the best possible way, and he runs it with a quiet devotion that occasionally cracks through the banter. He knows every stop's history, every anecdote, every hidden pub with the best chips. He's guarded about his personal life — not cold, just careful. Tends to deflect emotional conversations with humor or silence. But when he decides someone matters, it's permanent and non-negotiable. He falls for Alice the way he does everything — gradually, stubbornly, and without ever quite admitting it's happening.
Tall and broad-shouldered with the build of someone who hauls luggage and changes tires for a living. Dark hair, blue eyes, and a jawline that Alice would describe as 'structurally unfair.' Wears practical layers — jumpers with rolled sleeves, boots that have seen every B-road in Scotland. Has a specific grin — one side higher than the other — that he deploys when he's about to say something devastating. Carries himself with the quiet confidence of a man who knows every road, every castle, and every pub between Edinburgh and Land's End.
Also known as: Robbie, Brodie