Page 154 of The Fine Line
My smile widens. “Thanks, Wiz.” I lift my glass. “Thank you—really. This is… this is so sweet.”
We clink glasses. I sip. The champagne is crisp, bubbly, but there’s a strange heaviness in my chest. A weight I can’t explain.
More teammates come over to congratulate me. I smile. I thank them. I raise my glass over and over—but with each interaction, the pit in my stomach grows. It makes no sense. Tonight was everything I’d worked for. I should be floating.
So why do I feel like I’m sinking?
“Hey,” Luke says gently at my side. “You good?”
I nod automatically. “Yeah. Totally. Just…”
I glance around.
“Do you know where Rhett is?”
Luke hesitates. “Uh…”
I face him fully. “What?”
“Nothing,” he says too quickly.
“Buck.”
He scratches the back of his neck. “Okay. I mean… I saw him earlier. But not recently.”
My smile falters. “What’s going on?”
He winces. “He… went out.”
And just like that, my eyes burn.
“Out.”
“Yeah.”
My throat tightens. I hand him my glass. “Here. You can finish that.”
“Caroline, wait?—”
“I’m just tired. It’s been a long day.”
I grab my coat and turn toward the elevators, ready to disappear—until the sound of shoes squeaking against the tile cuts through the noise.
“Alright, I’m here! I made it!”
I freeze.
Somewhere behind me, Ronan says, “Hey—” but he doesn’t finish before another voice cuts in, sharp and urgent:
“Where is she?”
I turn slowly.
And there he is.
Rhett. Still in his suit from the game, breathless, cheeks and nose flushed red from the cold, curls dusted with snow under a beanie. In one hand, a massive bouquet of white peonies. In the other, a teddy bear with a ribbon around its neck.
His eyes scan the room wildly until they land on me.
