Page 99 of The Fine Line
“You’re on Rhett duty,” she tells him. “And Caroline isn’t his handler.”
I sigh, smiling. “Thank you?—”
“She’s just hiswife, apparently.”
My eyes squeeze shut.
“I mean, excuse me, but I feel like I’ve missed about twelvechapters in the span of forty-eight hours. So, care to clue me in, Care?”
“Addie, look, I promise I will?—”
“No, ma’am. You arenothanging up this call. Caroline, you and Rhett Sutton gotmarried?—”
“We didn’t!” I whisper-shout.
There’s a beat of silence.
“You didn’t?”
I pinch my nose. “Okay, like, technically, we did?—”
“Caroline!”
“But it’s not real. I mean, aside from the legal sense.”
A longer beat of silence.
“I am so confused.”
“It’s just for PR purposes,” I tell her. “And it’s only temporary. We didn’t really have a choice in the matter.”
I hear the sound of a door closing, and Addie lowers her voice when she speaks again.
“Are you okay? Are you being held captive?”
“Not far from it,” I mutter under my breath.
“What?”
“No, I’m not,” I assure her. “I’m okay.”
As okay as I can be.
“But you’ve just found yourself in areal—butnot really real—only-for-PR-purposes—butstill legally binding—marriage situation?—”
“Youcan’ttell anyone. I mean it, Addie. Please. Promise me.”
She huffs out a sigh. “Okay, I promise. But you have to tell me what’s going on.”
“And I swear, I will.” I start to hear movement from Rhett’s room. “Just—let me tell you as much as I can before he comes back out?—”
“Who?” she asks. “Rhett?”
“Oh… yeah. We’re kinda living together now.”
“Caroline. Start talking.”
“Okay. If I hang up suddenly, I’ll call you back later.”
