“This is what it looks like,” Tony said, reading faces.“We either let the segment write the story, or we write one that doesn’t make us hate ourselves.”
“I’m not lying,” Jami said quietly.“If we do this, it can’t be a circus.”
“It won’t be,” Carlene said.“It’ll be two people walking on a dock, and then we’ll go home.”
Jami shook his head once."But it's giving the impression of something else."
Carlene looked into his eyes."So does everything we're doing."
"Not everything.I do live here.I do sit on the bluff and, while I don't go to Mae's often enough, I have gone there, and I do love her bakery."
She took a deep breath."It's necessary."
Livia studied Carlene’s expression like she could find hairline cracks if she looked long enough.“Who?”she asked gently.
For a second, the world narrowed to the word.
Who.
Carlene’s mind did what it always did.It pulled lists.Names.Risk profiles.Nice local.A publicist’s cousin.A teacher Livia knew.The more she thought, the worse it all looked.Every name felt like stepping on a person to fix a problem that wasn’t theirs.
“Someone he respects,” she said, stalling, “who reads as ease.Someone who won’t sell the shot for a payday.Someone who can handle eyes.”
Jami turned to her, steady.“You.”
“No,” she said, too fast.Heat crawled up her neck.“I’m the last person.I’m already in the room.It muddies the work.”
“It clarifies it,” he said.“We’ve already been seen together.They’re already circling your hand in a photo.This stops the guessing.And I’m not dragging someone from town into a mess they didn’t make.”
Tony made a quiet sound that meant he agreed, even if he didn’t like the whole idea.
Livia didn’t smile, but her eyes warmed.“Boundaries,” she said.“You set them.Then you go in, do ten minutes, and you get out.”
Carlene’s heart beat slow and hard against her ribs.She hadn’t built a career on being the story.She’d built it on the idea of never being the story.
“I don’t date clients,” she said.
“You’re not dating me,” Jami said.“You’re giving the internet something harmless to point at while they get used to the idea that I’m a person and not a screen.”
He sounded calm.He looked calm.Underneath, she felt the thrum of something that wasn’t calm at all.He was choosing this because he’d rather take the heat than see it land on anyone else.
“Sunset,” Tony said, already moving.“At the marina.I’ll call Jace at the Sandbar and make sure the dock lights are on.Then I'll call the stringer photographer I know.No press alert.We’ll let one stringer who plays fair ‘happen’ to be at the bar with a long lens."
“This is a bad idea,” Axel said, even while he nodded because he knew they were doing it.“But fine.If it keeps idiots from yelling, I’ll hold my nose and clap.”
Maddyn squeezed his fingers.“It’s our story.Not theirs.”
Sean lifted his gaze to Carlene.“Are you okay?”
“No,” she said, honestly.“But I will be.”
They broke fast.Tony went outside to call Jace and the stringer.Livia texted Margo and Jace for something takeout-ready and wroteprivate dinnerin all caps so no one tried to be helpful with a selfie.Axel went to the bar corner and pretended to inventory cables while he was actually refusing to say anything else that might make Carlene change her mind.Sean tuned his guitar out of habit, the room warming to the familiar sound of an open G.
Jami didn’t move.He stayed right there beside her, a solid, quiet presence that she could lean on if she wanted to and not hit air.
“Are you sure?”she asked, low.
“No,” he said again, then steadied.“But this is cleaner than using someone else.”
