Chapter One
“Hallie, Hallie, Hallie, Hallie!” River squealed as she raced towards the check-in desk of the Oakhill Inn—a cute place in the upper part of the Michigan mitten—looking far too frazzled for nine in the morning.
Hallie smiled as she narrowed her eyes, watching River practically slide the last few feet across the lobby and slam into the counter. “Good morning, River. Are you well?”
“No!” she groaned. “You’re still coming, right? You didn’t change your mind? Decide to ditch me? Fall down the stairs and break your leg, rendering you unable to travel?”
Hallie shot her a look, gesturing up and down her own body. “I know I’m behind a counter, but I think you’d probably have noticed if I’d broken my leg. You know, particularly because I wouldn’t be here.”
Hallie watched River collapse over the counter, ignoring the handful of guests passing through the lobby. At least she was still wearing a coat over her uniform. They wouldn’t know it was a member of staff having a crisis all over the counter.
“Is she good?” Pierre asked from the other end of the check-in desk.
Hallie shrugged. “Who knows?”
River groaned. “I had a dream that you ditched me and I had to show up all alone and my family wouldn’t stop accusing me of having made up my partner—”
“Youaremaking up your partner,” Pierre said darkly.
“I know that! Buttheydon’t know that, and, so long as they never find out, we’ll all be good.”
Hallie sighed in amusement. “Still coming with you. Both legs are functioning correctly. And my stuff for the week is in my trunk, all ready to go.”
River looked at her like she was being given the best Christmas gift ever—the exact way she’d looked when Hallie had agreed to participate in this whole farce.
Hallie reached across the counter to pat River’s head. “You’re just stressed. I wouldn’t leave you high and dry this late in the day, don’t worry. You, me, your family, and a week of pretending I’m completely in love with you coming up.”
River winced, looking Hallie over. It wasn’t like Hallie didn’t get it. They weren’t remotely attracted to each other, and that wasn’t changing any time soon. Pretending to be in love with each other was going to be… odd, to say the least. But River was desperate, and Hallie had been available, had the vacation time, and… well, she enjoyed making chaotic choices sometimes.
Pierre snorted. “You’re both going to have to work harder than that if you want to convinceevery single personin River’s family that you’re in love with each other.”
River groaned. “Ugh. I know.”
Hallie laughed. “My acting’s not bad, so I’m not that worried.”
“It’s not you I’m concerned about,” he shot back, nodding at River. “She’s the one who’s going to fuck it up. But, hey, at least it’ll only be with her family.”
“You don’t understand,” River whined. “I can’t afford to fuck it up. Being in a relationship is the single most important thing to my family. I can’t be like Audrey.”
“Who’s Audrey?”
“My perpetually single cousin. She’s cool but sheneverbrings people to family gatherings, and she constantly bears the brunt of that. All the comments, the digs, the pity… I can’t handle being on the receiving end of that.”
“You know,” Hallie said carefully, “it might be easier to tell your family to knock it off and leave Audrey alone than go through this every year.”
River snorted. “Yeah, right. They are who they are, and Audrey handles it fine. But I’m not that strong. And it’s only this year. I’m sure I’ll be with someone for real again by next year. This was just a badly timed breakup.”
Pierre scowled at her, moving closer to the two of them. “Do you time your breakups so you have someone to go to your family events with?”
“I mean… sometimes? It usually works out well because, after a week with my family, if they don’treallylike me, they’re good to go on their way and never see any of them again.”
Hallie huffed. This week was going to be weird. “Your whole family is so dysfunctional.”
“I know! That’s why I need you.”
Hallie supposed that was true. River had beenveryupfront about why she needed Hallie to pretend to be her girlfriend for the Sinclair annual Christmas tree retreat—a week where the whole family got together down in Lansing for Christmas activities, to inexplicably rent a shared home together about fifteen minutes away from where most of them lived, and tohead to a Christmas tree farm to pick and decorate their trees for the year. Back in their own homes. Given how messed up the family dynamics sounded, she wasn’t entirely sure why they needed to stay in the same house, but, if they did want that, surely, going a little further afield would have made sense?
She’d given up trying to make sense of the Sinclairs.
