The woman grimaced like she really did. “Yeah…”
“Oh, my god!” River’s voice called from behind Hallie.
Hallie whipped to look at her. She’d honestly forgotten for a minute that she was supposed to have herpartnerstuck to her side. “Are you okay?”
River beamed. But she wasn’t looking at Hallie. She walked towards the woman and threw her arms around her neck, standing on her tiptoes to reach. “Audrey! You’re here!”
Hallie’s mind stalled. Audrey.Audrey?
The woman she’d been talking to—sharing a religious experience over vinegar with—thatwas Audrey? River’s cousin? The one the whole family was weird about?
And the one to whom Hallie had just complained about the Sinclairs…Shit.
Chapter Four
Vinegar woman was River’s new girlfriend. That was fine. Audrey could handle that.
Her mind ruminated on just how much she’d given away. Sure, she’d agreed she knew how terrible families could be at Christmas, but that was okay, right? It didn’t mean she thoughtherfamily was terrible. Sure, the woman had brought it up, so maybe she thought the Sinclairs were horrid, but that was okay. She was new. She’d never met them before. And, as one of them, technically, Audrey’s job was to defend them, to represent them. Not to agree they sucked.
She looked again at the woman River was chatting to. She was pretty, confident, relaxed. And Audrey felt like a giant with the two of them. An awkward giant. She had a good six or seven inches on the woman, and even more on River, which was nothing new, but she was painfully aware of it when she wanted nothing more than to disappear and try her whole introduction to the woman again.
“So, yeah,” River said, smiling up at her, “this is my cousin Audrey! And, Audrey, this is my girlfriend Hallie.”
Audrey didn’t react to the slight hesitation ongirlfriend.It was new. And this whole thing was awkward as hell. Who was she to judge?
Hallie turned her gaze on Audrey. The first time she’d actually looked directly at her since they’d both realized what was going on. “It’s nice to finally meet you. I’ve heard a lot.”
Audrey’s muscles locked down, refusing to give her away. She knew exactly what Hallie must have heard, but she had no interest in getting into that—or giving away how uncomfortable the whole thing made her. Especially not when she was still desperately clutching a bottle of balsamic vinegar and looking into perhaps the most striking eyes she’d ever seen.
She took a slow breath, knowing she had to shake the woman’s hand. Didn’t make much difference at this point. She’d already touched enough stuff around the store that her hands were… contaminated.
“Nice to meet you too,” she said as Hallie’s small, soft hand slid into hers.
Hallie smiled, glancing from Audrey to River and back again. “River told me you were the one she was most looking forward to seeing this week.”
Audrey breathed a laugh. That was okay. They could pretend it was just that. “I suppose the rest of our family can be a little… intense.”
River tried, badly, to stifle a giggle. “That’s such a generous term for it.”
Audrey knew that. Clearly, so did Hallie, but still. They… had their positives, and the whole point was to focus on those.
“Did you already get your taffy?” she asked River, trying desperately for a change of subject. And that was safe. Taffy. Lowstakes. Cute tradition. Jill and Rob always paid for River’s first bag of the stuff. Nice, generous family times.
River beamed, her shoulders squeezing up around her ears as she did. “Yes! It was the first thing I showed Hallie when we got here.”
“It really was,” Hallie said warmly. “So many flavors.”
Audrey’s eyes flicked from River to Hallie again. There was something off about the two of them together. Nothing obvious, but she could feel it in the back of her mind, growing louder as the seconds ticked by. They didn’t stand close enough together, didn’t move towards each other like couples did. Didn’t look at each other long enough. If Audrey had been asked to guess, she’d say they were friends. They clearly knew and cared about each other, but there was no… romantic tension between them.
Of course, it was a new relationship and Hallie was being thrown into Sinclair week, so maybe it was all of that she was picking up on. Or, maybe it was Zora getting into her head.
People did not bring fake girlfriends to their family events. Especially not week-long ones.
“Ah, third wheeling again, Audrey?” Rob’s familiar but unpleasant voice called as he and Jill pulled their cart up alongside the three of them.
Audrey registered her chest tightening, how aware she was of the breath she was sucking in. She’d been back with everyone for all of thirty minutes. “Oh, of course. You know me.”
“Actually,” Hallie said, unexpected and just as controlled as Audrey’s voice had been, “I interrupted her.”
