River nodded and considered for a long time. Eventually, something curious took over her expression and she looked at Hallie more confidently. “Who willyoube picturing?”
“What?”
“To be able to flirt with me. Who’s your person? Who do you like?” She grinned widely. “You can tell me. We’re friends and I just told you mine.”
Hallie shook her head. She couldn’t knock a woman for trying. “I don’t have one. I’ll just be imagining… a revolving carousel of gorgeous celebrities.”
“No, you won’t!” River squealed, clearly thinking she knew Hallie better than Hallie knew herself. “Tell me who you’re interested in.”
“Nobody. Not interested in anyone right now. And I don’t see that changing for a while, do you?”
“Why not?” River asked, frowning and disappointed.
“Oh, probably because I’m here pretending to date you.”
“But that’s notreal. You can’t let that get in the way of finding someone.”
Hallie laughed and prepared to head back out to the masses. Dinner was quite the family affair here. “Oh, you mean amongst all of the couples in your family? You think there’s someone here looking to ditch their other half for me?”
“No! Of course not. But we go out to places, we see people. One of them could be the person for you.”
Hallie paused beside the door, holding her arm out to gesture River towards it. “And, when that happens, I’ll be sure to have mygirlfriendintroduce me to them, shall I?”
River ignored the question, bounding over to Hallie’s side. “Are we going back downstairs now?”
“I suppose so. Seems like the thing to do.”
“Great! I’m so excited about pizza for dinner, and I’m even more excited to eat taffy before and after.”
“Nothing like a taffy appetizer,” Hallie muttered, following River back down the stairs.
Her nerves weren’t settled by the chaos they found there. Kids ran around, squealing excitedly like they, too, had been enjoying a taffy appetizer, while Audrey’s mom, Michele, was barking orders in the kitchen, six other people swarming around her. Pizza, even homemade, did not require that many chefs. Especially not since someone had made the dough and left it in trays to rest overnight, so seven people were trying to top three pizza doughs, and that was impossibly excessive.
Hallie’s eyes landed on Audrey. She was… being held captive at the island by her sister-in-law Delaney, and, as far as Hallie could gather—unable to fully hear their conversation given the cacophony of sound—she was being quizzed on why her nails weren’t done. No judgment to forensic entomologists who got manicures, but Hallie didn’t think it needed explaining why someone who worked with dead bodies and bugs might not keep long, nicely decorated nails.
Plus, there was the fact that she still wasn’t sure if Audrey was queer. There was something of a vibe about her, but she’d dodged Hallie’s question about whether she was interested in mesmerizing women. To be fair, it wasn’t surprising she was more focused on answering the part of the question about bugs, but, if she also happened to be queer, the short nails would be even less surprising.
River called her over to the table, and she went willingly, playing her part. Her eyes, however, caught on how many times Audrey tried to pull her hands back from Delaney, how much she clearly didn’t like the woman touching her. Hallie didn’t think she’d enjoy it much either if someone wouldn’t let her hand go as they questioned her cuticle care routine.
Audrey looked impossibly relieved when Michele asked for someone to set the dining table. Hallie was barely following the conversation River was having with Cal as she watched the way Audrey dove out of her seat, declaring that she’d do it. And she wasn’t more gripped by the conversation as she watched the way Audrey gingerly pulled cutlery from its drawer, investigating each piece in turn.
She kept her movements controlled, quiet—which seemed natural for her, even if the rest of the family hadn’t quite gotten the memo that one could exist quietly—but she was clearly uncomfortable. Several pieces of silverware were placed off to one side, each with a grimace.
Cal snorted and nudged Hallie. “Don’t worry about Audrey. She’s just weird.”
Hallie frowned. She didn’t think it was weird. The woman was clearly checking for something specific, and she spent a good chunk of her life investigating death. If she, of all people, was going to beweirdabout something, surely that was reasonable. Besides, it was cutlery in an unfamiliar home. Hallie would have put good money on her checking for poor cleanliness from past guests. That did not constitute weird.
She looked at Cal. Every time she’d seen him, he had this smug look, a swagger that suggested he thought he was better than the rest of the group. As far as she could tell, he was the most recently married, and, given the Sinclair fixation on relationships, she could only imagine that gave him some kind of special status in the family. Talk about weird.
He grinned. “Tell your girlfriend, River.”
“What?” River asked, skirting dangerously close to blowing their cover by looking confused at the notion that she had a girlfriend. “About what?”
“That Audrey’s weird.”
“Oh. I don’t know. I think she’s cool.”
Cal laughed. “About the cutlery.”
