Hallie’s expression suggested she knew that too. She nudged Audrey, heading back towards River. “We’ll see you for breakfast, entomologist.”
Audrey shot her a wry smile, nodding. “See you in the morning.” And, when River slipped back inside their room to let Hallie in, Audrey paused by her own doorway. “Thanks for talking.”
Hallie shot her one more assessing look, her hand on the door. “Any time.”
Chapter Seven
Hallie loved the decor of the place they were getting breakfast—and she had some serious admiration for the energy of everyone in the place. Although, that might have been based more on the fact that she was struggling to muster any vigor this morning.
After her moment on the balcony with Audrey last night, she’d headed back into her room and settled into bed beside River feeling like something was wrong, missing. She’d seen more than enough movies where people fake dated and refused to sleep in the same bed. Inevitably, it only led to wild dashes when someone knocked on the door. And she had no issue sharing a bed with one of her friends. Sure, she didn’t know River as well as a partner would, but she was comfortable around her, and they both knew nothing was going to happen.
What she did mind was the feeling that her conversation with Audrey wasn’t done. That, if it hadn’t been for the interruption, they’d have been out there, talking, for hours.
It would be ridiculous, awkward, and inconsiderate of her to develop a crush on River’s cousin, so she wasn’t doing that, but there was no denying that the woman was… engrossing. Hallie just wanted to get to know her a little, to provide her with the respite of one person who treated her like a damn human being while she was here.
And, surely, other people would behave the same way upon meeting a forensic entomologist? You didn’t stumble upon those every day of the week.
She wanted to finish that conversation.
A bubbly woman led the, admittedly large, group towards the back of the restaurant, passing far more people than Hallie had been expecting in a place like this at eight on a Tuesday morning. It wasn’t near anyone’s office. They’d driven for a while to reach it, but, set back off the main road and looking for all the world like a gingerbread house, she could see why people made the trip—even through her exhaustion.
They were led through an archway and into a semi-private area, a massive table set up just for them. Christmas trees lined the one wall of windows, each aligned with the wooden frame, and garlands and wreaths bedecked the walls. It was a festive dream.
Her eyes caught on Audrey as the family moved around the space, finding their seats, and her heart jumped. They hadn’t seen each other all morning, and there was something about the perfectly polished woman pulling off her hat and gloves in front of a gorgeous Christmas tree that just felt… romantic.
Hallie tried not to wince. It would besoinappropriate to have Audrey pop into her head when she was trying to flirt with River. Audrey had inherited light brown eyes from her dad. They were nothing like the color of River’s, but Hallie could feel just how easy it would be to look at River and picture those gorgeous brown eyes…
Ugh.She was going to wreck this whole week if she couldn’t get herself under control. It was one unfinished conversation on a balcony. Nothing about it should have been provoking such a response. She was here to beRiver’spartner.
She wrapped an arm around River’s waist, smiling sweetly and trying desperately not to picture Audrey, not to keep track of her.
River smiled at her. Clearly, her night of rest had been peaceful and she was committed to playing her part well. “Let’s sit by Audrey?”
Hallie worked to keep her expression pleasant and not incriminating. “Absolutely.”
River grinned wider, her shoulders scrunching up around her jaw in delight, and led the way over to Audrey.
Hallie tried to miss the way Audrey looked at her first, she really did. Especially when her eyes slipped quickly to River, a smile painting itself across her face as she chatted with her cousin. Pleasantries, mostly. How her night had been, how their drive up was… Hallie wanted to ask her those things.
She needed to go back to bed. Lying there worrying about Audrey for half of the night had clearly screwed something up in her mind. If she got to sleep again, her mind would reset itself and she’d be fine.
But that was not an option.
So, she was leaning into being the most adoring partner River could have.
She moved to hold a chair out for her, and it took all of two seconds for River to shoot her down, pulling out the chair next to it right as Audrey pulled out the one on Hallie’s other side. She was being sandwiched between the two of them, close to Audrey. And her apparent girlfriend was acting like it hadn’t even entered her head that Hallie would hold a chair out for her. Which was fair. They weren’t dating. Whywouldshe assumethat if Hallie hadn’t communicated it was going to be a thing she’d do?
She took a deep breath and dropped into the seat. Between River and Audrey, like a rock and a hard place.Whyhad she agreed to do this whole thing?
The pair of them kept talking across her, and she pretended to be part of the conversation, smiling as she lay a hand over the back of River’s chair.
All of the other Sinclairs taking their seats and chatting filled the room, almost drowning out the Christmas songs playing over the speakers. Ordinarily, Hallie might have enjoyed that—the excitement, the happiness, how festive it all was. As it stood, it simply felt like everyone she didn’t like was getting a front-row ticket to watch her spiral out of control. And she wasn’t someone who did that. Sure, she enjoyed chaos, but it wasn’t usually thepossibly developing a crush on the cousin of the person I’m secretly fake datingkind of chaos.
“Ah,” Rob said from River’s other side, nudging her and holding up a menu, “the owner’s name is Clair. Never noticed that before.”
Relief at a change of subject and the opportunity to look away from Audrey flooded through Hallie. It was only as she was looking at the back of the laminated menu, printed with the tale of the owners, that confusion joined her emotional soup.
“Clair?” she asked, looking from Rob to River.
