“She hates driving in the snow.”
“Oh.” She paused, nodding. “That… is true. And I guess that does work.”
“Absolutely. All things her very real and loving girlfriend would know.”
Audrey laughed and turned back to the house with Hallie. “Completely real and not a little bit fake.”
“Exactly. Problem solved.” She grinned, satisfied, as she led them back to the door. Her mom had turned the lights on insideand the glowing, warm interior was ridiculously inviting, but Hallie couldn’t resist one more question she shouldn’t be asking while they were alone. “Why did you think it wouldn’t be Zora messaging?”
“Oh, because she’ll be at work,” Audrey said easily. Then, right as Hallie reached for the door handle, she added, “Or an orgy.” And Hallie hadnoidea what to do with that.
Chapter Fourteen
Hallie’s brothers were not what Audrey had been expecting. Of course, she’d been inadvertently imagining something like her own brother, but the three she was now sitting around a dining table enjoying soup and herbed focaccia with could not have been further from Cal.
Wes, the biggest and clearly most outdoorsy of the sibling group, grinned across the table at Audrey. “So,” he said, his voice rich and deep, “now that we’re all done eating, can we ask about your job?”
Isaac leaned across the table too, also interested, while Luca looked around Hallie from where he was sitting on her other side.
Audrey wasn’t used to attention at family dinners feeling particularly safe or wanted. Of course, she wasn’t used to all of the other people at the table being interested in what she had to say either. Still, it was nice, even if she had to push back on the jolt of fear that seemed to dart between her stomach and her mind, radiating out through her limbs.
She was safe. It was okay.
Tracy laughed. “Leave the woman in peace to have one meal. How would you like it if she started quizzing you on your job the second you were done eating?”
Wes looked directly at Audrey. “I’m a tree surgeon. You can ask me whatever the hell you want but I guarantee yours is more interesting.”
“Firefighter,” Luca said.
“Office manager at an assisted living facility,” Isaac added with a grin.
Audrey smiled as Tracy shot her a sympathetic look and rolled her eyes at her sons. Her fingernails ran over her thumbs again. She needed to stop. Her hands were aching and raw from everything she’d put them through today, but she couldn’t. If she didn’t do it, something terrible would happen and it would be all her fault. Everything that had happened today would only be okay if she tapped and counted and scratched.
Luca gestured to Hallie. “We’re going to assume you know what she does.”
“I do indeed,” Audrey said. “And, yeah, you can ask about my job. I won’t be offended if anyone doesn’t want to listen to it, though. Especially right after eating.”
“Nah, we’re good.”
Wes beamed. “So, Hallie says you work with dead bodies.”
“That isnothow I described it,” Hallie said quickly, her hand wrapping briefly around Audrey’s upper arm.
Her touch was so gentle but so solid, grounding. Still, part of Audrey’s mind was circling on the idea that if she said something wrong, this family would reject her too. Then, she’d be left in the middle of nowhere, all alone and destitute.
She smiled at Wes and counted mentally as she tapped her fingertips together. The muscles of her hands throbbed withstress and overexertion, but she could handle that. She just had to do this right and everything with the Fullers would be fine.
“It’s pretty much how she described it,” Wes said.
“She said forensic entomologist,” Luca added, “and we knew what that meant.”
Tracy snorted. “No, you didn’t.” She shot Audrey a look. “We had to look that one up.”
“But,” Isaac laughed, “we know now. So, tell us what it’s like. It’s definitely one of the coolest jobs we’ve ever met.”
Audrey could feel Hallie watching her softly as she smiled at her brothers. They were so…friendly.So interested and curious. Sure, they were asking about a potentially dark topic, but Audrey felt respected. “Well, I go out in the field to collect specimens, spend a decent amount of time in a lab, and appear in court when necessary, but, obviously, my main job is to understand the insects.”
“I read online that forensic entomologists recreate weather conditions to grow insects, is that true?”
