“Taffy?” River asked excitedly, looking at Hallie with wide eyes.
Hallie wondered how much like a couple they seemed to the rest of the group, who paid them little mind as they streamed in from their own cars outside. She sensed that River had been correct—so long as she wasn’t alone and everyone was told the two of them were a couple, they were happy to go along with it.Very few questions, very few genuine attempts to get to know Hallie, just happy River wasn’t alone. And not in the caring way.
“Sure,” she agreed, not nearly as eager to get to the taffy as River but knowing it would be odd to split off from her apparent girlfriend the second they walked through the door.
“Great!” River cheered, gripping Hallie’s sleeve and towing her off in the opposite direction from where her parents had gone.
Horrocks, it turned out, was something of a maze, and they really did have everything you could want. A farm store, a local business, but something so much more than that.
It didn’t take long to make it to the candy section—Christmas-themed, fudge, pre-packaged, and, as promised, a wall of taffy. More flavors than Hallie knew what to do with. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had taffy.
River grinned as she grabbed one of the large bags and gestured towards the wooden buckets along the wall. “Now, we feast!”
Hallie laughed. Things were a lot easier when it was just the two of them, and, in a house that was almost full of River’s relatives, they hadn’t gotten much of a break from their act all day. But she’d known what she was signing up for.
At Hallie’s gesture to lead the way, River started grabbing handfuls of taffy and throwing them into her bag. Shereallyloved taffy. “Blueberry muffin! Cherry cola! Ooh, butter!”
Hallie did a double take. “Butter?”
“Yes! It’s so good.”
“Okay…” Hallie laughed again. Maybe she was looking forward to trying some of these. If only because… whatwasbutter taffy?
“Oh, wehaveto get this one too. Just for fun.” River held out a handful of orange candies with green stripes.
“Orange and… mango, maybe?” Hallie guessed.
River laughed. “Nope. Chili mango.”
“Chili mango?” She nodded slowly. “Chili mango. Of course. Why didn’t I guess that?”
Taffy was… different than she’d been expecting. She was pretty sure that when she’d previously had it, it had been strawberry or chocolate. Basic. And, sure, they had those flavors too, and River was adding them to her bag with abandon, but butter and chili mango? Those had not been on her list to expect.
By the time River had finished filling her bag, a couple of her family members had come by to grab other candy and Hallie was starting to get a sugar rush just looking at the bag. But, River held it up like a medal she was winning and Hallie couldn’t help but smile.
“Do you want to get a cart to put that in or are you planning on carrying it like your beloved child?” she asked River.
River laughed. “I’ll carry it until we run back into my parents. They always buy my first bag back. It’s tradition.”
Hallie was distracted from the fact that, again, there was that muddled line between the Sinclairs being generous and having sweet family traditions while also being emotional nightmares by the fact that it was River’sfirstbag. Maybe that was why River was always so energetic. She was fueled by sugar.
Hallie was honestly a little curious to see how many bags the woman purchased this week. Was she single-handedly keeping this wall of taffy in business, even while living in a totally different part of the state?
River grinned, proud and satisfied. “So, do you want to see the rest of this place?”
“Absolutely.” And she really did. She might not be wild about the Sinclairs but Horrocks was cool, and she was very much in favor of any place that made her friends as happy as it clearly made River.
“Ah, River’s already bought all the taffy, of course,” Cal laughed as they passed him and Delaney buying fudge.
Hallie looked around, trying not to be too obvious. If Cal was here, that meant Audrey was too.
No sign of her. Of course, Hallie didn’t have a clue what Audrey looked like, but there was no sign of a woman being berated by Sinclairs or looking like she was hiding from them, which was exactly what Hallie would do in her shoes.
“I know what I like,” River shot back with a grin.
From the outside, they seemed like any other, perfectly lovely, happy family. It was unnerving, honestly.
As they continued shopping, they passed Sinclair after Sinclair. Always in pairs like they were lining up for the fucking Ark. But still, no sign of Audrey.
