And, then, River led her out into rows of olive oils and vinegars on tap and all thoughts of the Sinclairs dropped straight out of her head. She’d found her version of the taffy wall.
She grinned at River. “Okay, Merry Christmas to me.”
River laughed. “Guess I should have mentioned this, huh?”
“Oh, no, it’s way better as a surprise.”
River laughed again, getting distracted by something off to the side. “Oh, there are my parents. I’m going to go drop this in the cart,” she said, holding up the giant bag of candy again.
“Sounds good,” Hallie said, already moving to pick up one of the tiny paper cups they had out for taste testing.
Perhaps she should have demonstrated restraint and only tried a couple of them, but, as she examined all of the labels, saw all of the different flavors, and her head was filled with the Christmas songs playing in the store, she knew she wasn’t going to do that. She was going to try every single one.
Hallie was in heaven, moving politely around the other shoppers who didn’t feel the need to try every flavor like she did. They tried a few, picked their bottle, and moved on, like theycould come here every day of the week and bathe themselves in specialty oils and vinegars.
She moved from a strawberry dark balsamic to a lemon white balsamic, imagining all the ways she and her mom could use them, the way they’d both adore them. Her brothers would enjoy them, too, but they’d mostly be confused over all of the tasting notes she and their mom got from vinegars. She was going to have to buy multiple bottles to take home.
She was finally pulled out of her reverie by a woman who looked like she was having a religious experience over one of the balsamics.
Hallie smiled and sidled up beside her, looking the small, metal barrel over. “Maple bourbon dark balsamic, huh?”
The woman’s head whipped in her direction and she laughed self-deprecatingly. “Yeah. You’d think I’d have gotten used to it at this point, but it’s my favorite vinegar in the entire world. Can’t get enough of it.”
“Well, with a recommendation like that, who would I be to refuse?”
She held a hand out between Hallie and the tap. “I’m warning you now, this is going to ruin you for every other balsamic ever. Consume with caution.”
Hallie laughed. “I like living on the edge and experiencing the best the world has to offer.”
“Well, okay then. Have at it.”
She could feel the woman watching her curiously as she decanted a small amount of the vinegar into her cup before sniffing it and, finally, sipping it.
There were people who would think sniffing and sipping vinegars and oils like they were wine was a weird thing to do. Hallie was not one of those people.
And the woman wascompletelyright about the maple bourbon balsamic.
“Oh, my god,” Hallie exclaimed, the sound almost indecent. “Thisisthe best balsamic I’ve ever had. How are they doing that?”
“Right?” The woman nodded, satisfied.
“I would drink this like coffee. You wouldn’t even need to pay me to do it. I’d pay you.”
“Well, great news. They are, in fact, selling it. Youcanpay them for it and… drink as much as you want.”
“Thank God.” She reached for one of the bottles. There was no discussion to be had. She wasdefinitelybuying this one. She passed the first bottle into her spare hand, holding it out to the woman. “No way you’re not buying a bottle, right?”
Something flickered across the woman’s face before she smiled and took the bottle, carefully not touching Hallie’s hand. “Yeah, who would I be to resist?”
“Wrong. That’s who you’d be. The wrongest person to ever wrong.”
She laughed sweetly. “Well, we don’t want that.”
“Absolutely not. Everyone needs this balsamic in their life,” Hallie said, moving to fill her bottle. “What a way to turn around a weird day.”
“Ah. Sorry to hear it’s a rough one.”
Hallie hadn’t even meant to say that out loud, she’d just been mesmerized into confessing by the world’s best vinegar. That was a thing, right? It was now. “Totally fine. Just… terrible families at Christmas, you know how it is.”
