Chapter Five #2
“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 my girlfriend introduce 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 be weird about 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.”
“Ah. Yeah, she is a bit weird about that,” River admitted, shooting Hallie a guilty look.
Hallie frowned. “Because she doesn’t want us eating someone else’s old, dried food remnants? That doesn’t sound that weird to me, but who am I to judge your poor hygiene choices?”
River seemed unbothered, but Cal’s smile became sickly, like he could see through Hallie’s comments and understand that she wasn’t going to happily go along with his bullshit.
He didn’t like that. Hallie figured that was to be expected in this family.
Even one day with them had shown her that everyone went along with bullying Audrey and pretending it came from a place of concern.
Cal shook his head and stood up. “Just give it a few days. You’ll be eating your words.”
“Oh, I doubt that.” She smiled serenely at him.
She didn’t need him to like her, and she had even less interest in wanting him to like her.
If the whole family hated her by the end of the week, great.
They’d tell River to break up with her and they wouldn’t be surprised when River complied. It was the perfect plan.