Angelica held back a small laugh and glanced down at her vibrating phone.
Hope.
She flicked her gaze to Lyric and nodded toward the door. “I need to take this. Shut the door on your way out.”
“Yes, Ms. Shields.”
When the door clicked shut, Angelica immediately pressed her thumb to the phone to answer the call. She didn’t want to miss this. They werefinallyallowed to talk again, and it wouldn’t seem suspicious anymore.
“I was wondering if you’d call,” Angelica said, her voice lower. She couldn’t keep the smile off her lips, even knowing thiswas going to be difficult for both of them. Still, this was so hard. To be in such close proximity to Hope after everything they’d gone through, after those forbidden kisses. Angelica’s cheeks warmed at the memory of them.
“We were renewed.” Hope’s voice cracked on the last word.
Was she just as worried about what would happen next as Angelica was? About how they would interact and work together after everything… Angelica had to stop that thought. Hope and Rex were still married, and she’d made it very clear that she wouldn’t fight for Hope. This wasn’t a battle to be won, Hope wasn’t some prize trophy to be had.
She was human—a woman—someone who could make up her own damn mind about what she wanted.
“Yeah,” Angelica said, keeping her answers as short and simple as possible. They were likely going to need to talk in more depth at some point about how they were going to manage this. But that was also the last thing that Angelica wanted to do.
“You said we wouldn’t be,” Hope whispered the words.
Was Rex close by? Was she trying to hide this call from him? Angelica frowned at those thoughts, hating that she was even having them. This wasn’t her business, and she needed to keep herself out of it. She’d worked so damn hard at that in the off-season months, but now that they were going to be thrown together again…
“No one thought we would be.” Angelica sighed heavily, licking her lips. She stood up and moved to the serving table and poured herself a whiskey. It was late enough, and it wasn’t like she had to drive anywhere. She needed this. She deserved it after the phone call. Plopping a few ice cubes into the glass, she sipped. What the hell else was she supposed to say?
Surely Hope would know how she felt, right?
“Did you tell them no?”
Angelica tensed, every muscle from her shoulders right down her back tightening uncomfortably. What the hell was Hope on about now? “No?”
“To releasing me from the contract.”
“No, I didn’t. I was the only one who was willing to release you.” She’d fought for it as much as she felt comfortable, but ultimately, she hadn’t wanted to put herself more on the outs than she already was. She needed to make sure that she kept what control and power she had in her hand. In case she needed it in the future.
“Really?” Hope seemed surprised by that.
Angelica had told her that she wouldn’t fight it, that she wouldn’t keep Hope there if she wanted to leave, and she’d held that. She never went back on her word—never. And she wouldn’t make promises lightly. But she also wasn’t the only one with power, and she’d been outvoted.
“Which put me in a bad spot.” Angelica sighed heavily, remembering the way the emails had flown that day, the text messages. It’d been chaotic. But that had been nearly a week ago now. Had Hope only just now found out about it? And how much more money had she been willing to take because of it? Angelica would have taken them for every dime they had. “Because now they don’t think I’m willing to work with you.”
That was the truth of what the problem was. It’d given Josef more ammo to fire in her direction about his suspicions last season, and she’d have to navigate even more of that as time wore on. But Angelica would hold that information as tightly to herself as possible.
“Angel…”
Oh the way Hope said that, the way she called her by that nickname as if she was the only one in the world allowed to do it. She was one of the rare few that Angelica hadn’t corrected repeatedly. Only once. When she’d been upset, and Hope hadheld back on it, but Angelica had melted when she’d heard it again.
And she wanted to hear it.
Repeatedly.
“Why is this so complicated?” Hope sounded so small and worried, as if this one decision from others was going to break her in two. But she wasn’t weak, and she could handle the truth—at least when it was masked in politeness. But could she handle it with honesty?
“Feelings are complicated,” Angelica answered, putting as much of that honesty into her words as she possibly could. She didn’t want Hope to forget that she was here, or that they were in this together. They’d found a rhythm toward the end of filming, hadn’t they? Perhaps they could find that connection once more.
Hope scoffed lightly. “You’re so cold sometimes.”
There it was. The rejection that Angelica had been waiting for, the slight put-down because the honesty had been square on the head but a little too hard to face. She experienced that often, most commonly when in the presence of men. But she’d expect nothing less from Hope.
