Which even for him was odd.
Josef had even texted to check in on what was happening on the ground since he was stuck at home, and Angelica hadn’t quite been sure how to answer him. Especially because what she and Hope had done had been the cause. Angelica had no doubts about that.
“Sorry I’m late.” Rex stepped into the office and nodded at Angelica.
He didn’t seem… antagonistic. Not like she’d expected him to be. Instead, he seemed almost… happy? Could that really be the case?
She could only be so lucky, and she was never lucky.
Angelica sighed, eyeing Rex carefully as he stepped behind the monitors and checked that the cameras were set the way he wanted them. Then he poked his head around and locked his gaze on Angelica.
“Hope will be here in a minute. They were just finishing up some pickups.”
“Okay,” Angelica found herself saying. She breathed slowly, the tightness in her stomach easing a little more. Maybe they could actually work through this and not have a big blow up over everything.
Rex smiled at her, though it seemed tight and forced. That was far more what Angelica expected to happen. He was trying his best, which meant she would try her best too. She was just about to say something to Paris when Hope and SD stepped into the room and sat down. Angelica had to stop herself from smiling when her gaze locked on Hope’s.
She looked much better than she had that morning.
“Shall we get started?” Rex asked, looking from Angelica to Hope and back again.
“Yes,” they both said at the same time.
“Good.” Rex clapped his hands.
Angelica was lost in Hope’s gaze, barely able to hear the orders that Rex gave or the fact they called action. Her cheeks burned as she looked down at her iPad to recenter herself.
“SD and I were just in the kitchen checking on the progress with the renovations,” Hope said, stepping in and giving Angelica an odd look.
She was perhaps the only one in the room who could have caught that Angelica wasn’t her normal self. Well, and perhaps Rex. They’d worked together long enough now that he might have noticed. But maybe not. He was a man after all.
“How’s it coming along?” Angelica asked dutifully. The goal was to move the conversation along, and so she had to get that accomplished.
“We should be done in the next twelve hours.”
Angelica raised her eyebrows in surprise. That was much quicker than she’d thought it’d be and what they’d originally planned for. “Good.”
“It’s very good,” Hope said, her smile turning on brightly as she locked her gaze on Angelica.
Angelica let herself get lost in that smile for a brief moment before focusing back on Mrs. Jordanger. “We’ve been working on management with staff this morning and making sure that the standards are set for going forward. Mrs. Jordanger, why don’t you talk about what those standards are so everyone is on the same page?”
This way, she could stop talking, collect herself, and then move on from there.
Because she really needed to talk to Hope about what the hell was going on. She felt lost and out of the loop of some decision that’d been made without her. Then again, maybe that decision wouldn’t be in her favor.
She tracked back into the conversation as Paris was nicely scolding her husband about how he was being too easy on the employees. That was a good start, and definitely what Angelica had hoped to hear after the conversation they’d had the other day.
“We’ll continue to work on that with the hotel staff,” Angelica added, then turned her gaze to Hope. “Are you doing something about the restaurant staff?”
“Front of house, yes.” Hope nodded, her lips quirking up lightly. “Though, we do need to compare notes on policy changes so that everything is consistent, don’t you think?”
“Yes.” Angelica canted her head to the side. How was it that they were working together so easily now when before it had been such a struggle to get on the same page? Was it really just because Josef wasn’t here to throw in extra drama where there was none or was it because she and Hope had actually found a way to communicate?
If they had, it was only about work.
Angelica pressed her lips together tightly. “So we have a plan going forward?” she asked.
“Yes.”
