Ansel shrugged before sauntering off. “Don’t mess up your hair too early in the night. I’m going to bed, and I’m not waking up to fix it.”
Angelica snorted, and Hope just shook her head in disbelief.
“Lyric and Cadence are waiting in the car.” Angelica pointed toward the front of the hotel. No matter what, she still wasn’t ready for tonight. She’d spent most of the afternoon buried in research for Hope’s idea, and while spending some time out of the hotel sounded like a brilliant idea, she still wasn’t ready to spend the time in crowds.
By the time they arrived, Angelica’s nerves were worse. She gripped onto Hope’s hand, not able to let go. Going into crowds like this wasn’t something she enjoyed doing—ever. But she could see how Hope would absolutely love this.
Lyric dropped them off nearby with Cadence, not a word exchanged between the two, and then drove off. Angelica frowned and leaned in as close as she could get to Hope. “Is there something going on between them?”
Hope bit her lip, looking at Cadence, who had her face buried behind a handheld camera and wasn’t paying a lick of attention to the two of them. “No idea.”
“Lyric’s been acting…odd.”
“I’ll keep my eye out.” Hope straightened up. “Come on. I owe you a beer, I believe.”
“More like three,” Angelica replied quickly.
“I’ll buy you three. We’ll just start with one at a time.” Hope dragged Angelica toward a small tent that had pints for sale.
As soon as Angelica had the first one in her hand, she lifted the glass stein to her lips and took a long sip. Humming, she closed her eyes as the flavor of the beer hit her tongue and then settled in her belly. God, she’d needed this. She’d needed it weeks ago. When she’d been called back to Los Angeles. When Christian had texted that their mother had died.
God, just a break, at any point, would have been welcome. And this wasn’t how she’d anticipated having one. Not with Cadence standing feet away from them with a camera in her hand and Lyric somewhere close by ready to do the same.
When she lowered the mug of beer, Hope reached forward and brushed her thumb across Angelica’s upper lip before wrapping her lips around it. She raised her eyebrows as she slowly pulled her thumb out of her mouth.
“You always do taste good,” Hope said.
“Fuck,” Angelica whispered. “What the hell are we doing here?”
“Showing the world who we are as a couple,” Hope answered. “I believe it was your idea?”
“That was a stupid idea.” Angelica clenched the stein in her hand tightly as arousal washed through her just like that beer had. God, if this was what Hope’s plan was for the evening, then she was going to be flat-out screwed.
“I think it was the best idea we’ve had in a while.” Hope wrapped her arm in Angelica’s and walked away from the beer and back toward the rest of the event. Tents were set up along the cobblestoned street, each serving one kind of food or drink.
Lights were strung above their heads, making it so that they could easily see where they were going from one place to the next. Angelica looked over her shoulder to find Lyric had finally joined them. But again, the silence between Cadence and Lyricwas way too out of place. Normally, the two of them chatted nonstop.
But this silence was unnerving.
“Ignore them,” Hope whispered, wrapping an arm around Angelica’s back.
“It’s hard to ignore two women ignoring each other as they follow us around.”
Hope chuckled. “Fair.”
“Logan said the first journalist will meet us at the pretzel place,” Cadence said loudly, as if announcing it to anyone who was willing to listen. As if this was supposed to propel them to move in a certain direction.
“I think that’s this way,” Lyric chimed in, leading the way.
Angelica followed dutifully. This was what she paid Lyric for anyway, so why not? Hope kept their arms wrapped together as they walked side by side. Angelica took another long sip of her beer, enjoying every sip she was going to get.
“You will get me another beer, right?” Angelica asked.
“Of course.” Hope smiled. “You realize this is probably our first proper date.”
“What? No.” Angelica wrinkled her nose. “We’ve been on plenty of dates.”
“No, we’ve spent the night together many times, but in terms of actually going out together as a couple? We haven’t actually done that.”
