“If you’re doing exactly what she says to do, you’ll survive.” Angelica laughed.
“I’m not that bad!” Hope chimed in.
“You can be.” Angelica winked at her. “But when it’s just you and me in the kitchen, the experience is entirely different. And, usually I don’t have to do much of the work.”
“Thankfully,” Hope teased. Two could play this game. “But I do enjoy cooking with her, or ratherforher.”
“Hope does love to feed me sweet little nibblings of whatever she’s making.”
“Will you ever make a cookbook with those?” Heidi asked.
“Oh! I hadn’t fully thought that one through yet.” Except she had. It just hadn’t been a priority lately. “I really should sit down and see if that’s something I’d be interested in pursuing.”
“I think everyone would love a sampling from Hope’s Kitchen,” Angelica said. “Don’t you think, Heidi?”
“Oh, yes. I know I’d be one of the first to get it. I’m always trying to find new recipes to try but ones that don’t take too much time and aren’t too complicated.”
Hope’s cheeks burned. She was going to have to make this cookbook, wasn’t she? There was no getting out of it now. She ran her forefinger and her thumb over her lower lip. “I’ll look into it. But no promises on if it’ll ever happen or not.”
“Fair. You do have the rest of the season to film.”
“We do!” Angelica said.
“Any hints on where you’re going next?”
Angelica’s lips curled upward as she looked at Hope. “We’re headed to the Rocky Mountains again. A bit further north than we did the last time, but it’ll be great to get back to the stunning beauty of the Rockies.”
“Oh yes,” Hope agreed. “I can’t wait for that.”
They finished out the interview with a direct call to watch their show, which Hope let Angelica handle, and then they walked off stage together. But at the last minute, Angelica snagged her hand and squeezed tightly. Once they were back in the green room, Hope stared down at their joined hands and sent Angelica a confused look.
“I thought you said no.”
“I said no on the way in, to be fair.” Angelica grinned at her.
“That went well,” Hope said.
“It did. Much better than I thought it would.” Angelica picked up her phone from the tabletop and unlocked it. She had a text message from Logan.
Hope was about to step away, when Angelica’s voice stopped her. “He dropped the defamation suit.”
“Already?” Hope furrowed her brow as Angelica held the phone up to show her. “I didn’t think he’d do that.”
“He might not have had a choice. He did say he was running low on funds and now he has to fight criminal charges. Add inthat I’m not sure his lawyer would continue to take the case after the packet of evidence that was sent to them.”
Hope raised her eyebrows quickly before dropping them. “How do you feel about it?”
“Good, actually.” Angelica tapped a quick reply to Logan and then moved to focus on Hope again. “Pretty good.”
Hope’s lips pulled to the side slightly. “I had a thought while we were out there.”
“What’s that?” Angelica asked.
“That you and I need to join forces.”
“Haven’t we already done that?”
“No, I mean really join them. We own that show, Angel. Without us,Hotel Bombshelldoesn’t exist. And we need to remind them of that. Let’s make thisourshow and no one else’s.”
