Then again, they did need to film her doing something, and she largely felt useless to Kora and the crew. Rather, she was learning more from them than she’d anticipated. And she was absolutely taking all of that information in and absorbing it.
She had one foot in her pant leg when the door rattled.
“Eva, give me a minute!”
She hadn’t expected them to be back so soon from wherever they’d gone. Not that she could keep track of the schedule that Eva had. She could barely keep track of her own schedule lately. Quickly sliding into a new pair of pants and pulling a clean chef’sjacket over her shoulders and arms before she opened the door to find Eva standing on the other side.
“I tried to keep her away.” Rishal, the nanny, frowned. “But she insisted on talking to you.”
“I did.” Eva shot Rishal an annoyed look. “And I will.”
Eva stepped inside and shut the door in Rishal’s face.
“Eva! That was rude.”
“Rude but necessary.”
Hope furrowed her brow, staring down at her daughter, who was growing up faster than she’d ever dreamed. She wasn’t the little girl who had started coming with her to set four years ago. She was a pre-teen with the attitude to boot, but more in tune with herself and who she was than ever before. And Hope loved that.
“You better have a good reason.” Hope bent down to slide on the black non-slip shoes that were part of herHotel Bombshelluniform.
“Ange is crying.”
Hope froze. Her entire body ran cold. She looked into Eva’s blue eyes which matched her own and waited for more of an explanation, but clearly her daughter hadn’t hit the tell-all stage. “She’s crying?”
Eva nodded and then rolled her eyes. “That means you’re supposed to run to her, Mom. You take care of people you like. You don’t just let them cry on their own.”
Hope narrowed her gaze and pursed her lips, probably doing a damn good impersonation of Angelica. “I’ll find out what’s going on. But she was filming five minutes ago, so what do you mean she’s crying?”
“Like I saw her walking away from the staging area crying.” Eva rolled her eyes again.
“Why was she crying?”
“I don’t know!” Eva threw her hands up in the air. “That’s your job to figure out, not mine. I’m just here to report it.”
Hope hadn’t anticipated this. Since they’d told Eva about their relationship, Eva had apparently decided to take on the role of the go-between. Which, while that was helpful right now, was also oddly annoying. And something Hope was going to have to put an end to soon.
“Mom! You’re supposed to be freaking out?”
“Because Ange was crying?” Hope furrowed her brow.
“She wasn’t just crying. Well, she was just crying. She doesn’t cry. I’ve known Ange all my life, Mom, and I’ve never seen her cry before.”
Hope stilled at that. All her life? Not quite true, but it had been four years, which was close to half of Eva’s life at this point. And most of what she would remember. Had it really been that long? It felt like they were sneaking kisses in New Orleans just yesterday. Hope bit her lip and cocked her head at Eva.
“It’s normal for people to?—”
“Thiswasn’tnormal, Mom.” Oh, that whine she added toMom. Eva was pulling out the full works for this one, wasn’t she?
“Tell me what you saw and what happened then.” Hope stilled herself, waiting for Eva to answer her and explain because thus far, she hadn’t gotten enough of an explanation.
“She wascrying. Like full tears down her face, ruining her make up. Ansel will have a fit. I went to talk to her, and she didn’t even say hi to me.” Eva wrinkled her nose as if she was offended by that.
“If she was upset, then I’m sure she didn’t mean anything by it.”
“I know.” Eva rolled her eyes, yet again.
Teenage years were going to be brutal, weren’t they? Hope clenched her fists at her sides. “Where was she going?”
