“We?” Angelica pursed her lips, still completely lost.
“For a ring. Duh.” Eva rolled her eyes. “For Mom.”
“A ring,” Angelica repeated the word, racking her brain. Hope’s birthday wasn’t any time soon, and as far as she could remember, there wasn’t an anniversary in there either. Lyric definitely would have reminded her of that. She always did, even though Angelica remembered the important ones.
“So you can propose.”
The air rushed from Angelica’s lungs. Cold rushed through her. “What?”
“So you can propose,” Eva repeated, like Angelica should understand exactly what she was talking about. “You know, get down on one knee and all that, but I’m not sure how that works with two girls. Do you know?” Eva looked up, meeting Angelica’s eyes. “Has anyone ever proposed to you?”
“Uh… yes. But that’s not… What do you mean propose? Propose to who?”
“To Mom.” Eva squinted and shook her head. “You’re not dating anyone else, are you?”
“No.” Angelica flexed her fingers. “But I’m not… we’re not… your mom and I haven’t talked about getting married.”
“She said she wanted to marry you.” Eva put her tablet down at her side, those big blue eyes turning on Angelica with sadness sweeping through them. “Don’t you want to marry her?”
“I…” Angelica stuttered for words. For the first time in ages, she honestly couldn’t think of a reasonable response. Because Eva would easily be able to tell if she was lying, and she didn’t want to lie to her—ever. And yet… maybe honest was just the way to go. “I haven’t given it much thought.”
“But you two love each other,” Eva said confidently.
“Yes, we do love each other.” Angelica relaxed at that. If they could focus on this, then maybe she’d survive this conversation.
“And people who are in love get married. So… you have to pick the perfect ring.” Eva’s eyes went bright with excitement again.
Angelica’s stomach dropped. How was she supposed to explain this? “Life isn’t always what’s in the fairytales, Eva. And I love your mom, I really do. But marriage… it’s not just about love. It’s legal and binding, and way more complicated than just love.”
“Is it, though?” Eva grinned at her. “Oh well, I can look up places in Georgia too. Just let me know!” And she skipped off.
Like the conversation hadn’t even happened.
Angelica furrowed her brow, watching Eva just skip away like she didn’t have a care in the world. But she knew better. Like hell hadthatquestion-and-answer timenotbeen intentional.
Eva knew exactly what she was doing.
Episode 5
HELEN, GEORGIA - MONDIAL
Chapter
Thirty-Five
“What the helldid I just walk into?” Hope’s eyes bugged as she stared around the hotel. Not just the hotel, the entire town. This was the last thing she’d expected to find in Georgia of all places.
Bavarian.
Everywhere.
In the shapes of the buildings, the colors chosen on the walls, the decorations, everything looked like it was straight out of Germany or Austria in the olden days. Hope didn’t even know where to go with this one. She’d been told, of course, but she hadn’t expected anything quite like this.
She stopped short as the rest of the crew milled around, working on setting up. She raised her chin to the ceiling and just stared in awe. She hadn’t even known that a town like this existed in the United States. Not at all.
“You didn’t look it up before we arrived, did you?” Angelica said, standing next to her.
“Nope,” Hope answered. “Didn’t exactly have time.”
