Page 112 of Culinary Chaos

“Oh my God.”

“Exactly.” Angelica faced the front of the elevator when it dinged their arrival. Thank God, she needed to escape this as quickly as possible.

As soon as Ansel handed her the coffee cup and she sat down, Eva burst into the room.

“Mama!”

Hope held her arms out for Eva to run into them and gave her a long, deep hug. Angelica was actually impressed with just how long they stayed in each other’s arms before Eva pulled back and looked over her shoulder to meet Angelica’s eyes.

“Hi!” She blushed a little.

“Hey there,” Angelica said, nodding toward Hope. “Miss your mom?”

Eva nodded, biting her lip in the same habit that Hope had. Angelica hummed her understanding and looked over her shoulder to find Rex standing in the doorway looking at them both. “You two good? I need to go talk to Kyle.”

“Yeah, we’re good,” Hope answered, pulling Eva into her lap.

Eva, however, had other ideas. She wiggled her way off Hope’s lap and came to stand right in front of Angelica, hands on her hips, staring at her like Angelica had all of the answers to the problems in the world.

“Can I help you?” Angelica asked lightly before sipping her hot coffee.

“I’d like to be with you today.”

“Oh?” Angelica flicked her gaze to Hope to see what she thought of all this.

Eva nodded sharply. “What exactly do you do all day?”

Angelica laughed and took another sip of her drink. Only a six-year-old with the gumption of her unrestrained mother would be able to ask that question with a straight face and fully expect an answer.

“I do a lot of things,” Angelica answered. “But you’d probably find most of them boring since I spend a lot of time at my desk and on my computer.”

“But you tell people what to do.” Eva pursed her lips to the side, her dark hair falling over her shoulder as she cocked her head to stare hard at Angelica.

“I do.”

“Mom does too, but not like you.”

“No, your mom is much nicer than I am.” Angelica’s lips pulled upward into a smile as she looked at Hope for confirmation. No one needed to tell her twice how true her statement was.

“Maybe.” Eva got closer, beckoning Angelica to lean down with the crook of her finger. “But she does yell and throw things.”

“Does she now?” Angelica asked, this time looking at Hope with a whole new perspective. “I can throw things too, sometimes. But it takes a whole lot for me to get there.”

“Me too.”

“Somehow I don’t quite believe that.” Angelica found herself laughing again.

Ansel raised his eyebrows at her and shook his head. “Since you’re in the throes of an amusing conversation, I’ll start withHope this morning.” He pulled gently at Hope’s hair, pushing the comb through it while she ate a light breakfast of fruit.

“See what you did?” Angelica teased Eva. “You made me go second, and I never go second.”

She couldn’t help but look directly at Hope when she said that. Did she understand what she wasn’t saying? It was as bold as she’d probably get in the presence of others around them, but for some reason, she wanted to continue the light teasing they’d started all those weeks ago when they first met. Perhaps then Hope would want to stay on the show, instead of leaving her to herself with all these men.

“Are you good at math?” Eva asked. “Because Mom says she’s not good at it, and Daddy says he doesn’t know the difference between a four and a five.”

Hope choked.

Angelica dropped her gaze from the embarrassed Hope back down to Eva. “Your mom is actually very good at math, don’t let her think otherwise. But yes, I’m good at math.”