Page 75 of Culinary Chaos

“We’re here to do our jobs.Yourjob is to make sure the show is a success with the viewers.” Angelica again.

Hope would hate to be on the other end of this conversation.

“Mommy!”

“Yeah, yeah.” Hope’s cheeks burned, and she nodded down at her little mini-me. “Yeah, we’ll go.”

“If we don’t get renewed, it’ll be your fault,” Josef said, his voice getting quieter as Hope walked away.

It wouldn’t be Angelica’s fault. Josef might have said that out of anger, but Hope knew better. A show was a success because of everyone who worked on it, and if they truly were floundering, then it was everyone’s fault. She pushed open the door to the small garden outside. It’d become her oasis, a place she felt safe and comfortable.

They had a few more hours of daylight to kill, and she wanted to make sure that she used them wisely. She sat down on the log bench. The same one she’d shared with Angelica days before, when they’d had probably the deepest conversation they’d shared since they’d met. Hope had looked back on that nightwith awe. She’d never thought that Angelica would be someone who would share so openly.

Eva ran through the garden like she owned the place, doing cartwheels and leaps that she’d learned at gymnastics last summer. She’d never gotten over it, and Hope had wanted to sign her up for another class, but her work schedule and Rex’s had never allowed it to happen. Maybe ifHotel Bombshellgot cancelled, then she would finally have time to enroll Eva in something she wanted.

Sliding her phone out of her pocket, Hope made a call to her agent. She didn’t want to, but she also didn’t want to wallow in a show that wasn’t going to succeed either. She needed the income, and she needed the recognition in order to grow her restaurant chains. And this was all part of that plan.

“Hope?”

“Hey.” Hope smiled just hearing Mary’s voice.

“What’s wrong?”

How the hell did she always manage to cut to the chase like that? Hope laughed nervously. “Nothing exactly, just a feeling.”

“Talk to me.”

Hope sighed, watching Eva play. Maybe she could play this off as she just wanted to be closer to home, stationary again. For her daughter. For stability. Mary would buy that, right? “Much to everyone’s surprise, Angelica Shields and I are getting along—for the most part.”

“Oh?” Mary seemed surprised by that. “She’s behaving then?”

Hope frowned. What exactly did Mary mean by that? She wasn’t sure that she wanted to dive into that any more than she already was. “We’re getting along.” She wasn’t going to mention her stupid kiss. And she certainly wasn’t going to mention the softness that she’d experienced in the last few days. “I was wondering if there’s anything that I might be interested inor that might be interested in me? Something closer to home perhaps?”

Mary paused. The silence was deafening. Hope held the phone tightly in her hand, keeping it pressed to her ear. The last thing she needed was for Eva to overhear any part of this conversation that she might actually understand.

“Closer to home…” Mary repeated, as if that was the part of this conversation that didn’t make sense.

Which Hope could understand. Because when she’d originally agreed to do this show, she’d made it abundantly clear that traveling wasn’t going to be a problem, and that she loved to travel, and Eva would be fine.

And well… that really wasn’t the issue.

“Yes,” Hope doubled down. “Closer to home.”

“Don’t lie to me.”

Fuck. Mary knew her too well.

“What’s really going on?”

“I just want to keep my options open. Especially if this doesn’t get renewed.” Hope rubbed her fingers together nervously. “And I don’t want Angelica to know.”

“Of course you don’t. That’d piss her off right to the moon and back.”

Moon.

The other night had been so clear that Hope had been completely taken. It’d been moon magic or something. There had to be some kind of fairytale like that, right? She’d have to ask Eva when she was done counting to one hundred cartwheels which story that was from. She’d remember.

“I can keep my ear out, if you really want me to.”