Page 1 of No Holds Barred

Pre-Season

Chapter

One

Nervous energy raced up and down Angelica’s spine, settled in the pit of her stomach for a brief second, and then raced back up her spine. It’d been that way all day. Meeting with Rex—only Rex—for the first time since filming wrapped wasn’t putting her in a good mood. They hadn’t talked. Not that they really talked about much personal in general, but being confined with Rex in a room for an hour was putting her nerves into overdrive.

She heard his deep tones in the hallway immediately. Taking three slow deep breaths, Angelica prepared herself for what was about to come.

“I hope you don’t mind, but Eva’s with me.” Rex popped his head through the door and locked his dark brown eyes on her.

All the tightness in Angelica’s stomach eased instantly. “Of course not!”

She’d missed Eva so much. And despite filming last season, with everything going on, she hadn’t felt like she’d gotten as much one-on-one time with her. Before Rex could say anything else, Eva barreled through the door and raced straight for Angelica, wrapping her arms around Angelica’s hips and holding her tightly in a hug.

She breathed in, catching the sudden whiff of lilacs. Tears sprang to her eyes, stinging them. But she swallowed hard and held them at bay. She’d thought she was over that, or at least that she’d be able to handle whatever breakup she’d had with Hope. It had been about six months since they’d seen each other last.

Angelica released Eva and smiled down at her. “I swear you grow a foot every time I see you.”

Eva’s cheeks reddened and she shook her head. “Nope. But I’m about to celebrate my eighth birthday. You should come to my party.”

“I don’t think I’d be quite the right crowd for what you want at a birthday party.”

Eva laughed loudly and shook her head. “No! Not that party. The family party.”

Rex cleared his throat. “We uh…do a family dinner for the birthday girl every year. She gets to pick what she wants to eat, and there’s cake and a couple presents. We’re still doing that this year, despite…everything.” He finished awkwardly.

Despite the divorce was what he meant.

“We’re in the process of hiring a new nanny, so I didn’t have anyone to watch her while we met today.”

“Right.” Angelica could easily draw the lines of conversation that Rex wasn’t saying, but she wasn’t about to lay it out for him either.

“They broke up!” Eva chimed from the back of Angelica’s office, standing by the storage area behind her desk. “Hey! I drew this!”

“You did.” Angelica smiled as she turned and walked back toward her desk, her heels clacking on the floor as she went. There was such a stark difference in Eva now. It wasn’t that she was two years older than when Angelica had met her, there was a maturity that hadn’t been there before, as if she’d seen some of the tragedy of the world rather than being insulated by it.

Eva snagged the framed drawing and held it closer so she could squint at it and study it. Angelica focused on Eva, wanting to use her as a distraction from the conversation she knew she still needed to have with Rex.

“I don’t think I need a nanny anymore,” Eva said, canting her head at the picture. “I’m not a baby.”

“No, you’re not.” Angelica pressed a hand to Eva’s shoulder. “But someone still has to watch you so you’re not running around unsupervised. It’s the rules of the set.”

Eva wrinkled her nose and slid a glance toward her father. “I liked my last nanny, but Daddy didn’t like her.”

“She didn’t want to travel with us for filming.” Rex shrugged his shoulders and shoved his hands into his pockets. “Something about being too far away from family for too great a length of time.”

Angelica hummed. So the last nanny wasn’t the one that Rex had brought to the premiere of season two. How many had they gone through in the interim? And how had the breakup gone?

She was damn sure everyone had pegged that as a rebound fuck.

“I miss Auntie R when we’re gone.” Eva tossed an irritated look over her shoulder at Rex, as if she had all the attitude in the world.

Wow, whatever had happened on the filming break had definitely turned this cute little kid into a preteen, and Angelica, oddly enough, was here for it. Then again, she also wasn’t the one at the other end of that glare either.

“I drew this for you and then mailed it.” Eva smiled handing the picture over to Angelica. “It’s you and me.”

“It’s us?” Angelica furrowed her brow. She’d always just assumed it was Eva and Hope.