Page 114 of No Holds Barred

“Eva”—Rex’s voice was low with authority—“quit the whining and go up to the room with your mother.”

Hope’s heart hammered. She looked over her shoulder and met Rex’s dark eyes and mouthed a thanks to him. He walked with them up to the room, and Hope let Eva inside before shutting the door and sighing heavily.

“She was a pain toward the end of last week too. I’m not sure what’s going on with her.” Rex crossed his arms and frowned.

“She’s had a lot of changes this year.” Hope frowned. “And if you remember, last year when we filmed the last episode…” Hope trailed off, not really wanting to say anything out loud.

“Yeah.” Rex shuffled his foot. “I was an ass. Rach was an ass. You were an ass.”

Hope snorted and chuckled at that. “Sure, we’ll just call it the time we were all assholes.”

He laughed with her and shook his head. “I’ll see what I can do to help out this week. But I imagine once we get back to LA next week, it’ll be a bit easier.”

“God, I hope so.” She sighed heavily. “Thanks again.”

Just as Rex stepped away down the hall, Angelica opened the door to her room and stepped out. She smiled at Rex, bowing her head slightly.

“Rex.”

“Ange,” he said back. When Angelica walked past him and was in between them, Rex turned around and waggled his eyebrows in Hope’s direction.

Jesus.

They weren’t keeping this a secret, were they? Angelica might not get what she wanted this time, despite their best efforts.

“Hey,” Angelica said as she stepped next to Hope, not even noticing that Rex was still looking at the two of them.

“Hey.” Hope bit her lip and then looked back at Rex, waving her hand in his direction to shoo him away. The last thing she needed was her ex-husband to act as a wingman for her girlfriend.

Girlfriend.

That’s what they were, wasn’t it? Just the thought of that word warmed Hope’s entire body. Quickly, she leaned in andkissed Angelica before backing away. Angelica blushed, but she didn’t object to the quick embrace.

“I don’t have a lot of time to talk right now. Eva’s on the struggle bus.”

“Oh?” Angelica furrowed her brow in concern.

“She’s been struggling this filming season. And when we left Saint Paul, it got so much worse.”

“I’m so sorry.” Angelica folded her hands in front of her, nervously playing her thumbs against each other.

“She’s going through a lot.” Hope bit her lip. “So you’re probably right about waiting a bit.”

Angelica nodded her understanding. “Makes sense. We, uh… we’re supposed to meet with the owners in ten minutes.”

“Perfect,” Hope muttered. “I’ll catch Rishal and then be right down, but it’s going to be about twenty minutes.”

“Okay.”

Hope wanted to lean in and kiss her again. She wanted to sink into the comfort she knew Angelica would bring her, but with the conversation about waiting longer, she held off. “See you down there.”

Angelica said nothing else as she walked away.

With one more steadying breath, Hope stepped into the fray that was going to be her room this week. She just had to get through the next twenty minutes or so before she could escape for a little bit—at least she hoped she could. Eva had to be her priority this week, but even then, she still needed a break or two in there.

When she stepped into the staging conference room nearly an hour after Angelica had left her in the hallway, everyone was already seated around the table—Josef included, right next to Logan. And he didn’t look happy. Angelica either. In fact, she shot Hope a look of annoyance.

“Are we ready?” Rex asked.