Page 12 of Under the Table

She doubted it would be the last.

“This time I need you to work with me. It’ll be easier that way.”

“All right,” Hope agreed, not entirely sure what she was agreeing to. She’d figure it out later. “But what about us.”

“There is no us.” Angelica looked at her sharply again. “We’re here to do a job, and we’re going to do that job to the best of our ability. Nothing else.”

Hope wasn’t entirely sure about that one. It seemed they couldn’t even be in the room together right now without sparks flying, though perhaps that would get easier along the way. “Angel… I need you to be honest with me.”

Although as Hope said those words, she realized it also meant that for that to happen Angelica was going to have to behonest with herself. Which Hope suspected was a much harder feat. Hope leaned back into the chair, waiting for Angelica to respond to that. She knew it’d take a minute or five. Looking around the office, she stilled.

In a frame on the storage shelves just behind Angelica’s desk was a hand drawn picture from a child. One that Hope recognized immediately as one that she hadn’t mailed to Angelica. She frowned at it and then squinted, trying to make sure that it really was the drawing that she remembered Eva making and asking her to send to Angelica.

Standing suddenly, Hope walked over to the picture frame and snagged it. Sure enough, written in crude crayon across the bottom of the picture was aTo Angelica. Love Eva.She wanted to cry. How the hell had she gotten this?

She tensed sharply, her brows knit together as she faced Angelica. “What’s this?”

“Eva drew it for me.”

“I know that,” Hope snapped. Her cheeks were red, burning. “How did you get it?”

“I assume she mailed it to me.” Angelica stood up slowly, coming around to stand next to Hope. She took the picture from Hope’s hands and set it back down onto the shelf. “I framed it.”

“I didn’t mail it,” Hope whispered, her voice dropping off into the ether. “She asked me to, but I… I couldn’t do it.”

Angelica stilled. They were standing so close. Hope trembled as she stared at the picture.

“How did you get it?”

“I told you, it was mailed to me. I assumed you had…” Angelica trailed off. “I do miss Eva.”

“She misses you.” Hope gave her a small, watery smile. “It was so hard to keep her from calling you.”

“Why would you?” Angelica furrowed her brow in confusion. “I’m not dangerous.”

But she was. Just not to Eva.

Angelica screamed every bit of danger that Hope wasn’t sure she could keep herself safe from. “Angel…”

“Don’t do that.” Angelica stepped back and turned on her toes, immediately going back to the chair she’d just vacated.

“I did nothing,” Hope said.

“You know exactly what you did.” Angelica challenged her and then sighed. “We’re going to Houston first. It doesn’t seem like too big a job, not like Seattle.”

Hope clenched her jaw as she listened to Angelica prattle on about work. That was the last thing she wanted to discuss, but it was the only thing that they should be talking about. Like Angelica had said, there was nothing else between them, right?

“Next we’ll go to Kansas City…”

“I can read the itinerary on my own.” Hope sighed heavily and plopped back down next to Angelica. She could already feel the distance between them growing. “Unless you want to discuss the details of each hotel and how we’re going to fix them right now, let’s just do one at a time like we did last season.”

Angelica pursed her lips but nodded in agreement. “I’ll schedule in a few trips between the shows to meet up with tentative investors. It’ll just be you and me on those trips.”

“Just us?” Fear raced through her. “No one else?”

“No one else is as good at closing the deal as I am on that front.”

“Then why do you need me?”