Page 13 of Under the Table

“I need you to cook.” Angelica frowned and nodded. “That’s not exactly in my skill set. I think you can testify to that.”

Hope laughed lightly. “You’re not the worst chef I’ve met.”

“High praise coming from you.” Angelica’s lips curled up slightly, just enough that Hope felt some ease.

Maybe this would work out in the end. Maybe they just had to get over this initial struggle before they could get to that point.

“I’ll have to talk with Rex about that. He’s…uncomfortable with all of this. I don’t blame him, and I’m going to apologize to you in advance.” Hope wrung her hands tightly before she grabbed her glass of whiskey and drank it down in one gulp. That’s what was really bothering her, wasn’t it? How did Rex fit into this whole situation? Especially with how they’d been doing in the last year.

“Apologize?” Angelica asked, sipping her drink delicately.

“Yeah.” Hope didn’t really want to say more than that. Rex could dig his own grave with that one.

They fell into a comfortable silence, at least comfortable between the two of them. The rest of it was uncomfortable. And Hope couldn’t deny that now. With nothing else to say, Hope straightened up and moved to the edge of her seat.

“I suppose I’ll see you in Houston then.”

“Yes.” Angelica frowned slightly but she nodded. She set her glass down and stood up, understanding exactly what Hope had been aiming for.

They stood facing each other, Hope inches taller than Angelica, but that didn’t matter. She tilted her chin down, looking into Angelica’s baby blue eyes, at the way her hair was perfectly curled over her shoulders, and she resisted the damn urge to reach up and brush her fingers across a lock, and then across Angelica’s cheek.

She definitely was going to have to deal with that.

“Thank you,” Hope murmured.

“For what?” Angelica asked.

Hope nodded. “For thinking I’m important enough to actually be honest with me.”

Angelica’s lips twitched upward into a smile, something that Hope had longed to see for months now. She was stunning when she let go of all the pomp and circumstance and was just hergenuine authentic self. Hope wished she could see more of that, that the world could see all of her.

Saying nothing else, Hope left Angelica’s office and walked directly to her car. She slid behind the wheel and closed her eyes, breathing deeply. This was going to be difficult, but after that conversation, she was pretty sure they might just be able to pull this off. They only had two more seasons locked in together, and then they could part ways—hopefully on a much better note than the start of this season.

Her phone buzzed.

Hope lifted it up, confused to see Lyric’s name across her screen along with a text.

Lyric: I wasn’t sure if you’d want these or not. But you asked me to send them, so here they are.

What the hell was she talking about? She was just about to ask when another text came in with a flood of photos from the shoot with Wade. Frowning, Hope opened the first one and then started to scroll with them. They were good behind -the-scenes shots.

That was until she zoomed in on her face.

And Angelica’s.

As they stared at each other’s lips over their shoulders while standing back-to-back.

And the way her cheeks had a rosiness to them that definitely shouldn’t be there.

And the way Angelica’s lips were parted so slightly, like Hope could catch her breath.

Fuck.

They were never going to be able to hide this.

Were they?

Episode One