Page 14 of Under the Table

HOUSTON, TEXAS - GARDENIA

Chapter

Five

“The AC isn’t getting fixed in this part of the hotel this week.” Angelica sat down at the tables that had been arranged into a square and crossed her legs. Her back was already covered in a sheen of sweat and her blouse stuck to her skin. She’d given up pulling it off, and her emergency conversation with Robin and Johnny had gotten her nowhere except to say, it wasn’t going to be fixed.

“You’re kidding me,” Hope hissed, her head dropping as she breathed in heavily.

“Unfortunately not.” Angelica pulled her iPad out of her bag and put it on the table in front of her. “We’re just going to have to deal with it.”

“At least there’s air conditioning in the rooms.”

“Don’t jinx it.” Angelica shot her a look before unlocking her iPad and pulling up the agenda for that afternoon.

They’d all arrived safely in Houston, Angelica the day before so she could make sure everything was set up, and Hope and Rex that morning with Eva in tow. She’d had to hold back her smile at the thought of seeing Eva again. It’d felt like forever.

“This is going to be brutal. It’s nearly a hundred outside with a hundred percent humidity,” Hope whined.

“You’re right, and complaining about the facts of life isn’t going to get us anywhere. Is it?” Angelica locked her eyes on Hope’s for a brief second before focusing back on her iPad. She was tired, and cranky, and she knew she was being shorter than she typically would, but she also didn’t want to hear it. She was sick of it already and she knew it’d only get worse once Rex arrived for their inaugural meeting.

She’d hadn’t seen Rex yet, and this would be the tell-all Angelica wasn’t looking forward to.

How was he going to handle the situation?

“No need to be mean about it.” Hope’s voice had a teasing tone to it, which Angelica had been missing during the conversation in her office. It seemed they were both going to work on making this as normal as possible. That was a good thing. They needed it that way.

“I apologize if my tone was sharp.” Angelica looked up from her iPad and found Hope looking at her curiously. “If you hadn’t noticed, there’s no air conditioning in the room, making it nearly an inferno from hell.”

Hope laughed, her eyes crinkling at the corners, and her lips turning upward. “I wonder if I could cook eggs on the tables.”

Leaning back in her chair, Angelica laughed. “On the tables? Probably not. As much as I hate to admit it, I’m not sure it’s quite hot enough for that. Outside… on a car window or roof…? That might be doable.”

“Nah, it’s not quite up to temp yet.” Hope winked at her.

The door opened and they both stilled instantly, the lightness of the conversation vanishing right before their eyes. They hadn’t had to force that, but with other people around, they absolutely would. Rex held the door open, but he didn’t step inside immediately. Before she knew what was happening, Eva raced forward and wrapped her arms around Angelica’s neck and practically jumped into her lap.

“Oh my,” Angelica said, holding Eva on her lap so she didn’t fall on her butt on the floor. “Hi Eva!”

“You didn’t call me!” Eva sat back a little, her brow furrowed in a scold that matched her mother’s. “You didn’t help me with my math.”

“No, I didn’t. I’m so sorry.” Angelica frowned slightly. “There’s a lot of reasons why, but it’s kind of hard to explain all of them, so you’ll just have to trust me. Okay?”

Rex stared at them curiously before plopping down at a thin table that was pressed into an L-shape against the one where Angelica and Hope were. “I told you that you’d have to entertain yourself, Eva.”

Angelica frowned, squeezing Eva’s sides lightly before she hopped off Angelica’s lap. “Daddy got me a new math game on my tablet so that I can play it.”

“A math game?” Angelica raised an eyebrow in Eva’s direction. “You’ll have to show me how it works sometime.”

“We can play it together.” Eva pulled up a chair, dragging it from the other side of Rex, to plop it right between Rex and Angelica.

Angelica slid a glance of curiosity and confusion to Hope but then focused back on Eva. She crossed her legs and sat in the chair and leaned forward on the table as she pulled out her tablet and set it up. Rex shifted awkwardly and frowned as he pulled out his iPad.

“I have the filming schedule for the first few days finalized, but I wanted to go over the rest of the week with you two before it’s finalized.” He didn’t look at Angelica or Hope, keeping his chin down and facing the iPad.

If this was going to be the name of the game when it came to how they interacted, Angelica could handle it. The three of them were the only ones who knew what had happened at the end of last season, and Angelica wanted to keep it that way. She didn’tneed Josef or anyone else on the crew to find out what she and Hope had done.

Hope was the fan favorite, and the studio and production would choose Hope over her any day.