Chapter 17
Chapter
Seventeen
“The Jordangers aren’t happy with you.”
Angelica looked up, finding Hope leaning against the doorway to her makeshift office, arms crossed and a strange look on her face. “Because?”
“You reported them to the state.”
Angelica snorted lightly. “Deserved.”
“We could have fixed the problems before they became problems.” Hope stepped inside and shut the door behind her.
“No, we needed more time than they were willing to give.” Angelica flicked through a budget report on her iPad, glancing at the numbers and not noting any major issues. “This gave us the time.”
“They’re red taped, Ange.”
“Ange?” Angelica furrowed her brow and looked up at Hope, this time locking their gazes together.
Hope never called her that when it was just the two of them.
Setting the electronic pencil down, Angelica leaned back in the chair and crossed her legs.
She cocked her head to the side, dropping her gaze down Hope’s body.
“Would you like to talk about this morning?”
“Th-this morning?” Hope stuttered, her cheeks going slack and her body tense.
That was as sure a warning that something was wrong as anything. But Angelica had noticed right away when they were filming that morning that something was off. Angelica held her pose for few more seconds before she gave up the pretense and softened herself.
“Are you okay?”
Hope shook her head and then stopped, as if she realized what she was doing. Angelica’s heart broke a little for her. This wasn’t an uncomplicated situation. Standing up, she walked up to Hope and held her hands lightly. They were so close that Angelica could feel Hope’s breath against her cheeks.
Before Angelica could say anything else, Hope swooped in and pressed their lips together.
Angelica gasped, tilting her head back and parting her lips.
She lifted her hand to cup Hope’s cheek as Hope deepened the kiss.
She could stay in this embrace for hours if she let herself.
Last night, she hadn’t wanted to stop, and she certainly hadn’t wanted Hope to leave.
Hope teased her tongue lightly before pulling back and diving in for more.
Angelica’s heart raced, her entire body was filled with arousal, and she was ready to go again.
But she needed to stop Hope. Cameras were everywhere in hotels, and this one was no exception.
While they might not be film cameras, surely someone would see something.
She pushed their mouths together before pulling away and sliding her hand from Hope’s neck to her shoulder and back down to her fingers, entwining them.
“We shouldn’t be doing this here,” Angelica whispered.
“I know.” Hope gave her a small smile. “I just needed to make sure.”
“Make sure of what?”
Hope didn’t answer. Instead, she squeezed Angelica’s fingers tightly and refused to make eye contact. Last night had been Hope’s first time with a woman, and while she hadn’t seemed hesitant at first, perhaps she was having regrets now.
“What are you feeling?” Angelica asked quietly, not moving away. Physical contact certainly seemed to center Hope, so she was loath to take that connection away.
“Honestly?” Hope asked, a slight scoff to her tone, which was unexpected.
“Yeah, of course honestly.” Angelica frowned at her. Maybe she was in far more turmoil than Angelica had originally thought she was.
“Last night was…is lovely.” Hope’s lips curled up, and a pink rushed to her cheeks.
Angelica was glad to see that, to hear the words leave Hope’s lips.
She just wanted to make sure that Hope wasn’t saying what she thought Angelica wanted to hear.
Who was she kidding? Hope never held back or contorted what she said.
She was always honest, sometimes brutally so.
She just had a lighter touch than Angelica.
“But…” Hope whispered the word, taking a deep breath before she continued. She looked directly into Angelica’s eyes, holding her gaze. “I love Rex. I love Eva. And I don’t know what to do about that.”
Angelica parted her lips, ready for the letdown of a century, to ease Hope out of the turmoil that she was facing, to let her get away with the one night that they should have never had together and to let the kiss they’d just shared be their last. She was ready to make that sacrifice, because seeing Hope in this turmoil was breaking her heart.
“But I think I’m also falling in love with you,” Hope whispered, listing in closer, to the point that their lips and noses almost touched again.
A shiver ran through Angelica. She had to close her eyes against it, the wave of feelings that was so intense she couldn’t control it.
“I don’t know what to do, Angel. I just need a little more time.” Hope squeezed Angelica’s fingers tightly, imploring her with a gaze, looking for some kind of response.
But Angelica couldn’t give her what she wanted.
She wouldn’t make declarations of love, and she certainly wouldn’t allow herself to fall down this rabbit hole of chaos.
She had to protect herself, even if it was for just a little longer.
Because Hope wasn’t ready for anything beyond what they had already shared.
Holding her breath, Angelica let go of Hope’s fingers and put that final space between them. “Then I’ll keep my fingers crossed for me.”
“Angel.”
Angelica snagged her iPad off the table and started toward the door.
“I just need to talk to Rex.”
Angelica stopped and looked over her shoulder. “Where was he today? He texted me that he was sick and needed the day.”
Hope shook her head, tears welling in her eyes. “I don’t know.”
Again, Angelica’s heart nearly shattered.
This wasn’t what she wanted for Hope. She wanted Hope free from this pain that plagued her.
As much as she wanted to hold Hope and soothe her, she couldn’t, and she couldn’t find words either.
Nodding in Hope’s direction, Angelica walked out of the makeshift office and started toward the elevator to her room.
She just needed to escape.
“I need to talk with you,” Paris Jordanger, a force to be reckoned with, crooked her finger in Angelica’s direction.
“Naturally,” Angelica mumbled under her breath. She’d really wanted to get out of the lobby area before anyone saw her, but that was next to impossible. Clenching her molars, Angelica turned around and prepared herself for the battle Hope had warned her was coming. “How can I help you?”
“Calling the state? Really?” Paris’s lips quivered. “Do you know what the fine is for that?”
“Yes. Do you?” Angelica crossed her arms, holding her iPad tightly. “How did you get your inspections passed before?”
“We have a friend in the office.”
“Right.” Angelica sighed heavily. “It’s unsafe, and I’m not going to risk staff or customers because you don’t want to do things the right way.”
“I didn’t even realize half the things that were wrong,” Paris lowered her voice. “I didn’t know.”
“Ignorance isn’t an excuse for gross negligence.” Angelica’s lips thinned with her glare.
“But I didn’t want anyone to get hurt.”
“No, but someone could have. You’re lucky no one has before now. But I won’t force Chef Lawrence to cook in a kitchen that could potentially kill someone, and I won’t allow you to continue to serve from it. You’re lucky all I did was call the state.”
Paris paled. “I don’t want to make an enemy of you, Ms. Shields.”
“Then don’t.” Angelica bit the inside of her cheek. She was being particularly harsh when she didn’t have to be, and she knew it was because of the conversation she’d just left and not this one. “Work with me.”
“I’m trying to.” Paris sighed. “I really am.”
Angelica was about to give a retort, but she managed to stop herself.
She really was taking all her pent-up frustrations out on Paris right now, and that really wasn’t what she needed to be doing.
Purposely relaxing her shoulders, Angelica nodded toward her.
“Would you like to hear the other issues we’ve discovered? ”
“Yes, please.”
Angelica held her hand out and motioned toward the back office. They walked in that direction, and as soon as they were inside, she shut the door and sat down in the empty chair, waiting for Paris to do the same.
“You said that before you and your husband bought the hotel you were a schoolteacher?”
She nodded, sliding into the chair and looking all the more like a student ready to be scolded.
“And your husband was in finance?”
“Yes, he was.” Paris frowned. “What does this have to do with anything?”
“Neither of you knows much about management and taking the hard line with your employees. In business, you can’t have soft rules that are made to be bent, and often when you run into individual owners such as yourself and your husband, that’s what is claimed to be the advantage.
But your employees are taking advantage of you. ”
“What do you mean?”
“You need to follow the policies you’ve set. I know you’ve set them because I’ve read your handbooks, and they’re good. A bit more lenient than I would be in some cases, but not outrageously so.”
“All right.” Paris seemed pleased with that statement, as if it was a compliment.
But it wasn’t.
“But you don’t follow it, and you’ve admitted that.”
“Oh.”
Angelica hummed her agreement. “So, if you’d like, you can shadow me, and I can take the hard line and teach you how to do it.
This is a business, not a classroom, Mrs. Jordanger.
And until you recognize that and perhaps hire a hotel manager to do the dirty work that you don’t want to do, you’re going to need to be the bad guy sometimes. ”
“Like you are?” Mrs. Jordanger’s brown eyes lit up.
Angelica nodded her understanding, a slight smirk on her lips at the tenuous accusation that Paris had given her. “Yes. Sometimes there are distinct advantages to having one good guy and one bad guy.”
“You and Chef Lawrence, then.”
“Precisely.” Angelica pushed her hair over her shoulder and relaxed slightly. “Who is willing to take a harder stance? You or Mr. Jordanger?”
“Me.” She sighed when she answered. “It’s always been me. His head is too much in the numbers and details, and he struggles with the interpersonal things.”
“Then you it is. Tomorrow we’ll work with the front reception staff and housekeeping and maintenance.
” Angelica brushed her fingers along the edge of her skirt, which was riding up on her thigh.
She hated the shorter skirts they were putting her in.
Pants would be so much easier to get her job done in, and far more comfortable.
“We need to start fresh with them all, lay down the law, and then start to hold people accountable when they push and break the rules.”
“All right. I can do that.”
“Good.” Angelica nodded at her. “Then I’ll see you first thing in the morning.”
Angelica stood up, gripping her iPad tightly.
She still had a ton of work to do, including a call to Tatum about Mountain View that she was already an hour late on making.
Though he never seemed to complain about her awkward and random work schedule.
He was so laid back and lax. She loved that about him.
She slipped into the elevator and hit the button to take her to her floor.
Just as the doors were shutting, Rex stuck his hand in to open them again.
They stared at each other. Angelica’s lips parted in surprise, and Rex’s jaw locked shut in what she could only suppose was anger or frustration.
The doors were about to shut again, but he stepped inside and turned around, so they stood shoulder to shoulder.
Angelica looked up at him, waiting curiously to see what he would do or say. His eyes were red-rimmed, dark circles. He’d clearly been crying. He had stubble on his cheeks that he hadn’t shaved that morning, and his hair looked as though he’d pulled on it in every direction possible.
“Your uh… team did very well today without you.” Why did her voice seem so small? Why was she even speaking?
She could see the pain swelling in him, overwhelming him.
And yet… she didn’t feel guilty about sleeping with Hope at all.
Their night had been full of lust and passion and tension breaking.
She’d longed for a night like that. She could find it in herself to feel compassionate toward him and his pain, but this wasn’t her fight. This wasn’t her hurt.
Rex nodded at her, finally turning his head to look. His eyes welled with tears again, threatening to spill down his cheeks.
If Angelica had doubted whether or not Hope had told him, she knew without a doubt now that she had. He hadn’t been sick at all that day. No, he’d been licking the wounds that had been inflicted on him.
“We can talk about filming in the morning,” Angelica finally said, dropping the pretense from her tone.
He needed the time far more than she did.
And while she was asking if he wanted to film with her or Hope, she realized at this point, she wasn’t sure which would be his preference.
Because both would remind him of exactly what they’d done.
Perhaps it’d be best if they could film as separately as possible.
The elevator stopped on their floor, and Angelica waited for Rex to step out.
She followed him until the hallway divided into two and he walked down toward his room.
She was tempted to text Hope and tell her that he was going there, but at the same time, she thought better of that.
Best for them to work out their marital issues on their own and for her to stay out of it as much as possible.
Especially with Hope’s confession.
Angelica let herself into her room and dropped the iPad onto her freshly made bed. She pulled off her shoes and dropped them onto the floor before pulling up her foot and massaging her arch.
Love?
Had that really been what Hope had said? That she was falling in love with Angelica? She couldn’t deny that there was a connection between them that went beyond almost any other romantic interest Angelica had in the past.
But love?
Really?
Looking around her room, Angelica sighed and closed her eyes.
This would take time, not just for Hope to figure out her relationship with Rex but for Angelica to figure out exactly what she was feeling.
Because was it love? She couldn’t say one way or the other if it was.
It was too quick, and far too early. She and Hope had done their best to avoid each other in the last year, not get to know each other better.
For now it’d be best to focus on work, and making sure that last night didn’t affect filming.
Because if it did, she knew Josef would hear about it, and it’d be her head on the chopping block.