Chapter 38
Chapter
Thirty-Eight
“Hey, I need you to do this scene. Ange isn’t available.”
Hope frowned at Rex. “What do you mean?”
“She can’t walk the property right now, so I need you and Rachel to do it.”
Hope stilled, straightening her shoulders and wiping her hands on the towel on her apron. She was right in the middle of lunch service and running the new menu through the kitchen. This wasn’t the ideal time.
“Why do we need to walk the property?” Hope reached over to baste a steak in a skillet so it wouldn’t dry out.
“To look for areas that might be dangerous to kids and to talk about entertainment for kids that can run the gambit of ages. Ange was supposed to do it, but she can’t right now.”
Again, Hope frowned. “I don’t understand that part. Why can’t she do it? Is she sick?”
“No.”
“Is there an emergency?” Hope put down the spoon she’d been using to baste and poked the top of the steak with her finger to see if it was cooked yet.
“No.” Rex sighed, the stress lines in his face deepening. “I just need you to do this.”
“I’m going to need a minute.” Hope pulled the steak and set it on the side of the stove to rest properly. “We’re right in the middle of the rush.”
“Now, while there aren’t that many people out there.” Rex touched her shoulder. “I mean it, Hope.”
She gritted her teeth, but she did what he wanted anyway. She gave a few last-minute directions to the chef, who was at least competent in cooking for adults, and then she walked out of the kitchen.
“Take off your chef’s coat.”
“What?” Hope stilled, very confused. “Are you going to tell me what’s going on yet?”
“Right now, I need you to do this without asking a million questions.” Rex held his hand out. “Jacket.”
Hope hesitated. Angelica had never missed a scene that needed to be shot except for when she’d been completely incapacitated with altitude sickness in Estes Park, Colorado.
She reached up and undid the snaps on her jacket, handing it over.
The white tank top she had underneath was thin, and while it’d be a million times better to wear that outside, she wasn’t used to feeling so exposed on camera either.
“I’m going to need a better explanation.”
Rex shook his head. “I can’t give you one. All I know is that she’s not at the hotel today.”
“She’s not…” Hope stuttered to a stop. “Like she left?”
He shrugged. “She had a meeting with the hotel manager this morning about the policies drama from last night, but then she left and said she wouldn’t be back until late tonight.”
“What policies drama from last night?”
“Ange didn’t talk to you?” Rex seemed surprised by that.
“No. Was she supposed to?” Hope ran her fingers through her hair after pulling the clasp from it. Ansel would have a fit over what it looked like, but she was going outside into the breeze anyway, so it wouldn’t matter in the end.
“I figured she would have. But Rachel didn’t talk to you either?”
“About what?” Hope was ready to throw a damn fit if he didn’t start filling her in on whatever the hell he was talking about.
“There was an accident last night with Annalise. Ange ran into the middle of it, but she dealt with it.” Rex started walking out of the restaurant and toward the reception area.
Hope had to jog a few steps to catch back up with him. “Accident?”
“She stole a golf cart and overturned it, apparently. She’s fine. You’ll see her in a minute.”
“She did what?” Hope’s voice screeched. “What the hell was she thinking?”
Rex’s lips thinned into a line, but he didn’t say anything about that.
“Eva is with the cousins and waiting for you to show up to film this scene. I just need you and Rachel to point out where there are questionable safety measures and think like a kid. What are they going to get into? What might they steal and take for a joy ride?”
Hope’s heart ran rampant. What the hell was going on with her family? She’d never known Annalise to act out like that. She was about to make Rex stop so they could talk when they walked directly into where their tour was supposed to start.
“She’s ready,” Rex told Sy and nodded at him.
“All right.”
Hope stopped next to Rachel, staring at her with wide eyes as if expecting the answers to all her questions to suddenly pop up.
But Rachel barely even glanced at her. Her cheeks were hollow and her eyes dark from lack of sleep.
She didn’t even greet her. Hope paused, her mouth open but the words she wanted to say refused to leave her lips.
Was this what Rachel had meant yesterday?
Hope shut her mouth and straightened her shoulders.
The owner stood right in front of her, the white shirt already pitted with sweat, and the black tie he wore too tight against his neck.
But Hope wasn’t going to say anything about it.
He was either dressing up for their benefit or this was what he was used to.
And if it was the latter, then he’d be fine.
“Action!”
Everything was quiet. They all looked at each other like the other person knew what was supposed to happen, and it wasn’t until Rachel gave her a hard stare that Hope realized she was the one in charge here.
Normally it’d be Angelica, but since she was gone, of course it’d fall naturally to her.
Wiping her sweaty palms onto her thighs, Hope scrambled for words.
“After uh… After certain situations that happened last night, Ms. Shields wanted Rachel and me to walk the property with you to see if there were any other potential problems we could find.”
The owner, Daniel, nodded his head at her. “We’re very sorry about last night, again.” He directed that comment to Rachel. “I do hope that Annalise is fine.”
“She is. I don’t think she’ll be taking any joyrides soon, though.”
He laughed, but it sounded hollow. Hope couldn’t hold back and she gaped at Rachel. Were they seriously joking about something like that? She couldn’t believe that her sister was doing that. Then again, it’d clearly happened last night, and Hope had been the one left absolutely in the dark.
“Shall we?” Hope said, pointing toward the swimming pool.
Eva, Jenna, Annalise, and Mandy ran circles around them as they literally walked the entire property. One giant circle around, and then a slower circle through the pool and playground areas. Hope’s feet were going to ache in the morning after this.
When they’d finished filming, Hope tried to catch Rachel before she walked away, but Rachel just shot her a glare, shook her head, and left. Hope stood stunned. Was this really what she was going to face going forward? The silent treatment from her sister?
“What did you do to piss her off today?” Rex asked, coming to stand beside her.
Hope bit her lower lip, watching Rachel walk off. “She hasn’t talked to you?”
“No, well, not about that. Just about Annalise and what happened last night.” Rex looked around the putt-putt golf area as the crew packed up to move locations behind him. “The rest I got from Josef this morning.”
“So what happened?”
“Annalise stole a golf cart, took it for a joy ride, and she overturned it. Angelica was there and saw the whole thing happen. She found Rachel, and then reamed into the workers at the desk, quizzing them on all their safety policies.” Rex waved to Sy, who said he was headed inside.
“It was a lot of drama. Sy said he caught it on camera.”
“Camera?” Hope’s brow wrinkled. “He just happened to be around?”
“When Rach couldn’t find Annalise, I guess she found Josef and asked him. Josef told Sy to come along for the search.”
“Of course he did.” Hope’s stomach churned at that thought. “Anything for drama, right?”
“I don’t agree with a lot of his methods, but you can’t tell me that his vision of the show isn’t what’s working. We got renewed, didn’t we?”
Hope was about to point out that it wasn’t really because of Josef’s vision for the show but because of the chemistry between her and Angelica that got them the renewal. Which wasn’t something that Josef could have predicted. And it also wasn’t something that Rex would want pointed out either.
“You should have told me.” What she really meant was that anyone should have told her instead of just keeping her in the dark.
Angelica, Rachel, Rex, Josef—someone, anyone, should have told her last night when everything was happening.
But once again, she’d been thrust into the dark and she couldn’t do anything about something she was oblivious to.
“Do you need to prep for dinner tonight?” Rex asked, ignoring her statement.
Hope sighed heavily. What the hell was she doing?
Nothing was going right. Rachel being here only proved that point and pulled her out of the little paradise she’d tried to create.
The relationships she had were floundering deeper into the pit of despair, making it so difficult to even be herself anymore.
She was always on guard when everyone was around.
This wasn’t the life that she wanted.
“No.” Hope put her hands on her hips and stared across the property. “I’m going to go for a walk, I think. Clear my head after… that.” She wasn’t sure what else to call it.
“Sure.” Rex’s voice was tight. “So are we shooting the new menu tonight or are we just scrapping that?”
“I don’t know, you’re the director.” Hope threw that at him. “You’re the one who tells me what to do.” She stepped away from him, putting her hands out to her sides as she went. “So, am I shooting with you tonight or not?”
“Damn it, Hope. Why do you have to be like this?”
Hope scoffed and rolled her eyes. “I’ll be there for the dinner service.”
She twisted on her toes and walked away. She had nothing else she wanted to say to him right now. She needed to get her head on straight and figure out what she was even going to do next. Because living like this was getting harder by the day.
Hope pulled her phone out of her back pocket and immediately turned off her microphone.
No one needed to hear what she had to say.
She called Angelica and held the phone to her ear, waiting for her to pick up.
But it rang and rang and rang and then went to voicemail.
Hope pulled the phone away from her ear and stared at the screen as she hung up.
What the hell was going on?
Why would no one talk to her?
She walked the winding path of the hotel in the opposite direction from the way they’d gone to film that last scene. She’d noted one of the quietest places in the entire hotel was down by the golf course, and she needed that quiet now. Finding a bench, Hope sat down on it and stared at her phone.
Should she try to call Angelica again?
What would it mean if she didn’t answer this time?
She gave it another three minutes before she gave in to temptation and called Angelica.
This time, she answered. “Is this urgent?”
“Oh, uh… no?” Hope barely made out those words, her voice struggling to be anything above a whisper.
“I’m in a meeting. I can’t talk right now.”
“A meeting?” Hope stopped. “We’re supposed to be filming the last episode of our show.”
“Yes.” Angelica’s voice was terse, hard, as if she couldn’t really speak wherever she was at. “I’ll be back in the morning.”
“In the morning?” Hope’s shoulders went rigid. “Why didn’t you tell me you were leaving? Why didn’t you tell me about Annalise?”
“Hope, I really can’t talk about this right now.” Angelica’s words were clipped. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
And then she was gone. Hope stared down at her phone, thumbing over Angelica’s name. The urge to call her right back and demand a conversation was strong, but she couldn’t. Something held her back. Something that she wasn’t sure she wanted to name just yet.
She leaned back into the bench and crossed her ankle over her knee.
The sun was still bright, warming her skin, but she felt anything but happy.
All that gloss and shiny newness of her relationship with Angelica had vanished way too fast, and she’d been left with a pit of questions, doubts, and fears all mingling together.
Open relationships were hard.
But they weren’t impossible. Yet perhaps Angelica had been right all along. This time, with all of them involved, it just wouldn’t work. Because Angelica didn’t seem to want to make it work. Rex said he did, but the small comments here and there told Hope that he wasn’t sure about it anymore.
And Rachel.
God, Hope hated Rachel right now.
Not because she was doing anything that was too much or that Hope couldn’t handle, because maybe she was right.
Maybe Hope was doing way more harm than good.
But she didn’t want to give up on this yet.
She wasn’t ready to let the dream of this possibility go.
Perhaps it’d all be different once they finished filming.
Perhaps, with more time and less stress, they could all find some kind of balance.
With a renewed purpose, Hope stood up and brushed herself off.
That was it exactly. They just had to get through this season, which was fast coming to an end, and then they could sort everything out together. Just a few more days at most and they’d have it in their hand.
Hope’s lips pulled up into a half smile.
They could do this.
Because she loved both of them deeply.