Chapter 43
Chapter
Forty-Three
Bending down, Hope pulled the cooking sheet out of the oven and set it onto the countertop. She immediately started to pull the little puff pastries off and then hissed as her fingertips burned.
“Damn it!”
“You should have waited,” Angelica murmured from her perch on the other side of the counter.
“Thank you, peanut gallery.” Hope rolled her eyes, but she didn’t try to remove the food again.
Angelica looked at her over the bottle of beer that she lifted to her lips and the iPad that was sitting in front of her.
She really didn’t stop working if she had a chance to keep going.
Hope both loved and hated that, because Angelica would stop working as soon as everyone started arriving, but that also meant that she’d be focused on nothing but work until then.
“You’re nervous,” Angelica said, her voice carrying no judgment, only honesty.
“Of course I am.” Hope rolled her eyes and reached over to turn off the oven. She’d made everyone’s favorites, at least what she remembered of them. She counted everything to make sure, and then double-checked the setting.
“Hope.” Angelica’s voice was a call back to reality, and she didn’t want to hear it, even if she needed it.
“We got the wine, right?”
“Yes. Hope…?” Angelica tried again.
“I’m fine.”
“You’re not.” Angelica stood up and came around the counter. She took Hope’s hands in her own and then pulled her in for a sweet kiss. “It’ll be fine.”
“They’re not… it hasn’t exactly been easy with them, you know. And I know what they think of you.” Hope bit her lip. “I hate that they think that.”
“It’s their right to think it.” Angelica brushed her knuckles across Hope’s cheek. “Their job is to protect you first and accept me second. That’s all this is about anyway, us showing them who we are.”
“Right.” Hope let out a deep breath and put her forehead against Angelica’s. “I’m so tired of feeling like an outsider to my own life.”
“I can understand that.” Angelica kissed her again. “So tonight that ends.”
“Okay.” Hope smiled. “Okay. Tonight it ends.”
The doorbell rang.
Hope groaned. “But right now? Really?”
Angelica chuckled and kissed her cheek. “I’ll let you get that and put my iPad up.”
“Yell at Eva to come down, will you?”
“Sure thing.”
As Angelica walked away, Hope brushed her sweaty palms on her pants and squared her shoulders.
This would be the telling moment, wouldn’t it?
Either her family would accept Angelica and their relationship, or she’d really start putting some distance between herself and them.
She wasn’t going to allow that toxicity into her life anymore.
Her second reason for inviting them over was because she wanted to foster that support system. Because they needed one, desperately.
Rachel stood on the other side of the door with her three daughters in tow.
“Thank God it’s you first.”
Rachel grinned at her fully. “I did that on purpose.”
The girls pushed passed Hope and raced into the house. They’d been there enough that they knew where everything was. She probably should have warned Angelica about that, but she’d completely forgotten in her anxious puttering.
Rachel gave her a half hug and then walked in with a bottle of wine in hand. “Your favorite.”
“Thanks.” Hope took the bottle and walked toward the kitchen—her safe zone. This time when she touched the puff pastry, it was cool enough that she wasn’t going to burn her fingers as she plated them. So she did that.
“I told Mom and Dad to behave.” Rachel leaned over the counter, resting on her elbows.
“I want them to say whatever is on their mind.” Hope glanced at Rachel and then looked over her shoulder as Angelica walked back in.
“Rachel,” Angelica said by way of greeting. “It’s good to see you again.”
“I need to apologize to you.” Rachel stood up immediately. “I was an ass. A total ass.” Rachel rolled her eyes. “I didn’t understand it, and I judged and pushed, and did a ton of shit that I shouldn’t have done.”
Hope’s jaw nearly hit the deck.
“So I’m sorry.” Rachel held her hand out toward Angelica and waited.
Angelica looked just as surprised as Hope felt. But she didn’t hesitate very long before she reached forward and took Rachel’s hand. “It was a difficult time for everyone involved.”
Rachel hummed.
Hope set the platter down and snagged the bottle of wine that Rachel had brought.
She dug through the drawer for the corkscrew to open it and pour the two of them a drink.
She was going to need that to keep calm, especially as it got closer to everyone showing up.
The entire family. One night. They could do this, right?
The girls rushed through the room and skidded to a halt. Eva looked up at Angelica with a smirk on her lips. “Did you check your phone?”
“No?” Angelica said like a question.
“You should.” And then she was gone again with the gaggle of cousins following her.
Angelica sent Hope a strange look and slipped her phone out of her pocket. She looked at the screen, let out one guffaw, and then slid it back into her pocket.
“What was that?” Hope asked.
“Nothing.” Angelica waved it off and snagged her beer off the counter. “I’m looking forward to tonight, actually.”
“You are?” Both Rachel and Hope said at the same time.
“Yes.” Angelica winked at Hope. “I can be quite persuasive when people meet me in person, you know. Negotiating contracts and dealing with difficult situations is one of my many talents.”
Heat rushed to Hope’s cheeks. God, Angelica was taking tonight as a total challenge, wasn’t she? This was going to be the end or the beginning, and Hope wanted it to be the latter. When the doorbell rang, Angelica’s lips pulled upward into a gleeful mischievous look.
“And there they are,” Angelica said. “Let the games begin.”
“That’s not…” Hope furrowed her brow and pointed at Angelica. “No. Just stop that.”
“Oh, I like this side of you.” Rachel bumped Angelica’s shoulder. “I think we’re going to get along really well.”
“See?” Angelica pointed to Rachel. “One down, four to go.”
“Don’t remind me,” Hope mumbled as she walked directly toward the front door.
The house was loud for hours. Kids ran wild underfoot, and laughter and drinks were shared.
By the time Hope shut the door on her parents, the kitchen counter was an absolute mess with hardly any food left, her feet were screaming at her to sit down, and Eva was curled up on the couch asleep.
But she closed her eyes and just breathed.
And in the kitchen was Angelica, quietly cleaning up and putting food and drinks away as the water ran from the faucet while she rinsed out wine glasses.
Biting her lip, Hope forced herself upward to walk toward Angelica.
She snagged her by the hips to hold onto her as she dropped a kiss to the nape of her neck.
Angelica hummed. “I think tonight went well.”
Hope groaned. “They’re still suspicious.”
“As they should be.” Angelica looked over her shoulder. “The goal wasn’t to rid them of that tonight, was it?”
“No, I suppose not.” Hope sighed heavily and rested her chin on Angelica’s shoulder as Angelica leaned over the kitchen sink to wash out one of the wine glasses. “But I would have liked to.”
“I know your family means the world to you,” Angelica said, setting one of the glasses to the side. “But it does take time for everyone to adjust to something new, and while you and I have been together for a year now, no one else has been privy to that part of our relationship.”
“I know.” Hope frowned, burying her nose in Angelica’s warm skin.
“So again, it’ll take some time for them to get used to me and to figure out who I am.” Angelica staged another glass to wash.
“How are you so calm about this?” Hope asked, pressing another kiss to Angelica’s neck.
“It’s not my family.” Angelica smiled brightly. “Rachel seemed to be coming around, though.”
“We’ve had a lot of conversations in the last two years about how ridiculous she was being.” Hope stepped to the side and pulled the food toward her on the counter before digging through her cabinet for Tupperware to put everything up for the evening.
“It’s important that they know the story we want them to know, and the one they can’t deny.” Angelica took one of the platters and ran it under the water.
“What story is that?” Hope asked.
“The one that says we’re in love.”
Hope nearly stumbled. That sounded almost fantastical, like one of the fairytales she used to read Eva all the time before bed.
Flicking her gaze to her daughter still asleep on the couch, Hope moved her gaze to Angelica who didn’t even seem to be aware of what she’d said.
But she wasn’t adding anything else to the statement either.
“They know we’re in love,” Hope said.
“No, they don’t.” Angelica took a towel and started to dry the platter she’d just washed. “They’ve been told that, but they haven’t seen it. Love is something that can’t just be words. It has to be shown. Otherwise it’ll remain hollow and empty, and that’s all this is to them.”
Hope picked up a broken piece of cookie and plopped it between her lips as she continued to stare at Angelica.
Who was this woman standing right in front of her?
Because she wasn’t running from this conversation at all.
And she should have been. Normally, she would have, and Hope would have had to chase her down and wrangle it out of her.
“But tonight started to change that, and everyone was pleasant.” Angelica dried another cleaned platter.
Hope took another bite of cookie and then packed away the rest before handing Angelica the plate they had been on. “You’re right. I’m expecting too much too quickly.”
Angelica sent her a look as if she’d known that all along and was glad Hope was finally on the same page that she was.
“That wouldn’t be out of character for you.” Angelica went back to cleaning the plate.