Hope plopped down onto the couch in her office, her hand over her mouth as she drew in a shuddering breath. Tears prickled her eyes as relief rushed through her.

  “Are you still there?” Logan asked.

  “Uhh… yeah. Yes.” Hope cleared her throat to get her words out better. “Yeah, I’m still here. I didn’t realize just how that would feel, hearing that.”

  “Relief?” Logan asked.

  “Yes, way more than I anticipated.” Hope let out a little laugh. “I don’t imagine that was an easy conversation to have with him.”

  “It wasn’t.” Logan sighed. “But it was necessary.”

  “Thank you for choosing everyone else over him.”

  Logan hummed, but he didn’t acknowledge what she said beyond that. Hope sat with the knowledge a bit longer, letting it truly sink in that the entire tone of the show would be different going forward, not just because Josef would be gone but because she and Angelica had found a balance. One she longed to explore even more than she had already.

  “I won’t do this without Angelica.” The words left her lips before she could stop them. But she repeated them just to make sure that Logan understood her. “We do this together—it’s her and me or no one.”

  “And if she agrees to do the show without you?” Logan asked.

  “You’d have to ask her that. I haven’t talked to her about it. I honestly didn’t think about it being a possibility.” Hope scratched the back of her neck. This could be the biggest risk she took in her career.

  “She has.”

  “I know. But where Ange is a fatalist, I’m an optimist. And I don’t think you’re going to do her dirty over this, and I’m going to make sure of it.” Hope planted her feet on the floor. “It’s her and me, or you can find someone else. Because I’m not going to do this show without her.”

  “Noted.”

  Hope bit her lip, thoughts flying through her brain faster than a speeding bullet. “One more thing before I’d agree to any contract.”

  If she was going to make demands, now was the time. She had no idea if any of her demands would be taken into consideration, but if there was one thing she’d learned in the last ten years in the show business, it was that opportunities typically came. All she had to do was figure out which ones she wanted to participate in and which ones she didn’t.

  “What else can I do for you?”

  “I know that I make more money than Ange. I know that my name was used to carry the show forward, and she does way more work for Hotel Bombshell than I do. Without her, the show wouldn’t exist or be what it is today. You can’t deny that.” Hope bounced her feet on her toes up and down as she let the nervous energy flow through her as freely as possible.

  “I don’t deny it.” Logan sighed heavily. “There was a lot of discussion about that in the past few weeks, and just what she brings to the table.”

  “Good. Then you’ve already got a list, and I don’t need to repeat one.” Hope smiled. This was going better than she planned, far easier than she anticipated. “She needs to earn as much as me, if not more.”

  “Hope…” Logan trailed off on her name, and she knew exactly what kind of response she was about to get.

  There’s no wiggle room in the budget.

  It’s impossible.

  Angelica can’t because of X, Y, and Z.

  Hope could easily come up with those reasons, though Angelica would be better at it than she was. That fatalistic personality coming to haunt her again.

  “I’m not going to argue about it, Logan. It either happens, or I don’t sign another contract. If you really want me back that badly, then you’ll find a way.” Hope settled. She’d said her piece, and that was enough. “Let me know when you hear anything about renewal. I’ll be interested to see what the network has to say about it.”

  “You drive a hard bargain, Hope.”

  “Well, I did learn from the best.” She laughed lightly, knowing that he’d understand what she was saying. It felt good to finally have that out in the open now, to be able to share freely with others what she felt, what she thought, and what she experienced.

  “That you did. We’ll talk soon, Hope.”

  “Yes, we will.”

  Hope hung up, sauntered out into the living room, and sat on the couch with Eva, who snuggled up right next to her. She carded her fingers though Eva’s hair and stared at the television screen and whatever YouTube cartoon Eva had put on to entertain herself. It might not have been a day where she got answers, but it had been a good day. Hope had stood her ground.

  And she’d made a decision.

  She wanted Angelica in her life, and she was willing to go to the ends of the earth to make that happen.

  They both deserved it.

  Chapter

  Forty-Five

  “You’re a hard woman to catch.” Logan stepped into Angelica’s office and shut the door behind him.

  She stared up at him curiously. They didn’t have a scheduled meeting. In fact, she had no scheduled meetings for the rest of the evening because she was supposed to head straight to Hope’s, despite the late hour. And it was already after nine in the evening.

  “I have a lot of work to catch up on after being out filming.” She pointed to her desk which was still littered with papers. In the last week, she’d been struggling to find a rhythm that would still allow her some semblance of sanity. The desire to lock herself away in a room with Hope for hours and days was just too damn strong on a good day and on a bad day utterly distracting.

  “Ah.” Logan shoved his hands into his pockets and rolled up on his toes.

  Angelica stood up and came around the desk. She wasn’t going to get anything else done tonight anyway. Her neck ached from being bent over, and whatever capacity her brain had to function was quickly flying out the window.

  “And I’ve been trying to convince a doctor to let me out of this boot early.”

  “How’s that going?” Logan had a half smile on his lips as if he already knew the answer.

  “Not well,” Angelica said with a sigh. “What can I do for you?”

  Logan hummed and nodded toward the chairs near the window. “Let’s sit down.”

  “That means bad news.” Angelica hesitated before she followed him.

  “Does it?” Logan teased.

  Settling onto the chair, Angelica tried to relax as best as she could. She’d tried to stay out of the personnel issues as much as possible. She was too tangled with everything going on to reasonably state her opinion on the matter. And she’d needed the rest of production to have a clear head when they made final decisions.

  “First, you should know that we fired Josef.” Logan’s voice was loud and clear.

  Goosebumps immediately prickled up on Angelica’s arms and legs. She eyed Logan curiously, not quite believing that they’d actually done that, that someone had taken a step that should have been handled years ago.

  “What was the final straw?” Angelica asked, her voice gravely with unrealized emotion.

  “There wasn’t any one thing.” Logan crossed an ankle over his knee. “That was part of the issue. It was a combination of continued problems that kept mounting until we finally had to take severe action. I’ll warn you that he’s not very pleased with you at the moment.”

  “No, I didn’t expect he would be.” Angelica smoothed her hands over her thighs. She’d dealt with men like Josef before, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t something wild about his behavior lately that also put her back up.

  “I need to know if he continues to harass you. And I need you to take appropriate action if he does.”

  “You mean legal?” Angelica slowly looked at him, blinking as if she wasn’t hearing Logan properly.

  “I can’t give you that advice, you know that.” His cheeks were pale though, and he was nodding—whether he meant to or not. Legal action was exactly what he’d meant, and he didn’t mean it within the production or the network. He meant beyond that.

  Angelica’s heart fluttered, her stomach twisting. Did they honestly think that it would continue to get worse? She would have to prepare better going forward. Angelica nodded at him, pressing her lips together and saying nothing. This was something she likely would have to take up on her own, without support from production. They would eliminate as much drama as possible, which made sense. She would do the same for any one of the hotels that she ran.

  “But I do have some good news,” Logan said, smiling. “The show was renewed for three seasons.”

  “Three?” Angelica’s eyebrows rose sharply.

  Logan nodded, a cheeky grin on his lips. “I just got the official notice an hour ago and I needed to tell you in person.”

  “That’s wonderful news.” Angelica’s stomach tightened again because he hadn’t said anything about her being a part of the upcoming seasons yet. And with everything she’d confessed to him before, she wouldn’t be surprised if he left her out of it.

  “It really is.” He chuckled and slapped his knee lightly. “I was hoping for at least one or two, but to get the go-ahead for three is amazing. And they want to expand it, so we’ll shoot more episodes per season, twice the amount for season four and if that is received well, we’ll triple it for season five.”

  “Twice the amount?” Angelica could barely register what she was hearing. That would mean at least twice as long on the road, or they’d have to shoot everything in two parts, which might be her preference, honestly. A nice long break in the middle would suit the entire crew well so they could spend time with family before doing another intense tour of the country.

  “Yes.” Logan looked at her curiously. “I have a contract for you.”

  “What?” Angelica stilled. She hadn’t been expecting that shift.

  “For three seasons.”

  “I…” Angelica trailed off, the words dying on her tongue.

  “I want you to read it over carefully before you sign it. I’ll email it to you in the morning. Just sit with the news tonight.” Logan reached forward and touched her arm lightly before pulling back. “Production doesn’t want to lose you.”

  “I didn’t think…” Angelica paused. “Three seasons?”

  “Yes.” Logan smiled at her, eyes crinkling in the corners. “And I’m not sure if you’re aware, but Hope’s condition for signing a new contract was three things.”

  “She made demands?” Angelica shuddered, still trying to parse through everything.

  “She did. The first that Josef is no longer involved in the project, which was easy since he’d already been removed.”

  Angelica’s brain spun wildly. Hope wasn’t someone who demanded. She’d do whatever most people wanted her to because she found it fun. But to negotiate?

  “Second that you were her cohost. She refused to sign again if you weren’t involved in the project in the same capacity as before.”

  “I’m sorry. Say that again?” Angelica blinked at him wildly. “She insisted on working with me?”

  “Yes, she did.” Logan wiggled his foot, hanging off his knee. “She didn’t tell you?”

  “We haven’t exactly had a moment to talk, and we’ve been avoiding talking about work and questions we couldn’t answer.” Angelica pushed her shoulders back into the chair. “She really said that?”

  “Yes, her second demand, but I think that was probably one of the more important ones.”

  “Dare I ask what her third contingency was?” Angelica folded her hands together in her lap, now curious as to what else Hope could have played hard to get for.

  “Equal pay.” Logan looked at Angelica directly. “Hope pointed out that you make less than she does on the show. She thought it was because her name carried weight, when in reality, I think it had more to do with initial negotiations. Regardless, you will make the same as Hope for the rest of the series.”

  Angelica went slack-jawed. “Sh-she negotiated a pay raise for me?”

  “She did, her signing her contract for renewal was contingent on it.” Logan leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “I have to say, Ange, the two of you paired up as a team would easily be a force to be reckoned with, and I think I’m just happy to have caught you off guard in this because that’s to my advantage, not yours. I don’t expect next time that it’ll be easy.”

  Angelica’s heart pattered. Her ears rang loudly. She hadn’t been expecting this at all. Her fingertips tingled as she stared at him, lips parted in awe.

  “So, think about the contract and signing it. I’ll email it tomorrow, like I said, but I wanted to talk to you in person, so you understood where we stood.”

  “I’m sorry. What, uh… what consequences will there be?”

  Logan canted his head to the side in confusion. “Consequences?”

  “For my relationship with Hope?”

  “None.” Logan shook his head at her. “We’d like to talk with you two about how to publicly announce it and how to share the information with the rest of the crew before we begin filming—assuming you sign a contract—and put some fail-safe into place. But Ange, we’re all happy for you. That’s it.”

  She couldn’t believe it. Her entire life she’d had to fight for what she wanted and deserved, doing all of that work on her own and just scraping for the future to exist, and here she was handed something with so much ease and care that it was foreign. A family that was happy for a relationship? She couldn’t even fathom what her parents would say to her being in a relationship with Hope. She’d have to, because she’d no doubt get a nasty phone call as soon as they went public, but to have those around her, in her immediate vicinity, support her on something?

  “Ange? You okay?” Logan asked.

  She shook her head, stilling again. “I’m not sure what to say.”

  “About what?”

  “Any of this.” Angelica looked at him squarely. “I never expected or thought this would be the outcome.”

  “Hope did say you’re fatalistic.”

  Angelica pinched her face and shook her head. “No, I’m a realist. For most of my life I’ve had to go it alone, Logan. I just⁠—”

  “Don’t know what to do when someone’s there to support you?”

  Angelica shook her head.

  “Or to love you for who you are?”

  She shook her head again, her cheeks heating from embarrassment. She was nearly sixty years old. Shouldn’t she know what that felt like? Shouldn’t she have some sort of system in place for that?

  Logan drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “When I watched the episodes last season with your family, I understood you a lot better than I ever did before.”

  “You pitied me,” Angelica shot back.

  “At first, perhaps. But when I dug deeper, I realized that you were forced from a very early age to be a silo. And that’s just not fair.” Logan took her hand again, squeezing her fingers tightly. “It’s not right.”

  “It is what it is,” she whispered.

  “But it doesn’t have to be that way anymore. Does it?”

  Angelica wanted to say “no,” but the word wouldn’t form on her lips. She couldn’t make her vocal cords react to say anything.

  “Think about the contract, Ange. And think about everything that comes with it that can’t be put into words on paper for you to sign. All right?”

  “Yes.” She looked at him directly. “Thank you, Logan.”

  “Of course.” He tightened his fingers around her hand again before letting go. “I look forward to hearing from you.”

  He walked out. Angelica stayed in the chair, not moving.

  None of this had been expected. She kept replaying the conversation in the last hour, the fact that Hope had clearly had this conversation with Logan a while ago, the fact that she hadn’t mentioned anything to Angelica about it.

  “Damn it, Hope.”

  Angelica stood up sharply. She snagged her purse and jacket before opening her phone and letting Lyric know that she needed to be driven somewhere.

  When they arrived at Hope’s, Angelica got out of the car and nodded to Lyric. “I’ll text when I’m ready to head back.”

  “Sure, boss. Just, um… how long should I wait up?”

  Angelica looked directly into Lyric’s blue eyes and shook her head. “On second thought, I’ll just order an Uber this time. I have no idea how long this is going to take.”

  “Gotcha.” Lyric waved at her as she shut the door.

  Readying herself, Angelica walked directly up to the front door and pressed her finger into the bell. The camera came on instantly, but Angelica said nothing as she waited. Hope was expecting her tonight. She wasn’t expecting what Angelica wanted to talk to her about, but they had planned to get together.

  Hope swung the door open, a grin on her lips and a light in her eyes that Angelica wanted to fall into and be consumed by. But she had come with a point to make, and damn it, she was going to make it.

  “Do you know what you did?” Angelica’s voice cracked through the air between them, sparking.

  Hope’s smile faltered. “I can’t decide if I want the angry principal to come at me or if I want to be a brat and tease her even more.” She stepped back and let Angelica inside.

  Angelica put her purse and jacket next to the door and then spun around, hands on her hips, as she tried her damnedest to glare at Hope. “You made demands about your contract?”

  “Oh. That.” Hope’s cheeks reddened, a sly smile still gracing her lips as she walked toward the kitchen. “Yes, I did.”

  “You can’t just throw away a job like that because you want to make some ridiculous demands⁠—”

  “They’re not ridiculous.” Hope stopped walking toward the kitchen and came back to Angelica. She ran her hands down Angelica’s arms from her shoulders to her fingers, lacing them together. “They’re not ridiculous demands. They’re things that are completely reasonable.”

  “Refusing to sign a renewal contract without me also being a part of the show is ridiculous,” Angelica mumbled, because that was the issue, wasn’t it? Hope wasn’t just thinking about herself when she needed to be. That selfish streak Angelica had gotten so used to was nowhere in sight. The pay increase was just an added happy bonus. But refusing to take a job if Angelica wasn’t involved? That was the heart of the issue that she was trying to get across.