At Odds with the Heiress(56)

“I think you did,” Logan said. “Only not about college. Ever since that producer friend of yours came into town, Madison has had nothing but stars in her eyes. And you didn’t do anything to dissuade her.” Even as he took his frustration out on her, Logan recognized it was unfair to blame Scarlett when he had a truckload of regrets at how he’d handled Madison yesterday. “Can you try her cell? Her mother and I aren’t having any luck getting her to pick up. Maybe she’ll answer for you.”

“Sure.” Her voice was neutral and polite. “And then I’ll call Bobby to see if he’s heard from her.”

“Is he trustworthy?”

“Absolutely. She won’t get into trouble with him.”

“What about the rest of the people she’s bound to meet?” His concern came out sounding like accusation.

Scarlett’s answer was slower in coming. “She’s a smart girl, Logan. She’ll be careful.”

“She’s ambitious and overly optimistic.”

“I told her in no uncertain terms how hard the business is,” Scarlett countered. “She isn’t as naive as you think.”

“She’s only eighteen.”

“I get that you’re worried about her, Logan.”

“Do you? She was hoping to stay with you in L.A.” He knew Madison had enough money from her birthday and from what she’d earned working for Scarlett to put herself up in a decent hotel for a week or so. Longer if she chose something on the seedier side. “Where is she going to go if you aren’t there?”

“This isn’t her first trip to L.A. I know she has friends there she kept in touch with. She’ll probably crash with one of them. Let me try calling her. I’ll let you know in a couple minutes if I get ahold of her.”

While he waited for Scarlett to call back, Logan stared out the sliding glass door at the pool where Madison loved to hang out. The sun sparkling off the water was blinding, but he stared at the turquoise rectangle until his eyes burned. Although part of him agreed with Scarlett that Madison was capable of taking care of herself, the other part recognized that he’d been tasked with a job and had failed miserably at it. Paula was going to kill him when she found out he’d lost her baby.

His cell rang after what seemed like forever, but the clock on the microwave revealed it had only been ten minutes.

“Her phone must be off. It’s rolling straight to voice mail,” Scarlett said. “So I called Bobby. He hasn’t heard from her, but he promised to call me as soon as he does.”

“Thanks.” He sounded grim.

“She was determined to go to L.A., Logan. We all may have been kidding ourselves that she intended to go to college this fall. When there’s something Madison wants, she goes after it. You should all be proud of her. I wish I’d had half her confidence at her age.”

“You expect me to be proud?” he demanded, his voice an impatient whip. “She ran off without letting anyone know her plans.”

“Maybe it was the only way she could do what she wanted.”

Logan didn’t want to hear what Scarlett was trying to tell him. “What happens when this acting thing doesn’t pan out?”

“She can always go to college.”

“Like you did?”

An uncomfortable silence filled the phone’s speaker before Scarlett replied. “Madison and I grew up very differently. I started acting when I was nine. That’s all I knew. I didn’t have the opportunity to choose what I wanted to do at eighteen. By then I’d been a star with all that came with it and was on my way to becoming a has-been. Maybe if I’d grown up around normal kids, gone to school, and the only expectations put on me were to go to college and get a regular job, I might have ended up a savvy businesswoman like Violet or Harper.” Her voice took on a husky throb. “Or maybe I’d have ended up just like Madison, feeling trapped by what everyone else wanted me to be.”

“You think Madison felt trapped by her parents’ expectations?”

“And yours. You are a hard man to please, Logan.”

“Is that what you’ve been trying to do?” he questioned, infuriated by her reproach. “Please me? Because if that’s the case, you haven’t been doing a very good job.”

“It figures you’d see it that way. For a few days I thought our differences were behind us, but now I see they’ll never be.” She sounded immeasurably sad. “I knew this thing between us would be short, but it was way more fun than I could have hoped.”

Logan’s anger vanished at her declaration. He’d never imagined this phone call would lead here. “Scarlett—” Was she really ready to call it quits? Was he? “This is not the conversation we should be having right now.”