Page 27 of Heartless
“Great. When can we meet this wedding planner of yours? Sheila wants us to get married before Annie.”
Of course she did. Sheila was a twenty-something, not-that-successful actress that would probably sell her firstborn if it would guarantee her Annie Foster’s place in Hollywood.
“Let me check with her and I’ll get back to you.”
I ended the call and stared at my phone for a few minutes, then I dialed Madison.
We hadn’t seen or talked to each other since the shoe box shenanigans, and that was three days ago. I didn’t know what she was up to and until that moment, I hadn’t really thought about it, which wasstupid. The entire point of hiring her was to keep her in line, and I didn’t know shit.
“Hey, boss.”
“Matthew Scott called.”
“Doesn’t ring a bell.”
Of course it didn’t. She’d been my employee for all of five seconds.
“He’s a movie director and a regular guest. He got engaged and his fiancée wants them to get married at The Gem.”
“That’s great.” Madison sounded genuinely happy about it. Did she love her job that much, or had she been using it to distract herself? Like I had been using mine for years? “When can I meet them?”
“That’s what he wanted to know.”
“Okay. When are you available?”
“You want me to attend?” I asked, suspicious of her intentions.
“Of course I do.”
“Why?”
“I’m here for five weddings, remember? If I were you, I would want to learn as much as I could. It would be hard for you to find someone on my level to work for a salary. You’ll have to train them. And in order to train them, you’ll have to know what you’re doing.”
“Focus on yourself, Madison. Don’t worry about my business.”
“I am focused on myself. I don’t want to be associated with a failed project. It would mess up my perfect resume.”
“Speaking of your perfect resume…What happened in New York?”
She hung up on me. I wondered what made it so hard for me to maintain my professionalism with her. True, she was irritating, but I had met irritating people before and I hadn’t wanted to provoke them until they exploded. But there was something about her spark, her confidence, that made it hard to keep the distance I usually valued.
I didn’t see Madison until the next day. She was standing in the gardens with Matthew and Sheila, her back to me, unaware that I was approaching. I didn’t understand why, but my pulse skyrocketed. It was probably my anxiety about the weddings. My mind associated the image of Madison with something bad happening, and my body tried to warn me.
“Parker,” Matthew noticed me first, and Madison looked over her shoulder, her face blank. She always controlled her face, body language, the tone of her voice. I hadn’t once heard her swear.
“Matthew,” I shook his hand. Then I congratulated his fiancée. At the end, I turned to my event planner. “Madison.”
“Mr. Wilson,” she nodded at me like an aristocrat. Had she adopted her mother’s behavior? It seemed like it. I had seen Sylvia Hartley a few times, but I had a lot of information about her from her son, and Madison seemed to be a lot like her mother.
“We were just talking about the date,” Matthew said. “We want to get married sooner rather than later.”
“I’m sure we could make that happen.” I glanced at Madison.
“Of course,” she confirmed. The calm smile on her face reassured me that at least one of us was in the right state of mind to make these weddings happen. She could do this. Just like Ryan said. I should let her do her thing and focus on my own.
Sheila twisted a lock of her hair around her finger and said. “I want to get married before Annie Foster.”
Madison tilted her head to the side. “Our calendar is wide open.” Her eyes slid to mine, and she held my gaze for a few beats, then she looked at Sheila again. “How about a Christmas wedding?”
