Wandering Heart (9781101561362) (6 page)

Like many other actresses, Charlotte Miller had begun her career as a model.
Hardly a surprise,
Liza thought. Her posture and even the way she walked was graceful, controlled, and assured. Liza could easily imagine her strolling down a designer’s runway.

But on-screen, Charlotte didn’t seem remote or plastic in the least. She was suddenly transformed into the down-home, girl-next-door, American sweetheart. At least, that’s what they called her on this month’s magazine covers.

Dressed down to start her workday, she wore faded but expensive-looking jeans and a slim-fitting black yoga jacket.

Liza walked over to introduce herself, feeling a bit less intimidated by this star for some reason. The director and producer were gone now, and Charlotte stood alone with Judy.

“I just wanted to welcome you to the Inn at Angel Island, Ms. Miller,” Liza said, stepping forward. “If there’s anything I can do to make your stay more comfortable, please let me know. We’re really thrilled to have you visit with us.”

Charlotte’s smile was warm and genuine as she shook Liza’s hand. “Thank you so much. This place is just beautiful. I’m so glad Judy found you.”

“Me, too,” Liza said sincerely, making them both laugh.

Bradley walked into the foyer and waved his hands. “Listen up everyone. We’ve just checked the beachfront, and Mike and I have decided it’s too foggy to shoot. We’re going to hang out here awhile and hope that in an hour or two, it clears.”

There was a rumbling murmur from the crew, but Bradley ignored it. “You can all use the time to set up the equipment and settle into your rooms. Once the fog burns off, I want to be ready to go. No excuses.”

Bradley stepped away to meet with Mike again. Liza heard a bit more murmuring while her guests put their coffee and tea aside and headed off in various directions.

Judy was called away by one of her coworkers, and Liza was suddenly left alone with Charlotte.

“May I show you to your room?” Liza asked.

“Lead the way. I’m right behind you.” Charlotte took one of the many duffel bags piled nearby, and Liza took two others, one in each hand.

Charlotte paused and looked around. “I wonder what happened to Meredith. My assistant,” she explained.

Before Liza could reply, a harried young woman with dark hair and glasses emerged from the parlor. She was carrying a big black binder.

“Sorry, Charlotte. I was trying to track down those scene changes for you. I put them in the script. You’re ready to go.” She handed Charlotte the binder and took the duffel bag.

“Thanks. At least I have a little time to go over them.” She turned from Meredith to Liza. “How long do you think the fog will last?”

Liza was stumped. “I’m sorry, I really don’t know. The forecast predicted showers on and off all day.”

Charlotte sighed and then tucked the binder under her arm.
“Mike won’t let us sit around here all day, that’s for sure. But it sounds like I have a little time.”

Liza was surprised at the movie star’s tone. She sounded stressed. It even showed in her lovely features as they climbed the stairs.

Once they reached her room, Liza unlocked the door, holding it open for Charlotte to enter first. Charlotte just stood for a moment, glancing around at the canopied bed, the small wood writing desk and antique dresser, and the big bay window. Liza felt herself getting nervous when Charlotte didn’t say anything. “I’m sure you’re used to much more luxurious accommodations,” Liza began.

Charlotte was standing at the window now, looking out at the ocean view—what she could see of it—veiled in the fog.

She quickly turned to face Liza. “This is beautiful. It’s perfect. Really,” she assured her. “It reminds me of my grandmother’s house … except for the ocean view. I used to stay there a lot when I was growing up.” She sat on the bed and smiled. “They’re going to have a hard time getting me out on the set.”

Meredith bustled in with more bags. “Do you want some ginger tea, Charlotte? Or mineral water?”

“Tea would be nice,” she replied. “Thanks.”

Meredith nodded, then turned to Liza. “Charlotte would like some ginger tea. That special brand she drinks? I’m sure Judy gave you the list.”

“We have it covered.”
Miraculously,
Liza wanted to add.

“You should find Claire, our cook, down in the kitchen. She’ll make it for you. There are some fresh blueberry scones down there, too.”

“Charlotte doesn’t eat sweets,” Meredith said, practically laughing at the suggestion.

“Fresh scones? I’ll try one of those,” Charlotte said.

Liza hoped Claire had set at least one aside.

“All right, I’ll be right back.” Meredith quickly headed out of the room.

“If there’s anything else you need, please let me know,” Liza said to Charlotte. “We want to make your stay as comfortable as possible.”

“I will, Liza, thank you. But I’ll try not to bother you too much. I’m sure you must feel as if this place was just invaded by aliens.”

Liza had to laugh at the apt comparison but quickly denied it. “Not at all. It’s all very exciting. Part of me still can’t believe it’s happening.”

Charlotte smiled knowingly. “That’s the movie business. It feels unreal somehow. I still pinch myself once in a while,” she confided as she set the black binder on the desk.

Liza could see that she was eager to get to work and quickly left the room. She stood in the hallway a moment, thinking about the day’s surprises.

So far, Charlotte Miller seemed the most genuine and down-to-earth person in the group. Really sweet and unspoiled. Was that just an act?
She’ll be here long enough for me to find out,
Liza reflected.
This was going to be one unforgettable week at the inn.
If only I had time to pull out the video camera, I could make my own movie about it.

T
HE
wide canopied bed, with its flowery cover and inviting mound of pillows, was lovely but too tempting. Charlotte knew if she stretched out there to study her lines, she would be fast asleep in no time. She’d hardly slept at all the night before, memorizing the script and working on her character’s accent.

She settled instead at the small writing desk and chair near a large bay window that framed a view of the beach across the road. The drifts of foggy clouds obscured the view but couldn’t hide it completely. The fog was beautiful in its own way, she thought, smoky and mysterious. Behind the gray mist, she could still make out the rugged outline of the cliffs above the beach and the shifting dark blue sea.

Charlotte loved the ocean. Her house on the beach in Malibu was her special retreat. There, the sight of the Pacific calmed her and helped her feel in touch with something vast and greater than herself. It helped her put things in perspective.

Yes, this role was going to be a challenge for her. Bradley didn’t really like her. She hadn’t been his first choice for the role, though he hid it well. He wasn’t her first choice for a director either, but she was determined to be professional.
All I have to do is knock him off his feet with an amazing performance and he’ll like me fine,
she decided.

At least the film’s location was beautiful. She’d loved the little town of Cape Light as soon as her car had pulled down Main Street. And this island was fascinating. She hoped there would be some downtime to explore it. She was happiest when she was near the ocean and beach. She could never get enough of it.

She sometimes joked that she had a landlocked childhood and was ocean deprived. But it was true. She had grown up in Ohio, and her family rarely took vacations. The closest she had ever been to a beach was the sand trucked in to the lakefronts. When she ran away to California, the first thing she did when she got off the bus was to go straight to a beach. Charlotte would never forget the first time she saw the ocean. She had picked up as many seashells as she could carry home in her knapsack. She still kept them in a jar by her bedside, a reminder of her first sight and scent of the blue Pacific. Sometimes she still couldn’t believe she had wound up with a house in Malibu. She had always wanted to live with the ocean in sight, and now she did.

Her cell phone rang and she pulled it out to check the caller ID, hoping that she wasn’t being summoned down to work already. It was her sister Lily and she quickly answered. “Hey, Lily. What’s up?”

“Not too much. I just wanted to say hi. How’s the movie going?”

“It’s going. Slowly but surely. I’m on an island in New England. We’re shooting outside today, on a beach. We’re just waiting for some fog to clear. I wish you could see it here, Lily. It’s a really beautiful place. Tell you what, I’ll bring you back here sometime.”

“Maybe …” Lily didn’t seem to believe her promise.
Probably because I’m hardly ever able to keep them,
Charlotte thought with a pang.

Lily was so young, only sixteen.
She has no idea of what it’s like for me. She’ll get it someday. Someday we’ll have more time together, too.

“So how is everyone at home, Lil? How’s Mom?” Charlotte tried to keep her tone even and natural, but Lily was smart. She knew how Charlotte worried.

“She’s doing fine, keeping up with her meetings. When are you coming home for a visit? You said you would come this summer, Charlie. It’s already August. I have to go back to school soon. I just got my new schedule.”

“You did? Wow … I didn’t realize.” The summer was flying by. Charlotte had been meaning to go home for a visit since May. It would have to wait now until this film was done. But she didn’t want to make any more promises she couldn’t keep. She quickly changed the subject. “I can’t believe you’re a junior already.”

“I know. It’s a big year for me.”

“All you have to do is study hard. You remember our plan, right?”

Lily was off-the-charts smart. Charlotte wasn’t sure where all those brains had come from in their family, but the girl could be anything she wanted if she put her mind to it.

Their mother didn’t really care where Lily went to school. She thought any building that had the word college on the sign would be good enough. But Lily deserved the very best, a place where her intelligence and talents could flourish. Charlotte could afford to send Lily to any school, even Harvard, without sweating scholarships or student loans. She wanted Lily to choose a school in California, like Stanford or Berkeley, so they could be closer. That was the plan. She hoped Lily would keep up her end of the bargain.

“Don’t worry. That’s all I’m thinking about. Graduating and getting out of this place.”

“I know it’s hard, honey. You’re growing up. You want to be out on your own. The time will go quickly, believe me.”

“Charlie, you always say that,” Lily groaned.

“I know I do, but it’s true,” Charlotte promised.

It was true, but it still pained Charlotte to hear her sister talk that way. She wasn’t sure if Lily was desperate to escape from high school and the small town, or if it was their family that Lily needed to escape from. Charlotte had felt the same way at that age. She couldn’t wait to get out of that house. She had barely waited to graduate high school before she bolted for the West Coast, never mind college plans. But Charlotte had been lucky, blessed. She knew now that she’d been too young to be on her own in a strange city. It could have turned out very badly.

“As soon as I’m done with this film, I’ll take the first flight out to Ohio, and we’ll have a nice, long visit,” she told her sister.

“Okay, that’s cool. I hope it goes well for you, Charlie. I’m sure you’ll be great.”

“Thanks, honey. I’ll do my best.”

They said good-bye, and Charlotte put down her phone. She missed her little sister and loved talking to her. But their conversations always left her with a bittersweet feeling. Not exactly homesickness. Once she had stepped out that door, she never had the desire to go back. But she did feel lonely. Which was ironic, since she was surrounded by so many people so much of the time; she hardly had a moment’s privacy. But even with everyone buzzing around her, she felt lonely for people like her sister, who really knew her, who knew the real Charlotte, not Charlotte Miller, the picture on the magazine cover, or the flickering shadow on a movie screen.

Charlotte let out a long breath. She couldn’t figure it all out now. She had work to do and flipped open the script to the pages she’d marked with orange stickies. Meredith had brought the tea and scone just after the innkeeper left. Her assistant had wanted to stay and help, but Charlotte needed to be alone.

She stared down at the script and tried to focus. Bradley was not only hard to please but asked for rewrites every five minutes. The dialogue was always changing. Charlotte hated to flub her lines or miss her marks. She arrived on the set totally prepared and ready to work. At least she knew that Nick Dempsey had the same approach. He seemed like a cutup and a bit of an airhead at first, but Nick was a total pro and a great ally, especially when Bradley got in a mood.

There was definitely more going on behind the scenes on a movie set than she’d ever imagined in acting school. But even if she knew then what she knew now, she would never trade her life with anyone. She knew she was lucky to be where she was. The work was hard but she knew that people back home worked harder and never got the attention and comforts that her work brought her. But sometimes if Bradley was in one of his impossible-to-please moods, he could make her feel so small and pathetic. And it seemed the more he pushed her and asked for new takes, the more she tightened up. She got too self-conscious trying to please him. Which was the very antithesis of a good zone for acting.

Charlotte hoped the fog would clear soon. She was eager to get to work today. She was a good film actress, even if Bradley didn’t agree. And she could be even better if she could take on more complex roles. She desperately wanted to break out of romantic comedies, but those were the roles coming her way and she couldn’t risk being picky. That’s what her agent warned. She was hot and sought after now, but the clock was ticking, and the next young new actress
would soon arrive on the scene, and Charlotte’s ride on the grand Ferris wheel of fame could end all too soon.