Page 78 of A Secret Escape

“Do you know one of the things you need to be a successful actress? Self-discipline. You learn lines, no matter how tired you are, you show up on time, you play nice, you train for whatever part you’re playing, you say no to chocolate.”

He nodded and snapped off a piece of chocolate for himself.

“Makes sense. In a way it’s no different from how you succeed in any field. But today you’re not an actress. Today you’re just Nicole. You’re off duty, so if you want to change your mind about that chocolate at any point, let me know.”

Today you’re just Nicole.

“I spend my whole life pretending to be other people. I’m not sure I know how to be just Nicole.”

He smiled. “You start by doing all the things your movie-star self wouldn’t do. Anyway, you don’t really want this chocolate, so I’m putting it away now.” He reached for the backpack, but she grabbed his arm and then the chocolate and the resultant tussle made them both laugh.

She ate the first piece of chocolate and closed her eyes, savoring the smooth sweetness. “Oh my—”

“You’d forgotten how good it is.” Still laughing, he watched as she broke off another piece.

“You’ve corrupted me. This is a slippery slope. Temptation.”

“I would have called ithaving fun.” He waited while she ate the last of the chocolate and then swung the backpack on. “This is so much lighter now you’ve eaten the chocolate.At least now you’ll have the energy to finish the walk. We’re about halfway.”

“Are you going to give me more chocolate at the top?”

He set off up the path again. “You don’t eat chocolate. Why would I give you chocolate?”

“Because—” She cannoned into him, and he shot out a hand to steady her. “What? Next time warn me before you stop.”

And then she saw the couple approaching them down the path.

“It’s fine.” Joel’s voice was calm. “We’re in the middle of nowhere. Even if they think you look a bit familiar, they’re not going to recognize you here out of context.”

Nicole sighed. She had a feeling he was about to have a rude awakening.

They drew closer, and the man lifted his hand by way of a greeting. “I’m relieved to see you. We’re not sure if we’re on the right path. How far to the road? If we can find the road, we can just follow it back to our car.”

Joel turned and pointed the way they’d just come, but the woman wasn’t paying attention. She was staring at Nicole.

“Oh my God. You’re . . .” she was almost stammering “. . . she’s that actress. You’re that actress. Ted? You know who I mean—the famous one—I can’t remember her name—”

Nicole froze, but Joel laughed.

“She gets that a lot, don’t you, Wendy?”

Wendy?

He was looking at her, so she assumed he was talking to her.

“I—uh, yes, I do. I’m always being told I look like that actress. I can’t remember her name either.”

“I keep telling her she should make a career of it,” Joel said, “that whole look-alike thing. She could open village fetes or cut ribbons and things. Make herself a fortune. I think there’s a website where you can book people. Do you want her to autograph something for you? That would be funny.”

The woman was staring at Nicole. “It’s uncanny. You couldbeher.”

“Well, not really,” Joel said, “because then she’d have to act, and Wendy can’t act to save her life, can you, Wend?”

“No. Acting isn’t really my thing.” But it seemed to be Joel’s thing. If she hadn’t been feeling so exposed and vulnerable, she would have been in awe of him.

“Also you’d have to be able to wear high heels and walk on a red carpet.” Joel winked at her. “Remember that time you wore heels to my cousin’s wedding? You turned your ankle. We spent the whole afternoon in hospital getting X-rays.”

“It was a painful experience. I haven’t worn heels since.”

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