“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 could be her.”

“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.”

“I don’t care, though.” He grabbed her hand and pulled her closer. “Some men love a woman in heels, but I think you look sexy in hiking boots, Wend.”

“Hiking boots rule.” She felt the warm pressure of his fingers on hers, and she held on tightly.

“You really do look like her.” The woman gave her a bemused smile. “Your husband is right. You could make good money as a look-alike.”

“We’ll keep that in mind. It was nice bumping into you.” Joel kept hold of Nicole’s hand and used the other to gesture down the path. “Keep going straight down. It will take you about an hour to reach the road. Enjoy.” With that he gave her hand a tug, and they carried on trudging up the path.

Nicole kept walking, waiting for him to let go of her hand, but he didn’t.

She was afraid to turn around in case she drew attention to herself.

“Have they gone? Are they still walking, or are they taking photos? Or maybe they’re calling the tabloids.”

Joel glanced over his shoulder. “They’re still walking. Not looking back. I think you’re okay, Wend. You need to work on those acting skills, though. You were terrible back there.”

She laughed. “You, however, were brilliant. I had no idea you had so much talent. It was genius. Thank you.”

“Anytime, Wendy.”