Des grinned.

She listened for a moment, then hung up. “He says to go on right into his office.”

“Come on, Des.” Logan led her past the desk and toward the back of the room where a sign on the door said “Daryl Tucker, Principal.”

A tall, blond-haired, very good-looking man wearing a red polo shirt and khakis stood behind the desk. He came around and shook Logan’s hand.

“What’s up, Logan? And you must be Desiree Jenkins. I’m Daryl Tucker.”

Logan smiled. “Hey, Daryl. You’re looking all principal-like.”

Desiree grinned at that. “Nice to meet you, Principal Tucker.”

“Oh, please. That makes me feel old. Call me Daryl.”

“I will if you call me Des.”

“Have a seat.” Daryl leaned against the corner of his desk. “So what brings you two to Hope High?”

“Des saw the sign about drama club practice today, and she was hoping she could sit in and watch.”

Daryl’s brows rose. “Really? Margaret Penfield is our English teacher and head of the drama club. She’ll be thrilled. So will the kids.”

“Oh, great,” Des said. “I’m a big fan of Shakespeare. I actually did Much Ado About Nothing in high school myself.”

Daryl pushed off his desk. “Then let’s not waste any time. I’ll take you to the performing-arts center.”

Des walked next to Logan, listening to him and Daryl catch up. Apparently Daryl had gotten married last year to a teacher from Oakdale High. The two were expecting their first baby in a few months.

“How’s Patty feeling?” Logan asked.

“Complaining about teaching on her feet all day and her ankles being swollen because it’s so damn hot. Sorry for cursing, Des.”

“Nothing I haven’t heard before, Daryl,” she said as they made their way outside and across the lawn.

The performing-arts center was beautiful and looked new. It was a round building; she couldn’t wait to see what it looked like inside. As they took the cement steps leading up to it, everything about her high school years came rushing back to her.

She’d been lucky they’d been stationed in one place that long, so she got to do at least two years of high school in North Carolina. It had been hard to insert herself into an already established group, but she’d done it anyway because she’d loved drama, had loved being in the plays and musicals. Though she couldn’t sing for shit, whenever there was a musical she’d at least try to get minor roles or work on set design. Anything to be a part of the production.

As they stepped through the double front doors she could already hear the cast rehearsing the familiar words, lines that she still remembered. They walked toward the stage and Des’s nerve endings tingled. She wanted to leap up there and start reciting Beatrice’s dialogue.

Instead, she grasped Logan’s arm midway down. “I’ll just grab a seat here.”

“Why not go all the way down?”

“I don’t want to disturb them.”

He shrugged. “Suit yourself. We’re going to sit here, Daryl. Des doesn’t want to stop the practice.”

“Okay. I’ll just let Margaret know you’re here, then I’ll get back to work.”

Daryl headed down to the stage where he stopped to talk with a curvy redhead. It was dark in the audience section, but the woman looked their way, then nodded at Daryl, who waved in their direction and headed out a side door.

The acoustics in the theater were great, so while Margaret led the students through their scenes, Des leaned forward and listened. They were rehearsing the festival scene, when Beatrice was ranting about Benedick to a man she thought was someone else, when it was, in fact, Benedick himself in disguise. A delightful scene and the teens were doing a great job. She laughed at Beatrice’s over-the-top performance and Benedick’s responses.

“What’s this play about?” Logan asked.

She turned to him. “You’ve never seen it?”

“Not much for Shakespeare, though I had to read Julius Caesar and Romeo and Juliet in English class in high school. Didn’t care for it. Hard to understand.”

She laughed. “It can be. But it’s also rich with language and interpretation and such a delight for an actor to play. So much tragedy, and in the case of Much Ado, comedy.”

“So this is supposed to be funny.”

“Yes.”

He leaned back in his chair. “Huh.”

“Just watch, and listen. You’ll get the hang of it.”

“I doubt that.”

Des could tell Logan was confused, so she sat back and explained the basics of the plot to him.

“So everybody lies to everybody else. Not only about what they feel, but about what they’re doing.”

“Pretty much.”

“That doesn’t make any damn sense. If they all just said how they felt, none of this would happen.”

She rolled her eyes. “And then there’d be no point to the play. Deception and holding of truths is part of the plot. Benedick really does love Beatrice, and she feels the same, but there’s a certain amount of pride, neither of them daring to admit to the other how they feel. And Hero’s crushed that Claudio so easily believed the lies told about her. He has to prove his love to her.”

“See? If everyone was just honest, none of that game-playing would be necessary.”

“And all that honesty happens in real life, right? People always tell each other exactly how they feel.”

He just looked at her. “I guess not.”

“I thought so.” She wondered what would come out of his mouth if he was honest about his feelings—about anything and everything. Maybe at some point she’d just ask him. But not right now.

For now she was content to sit back and listen to the young dramatists play out their scenes.

“Okay, everyone, you’re hitting your marks just fine,” Margaret said. “I do want to tell you that we have a very special guest sitting in the audience watching us today. She didn’t want to interrupt rehearsal, but I know you’d all like to meet her. She’s in town for a movie shoot, and I hear she’s a big fan of Shakespeare. Miss Desiree Jenkins is in the house today.”

Oh, crap. And she thought she’d just sit and listen for a while, then sneak out. But a chorus of squeals went out, followed by applause.

“I guess you should go say hello,” Logan said.

“I guess so.” She stood. “Come on down with me.”

“I’m fine right here.”

She nodded, and headed toward the stage.

LOGAN HADN’T THOUGHT Des would be able to hide for long. He stayed in his seat and watched as she was surrounded by a throng of both male and female fans. She shook a lot of hands, then phones came out and she took pictures with people, never once seeming tired or irritated by the number of photos.

“Hey, Logan, can you come down here for a minute?” she yelled from the stage.

He pushed off and walked down.

“Logan, I didn’t see you up there,” Margaret said.

“Hi, Margaret.” Living in a small town meant you knew pretty much everyone. Margaret had gone to Hope High, but she’d married Ed Penfield, one of his high school buddies from Oakdale.

“Could you take a picture of all of us with Mrs. Penfield’s camera?”

“Sure.” He took Margaret’s camera, and Des gathered close with everyone while Logan snapped off a bunch of shots before handing the camera back to Margaret.

“Thank you, Logan,” Margaret said. “This is going on the wall in my office.”

“I’d love a copy of that,” Des said. “I’ll give you my e-mail address.”

Margaret blinked. “Okay. I’ll be sure to send you one.”

Des grabbed Margaret’s notebook and jotted down her e-mail.

“Miss Jenkins,” one of the students asked. “How old were you when you first started acting?”

“Call me Des,” she said, and grabbed a seat on the floor of the stage. “I actually started in high school, doing plays like this. That’s where I first fell in love with acting. I did the same play you all are doing, as a matter of fact.”

“You did?” one of the girls asked, her eyes wide.

“I did, though I only had a minor role.”

“How did you get on television?”

“A lot of it is simply luck and timing. When I was eighteen, I made my way out to Hollywood to try my luck at acting. I made some friends and we worked multiple jobs to pay the rent. When I wasn’t working, I took acting classes and went out on auditions. I managed to snag some roles in commercials and was lucky enough to book a few guest spots in television shows.”

“And your first television part was as a street hooker in an episode of Law and Order: SVU,” one of the boys said.

Des laughed. “That’s very true. I was so excited to get that role. All twenty-four seconds of it, before I was strangled and tossed behind a Dumpster. That was the high point of my life at the time.”

They all laughed.

“And then your breakout movie role was in Elizabeth’s Dawn. You died in that one, too,” someone said.

Des smiled. “Yeah, it’s great to get a death role. Those always have some meat and give you a chance to show what you can do. Dying on film is not easy, kids.”

“Is there anything you’d do differently if you could?”

That question came from Margaret.

“Honestly, I try not to live with regrets, because I can’t go back and fix anything I screwed up. I can only look forward. So anything I do differently I’d have to do in the future. I do try not to repeat the same mistakes I’ve made in the past. Does that make sense?”

Margaret smiled and nodded. “It does.”

“Like . . . what mistakes?” one of the girls asked.

“That’s a good question.” Des took a deep breath. “Don’t get close to people who are bad influences on you, no matter how cool they seem or what they offer you. Sometimes that inner voice you have that tells you something is bad? It’s there for a reason. Listen to it. It’ll never steer you wrong. I didn’t always listen to that voice, and now I always do.”

“That’s very good advice, Des,” Margaret said.

Des had an easy rapport with the teens. She answered all their questions honestly. She admitted to some mistakes she’d made along the way and gave them sound advice. She was honest about the industry and didn’t make it sound like it would be a dream come true for all of them.

“Oh, man, my roommates and I ate a lot of ramen noodles for a very long time. Listen, this business is harsh. It’s filled with rejection, and for every one of us who is successful, there are thousands who aren’t. You have to be really tough, and you have to take rejection well. I still get turned down for roles I really want badly.”

One girl’s eyes widened. “You do?”

“Of course. You know Shot Down, the blockbuster last year that starred Suzanne Lachelle?”

All the kids yelled yes.

“I wanted Suzanne’s role so badly. I auditioned six times for it, and it was down to the two of us. I didn’t get it. And you know how successful that movie was. But Suzanne was brilliant in that movie, and when I saw it, I knew they had made the right choice.”

“So you aren’t mad that she got the role and you didn’t?” one of the girls asked.

“Well, to be honest, initially, I was really pissed.”

They all laughed.

“But you aren’t going to get every role you try out for. That’s not realistic. And like Suzanne in the role in that movie, some actresses are better suited for a part than you are. Acceptance is a large part of the industry, and there aren’t any guarantees. All I can tell you is that if you want it badly enough, go for it, but be prepared to fail.”

She went on and answered every question they asked, until Logan looked at his phone. “I’m sorry, but we need to go.”

Des stood. “I’m sorry, too. We took up all of your rehearsal time. But I had so much fun talking to all of you.”

She said good-bye to the kids and Margaret walked with them to the entrance. “This was worth giving up half a rehearsal day. The kids learned a lot from you.”

“I’m not sure I gave them anything useful.”

Margaret took her hand. “You gave them honesty. That’s more than they’ll get from a lot of people, especially someone in your industry. Thank you for that.”

“I enjoyed it. They’re great kids, Margaret. Talented, too. I’ll be back to see the production in a few weeks, if you don’t mind.”

“I’d love that. The kids would, too.”

“Great. I’ll bring Colt with me, too. He loves this play as much as I do.”

They headed outside to the truck, and since Logan had parked it between two of the school buses, they were still well hidden from any of the photographers who might be wandering around looking for them.

“You did good in there,” Logan said.

She looked at him. “Complimenting me again? I might think you like me, Logan.”

“Don’t go getting any ideas.”

She climbed into the truck and put on her seat belt. “Oh, I have a lot of ideas where you’re concerned.”

He shook his head. “I don’t know what to do with you, Des.”

She laughed. “Don’t worry. I know exactly what you can do with me.”

Chapter 6