Page 54 of For My Finale
“Yes,” Lilah allowed. She was struggling to put into words something that seemed utterly natural and instinctive to her. “But acting isn’t about acting, it’s about being.” She positioned herself beside Arty. “Try this. You’re supposed to be walking to meet each other. Don’t think about performing it. Just walk. Naturally, but with purpose. Like… like you’re going to meet someone at the pub. You’re not late, not early, just perfectly on time.”
Gloria and Arty exchanged a glance before stepping toward each other again, this time with a more relaxed air. Lilah watched critically, then nodded. “Better.”
“You’re good at this, you know,” piped up Daisy from the wings.
Lilah turned toward her. “Good at what?”
“Teaching,” said Daisy. “You explain things in a way that actually makes sense. You should be a teacher.”
Lilah blinked at this, momentarily thrown. Teaching? The idea had never occurred to her, honestly. She’d spent so long being on the opposite side of the equation, being told what to do and when to do it, that the idea of teaching others to do the thing she’d once loved so much had never even crossed her mind.
“Maybe,” she said, filing the thought away for later. It was something to think about, something to add to the list of possibilities.
The rehearsal was winding down. She let Gloria and Arty go, and people began gathering their things and chatting among themselves. Lilah was picking up her jacket when Arty ambled over, hands in his pockets. “Hey, Lilah, can I have a word?”
“We’re not skipping the shirtless scene,” she said immediately. “We’ve talked about this—”
“It’s not that,” he said, sounding a little more urgent.
Lilah frowned. “Alright then. What’s up?”
Arty glanced around before lowering his voice. “Some of my mates mentioned that there’s been a rumor floating around.”
Lilah stiffened. Not her and Blossom. Not already. “What kind of rumor?”
“The kind that says Lilah Paxton is hiding out in Bankton.”
Her stomach dropped into her shoes. She fought to keep her expression neutral. “And where, exactly, did these mates of yours hear this little rumor?”
Arty sighed. “You know how it is, I don’t have to explain how tabloids work to you, Lilah. I’m sure you’ve been on the receiving end of all this often enough. Someone talks, someoneelse listens, and before you know it, the press is sniffing around.”
Lilah exhaled slowly through her nose. “Have you actually seen anyone suspicious?”
“No, not yet,” Arty admitted. “And I’ve not said anything either, my journo days are long behind me. But I figured you should know.”
Lilah nodded, her mind already racing. Someone must have sold her out. That was how these things worked. There was no other way the tabloids could have gotten a whiff of her whereabouts. They spread money around like it meant nothing until they found someone desperate enough to take it and tell them what they needed to know. But who would do that? The village was starting to warm to her, but money could make people do all sorts of things.
“Maybe it’s just a rumor,” she said finally, trying to sound casual. “People like to talk.”
Arty gave her a long, measured look before nodding. “Could be. But then, it’s an awfully specific kind of rumor, isn’t it?”
“Not necessarily,” she said. “I was born here, remember? Someone will have dug that information up somewhere, or remembered it, and tried to put two and two together.”
“Perhaps,” he agreed, even though both of them knew that was unlikely to be true. “Still, if I were you, I’d keep my eyes open.”
Lilah forced herself to smile, a deep unease settling in her gut. “Thanks, Arty. I appreciate the heads up.”
As he walked away, Lilah let out a slow breath. Maybe it was nothing. Maybe it was just gossip, the kind that never went anywhere. But deep down, she had a feeling that this wasn’t the last that she was going to hear of all this.
“Ready to go?” Blossom said, coming to her side.
Lilah looked at her sweet face, her sweet lips, then shook her head. She couldn’t do this tonight, couldn’t deal with another person. She looked at the stage, almost with longing. How much easier it had been up there, speaking someone else’s words. “I’m going to stick around here, work on the blocking a while.”
Blossom smiled. “Alright, don’t leave too late though, you don’t want Billy stalking you home.”
Lilah smiled at this. “I’ll be fine.”
And Blossom was the last to leave.
