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putting on an over-exaggeratedly stern face. “But you two
need to be absolutely quiet. Remember. Shh!”
    The kids giggled and mimed locking their lips
and throwing away the key. Miranda winked at Lou and then
straightened, turning the force of her personality back on
Jack.
    “Jackson Doyle. Are you ready to fall in
love?”
    Jack blinked, visibly startled. “Um. Yeah.
Yeah, that’d be great.”
    “Excellent. So Jack—a few ground rules as
we’re getting warmed up. Remember that all the questions I’m going
to be asking are going to be edited out, so you need to repeat them
in your answers. So when I ask you if you’re ready to fall in love,
you say…”
    “I’m ready to fall in love,” Jack parroted
obediently.
    “Perfect. But then you are Mr. Perfect,
aren’t you?” Miranda grinned, somehow making the cheesy line work
with her self-deprecating laugh.
    Lou watched her old friend, fascinated to see
this side of her—blatantly manipulative, but somehow seeming less
manipulative because she was being so obvious about it, and
still getting exactly the results she was angling for. Had Miranda
always had this skill? If not, how long had it taken her to build
up this reality persona?
    Miranda quickly checked with the crew,
getting thumbs up all around and turned to Jack, seating herself so
she matched the camera’s eye level. “All right, Jack. Let’s start
with an easy one. Tell us why you’re looking for love.”
    For a split second, an expression of
deer-in-headlights horror flashed across Jack’s face. Lou bit her
lip to keep from laughing out loud. This was going to be more
interesting than she thought. Jack Doyle was about to talk about
his feelings on national television. She only wished she had
popcorn.
    #
    Four hours later, after dropping Emma and TJ
off at Kelly’s for a play-date with the twins, Lou slipped in the
back door and through the kitchen to peek into the living room.
Poor Jack was still in that chair, suffering through the Interview
that Would Not End.
    Lou had grabbed the kids and abandoned him
after the first solid hour of “Remember, Jack, it’s never a show,
it’s always an experience or a journey ” and “Jack,
honey, don’t talk about the process like it isn’t real life. This
journey is about finding true love. It doesn’t get any more real
than that” and “Jack, baby, don’t look at the crew. They aren’t
here, okay?”
    Now Lou slipped silently into the living room
and tucked herself behind a large, reflective screen one of the
lighting people had put up near the bay windows. It was the perfect
place to eavesdrop as Miranda coached Jack through the questions.
Not that listening in on an interview being conducted in the middle
of her living room counted as eavesdropping. She just didn’t
particularly want to be the recipient of any more of the crew’s
what-the-hell-is-your-purpose-here looks. Staying out of sight was
much more appealing.
    Lou heard Jack clear his throat and tuned in
to what he was saying into the microphones.
    “Gillian was… she was so alive . I
think that’s part of why her death came as such a shock.”
    Lou went still behind the screen. She hadn’t
heard Jack talk about Gillian’s death in years.
    “When Emma was born, there were
complications. It wasn’t anyone’s fault.” Jack expelled a short
breath. “I was a mess at first, laying guilt on myself—the
brilliant surgeon who couldn’t save his own wife. I don’t know what
I would have done without Lou. She was my sanity those first few
weeks. She stepped in, took care of Em and TJ and most of the
funeral stuff, and I let her. I know I relied on her too much, but
I’d just started my internship. The hours were insane and Lou was
amazing. She got me back on my feet. I can never repay that debt.
I—”
    “Cut!” Miranda’s too-chipper voice blasted
through Jack’s heartfelt confession like dynamite. “Let’s take ten,
shall we? I think we could all use a break. Good stuff,