This time Kevin is the one who glares, pointedly, his lenses flickering in the firelight. I fess up. “As I’ve been in love with her for over a decade, pretty fucking not single.”

“And she knows?”

I grin like an idiot. “Yeah.”

“Then there’s your answer. Nat Geo is out. You said yourself: it’s a single man’s job, and you, my friend, are attached.”

I take another drink and let that wash over me. It feels right. “Huh. You’re good at this. Is it because of the whole bartender thing, or…?”

“Probably the suspenders,” he quips. “If Nat Geo is out, what will you do?”

“Hope for a miracle.”

Kevin barks out a laugh. “Cheers to that.”

“So, what’s the plan? Are you ever going to respond to the article? Are you going to hop on CNN and give an exclusive or something?” Kevin asks the following weekend. Apparently, he’s really taking this wise-man-in-suspenders thing to heart. We’re sitting on his deck, overlooking his wooded backyard, tasked with supervising his two kids as they toddle around their playset. A hundred yards away, Beth is showing Shelby the abandoned woodshed that came with the property.

I lean back in an Adirondack chair and inhale the sharp pine-infused air into my lungs before sipping my beer. “First of all, CNN? That goes to show how much you watch the news if you think CNN gives a shit. And second, I don’t think we’re doing anything.”

“Nothing?”

I shake my head.

“So, you’re going to let them publish lies. Isn’t that slander? Or libel?”

I make a face. “Not really. If you read carefully, they didn’t actually lie about anything.” Kevin makes a noise of disbelief and I continue, “No, really, that’s how they can get away with it. They tell a colorful version of the truth. It makes us sound bad, but the facts remain.”

“You guys didn’t pick that song to sing.”

I roll my eyes, taking another sip. “True, but I can’t call up Howard Stern just to be like, ‘Let me set the record straight, I didn’t want to sing Jessup’s fucking song, but I did, and I thought it turned out okay.’”

“Better than okay,” he grumbles, legitimately offended on our behalf. No one will believe us, but it’s enough just to have people in our corner.

“Thanks, man.”

“You should be able to defend yourselves is all.”

“We will. In our own way, we’ll set the record straight. Through the pilot, assuming they go through with it, test audiences will be able to see how talented Shelby is and how respected she’s become over the years.”

“And they’ll be able to see how you look at her,” he offers mildly.

I narrow my eyes over my bottle. “And? How’s that?”

“Like you told National Geographic to fuck off and have a ring picked out.”