She was being an equally good sport today by doing this book signing. She didn’t much feel like it, although that was hardly a surprise. Jane didn’t like diverting from her routine, but then again, she’d been diverting from it so much of late—mainly by not being able to add enough fresh words to her ruthless word count tally—she might as well continue to do so. On top of that, something was up with Annie, but she didn’t quite know what. She was hiding something and Jane fervently hoped it wasn’t some kind of surprise to be sprung upon her at the book signing.

When Jane entered the shop, Mia was talking to Lou. They both walked over to her, arms spread, getting ready to hug her as if it was her birthday. Jane had to admit it wasn’t an entirely unpleasant feeling to have Mia’s admiration.

“Lou,” Jane said after the hugs had been dispensed with, “please help me keep your girlfriend in line so she doesn’t proposition me to do in-person events every time we’re alone in the shop.”

“I’d rather she propose those than anything else,” Lou said. “She’s been devouring your books and I don’t know where this fan-girl-ship will end.” Lou gave her a wide smile. They made a dazzling pair.

Jane chuckled. “We should both endeavor to keep her in check then.” She glanced at the pair of them again, their young love and blatant happiness mellowing her—and spurring her on to look for her wife and throw her arms around her.

Because love was all Jane wrote about. Describing the ins and outs of love was her bread and butter. The various ways in which it could manifest itself, lead to trouble, hurt characters and, ultimately, make them face the music and bring them together, was what she worked on all day. It was a privilege to be a chronicler of love in all its forms and, Jane had to admit, it was an equal privilege to be here. Maybe she should have let Mia throw her a proper book launch party after all—but then she would have had to do a reading and Jane simply wasn’t cut out for those. Her personality and voice weren’t right for conveying the emotions she put in her books.

Annie and Kristin were discussing something in quiet voices near the coffee machine. Jane had noticed that Annie spoke to Kristin in a different voice than her usual one. The one Jane was so used to and was such a part of her life. Perhaps only she could recognize a slight shift in tone and a different cadence to her words. When she talked to Kristin, Annie seemed to mimic Kristin’s quiet, soft-spoken manner of speaking, which was a bit disconcerting to hear, because Annie could be such a loudmouth sometimes.