Page 94 of The Ripple Effect

And where does that leave McHuge—sorry, McHugh—and Byrd?

I caught up with them in a rare moment indoors, at his Grey Tusk condo. Pressed and clean, without zinc-covered faces or emergency knives strapped to their chests, they give off something like Clark Kent vibes while still radiating the competence and closeness they leveraged to launch their company to stardom.

Byrd gives McHugh a secret smile when I ask what her plans are between now and the winter session of the Love Boat. She’s gradually reentering medicine as a family physician in a group practice (a part-time pursuit for now, but she’ll reconsider her plans once Tobin Renner-Lewis returns from paternity leave) while working with McHugh to compile material for their upcoming self-help book—his second, her first.

“Writing a book is a risk,” she tells me. “It’s a lot of work for uncertain returns. You have to love it and be prepared to give a lot to it, whether or not it gives back in the form of money or recognition.” But to Byrd, the work feels more satisfying than anything except successfully executing her favorite medical procedures, which I won’t describe here.

For his part, McHugh uses his downtime to occasionally dip into the thriving online community of Love Boat graduates. Their private server is cheekily named “Divorce Boat,” an insider term for tandem whitewater canoeing that pokes gentle fun at the difficulty of the sport. McHugh won’t confirm whether he and Byrd are consideringlicensing the rights to their proprietary methodology, but rumor has it they’ve already turned down some offers they felt were too low.

Says McHugh, “If the universe sent licensing opportunities our way, we’d ideally use the revenue to offer special sessions at low or no cost, to make the wilderness a more equitable place. Maybe a parent and teen Love Boat is in our future. But we’ll see. Above all, we want to find therightpartnership.”

But don’t they want to strike while the licensing iron is hot?

Byrd shakes her head. “For now, no matter what, we have ourselves, and we have each other.”

They shift slightly, then settle back into the love seat, hands clasped as if each has reached for the other and found them waiting.

Couple goals, indeed.