Love is Always Write Anthology Bonus Volume

windshield. I turned on the defogger and wiped my window as he got the back one.
    "Sorry you didn't get a turn," Alan said as I pulled back onto the rumble strips.
    "I kind of lost the mood anyway."
    "Hmm, that's worrisome. Young man can't keep it up? You should probably have that looked at."
    "You can look at it later, jerk." The rain had eased enough I pushed steadily up to sixty-five and stayed there. "And give it a good kiss while you're at it."
    "I love playing doctor." Alan cracked his window and lit a cigarette. I debated saying something but didn't. After we were married, maybe. If he smoked a lot. Alan's phone buzzed and he jumped.
    "Bea wants the address," he said. "I don't have it."
    I handed him my phone. "Place and time both are in the last text. Just forward it from there so she has my number."
    "Ooh, commitment, giving my violent sister a means to reach you!"
    I chuckled. "It's a cell phone number, not my home address."
    "Good thought. I'll send her that too."
    I shook my head and drove.
    "Who's Jenna M?" he demanded a minute later.
    "Who?"
    "Excuse me. Jenna M star . You've got a star by her name in your contact list. Who is she?"
    "M-star is my internet provider. She's a service tech."
    "And you have her personal number? So she can service you after hours?"
    "It's the service line and her extension. She's good— when I tell her I've already tried restarting everything, she doesn't go ahead and walk me through it again anyway. She gets on with solving the problem."
    "Uh huh," he muttered. And ten seconds later, "Who is Melinda?"
    Crap. How many girls did I have in my contact list? And when would he realize if he wanted to be jealous he should be looking at the guys too? "Melinda Wilson," I answered, "is my insurance agent."
    "Nadira?"
    "I don't even know. Alan, I have people in my contact list so I don't have to remember them. I probably had a project with her at some point."
    "Oh, probably ," he said. "I'm gonna text her that if she comes near you I'll claw her eyes out."
    "She won't know who you're warning her away from. Alan, there's exactly one person in that list whom I've asked to marry me."
    "Shit." He snapped my phone shut and handed it back. "Sorry. I told you I'm a crazy bitch."
    "Well, I'm a boring stick in the mud, so this should be interesting."
    "I like interesting," he said with a quick grin. "And I like your stick."
    "That's good, because my stick really likes you."
    He sat watching me for a few minutes. Then he blurted, "You better mean this, Lukas. Don't think in a few months you're gonna decide it's not working out and—"
    I just looked at him. He laughed shakily.
    "Yeah, yeah, I remember. You don't start things you don't intend to finish. I— Lukas, where are we going to live? Lilia, and that house, and the dogs, you can't—"
    "I'll ask Lilia if she can do work-trade with you too. You cook a lot better than she does. And she'd probably bake more if someone else had to do the dishes."
    "Me? Clean? Have you seen my apartment?"
    "Yes. Both when you didn't care, and when you wanted your deposit back. You can't tell me Mallory did that cleaning— she doesn't know how."
    He shrugged. "Lilia's not going to want me there, being all noisy and dramatic and shit."
    "Lilia adores you. But if she doesn't want to work things out, I'm sure your building manager will let me get on the lease with you."
    "But Lilia depends on you, Lukas. You can't just leave her in the lurch."
    "More incentive to work things out then."
    "You— Lukas!" he gasped. "You'd blackmail your own great-aunt?" He shook his head then laughed. "Lukas Blake! You are not the man I thought you were."
    "Yeah, well," I tossed him a grin. "You thought I was straight."
    He stuck the cigarette out the window and flicked the fire off it, put the butt in the garbage. "I can't believe you let me smoke in your truck."
    I shrugged. He shook his head.
    "You told Mom I'd finish college. You told me 'after we get our degrees.' But I quit my job, and Mom and Dad mean it— they won't pay anymore. You're not working harder to send me to school, Lukas. I won't let you. I— I will get my ass expelled if you try. I know how to firebomb the deep fryers in the student union."
    "Arson is bad, Alan. There are other ways."
    "You don't have it all planned out, Batman?"
    "I've been busy."
    "You haven't asked Lilia. You haven't even told her. You don't have this planned. You just jumped in, and in a few days you're gonna wake up going ' Wow, what a