Love is Always Write Anthology Bonus Volume

left it?" Alan scribbled away. "That's awesome."
    "If people were murdered here," Tania said sharply, "they may have felt the ground could never be consecrated again."
    "More ghosts for us!" Alan shot back with his smug grin.
    "Well, come on," I said, before Tania dug into Alan. "You might as well see the rest."
    The church had been built of stone in a time when people only said "eternal" if they meant it. The interior was long since gutted and much of the roof had fallen, but beams still arced across the sky, and portions of all the walls still reached heavenward. Everyone wanted to go inside, but I was adamant. It wasn't safe.
    "When's the last time something fell?" Alan demanded.
    "It's been a while, so we're about due. I'm not telling Aunt Lilia I let her new friend get brained, so just listen, all right?"
    Alan tossed a glance back at the house and let it go. Aunt Lilia was magic.
    We clambered about the churchyard a while longer, the others calling inscriptions and names at each other while I considered how we'd film it if I couldn't change their minds. It was late notice, and late summer, but if I let some of the landscaping go, it might have a more overgrown and creepy—
    Right. I didn't need to think about how we'd shoot. I wasn't the director.
    Our director leaned over a stone, hooted, and picked a late daisy. "Since beauty, and useful acquirements," he proclaimed, "Could not ward off the early stroke/ Well we may conclude/ That Heaven intends the virtuous soul/ For nobler purposes/ Than to be for years distinguished on this fluctuating stage."
    "What?" Mallory demanded, laughing. But Alan didn't answer, he was busy swooning and dying until he was stretched out on the grave, the flower clasped on his chest. Twiggy wandered over to investigate.
    "All right," T'Pau said from where she sat daintily on a gravestone, "I'm ready for more lemonade. And some cookies."
    "I call the snickerdoodles!" Alan said, jumping up. Twiggy skittered away from him.
    "Did you leave any?" Mallory asked.
    "If I didn't, I'm sure Aunt Lilia baked more," Alan said, dusting himself off. "She's awesome like that."
    We all trooped back into the field. Mallory threw the Frisbee for Twiggy, and got it stuck in a tree first throw. Twiggy tried running up the tall maple with no success, and then scratched, whining at the roots.
    "Well, damn," Mallory said. "Now what?"
    "Did you forget the cookies already?" Alan demanded.
    "I refuse to be responsible for losing Twiggy's favorite toy!"
    "Do you have a ladder, Lukas?" Tania asked.
    "Are you kidding?" Alan shook his head. "It's a tree ." He slipped off his blazer and held it out to Mallory. "Second, hold my coat."
    "Ooh, a duel!"
    "I do have a ladder," I said.
    "Bah, ladders!" Alan said. "This is an affair of honor!" He slipped his suspenders off his shoulders and took off his shirt, handing that to Mallory too. Underneath he wore only a thin white tank top. Alan grabbed his pants before they slipped off his slim hips, and put the suspenders back on his shoulders. "Apologize and return the lady's property!" he declaimed at the tree, "Or I shall avenge her honor upon your scaly hide!"
    "Trees don't have scales," Tania pointed out. Mallory snickered. Alan picked up a stick and smacked the tree with it.
    "I demand satisfaction, sir! If you will not act with honor…" He leaped to grab a branch, swung his body up and twisted as he did to plant his foot on another branch, and wriggled up into the tree.
    Alan was good at tree-climbing. Nimble and flexible, he climbed higher quickly, and I forgot to warn him to be careful, that I didn't want to tell Aunt Lilia I'd let him fall out of a tree either. In moments he'd tossed down the Frisbee for Twiggy to snatch from the air. The girls applauded. Alan stood in the tree cleft and lifted his chin, his hand on his heart as he accepted their admiration, and I almost staggered under a wave of lust like I'd never known.
    He was messy, disheveled and damp. The shirt was thin; his sweat glued it to every line of his chest and tight abs. His undershirt had ridden up, or his pants slid down, so the little hollow above his hips was visible. And the grin… that Yes, I am awesome grin…
    I wanted to lick him, to taste the sweat in the hollows of his hips, to shove him up against the tree and—
    Oh damn .
    "You have vanquished the mighty tree!" Mallory called. "Twiggy's honor is unsmirched! Come down and celebrate thy victory with cookies!"
    "Cookies!" Alan shouted