Love is Always Write Anthology Bonus Volume

himself. Lilia stood clutching the counter, her mouth set in a line. Alan knelt on the floor, wrapping a dishtowel around her bleeding foot. The knife I'd used for the watermelon lay beside him, bloody.
    "How bad?" I asked him, putting an arm around Lilia.
    "Stitches," he said. "Definitely."
    "Oh!" Mallory gasped. "Aunt Lilia—"
    "Goddess, blood, can't—" Tania darted back out of the room.
    "Alan, I'll carry her, you keep the pressure on," I said, snatching Lilia's keys off the rack by the door. "Mallory, the dog-sitting instructions are in that binder beside you, so if you could settle them and lock up the house before you go—"
    "I'm riding with Lilia," Alan interrupted. "So I can play This Little Piggy."
    Lilia let out a strangled giggle.
    "We'll take care of everything and meet you there," Mallory said, grabbing the binder. "St. Luke's ER, right?"
    "Right."
    Lilia's car was a ten-year-old sedan with plenty of room in the back seat for Alan to put her foot on his lap. Tania handed Lilia a sheet to protect her dignity, then I all but peeled out of the driveway. Alan flirted with Lilia and didn't comment on my driving.
    At the ER we had to wait, of course. I filled out forms for Lilia to sign while Alan complained he finally had a princess by the foot and he'd lost that blasted shoe. He flirted outrageously, and she laughed at him as she leaned against me, and the little part of me that wasn't worried about her really wished I hadn't seen this side of him.
    When the staff wheeled Lilia off to be examined, though, he reverted safely to the Alan I knew.
    "Forget your superhero costume in the wash?" he asked as soon as she was out of hearing range. "I expected you to fly her here."
    I wanted to make a smart comeback, but I yawned instead. Four a.m. seemed an eternity in the past. Alan said something about sleepy superheroes ruining their image, and then Mallory came hurrying in with Lilia's purse on her shoulder with her own. She had Alan's messenger bag too.
    "Tania and T'Pau thought they'd be more helpful by staying out of the way," she said, handing over the purse. "How's Aunt Lilia?"
    "They haven't told me anything yet," I said. "It will probably be a while. I can text you both when I know anything." Except Alan hadn't given me—
    "I'll stay till they spring her," Alan said, taking his bag and giving Mallory a kiss on the cheek. "I can walk home from here. It's not far."
    "Oh, but—"
    "You've got Spanish in ten hours, Mal," Alan said. "Go home."
    "I'll drive him home," I promised her when she wavered instead of going. Alan rolled his eyes, but Mallory smiled.
    "All right, then. Text me the minute you hear!" She kissed my cheek, kissed Alan's, and left me alone with him again.
    "I don't need a ride," he said, leaning back in his chair and stuffing his hands in his pockets.
    "I promised Mallory. Don't make me stuff you in the car; I forgot my superhero costume in the wash."
    Alan snerked. I crossed my arms, stretched my legs out in front of me and wondered if I dared nap or if I'd wake with a Sharpie mustache courtesy of Alan. It seemed like the kind of thing he'd do.
    "Are you going to get your panties in a bunch if I ignore you?" he asked, pulling a textbook from his bag.
    "I'd actually appreciate it," I said, wishing I'd thought to grab my own backpack. I had a spare book or three in the truck for emergencies, but I didn't keep my stuff in Lilia's car.
    Alan stuck his nose in the book. I thought about the old church and camera angles and how to make sure we were on track when so much of the project was still in everyone's heads, and eventually my chin fell to my chest and I was out.
    I woke when a doctor shook my left shoulder. My right shoulder, I discovered, was under Alan, who somehow slept through my jump at realizing where he was.
    "Mrs. Hille is insisting on going home," the doctor said softly without a glance at the makeup-wearing young man sleeping on me. "I have no medical reason to hold her, and she says you have class in the morning." He pointed. "In that lounge is a vending machine that dispenses coffee."
    "Thank you, Doctor," I said, without explaining that it was Miss Hille and he was probably a third of Lilia's determination to go home. She hated when people assumed, or worse, judged by, her marital state.
    "The nurse will give you care instructions. Mrs. Hille is stubborn, but if she wants to heal, she'll need to do what she's told."
    "She's not more stubborn than I am, Doctor," I told