Page 110 of By Rude Strength

LA watched the air fill with bubbles, and he smiled. “Oh definitely. And for all the sex we’re gonna be having.”

Cass squealed. “Wait, what?”

LA laughed. “I’mjoking.” He patted Cass’s paw. “I’m not in any hurry, okay? Somebody told me once that things take time. And I gotta agree. Especially good things. The best things. And they’re worth waiting for.”

“Really, Elly? You don’t mind if we still take things a little slow?”

“I don’t care where we take ’em as long as you’re with me.”

Cass kissed him sweetly. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” LA rubbed Cass’s cheek, his heart doing delighted somersaults in his chest. Even after having such a wretched start to the day, he was in good spirits. Life wasn’t going to be perfect and that was all right. He knew he could pick himself up and keep moving forward, and though the future ahead of him wasn’t what he’d been planning on, he was happy.

After all, it wasn’t just different.

It wasbetter.

“Now.” LA cleared his throat and looked serious. “I have to ask you the most important question of all. Pay attention. This is fucking vital, okay?”

Cass tilted his head curiously. “What is it?”

“Can you getResident Alienhere?”

“Oh, absolutely.”

Chapter fifteen

One month later…

“Yes, but here’s theproblem you’re going to run into,” LA explained as patiently as he could. “The state still requires a last name in that field. You cannot submit a death certificate with no last name. It’ll get rejected in a heartbeat.”

Anna flailed. “But, but what do we do? She doesn’t have a last name! Legally, she changed her name to Expedition. One word. That’s it.”

“The best thing we can do is advise the funeral home to putunknown,” LA soothed. “I am telling you the state will not take it without all the required fields being filled out. Which includes block one C. And do you know what block one C is?”

“The last name?” Anna pouted miserably.

“Yes!”

“But… that…”

“What is it?”

Anna groaned. “It means her name on the death certificate is going to read as Expedition Unknown!”

“So?” LA blinked.

“It’s also the name of a show. With Josh Gates.”

“Never heard of it.”

“Oh my God. It has, like, over ten seasons. Josh goes all over the world exploring old ruins and trying to solve, like, unsolved mysteries! And, and, my God. So much more. Totally worth a binge.”

LA chuckled softly. “Yeah, I’ll have to check it out sometime.”

LA and Anna were in Duraleigh General Hospital’s new decedent care office. It was a small space with four large desks, multiple filing cabinets, and a big bulletin board. They didn’t have their own printer or copier yet, so they had to go down the hallway to the nursing supervisor’s office a few times a day, but otherwise things were running very smoothly.

Standards were created to help collect basic information for death certificates to help both funeral homes and families streamline what could otherwise be a rather convoluted process. They created brochures that outlined a family’s legal rights and advice for making funeral arrangements if prearrangements hadn’t already been made.