He rolls his eyes. “It’s been known to happen once or twice.”

“What about that time you told me it was okay to pour a glass of ice water on Otter to wake him up?”

He laughs. “God, I wish you were little again. You were such a gullible little shit.”

“I still don’t think he’s forgiven me.”

“Hey.”

I look up at him.

“He wanted to come too. I told him it might be better if it was just me. For now.”

“I know.”

“He worries. Maybe too much. I know he’s worried about you.”

“I didn’t mean to give him reason to be.”

“He knows that, Kid. But it doesn’t matter. That’s just who he is. In his mind, we belong to him, and that means he worries. It’s not a bad thing. It just is. You should have seen his reaction when he came home the day the wedding invite came from Dominic.”

“Mad, huh?”

Bear laughs. “Furious. I had to stop him from buying a plane ticket to fly back to Seafare and kicking Dominic’s ass.”

“Really?” I don’t know why this surprises me. It sounds like something Otter would do for someone he loves.

“Really. Dominic’s family, Ty. But you… you’re different. I think part of Otter sees you as his son. And he’s a bit overprotective of us, in case you hadn’t noticed.”

“Yeah.”

“We’ll figure this out, Kid. I promise.”

And I believe him, for the most part. How can I not? Bear has never lied to me before, not when it counted. There’s still way too much to work through, but this could be a start.

He still holds my hand. I’m almost twenty years old, but I don’t give a flying fuck. He’s Bear, and this is what we do. “Pretty stupid, huh?” I say. “Falling for your best friend.”

He laughs. “Not so stupid, though it can feel like it. Trust me, I would know.”

“I’m not you,” I say, though I don’t know if that’s exactly true anymore.

“No?”

“Not… not like I should be. I need to fix this, Bear. In my head. I’ve got to fix this.” It seems like we’ve been here before. Round and round we go.

“You want to talk to someone again?” he asks.

“Like Eddie?”

“Uh. Sure. Or maybe someone a little more… qualified.”

“You were going to say ‘sane,’ weren’t you.”

“No. Well, yeah.”

“I know Eddie.”

Bear sighs. “That you do.”

“He showed me how to breathe.”

“That he did.”

“He also asked me if I’d ever had any inappropriate thoughts about Otter.”

Bear groans. “That man, I swear to God.”

“I’ll talk,” I say. “And then we’ll figure out what to do. Where to go from here.”

“And if you need to go,” Bear says, “somewhere far away from here, and you need me there, too, you know I’ll follow you. Right? It doesn’t matter when or where. I’ll follow you, Ty.”

My voice is a little rough when I say, “Yeah, Papa Bear. I know.”