Chapters (31)
- The Long and Winding Road
- Table of Contents
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Prologue: Or, Where Bear Answers the Door
- PAST
- 1. Where Bear Makes the Wrong Assumption
- 2. Where Bear Finds Out
- 3. Where Bear Makes a Decision
- 4. Where Bear Learns the Art of Breathing
- 5. Where Bear Has Bro-Time with Creed
- PRESENT
- 6. Where Bear Attends the Most Awkward Homecoming Ever
- 7. Where Bear Tells Tyson Everything
- 8. Where Bear Makes a Promise
- 9. Where Bear Goes to Lamaze Class
- 10. Where Bear Gets Advice About His Sex Life
- 11. Where Bear and Otter Role-Play at a Hotel Bar
- 12. Where Bear Faces the Reality of Married Life
- 13. Where Bear Sees Everything Change
- FUTURE
- 14. The Long and Winding Road
- Epilogue: Or, Otter’s Perspective, As It Were
- Coda
- No. Absolutely not. No way.
- More from TJ Klune
- Readers love the Bear, Otter, and the Kid Chronicles by TJ Klune
- About the Author
- By TJ Klune
- Visit Dreamspinner Press
- Copyright
Izzie’s holding Ty’s hand, and her dark eyes are wide, and she’s nervous about something. Ty’s talking to her quietly, words I can’t make out, but I know he’s trying to soothe her. I don’t know if it’s working.
“We can’t go back after this,” I tell Otter, watching them on the porch. “You know that, right? Once we get out of the car, this is it. We can’t ever go back.”
“I know,” he says. “So what are we waiting for?”
And he opens the door.
I follow him. Of course I do.
Izzie’s chewing on her bottom lip, her eyes narrowed a little, as we walk up the path toward the Green Monstrosity. “Did you get all my stuff?”
“Yeah,” I say as we stop at the steps. “Everything you asked for.”
She nods. “Was it…? I’m sorry. If the house was dirty. I didn’t—I tried to never let it get like that.”
“It wasn’t,” Otter says easily. “You did a good job.”
I don’t know that she quite believes him, but we’ll get there. “I can do that here too. If you want.”
I shrug. “We all help out. You’ll get assigned chores just like everyone else. And since Ty moved in with his lover, you’ll take over what he used to do.”
“Oh my god,” Ty growls. “Why did you have to say it like that?”
“Because I like fucking with you.”
“If you want, I can tell you exactly how he’s my lover—”
“It’s good to be home,” Otter says with a sigh.
IT TAKES a couple of days. To get things right. Or at least on the road to it.
She’s bossy and demanding and completely amazing. We unpack her life, mixing it with our own, and she’s unsure about how she fits. But we tell her again and again and again that this is hers too, all of this. Our house. Us. Ty. Everyone else in our crazy, stupid family. All of us are hers.
She cries when we tell her about what Erica’s done for her so far.
Then she punches us each in the arm and says she wasn’t crying, that it was just her allergies, but she’s okay with staying here with us if we really want her to. “You don’t need to beg,” she says, sniffling prettily. “I know I’m amazing and you would be lucky to have me.”
We just smile at her.