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
He shrugs. “S’nice. Just being with you. You know that.”
“Helps to hear.”
He frowns. “Don’t I tell you that enough?”
“Hey, hey, now. That’s not—I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just—an idea I got in my head, that we hadn’t been just us for a long time. And I… I wanted to do something. For me and you. Not for anyone else. It’s not anything you did. It’s on me, if anything.”
“We’re not Anna and Creed,” he says quietly.
“I know.”
“But even if a problem did come up, we’d work through it. Just like we always do.”
“I know that too.”
“Good.”
I hesitate. Then, “Do you think they’ll be okay?”
“I think so. They both want it bad enough, and they’re working for it. Which means they love each other just as much as they always have. I think they’ll be fine. But if they’re not, we’ll deal with that too.”
I groan. “We’ll have to be those people that will have to decide who we’re going to hang out with and not tell the other one about it. But then they’ll find out anyway and make me feel guilty for being a bad friend. They can’t divorce, because it’ll inconvenience me. Oh, and also their whole family, but whatever.”
“Your heart is so big.”
“Right? I care too much.”
He grabs my wrist and tugs as he starts to roll away from me. I know what he wants, and I find it ridiculously endearing. For how big and intimidating he is, for how strong and protective, there is nothing Oliver Thompson loves more than to be spooned after sex. The fact that he’s lasted ten whole minutes is frankly a miracle, but since it’s pretty fucking awesome, you don’t hear me complaining about it.
It’s practiced, this. It’s one of those secrets of those who’ve been together for a long time. I know his body, every scar and freckle. I know the twist of his muscles, the way the hair on his chest and stomach feels underneath my touch. I know the way his hand fits into mine, his fingers thick and blunt and soft from that overpriced lotion he insists on using.
And we fit. We always have, even before we were us. There was something there, something arcing between us like lightning, always crawling along our skin. Maybe we didn’t know how to name it, didn’t know just how far it could go, but we knew. And we pushed and pulled, clawing our way to each other.