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Chapters (31)
  1. The Long and Winding Road
  2. Table of Contents
  3. Dedication
  4. Epigraph
  5. Prologue: Or, Where Bear Answers the Door
  6. PAST
  7. 1. Where Bear Makes the Wrong Assumption
  8. 2. Where Bear Finds Out
  9. 3. Where Bear Makes a Decision
  10. 4. Where Bear Learns the Art of Breathing
  11. 5. Where Bear Has Bro-Time with Creed
  12. PRESENT
  13. 6. Where Bear Attends the Most Awkward Homecoming Ever
  14. 7. Where Bear Tells Tyson Everything
  15. 8. Where Bear Makes a Promise
  16. 9. Where Bear Goes to Lamaze Class
  17. 10. Where Bear Gets Advice About His Sex Life
  18. 11. Where Bear and Otter Role-Play at a Hotel Bar
  19. 12. Where Bear Faces the Reality of Married Life
  20. 13. Where Bear Sees Everything Change
  21. FUTURE
  22. 14. The Long and Winding Road
  23. Epilogue: Or, Otter’s Perspective, As It Were
  24. Coda
  25. No. Absolutely not. No way.
  26. More from TJ Klune
  27. Readers love the Bear, Otter, and the Kid Chronicles by TJ Klune
  28. About the Author
  29. By TJ Klune
  30. Visit Dreamspinner Press
  31. Copyright

It’s Monday, September 12, 2016, and I’m in front of a classroom full of the wondrous future of America, trying to get them to give two shits about authors that have been dead for decades. It’s barely twenty minutes into the school day, and I’m thinking about something another teacher had said to me just this morning, that this would probably be the very last Monday I’d work in a long time, given that Megan was due in almost a week. I’d been dazed at the thought, barely able to function because she was right. It’d hit me harder than I expected it to, even though I’d known that, however unconsciously. But it’s almost here, and I’m struggling to maintain my focus when my husband bursts into the classroom, looking frantic, being trailed by the lady from the front office and the principal.

I know what this is.

I know it.

But I’ve been through too much shit in my life. I’ve had bad thing after bad thing dropped on top of me out of nowhere. People we love have left. Have been hurt. Have died. For all I know, it’s just more of the same.

Again and again and again.

So I think I’m forgiven when the first thing I say is “What the fuck has happened now?”

The kids in my class gasp dramatically, because apparently Mr. Thompson knows the goddamn f-word.

The principal groans, putting his face in his hands.

The lady from the front office clutches her pearls, even though she’s not even wearing any.

Oliver Thompson says, “I tried to call you on your phone, but you didn’t have it on you because you’re in class, you’re in class, so why would you? Bear. Bear. Megan’s in labor. She’s on her way to the hospital now. Bear, it’s happening. It’s here. We’re going to be dads.”

God, how it turns on a fucking dime.

And it can surprise the hell out of you.

Because in moments like this, moments of great upheaval, I’m the one to lose my shit. I’m the one to babble and freak out and talk and talk and talk about anything and everything. My eyes bulge, and I worry about all the little things that could go wrong.

That doesn’t happen.

It doesn’t happen, because I can see Otter, the love of my very strange life, beginning to lose his shit.