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
“Is it—it’s hard, isn’t it?”
“Being married?”
“Yes. No. Okay, yes. All of it.”
“A little. But if you love someone enough to marry them, then you do anything you can to make it work. Most of the time, everything is good. Sometimes it’s not. But I make sure he knows I love him, and he does the same for me. We’re a team.”
He looks out at the ocean again. “I don’t know if we would have made it. Without him.”
He’s not wrong, but I don’t know if that’s precisely giving us enough credit. “Maybe. Or maybe we would have. There’s a difference between being alive and actually living. He helped us to live, I think. We weren’t doing that. Before.”
“We were surviving.”
I nod. “And it worked for us. At the time. But it wouldn’t have lasted forever. Something had to give.”
“You told me once that you knew he was it for you when you were breaking up with him. Because of her.”
It hurts to hear, even now. “Yeah.”
“I knew Dom was it for me that day in the hallway. When I saw him and Stacey together. I thought I was going to break.”
I sigh. “I know, Kid. And look where we are now. It’s funny how things work out.”
“I’m getting married today.”
“You are.”
“To my best friend.”
“I know.”
“And you’re going to be there. By my side.”
“Always, Kid.”
“Okay.” He nods, steeling his shoulders a little. “I think I’m ready now.”
I grin at him. “Yeah?”
“Yeah.” He smiles back at me. “Tyson Miller has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?”
“It does.”
He pulls me up, and we stand side by side. I put my arm around him, and he lays his head on my shoulder. It’s good to be with him like this before everything. It feels right.
Before we leave, he presses his fingers against his lips and then touches them to the cross in the sand.
DO YOU remember how it all began?
I do.
We were different people then, I think.
But here, now, is not about that beginning.
It’s about a different one entirely.
Because as one story ends, another one always begins.
Life turns. It will always turn, and I know there are so many things ahead of us. So many things to look forward to.