And that’s when I felt it, the wetness on my neck from where his face was pressed against me. I wiggled my arms out from where they were trapped between us and stood on my tiptoes, wrapping my arms around his neck. He shuddered against me, and we swayed back and forth while he shook. I would have been worried about his reaction if I hadn’t heard him mumbling, “I love you, I love you, I love you,” against my skin.

Eventually, he pulled back. His eyes were red and leaking, and he looked like the best thing I’d ever seen. “Are you being serious?” he asked me hoarsely.

“Yeah,” I said, feeling my own lip trembling. “Let’s make a baby.”

And he laughed then, and he was crying at the same time, but it was such an awesome sound, made all the better when he picked me up, hollering in my ear as he spun me around and around and around, my feet knocking boxes over but neither of us caring.

He set me back down and took my face in his hands before leaning in and kissing me fiercely, and it was like that first kiss all over again, so wonderful and frightening and unexpected that it knocked the breath from my chest. But this was different. I didn’t know who I was the first time.

I did now.

“You’re sure about this?” he asked again.

For a moment, I was offended that he could even ask such a thing after all I’d said, but then I realized just how extraordinarily important this was to him. That I had finally agreed to the one thing he’d wanted for a very long time. But I’d been selfish, wrapped in my own insecurities and those belonging to my brother, but it couldn’t be just about him or me. Otter owned just as much of my heart as the Kid did, and I promised myself I’d do everything I could to make sure he knew that.

“Yeah,” I said, sniffling just a little. “I’m sure.”

“We’re going to be parents,” he said, sounding awed. “Bear, we’re going to be parents.”

“Damn right we are. Not only that, we’re going to be the best parents. Like, our kid will be the most well-adjusted, normal, and—why the hell are you laughing!”

He shook his head as he wiped his face, his crooked smile bright and wide. “Bear, that’s probably not going to be a thing. And that’s okay, because our kid is going to be so loved. Just you wait. I’m going to show you, okay? You and me, Bear. We’re going to do this, and it’s going to be so, so good.”