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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

He didn’t answer at first, and I turned around to glance back at him. His face was paler than it usually was, and I was reminded of the weeks following the confrontation over his addiction. Some days were harder than others, but I had faith in him. Once we got home, things would be even better. Anna and Creed and JJ. Stephanie and Ian Grant. Alice and Jerry Thompson. And Corey too, at his side.

“Kid?” I asked again.

“Yeah,” he finally said. “I think I’m ready.”

“Home?”

“Home.”

Otter squeezed my hand and pulled away from the house. As we drove on, the sun rising at our backs, I wondered if we’d ever come back here. For some reason, I didn’t think we would. Not like we had before.

I shook my head, chiding myself. Now wasn’t the time for that. We had a long trip ahead of us, and it felt like a first step into something greater.

But as we left our old neighborhood behind, I couldn’t help but feel like we’d forgotten something. It was a feeling scratching at the back of my mind. For the life of me, I couldn’t think what it was.

It was fine, though. It’d come to me if it was important.

“Good?” Otter asked me, one hand on the steering wheel, the other warm in my own.

“Good,” I said, smiling over at him.

And we drove on.

4. Where Bear Learns the Art of Breathing

IT WAS important.

What I’d forgotten.

Because after everything we’d gone through, after all that had happened in the last year, the one thing that I should have remembered was the one thing I’d forgotten.

And the moment I saw him, I knew we were in deep shit.

Ben Miller.

Dominic Miller’s son.

AND IT probably didn’t help matters when the first time Tyson Thompson became aware of Ben’s existence was after he’d been handcuffed in the back of a cop car after hiring beach vagrants to protest a chain restaurant that I’d never even heard of before.

I should have remembered. I should have planned for it. But with the homecoming we’d had, starting with an awkward dinner that ended up with me drunkenly announcing that Otter and I were going to try and have a kid, immediately followed by Creed announcing that Anna was pregnant again, then the Kid being weird about the plans we’d made seemingly without him, I’d just… forgotten. Put it out of my mind. Didn’t even think about it.