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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

I pushed open the car door and stepped out, trying desperately to ignore the Easter decorations that had somehow popped up since I’d left this morning. I fumbled with my messenger bag and the key fob, grumbling about husbands that felt the need to have a ceramic rabbit carrying a basket filled with eggs sitting on the grass next to the cement path that led to the door. I paused when I reached the porch, rolling my eyes at the pastel garland wrapped around the railing.

(“But Bear, we need it to look amazing. You know that the spirit of the holidays flows through me and that there’s nothing you can do to stop it.”

“Uh-huh. And this has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that Melanie Marshall from next door got first place last December in the neighborhood Christmas decoration contest and lorded that over you.”

“Absolutely not. And even if it did, everyone knows that the contest was rigged and that Melanie Marshall probably slept with half the judges. And it has nothing to do with the fact that I am going to crush her this year.”

“She didn’t sleep with half the—”

“You don’t know that.”

“Otter, you are thirty-seven years old and just declared war against a WASPy housewife who you accused of sleeping her way to first place.”

“Isn’t New Hampshire weird?”

“Fine. Just as long as you don’t sleep with the judges this year.”

“No promises. I want that damn blue ribbon.”)

The porch light was already on, and I felt the day slowly melting off me now that I was home. It was a Wednesday. The Kid had a late class on Wednesdays, which meant that it’d just be the two of us. I was okay with that.

I pushed open the door, groaning at what sounded like a group of small children screaming HAPPY EASTER overhead.

I shut the door behind me and the children ceased at once.

I opened it again, and there went HAPPY EASTER.

It stopped as I shut the door.

“What the hell?” I muttered, glaring at a little white box set just above the door. On second thought, maybe I wasn’t okay with coming home at all.

“Found it at Lowe’s,” a smug voice said behind me. “Let’s see Melanie Marshall beat that. It has settings for almost every holiday. Even National Cheese Day in July, and is the sound of a farmer milking a cow. It’s…terrifying, if I’m being honest. We don’t have to celebrate that.”