“A date?” I say with a frown. “Now just hold on a minute. I didn’t say that.”
“Oh no,” Noah moans. “He’s going to start freaking out.”
“I’m sorry!” Lily exclaims. “I didn’t mean to say—”
“Dad, why are you making that face?” Caleb asks me. “It’s all scrunched up and stuff.”
“Now I’m never going to get to ask Ethan out,” Noah says, slumping back against the booth.
“Oh, I didn’t say that,” I manage to say. “In fact, why don’t you invite him over this afternoon. Just make sure to give me enough time to get my baseball bat out.”
“Dad!”
“Don’t tell him about the condoms that JJ bought for you to—oops.”
“Lily!”
“The what?”
Okay. Yeah. Maybe Bear will freak after all.
Coda
OTTER! OTTER! Otter!
Don’t lead cows to slaughter!
I love you, and I know
I should have told you soon-a
But you didn’t buy the dolphin-safe tuna!
BEAR! BEAR! Bear!
I’ve got something to say! Don’t be scared!
Bacon is bad! Beef is wrong!
Mad Cow disease stays with you for a time that’s long!
I want you to be mine, can’t you see?
That’s why I’m down, down on my knee!
It may not yet be legal,
but it’s better than eating a beagle,
so won’t you please marry me?
SHE WOULD have said that family is all a person needs
and it wouldn’t matter if they’re near or far.
All that matters is the lesson we must heed:
to know that this is us, that this is who we are.
NO. ABSOLUTELY not. No way.
I know what you’re thinking: But, Tj! You could continue this! THERE COULD TOTALLY BE MORE.
Nope.
There will not be BOATK: The Next Generation, with Bear and Otter as the wizened old parents and Ty as the epic uncle, watching these kids grow up and find their way.
(Goddammit. That gave me ideas.)
It’s time, folks. It’s time for me to close this door. It’s time for me to say goodbye. These guys have been with me for the better part of a decade, and have given me more than I ever thought possible.
But even before I sat down to write this book, I knew that this was going to be the end. Because it does need to end, even if we don’t want it to. Just remember, though: it’s not about the destination. It’s about the long and winding road that took us there.
And I will remember that road always.
More from TJ Klune
Three years ago, Bear McKenna’s mother took off for parts unknown with her new boyfriend, leaving Bear to raise his six-year-old brother Tyson, aka the Kid. Somehow they’ve muddled through, but since he’s totally devoted to the Kid, Bear isn’t actually doing much living—with a few exceptions, he’s retreated from the world, and he’s mostly okay with that. Until Otter comes home.
Otter is Bear’s best friend’s older brother, and as they’ve done for their whole lives, Bear and Otter crash and collide in ways neither expect. This time, though, there’s nowhere to run from the depth of emotion between them. Bear still believes his place is as the Kid’s guardian, but he can’t help thinking there could be something more for him in the world… something or someone.
Sequel to Bear, Otter, and the Kid
Bear, Otter, and the Kid survived last summer with their hearts and souls intact. They’ve moved into the Green Monstrosity, and Bear is finally able to admit his love for the man who saved him from himself.
But that’s not the end of their story. How could it be?
The boys find that life doesn’t stop just because they got their happily ever after. There’s still the custody battle for the Kid. The return of Otter’s parents. A first trip to a gay bar. The Kid goes to therapy, and Mrs. Paquinn decides that Bigfoot is real. Anna and Creed do… well, whatever it is Anna and Creed do. There are newfound jealousies, the return of old enemies, bad poetry, and misanthropic seagulls. And through it all, Bear struggles to understand his mother’s abandonment of him and his brother, only to delve deeper into their shared past. What he finds there will alter their lives forever and help him realize what it’ll take to become who they’re supposed to be.
Family is not always defined by blood. It’s defined by those who make us whole—those who make us who we are.
Sequel to Who We Are
Tyson Thompson graduated high school at sixteen and left the town of Seafare, Oregon, bound for what he assumed would be bigger and better things. He soon found out the real world has teeth, and he returns to the coast with four years of failure, addiction, and a diagnosis of panic disorder trailing behind him. His brother, Bear, and his brother’s husband, Otter, believe coming home is exactly what Tyson needs to find himself again. Surrounded by family in the Green Monstrosity, Tyson attempts to put the pieces of his broken life back together.
But shortly after he arrives home, Tyson comes face to face with inevitability in the form of his childhood friend and first love, Dominic Miller, who he hasn’t seen since the day he left Seafare. As their paths cross, old wounds reopen, new secrets are revealed, and Tyson discovers there is more to his own story than he was told all those years ago.
In a sea of familiar faces, new friends, and the memories of a mother’s devastating choice, Tyson will learn that in order to have any hope for a future, he must fight the ghosts of his past.
Once upon a time, in an alleyway in the slums of the City Of Lockes, a young and somewhat lonely boy named Sam Haversford turns a group of teenage douchebags into stone completely by accident.
Of course, this catches the attention of a higher power, and Sam’s pulled from the only world he knows to become an apprentice to the King’s Wizard, Morgan of Shadows.
When Sam’s fourteen, he enters the Dark Woods and returns with Gary, the hornless gay unicorn, and a half-giant named Tiggy, earning the moniker Sam of Wilds.
At fifteen, Sam learns what love truly is when a new knight arrives at the castle—Knight Ryan Foxheart, the dreamiest dream to have ever been dreamed.
Naturally, it all goes to hell when Ryan dates the reprehensible Prince Justin, Sam can’t control his magic, a sexually aggressive dragon kidnaps the prince, and the King sends them on an epic quest to save Ryan’s boyfriend, all while Sam falls more in love with someone he can never have.
Or so he thinks.
It begins with a message that David cannot ignore:
I want to see you.
He agrees, and on a cold winter’s night, David and Phillip will come together to sift through the wreckage of the memory of a life no longer lived.
David is burdened, carrying with him the heavy guilt of the past six years upon his shoulders.
Phillip offers redemption.
Readers love the Bear, Otter, and the Kid Chronicles by TJ Klune
Bear, Otter, and the Kid
“TJ Klune, you (and your boys) sure know your way to a girl’s heart. Because they’ve captured mine.”
—Maryse’s Book Blog
“Touching and poignant! You can’t fake that type of emotion and Klune manipulates emotion to his whim, taking the reader on a journey that many won’t ever forget.”
—Under the Covers Book Blog
Who We Are
“Intense, dramatic, passionate, endearing and realistic… they will pull you in and you’ll get completely lost…”
—MM Good Book Reviews
“I can’t thank TJ Klune nearly enough for bringing me this world which centers me and where I feel at peace, even through the drama, the tears, the laughter, the grief, the anger, and the love.”
—Rainbow Book Reviews
The Art of Breathing
“…you cannot read TJ Klune’s prose without fully understanding the emotional tidal wave that these l
ovable, loving people experience.”
—Prism Book Alliance
“Another outstanding addition to the Bear, Otter, and the Kid world. I can’t wait to see where our favorite family goes next.”
—On Top Down Under
When TJ KLUNE was eight, he picked up a pen and paper and began to write his first story (which turned out to be his own sweeping epic version of the video game Super Metroid—he didn’t think the game ended very well and wanted to offer his own take on it. He never heard back from the video-game company, much to his chagrin). Now, over two decades later, the cast of characters in his head have only gotten louder. But that’s okay, because he’s recently become a full-time writer and can give them the time they deserve.
Since being published, TJ has won the Lambda Literary Award for Best Gay Romance, fought off three lions that threatened to attack him and his village, and was chosen by Amazon as having written one of the best GLBT books of 2011.
And one of those things isn’t true.
(It’s the lion thing. The lion thing isn’t true.)
Facebook: TJ Klune
Blog: tjklunebooks.com
Email:
[email protected] By TJ Klune
Burn
How to Be a Normal Person
Into This River I Drown
John & Jackie
Murmuration
Olive Juice
Wolfsong
AT FIRST SIGHT
Tell Me It’s Real
The Queen & the Homo Jock King
Until You
BEAR, OTTER, AND THE KID CHRONICLES
Bear, Otter, and the Kid
Who We Are
The Art of Breathing
The Long and Winding Road
TALES FROM VERANIA
The Lightning-Struck Heart
A Destiny of Dragons
Published by DREAMSPINNER PRESS
www.dreamspinnerpress.com
Published by
DREAMSPINNER PRESS
5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886 USA
www.dreamspinnerpress.com
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of author imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
The Long and Winding Road
© 2017 TJ Klune.
Cover Art
© 2017 Paul Richmond.
http://www.paulrichmondstudio.com
Cover content is for illustrative purposes only and any person depicted on the cover is a model.
All rights reserved. This book is licensed to the original purchaser only. Duplication or distribution via any means is illegal and a violation of international copyright law, subject to criminal prosecution and upon conviction, fines, and/or imprisonment. Any eBook format cannot be legally loaned or given to others. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the Publisher, except where permitted by law. To request permission and all other inquiries, contact Dreamspinner Press, 5032 Capital Circle SW, Suite 2, PMB# 279, Tallahassee, FL 32305-7886, USA, or www.dreamspinnerpress.com.
ISBN: 978-1-63533-680-1
Digital ISBN: 978-1-63533-681-8
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017904536
Published August 2017
v. 1.0
Printed in the United States of America
T. J. Klune, The Long and Winding Road
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