Bear, Otter, and the Kid (The Seafare Chronicles 1)

I wondered if Miz Erica Sharp of Weiss, Goldstein, and Eddington had a gun in her desk that she would have been willing to let me borrow it so I could put myself out of my misery.

“Threatened?” Erica asked, the smile in her voice gone.

“Uh, yeah. You could say that.”

She leaned forward again and frowned. “Bear, she either did or she didn’t. What did she threaten you with?”

I was silent. I didn’t know what I was going to say to this person who, till roughly twenty minutes before, had been a complete stranger. It took me months to tell the closest people in my life, and I had to just spill it out to this woman who was looking at me like I was some new species of bug? I was silent. Silent, that is, until the Kid got up from his seat and walked around my chair, pushing my arms out of my lap, and crawled up onto me and leaned in to whisper, “Papa Bear. I need you to do this. Otter needs you to do this.”

I dare you to try and fight those sweet, sweet words.

I looked over the Kid’s shoulder at Erica as I wrapped my arms around him. Her eyes softened, and she watched us closely. “She threatened to take the Kid away if I didn’t break up with my boyfriend.”

“And what did you do?” Erica asked, her voice flat.

I squeezed my eyes shut. “I broke up with my boyfriend.”

“I see. And how did your boyfriend react to all of this?”

“I, uh. I didn’t tell him it was because of her.”

She snorted. “I take it that it didn’t go well?”

“That’s an understatement,” Creed muttered.

“You’ll have to forgive Creed,” Mrs. Paquinn said. “Bear’s boyfriend is his brother.”

Erica stared at us. “I see.”

“And Anna is Bear’s ex-girlfriend,” Creed said.

“And Creed is Bear’s best friend,” Anna explained.

“And I’m Mrs. Paquinn,” Mrs. Paquinn exclaimed triumphantly.

“This is for Otter as much as it is for me,” the Kid said.

“Otter?” Erica asked.

“Bear’s boyfriend, Creed’s brother,” Mrs. Paquinn said patiently.

“Bear and Otter?” Erica asked. To her credit, she didn’t look confused at all.

“Bear and Otter,” everyone agreed.

“And why is this for him as much as for Tyson?”

“Because Bear’s got it in his head that he can’t get Otter back until the Kid is safe,” Creed said.

“And Bear, ever the idiot, shouldn’t have even broken up with him in the first place. At least not without explaining what was really going on,” Anna said. Then she added, “I should know. We broke up because he couldn’t tell me he was in love with Otter.”

“We did not,” I growled. “We broke up because I lied to you.”

“About being in love with Otter,” Anna, Creed, Mrs. Paquinn, and the Kid all said.

“This situation’s not as complicated as it sounds,” I said to Erica, who was still staring.

The Kid laughed. “No, it’s a lot worse. Bear and Otter are meant to be together, but Bear won’t do anything about it until he makes sure that our mom won’t take me away.”