SHE eventually got me to go inside her house and told me she needed to clean my hand.

“Where’s Ty?” I asked, ignoring her.

“He’s sleeping on the couch.”

“Are your parents here?” I said as I pushed past her.

“No, they’re still in Portland until tomorrow. Bear, what’s going on? What happened to your mom?” I heard her following me into the living room.

I thrust the letter at her without looking. I felt her take it from my hand. I rounded the corner from the kitchen to the den and saw the Kid asleep on the couch, covered in a SpongeBob SquarePants blanket that Anna had gotten for him for when he came to her house. I reached down and rubbed the top of his head gently, not wanting to wake him. I think that was more for my be

nefit than for his. I hadn’t yet thought of what I was going to say to my almost-six-year-old brother when he woke up. How do you explain to someone that their mom is gone? I still hadn’t even processed it myself yet.

“Bear?” Anna said, her tone worried so I know it hadn’t been the first time she called my name.

“What?” I asked gruffly, not taking my eyes of Ty.

“Your hand… it’s bleeding.”

I looked down. I had forgotten all about it. “Ah, shit.” I winced. Drops of blood were still running down my fingers, dropping onto the carpet. “I’m sorry. Your mom is going to kill me.”

She touched me on the shoulder, urging me to follow her. I took one last look at Ty and followed her to the bathroom. She made me sit on the toilet while she tweezed out broken bits of glass. She asked me what happened. I told her I broke a picture. She nodded and got out the peroxide, and it stung like hell but it didn’t matter. She covered my palm in a heavy bandage and wrapped my entire hand with gauze. She didn’t think I would need stitches. She was cleaning up when the doorbell rang.

“Shit!” she said, scowling. “I told them not to do that. If they’ve woken the Kid….” She rushed out the bathroom door.

“Who?” I asked, following her. For some reason I was scared that she had called the police.

“Get the door. I’ll check on Ty.”

“But—”

“Bear, it’s fine.”

I stared after her and then went to the door. Creed stood on the front stoop, followed closely by Otter.

Creed spoke first, obviously relieved to see me. “What the hell is going on? Anna said something bad happened and to get over here. Where’s the Kid? What happened to your hand? Dude, have you been crying? Why do you smell like barf?”

“Creed, keep your voice down!” Anna hissed, walking back into the kitchen. “You’re lucky you didn’t wake up Ty when you rang the doorbell, dumbass.”

He pretended to look hurt for a moment and then turned back to me. “Well?”

I handed him the letter. Otter read it over his shoulder, page by page, each of them growing identical looks of disbelief as they went on. Otter finished before Creed did and immediately came over to me and wrapped his arms around me. I thought I was all cried out, but a few more slid out as my forehead rested on his shoulder. He didn’t have to say anything as Creed spoke for all of us.

“This is some fucked-up shit right here.”

LATER, we all sat on the floor in the living room, the others talking in hushed tones so as not to wake the Kid. I knew we probably shouldn’t have run the risk of having him hear us as I still had no idea of what I was going to say, but I didn’t want to let him out of my sight. Some irrational part of me kept thinking that if I turned away, even for a second, that he would disappear too. I felt numb as I watched him lay there under SpongeBob, needing a haircut. Well, he needed his mom more, but that didn’t appear to be happening anytime soon.

Anna hovered near me, holding my unmarked hand. Creed and Otter were unwrapping the other, wanting to make sure it didn’t need to be seen to right then. I felt the gauze fall off and heard Otter hiss softly. I didn’t want to look at it because I knew it would depress me more. Apparently, given the years of medical experience between the two of them, my doctors decided it could wait till morning, and I could feel Otter wrapping it back up gently.

Creed sank back onto his elbows. “I hate to state the obvious, but what do we do now?” I couldn’t help but notice how he said we.

Otter rubbed his eyes as if he had a headache. “First thing we gotta do is find out where she ran off to. It said in her letter that Tom got a job somewhere. Bear, do you know where she went? Did she say anything to you in the last couple of days or so? Or did Tom?”

I shook my head.

“Anna, did she say anything to you when she dropped the Kid off?”

Anna thought for a moment. “Not that I can remember. She just asked me if it would be okay if I watched Ty until Bear got off of work. I wasn’t planning on doing anything until then, so I said okay. I don’t even remember if she was with Tom when she did it. If she was, he must have stayed in the car. What about this job, though? Do any of us even know where Tom worked at?”

Tags: T.J. Klune The Seafare Chronicles Romance
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