The Long and Winding Road (The Seafare Chronicles 4)

I frown at her. “You’re not a mistake.”

“I know that. Mom didn’t.”

“Well. Just as long as you know that.”

“You don’t have to worry about me, Bear. My ego isn’t that fragile. I’m not you and Tyson, after all.”

“Hey!” my brother and I say at the same time.

“High-five,” Anna says, and Izzie grins smugly.

“Little sisters are a pain in my ass,” I mutter as I hand Dom more wrapping paper. “And you’re going to be the best aunt ever, so don’t you worry about it.”

She’s pleased, I can tell, but she tries to hide it with a scowl. She’s not very successful, so she picks up the bath station book again and puts it up close to her face.

Anna winks at me, not fooled in the slightest.

“I think that’s everything,” Ty says. “At least for today. Who knows how many other things you’re gonna get between now and when the babies get here.”

“Most of this is coming from Alice and Jerry,” I say. “Apparently, they don’t know the meaning of moderation.”

“They’re grandparents,” Anna says. “It’s sort of in the job description. I guarantee you that JJ has convinced them both that he never gets to have ice cream because his mom and dad are mean, so they’re probably buying him pints and pints of Chunky Monkey. I learned my lesson the hard way with that. Grandparents get to give the kids whatever they want, and then they send them home for the parents to deal with the fallout.”

“Maybe I should have just skipped to being a grandparent,” I say, finally seeing the floor underneath us again. “It sounds easier.”

“Nah,” Anna says. “I’m not going to lie. It’s going to suck for a while. You’ll be cranky and get no sleep, but then one day, your kid won’t pee on the toilet seat or the floor, and it’ll be crazy how proud you are of them. Until they promptly forget the next time and it somehow gets on the wall.”

“JJ sounds like he was a handful when he was little,” Izzie says, turning the page.

“Yeah,” Anna says with a sigh. “This was last week. Apparently, he was pretending his penis was a fire hose because Creed thought it was funny.”

“Bet you wish we hadn’t broken up, huh?” I ask.

I’m offended by how hard she laughs at that.

And how long it goes on for.

And how she cries a little too.

“That was a bit of an overreaction,” I mumble.

That sets her off all over again, so I throw wrapping paper at her face, which leads to Izzie throwing some at me, and then Tyson and Dom randomly start making out and we all yell at them for being so disgusting.

It’s nice.

TY AND Izzie are in the backyard, Izzie showing off the bug finding kit. Tyson looked a little green at the thought, but he let himself be pulled outside, but not before he kissed his boyfriend, who had to go get ready to go on duty. He was working the two-to-midnight shift this summer, in hopes that he can get an earlier shift once Ty starts school so they’re at least able to see each other in the evenings. I have faith they’ll work it out somehow.

Ty had kissed his cheek and whispered that he better come home in one piece, something that I gathered was said every time Dom left for work. I worry about him when he’s on duty, of course, but I can’t imagine what it must be like for Tyson. But Dom is doing what he’s always wanted to do, and no one can begrudge him that.

So it’s just Anna and me at the table, our tea cooling in mugs in our hands. It’s been a while since it’s just the two of us, and I don’t know how often we’re going to be able to do this once the twins come.

For a long time, Anna and I had this… weirdness… between us. Most of it had to do with Otter’s homecoming and everything that happened after. I hadn’t handled things the way I should have, and it took a while for us to get back on an even keel. But she stuck by me, even when I didn’t think I deserved it, so I must have done something right to have her still want to be by my side after all these years.

Family is funny like that, I guess. Our pasts are woven together so much that I don’t know that we could ever be torn apart.

“You and Creed good?” I ask her.

“We’re fine, Papa Bear,” she says. “He makes me want to pull my hair out nine days out of ten, but then he always makes up for it on the tenth day.”