The Long and Winding Road (The Seafare Chronicles 4)

“You, Otter. Sex.”

“Right. Can we get distracted again?”

She glares at me.

“Fine,” I say with a sigh. “We do make time for each other. I mean, the last time we had sex was… okay. Wait. I know this. Hold on. We did—do hand jobs count? Because I think they count. Since they count, it would have been… I know this. Um.”

“Right,” she says. “And while you’re vacillating, I’m just going to sit here and stare at you until you realize it’s been a while.”

That can’t be right, can it? Sure, we’d been busy preparing for the twins, and Izzie, and just life in general, but it can’t have been that long.

But for the life of me, I can’t even remember. All I can think about is being exhausted or nervous or both.

“Crap.”

“There it is,” Anna says.

“Well, Otter is getting old,” I say. “Maybe it’s harder for him to get it up. And please don’t tell him I said that. I don’t like sleeping on the couch.”

“Right,” Anna says with a snort. “Because Otter doesn’t end up on the couch with you halfway through the night.”

“He doesn’t like sleeping without me,” I say, rubbing the back of my neck. “Even when he’s mad at me.”

She shakes her head. “I know I don’t have to worry about the two of you. You guys are good. You always have been. But you can’t forget to take moments away from all of… this. Pretty soon, it’s not going to be just you and Otter anymore, Bear. You’ve got Izzie now, but then there are going to be two more entirely dependent upon you. You have to be sure to set aside time for each other, or it’s going to get rough. It will get rough.”

I’m starting to form an idea I’m not entirely comfortable with. “You and Creed?”

She sighs. “We had it good the first time. With JJ, we were so damn young that I think it was fear that kept us going. But with AJ, both during and after, I think we… drifted. A little. Away from who we used to be to each other. There was a little while when I didn’t think we were going to make it.”

“What?” I ask, incredulous. “Why am I just hearing about this now? Creed didn’t say anything!”

“I don’t know why he didn’t. He—”

“Why didn’t you?”

“You were going through your own thing. Last summer was a little rough, what with coming home and the Kid and deciding to start your own family. I thought you guys had enough to worry about.”

I reach out and put my hand on top of hers. “You know you can come to me with anything, right?”

She smiles quietly. “I know. But we’re good, Bear. I promise. We decided to start couples counseling, and we’re getting back to each other the way we’re supposed to be. I know we’ll be fine. We just had to do a little work on ourselves. Which is why I’m bringing it up to you. It’s easy to get distracted by everything. You can’t let yourself forget about him. And I know that sounds weird, because you’re married to him, but—just take my word for it, okay? It might seem cheesy to have scheduled dates or scheduled sex, but trust me. You’ll start to look forward to it, because it’ll be something just for the two of you.”

“I’m glad you and Creed are good,” I tell her. “But now I’m about to freak out that Otter and I are going to get divorced because I haven’t gone down on him in three months.”

She sprays tea all over the table this time.

“You’re very classy,” I say solemnly, getting up to get a paper towel.

“You did that on purpose,” she says, tea dripping down her chin.

“You’ll never be able to prove it.”

She takes the paper towel from me and wipes off her face and the table. “See if I give you advice ever again.”

I roll my eyes. “Please. I can just go online to find out how to put the spark back in my marriage. It’s not going to be that hard.”

“Yeah, okay. Let me know how that works for you. And record it, just so I can see what happens.”

“I’m telling Creed you want to watch a sex tape with me and Otter.”