16. Hugo

SIXTEEN

HUGO

“Hard to believe a year ago you were still in Daddy’s belly”

I blew raspberries on my son’s tummy as he giggled and kicked his legs. I finished putting on his diaper—I’d become an expert in the last 364 days—and could undo, wipe, put on diaper cream, and get a clean diaper done up in less than a minute. I figured I could try for a world record in one of those diaper-fastening competitions.

I’d finished dressing Julius, my precious Little Bear, when Ferris poked his head in the nursery. “Ready?”

“How’d I do?”

“Awww. He looks so cute.” Ferris picked up Julius and kissed him. Our son snuggled against my mate’s chest. “Hello, Little Bear.”

The nickname we’d given Julius before he was born kinda stuck. And while we wouldn’t find out for sure if he was a bear shifter, my beast insisted he was, saying he could scent his beast who was in a deep sleep.

We weren’t doing a formal birthday party but meeting Charlie and Hector on the beach. They were setting up an umbrella and bringing most of the food, while my mate and I had baked a cake. A chocolate cake with honey and lots of frosting.

I shook the snow globe at Little Bear, the one I’d had made especially. It contained a miniature house, plus two dads and a baby.

“Don’t forget the ears.” Ferris scooped up the baby bag and headed for the front door.

Before I met Ferris, I’d never considered mating a human. Not that I was against it, but I assumed if I met my fated mate, he’d be a shifter. Not necessarily a bear, but he’d have had a beast inside him. But I couldn’t imagine a shifter being any more accommodating with my honey obsession and love of all things bear than my human mate.

“How do I look?” I popped on my bear ears, then got the smaller pair for our Little Bear and adjusted them. “How do we look? Cute?” I took our son from my mate.

“Beyond cute. Adorable.” Ferris snapped a pic.

“Your turn.” I handed my mate his ears, and he put his at a jaunty angle and posed while I took his photo.

When we arrived at the beach, I got all of the baby’s paraphernalia out of the car. Who knew tiny people needed so much stuff? And so many clothes.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Charlie whined as he lay on a towel under the umbrella, a large sun hat over his head.

Our friend was pregnant and suffering terrible nausea. He lifted the hat and glowered at my mate.

“You were with me the day I found out!” Ferris dug in his bag and handed Charlie ginger candy. “This will help.”

“Doubt it.” Charlie sat up and sucked the hard candy. “Not until the baby is in my arms.”

“Anyone hungry?” Hector held out a plate of bear-shaped sandwiches, and poor Charlie turned green.

“Maybe you should stay home this afternoon.” Ferris munched on a sandwich and broke off a little for our son.

“No. I want to come. Maybe the lower temperature will make me feel better.”

“If we want to get to our second activity, we should get this first one started.” I handed Hector my phone.

“Stay here, sweetheart.” My friend lifted his mate’s hat, kissed him, and replaced the hat. “Love you.”

“Love you too,” Charlie mumbled.

Ferris rubbed sunscreen on Little Bear’s face, but our son didn’t like it and squirmed. I sang his favorite song and bounced him on my knee while my mate placed a hat on him. Ferris bopped our son on his head, put on Julius’s life vest, and pronounced him ready.

My mate grabbed the tandem surfboard as onlookers oohed and ahhed about us in wetsuits and wearing our bear ears. They took pics, and Ferris waved as if he was a celebrity. More people gathered. I was the PR guy and yet I was weirded out by all the attention my family was getting.

“Maybe we shouldn’t have worn the ears.”

What? How can you say that?

Seriously? You’re the one who always complains about the fake ears and paws .

Yeah, but I’m not about to put on a wetsuit and get on that damned board .

Instead of paddling out, my mate had to swim beside the board because I sat on it with our Little Bear against my chest in a baby carrier. Julius kicked his little legs and gurgled as we bounced over the ocean.

“This is far enough.”

My mate turned the board around, got on it behind us, and waited. “Okay, here comes a wave.” He paddled, then stood up, and wobbled a little. I held Little Bear tightly, and we caught the wave.

Little Bear loved the water, and this wasn’t his first time on a surfboard. But we planned on doing a video every birthday with us as a family.

“That was so cool.” Hector rewound the video for us. “I hope Charlie will teach our son to surf.”

“Charlie might never stand up and not feel dizzy again at this rate.” Ferris’s bestie was attempting to sit up.

“You don’t need to come with us.” Ferris put an arm around Charlie’s shoulder. “Go home. Ernest and Josie have the shop under control, and Jake is taking today’s lessons.”

“No, I want to come with you. It’s the start of a new tradition.”

“Okay.” Ferris put his head against Charlie’s. “I’m glad you’ll be there.”

Looking at their close friendship, I got all warm and melty inside, hoping Little Bear and Hector and Charlie’s child would be as good friends as their dads were.

“We’ll meet you there.” I waved to our friends as we headed to the car. We had to go home and shower and change from our wetsuits into something more suitable to where we were going.

Ferris and I had worked out a schedule in conjunction with Hector and Charlie. While we lived at the beach most of the year, we had agreed to spend some time in Hector’s and my hometown.

Charlie and Ferris’s business now had enough employees that they could take a month off over the Christmas season. And my PR work slowed over the holidays. Hector had left the restaurant and had a food truck business. It was a huge success, and he now had four trucks. Again, he had reached a point where he could take time off and his employees would keep the business running.

But as it wasn’t winter, we couldn’t celebrate Julius’s birthday in the snow in my hometown, so we did the next best thing: We were going to Snow World. It was an amusement park with snow slopes, toboggan runs, an ice skating rink, and enough snow to make snowmen and have snowball fights.

We could rent jackets, hats, pants, scarfs, and mittens there, but Ferris always said they were gross because we didn’t know what other people had done to them.

My beast agreed, saying he could scent some of the yuck when we were there last time.

Great, now I’d look at everyone in their rented clothes and think of the big yuck.

We met our friends at the door and showed our tickets on the phones. A blast of cold air hit us in the face.

I’ve decided I’m a coastal bear, not a snow bear .

Were you ever? My beast had always complained about the cold weather.

We weren’t going to take Julius ice-skating. I wasn’t great at it and needed to take lessons before taking my son on the ice. Charlie and Ferris were really good skaters. Not surprising, as surfing required excellent balancing skills.

But there was a gentle toboggan slope, with toboggans suitable for little ones and their parents.

“Look, Little Bear.” I lay down in the snow and flapped my arms and legs. “Snow angels.”

Julius who had just started walking toddled over to me and collapsed on his butt. He lay down and wriggled his arms and legs, giggling the whole time. Ferris lay on the other side of him and made a snow angel. Charlie, who had some color in his cheeks, took pics, and Hector videoed us.

“Time for Julius’s first snowman.”

I placed some snow in my son’s hand, and he tried to eat it. Luckily my shifter reflexes stopped him.

Ewww. My poor bear almost fainted at the thought of Julius putting that in his mouth.

Little Bear crawled over the snow to where the four of us were making a snowman.

“Shells for eyes and mouth.” I pulled them out of my pocket.

“And don’t forget seaweed for his scarf.” Ferris draped the seaweed around the snowman’s neck.

“I remember making your first snowman.” I hugged my mate tight.

Ferris pulled up the pics on his phone. “Me too. I’ll never forget how I met a bear that night.”

“Oh, look. They’re like the three bears,” a little boy called out. “The big bear, the middle sized bear, and the baby bear.”

I’d forgotten we’d put the bear ears over our beanies.

“We are.” Ferris hugged me, and I put an arm around my mate and our little bear. “And we’re all just right.”