Page 17 of You Otter Know
“I was. We were so down-trodden, I guess would be the best word, when we figured out it wasn’t going to happen. And then now it’s back to being good, right?”
Bohdi loved this.
He’d always thought he wouldn’t.
When his mom was begging him to get married and have babies, he had always thought he couldn’t imagine being married and having to put up with somebody else all the time. But sharing these little details of life made him smile constantly. He loved it.
He loved River, and he really felt like they were becoming a couple. They were learning everything about each other — their likes and dislikes, from horror movies to peanut butter and jelly, or grilled cheese and weird soup that wasn’t tomato, to what side of the bed they liked to sleep on, and the fact that he liked to have two comforters while River only needed one.
By the time they got the soup heated up and the grilled cheese made, he’d also opened a couple of cans of clams and oysters. They were having a little feast with some saltines, the shellfish, the soup, and the sandwiches. It was perfect.
“Thank you for indulging me. I was having a terrible craving.” Bodie said he was learning that when the baby wantedsomething, he didn’t get to say no, he just had to go with it and hope they had whatever he wanted.
River bent across the way and kissed him on the nose, grinning at him. “No problem, baby. You know I enjoy spending time with you no matter what we’re doing. And I love providing you with what you need.”
He popped another cracker with an oyster on it into his mouth. “Such an alpha.”
“I am. It doesn’t help you that I’m Brazilian, too. We get a little chest-thumpy.”
“Good thing I happen to like chest-thumpy.” He did, too. He thought River was brilliant, and he hadn’t met River’s folks yet, but he’d talked to them on Zoom and they were hilarious. And River’s dad’s accent was amazing.
“Mmm, definitely a good thing for me”. River reached out and wiped a little bit of detritus off of his lower lip, which made him tingle. “Now, finish up your soup before it gets cold.”
“Thanks, love.” He ate his grilled cheese too because that was the yummiest thing ever. Crispy, gooey, and just right with the soup.
He was still getting used to them being together, living with each other, and being pregnant too, but Bodie was more and more confident all the time that it was a good thing, and that they were going to make this work. He could only hope though that his children didn’t have the same affliction he did, and they would learn to shift.
He didn’t want to put that on anybody, especially his kids.
Chapter
Ten
River grabbed the laundry basket and headed for the bedroom where he would get the laundry out of the hamper and take it back to wash it. Bodhi was great at dishes and vacuuming and taking out the trash, but he sucked at laundry. And River was kind of particular about how everything was folded.
Humming, River boogied on into the bedroom, finding the bed empty, which was unexpected. He really thought Bodhi was still asleep. The changes in his body were making him super tired, and he tended to nap quite a bit these days.
He shrugged, making his way to the bathroom to empty out the hamper. Still doing a little bit of a samba step, when he popped back out into the bedroom, he almost screamed like a little girl because in the middle of the bed was a river otter, curled up in a tight little ball, sleeping for all it was worth.
He dropped a basket of laundry on his foot, then cursed, jumping around like an idiot, his toes throbbing.
The otter in the middle of the bed jumped up, taking a defensive stance facing him, and hissed.
“Bodhi? Is that you?” It had to be Bohdi. Who else could it be? And he was a beautiful, sleek little river otter. There was amixture of dark brown, gray, and cream, and his bright brown eyes were fringed with black lashes. His little white whiskers just twitched for all he was worth as his tail lashed on the bed. The tail was stunning, perfectly positioned to swim like the devil.
“It’s okay, it’s just me. It’s River.” He held his hands up, smiling. “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to scare you. Look how beautiful you are.”
He knew Bohdi didn’t think he shifted, but he certainly did. Maybe this was the first time. If it was, it might be hard for him to get back to human, so River needed to be patient. But maybe it was the hormones from the baby or having to know how to protect the baby. He wasn’t sure. He didn’t know if it really mattered. He just knew that he thought otter Bohdi was the most amazing thing he’d ever seen.
Bohdi sniffed the air, those whiskers twitching wildly. The front paws tapped on the sheets with their little toe beans. River had to laugh because in his otter form, he would be at least twice Bohdi’s size.
He gave up on the laundry and shifted before scrambling over to the bed and crawling up to curl around Bodhi, who immediately relaxed as soon as he did.
He chittered at Bodhi. Finally, finally he could hear Bodhi in his mind after all this time, something that his parents had told him he should be able to do right away.
I shifted!
Oh, baby, look at you. You’re amazing.
