Page 11 of Already Callin’ You Mine

What?

Otis points, doing a little dance in my arms, excitement making his little body vibrate.

“Boo-ey! Boo-ey!”

Boo-ey?! What on earth is Boo-ey?

Then I see it. In fact, it’s damn near impossible to miss.

Perched directly in front of the Hayes fruit stand is a massive blow-up figure of an animated blue dog. A beloved children’s character that even a bachelor like me has heard of.

“Boo-ey!”

Bluey…

Walking toward the booth, Otis still wiggling in my arms, I try and figure out what exactly is going on over here. Sure, it’s the last market of the season, and there is a contest going on, but I’ve never known my brother to participate. Ever.

Today, however, he not only has an inflatable, but he’s wearing a matching T-shirt and hat. It’s like the twilight zone up in here.

“What the fu—" I stop myself before I fully drop the f-bomb, realizing in the nick of time that there are little ears close by. “What on earth are you wearing?”

“Boo-ey!”

“See, the kid knows,” Anton answers. “It’s Bluey.”

“I know who Bluey is. What I don’t understand is why you have him on your chest.”

“Whose kid?” Anton asks, not bothering to give me the explanation I’m clearly looking for.

“You first.”

“Sawyer insisted we needed a theme.”

My brother shrugs, like he had no say in the matter. Which, knowing his fiancée, might be the truth. She’s the only woman on this planet willing to put up with him, the voice of reason to his need to poke and annoy all of us around him. I wouldn’t put it past her that she laid down the law on how this was all going to go down.

“Who is this?” Miss Belle coos, appearing out of nowhere.

A former Miss Georgia, our mother is a Southern belle to the core. Everything she does is graceful and polite, but don’t be fooled—she’ll chew you up and spit you out with nothing more than her words without thinking twice, all with a smile on her face.

More than that though, she’s a mom to the core. And she has never once stopped mothering the seven us—despite the fact that we are all full-grown adults. Four of whom are married. The only difference to her is now she has a son-in-law and three daughters-in-law to mother as well.

“Otis,” I answer. “Little man, this is Miss Belle, my mama. Can you say hi?”

“Hi!” Outstretching a little hand, he waves, once more melting my heart.

“Well, hello, Otis. You look like you’re all wet.”

“I played with duckies.”

“Did you now…”

“He climbed into the duckie pool in front of the Grain Store tent, and we aren’t sure where his parents are, so I thought maybe we could have a cinnamon roll while we try to figure that out.”

“Oh, goodness. Yes, let’s get you a snack,” Miss Belle says, her voice changing pitch as she talks to Otis.

I kneel down, ready to let Otis go off with Mama, giving her the chance to play grandma for a moment. Now that some of my siblings have settled down, both she and my father have taken to not so subtly hinting that they are ready for new titles any day now. Giving her a little one to play with for a bit should help that grandma fever. Unless it makes it worse.

In which case, I’m going to have to come up with a damn good apology to my siblings.