Page 118 of Already Callin’ You Mine

“Glam-ma made me it!” he declares, holding on to me.

Glam-ma…be still my heart…

If today gets any more perfect, it might kill me.

“Mornin’, Mama,” Jace greets, wrapping an arm around me and sneaking a kiss. His lips taste of coffee and toothpaste, a weird, but strangely wonderful combination, making my insides flutter. “Y’all get all set up?”

“I think so?” I shrug my free shoulder. “Aunt Dolly isn’t really one for accepting help.”

“I heard that!” Dolly hollers.

“She’s not wrong,” Margeaux mutters behind us.

Jace bites back a laugh, nodding along with the sisters-in-law. He’s told me more than once that he knows better than to insert himself in their business, and I can see why. Margeaux was right when she said they are a formidable group of women. Makes me love and respect him even more.

“Shall we go find Nana and Paps?” I ask Otis. “Show off how cute you look?”

“Yeah!”

“Wave bye to your aunts,” Jace instructs.

Looking over my shoulder, Otis waves. “Bye-bye!”

A chorus of byes disappears into the crowd as we walk away, the chatter of those surrounding us picking up in intensity. Weaving our way toward the starting line and the officials’ tent—which is where my father is assigned to work—Jace slips his hand in mine. As if it’s the most natural thing in the world.

We feel like a real family. A mommy, daddy, and little boy out at a town event. Like everyone else in town. No weird history or awkward dynamics. Nothing but a picture-perfect moment.

Seriously, I don’t see how this could get any better.

“Let me take Little Man,” Jace offers, reaching for Otis before I can even respond. This move is just as natural and instinctual as him taking my hand—which he does again as soon as Otis is settled on his hip. One more thing to add to the list.

“Still thinking about the ForU comment?”

I huff, hating that the answer is yes. “I can’t stop. It’s taken up residence in my brain, and until I figure out a way to make things okay again, I don’t think I’ll stop.”

“Had I known that was all it would take to get you focused on something other than my department, I would have told Brandt to do this weeks ago.”

“Jace!” I playfully knock him with my shoulder, not wanting to hit him too hard. He is holding our kid after all.

Our kid…

“Then again…if it hadn’t been for stranger danger…” He winks. My heart skips, leaving me feeling like a teenager all over again.

“Which reminds me, I need to get some video for our next stranger danger segment while we’re here today.”

“Stranger danger! Stranger danger!” Otis declares.

“That’s right, Little Man, but I’m not a stranger…”

“He is.”

My heart stops at Otis’s words. Who is he talking about? We’re surrounded by strangers. More and more people show up by the second, the crowd almost twice the size as when they got here a few moments ago. So what is making him point out one particular stranger?

“Presley. There you are.”

I freeze. The familiar voice sends a chill down my spine, and not the good kind. This is the kind that makes everything in your body seize and your blood run cold. The kind that makes the little hairs on your arm stand at attention. Which is exactly what mine are doing.

It’s a voice that I haven’t heard in months. Close to a year. One that I never thought I’d hear again. That I am okay with never hearing again.