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Emmett and Drew scheduled a trip to Gulfport, Mississippi for a few days to relax before going to Hazlehurst. Gulfport was a beautiful beach town, and Lyla and Sawyer loved playing in the sand and wading in the ocean. The family got a few dirty looks from some of the other tourists, but they ignored them, as they were unfortunately used to that kind of treatment outside of gay-friendly areas.

After their visit to Gulfport, they rented a car and drove the three hours north to Hazelhurst. Emmett had let his Aunt Lula know they were coming and the old lady was waiting for them at the door when they approached the front porch.

"Oh my goodness, look who's here!" Lula yelled when she saw Emmett, grabbing him in a big hug. "How ya doin', darlin'?"

"I'm finer than a frog hair split three ways," he replied, earning a raised eyebrow from his fiance at hearing the funny Southern expression and the pronounced twang in his voice.

Lula then looked down and saw Lyla and Sawyer standing beside their daddy.

"Oh, would ya look at these beautiful babies!" she said as she knelt down to see them. "Even more beautiful than the pictures ya sent me."

"Kids, this is your Great Aunt Lula," Emmett said, looking at his favorite aunt. "Why don't you give her a hug?"

Lyla and Sawyer both threw their arms around her neck and the old lady burst into tears.

"Finally meetin' yer babies makes me happier than a tornado in a trailer park," she said to her favorite nephew.

Lula stood up a minute later to greet Drew. "And you must be the world-famous Drewsie."

Drew chuckled. "That would be me."

He was then nearly smothered when the five-foot-nothing Lula pulled him down to her large bosom for a hug, much like one of Debbie's hugs.

Having said hello to everyone, Lula opened the door for them to go into her house. "Ya'll get inside now, it's hotter than a billy goat in a pepper patch out here."

Lula had a pitcher of sweet tea and a plate of snickerdoodles sitting out on the coffee table for them. The kids looked to their fathers, silently asking permission to take a cookie.

"Make yourselves at home, little darlins'!" Lula said to them. "Yer daddy spent more time in this house growin' up than he did in his own. He'd scream like an angry rooster if I didn't have snickerdoodles made for him, wouldn't ya, Bubbles?"

"Yes, I would," Emmett confirmed as he handed a cookie to each of his children.

"Bubbles?" Drew questioned.

"I call ‘em that on account of his bubbly personality," Lula explained.

Drew smiled at his fiance. "It certainly fits."

Everyone suddenly heard the toilet flush down the hall.

"Who's that?" Emmett asked.

Lula smiled. "You'll see soon... just depends on whether or not she's kept her southern manners from traveling all over the world and washes her hands after she takes the Browns to the Superbowl."

A beautiful brunette walked into the living room a minute later.

"Holy shit!" the lady yelled before running over to Emmett and throwing herself in his arms. "What the fuck ya doing here, Bubbles? I ain't seen ya since dirt was young."

Emmett lifted the short, thin lady off the floor and spun her around as he hugged her. "I was about to ask you the same thing!"

"I came to visit Mama for a few days before my next job. I'ma be gone to Japan for a couple months."

"Damn Sticks, you sure do get around this big ol' world!" the tall queen replied, wiping tears. "Weren't you just in Antarctica, taking pictures of penguins or something?"

"Naw, that was last year. I just got in from Greece last night. If ya ever get the chance to go to Athens, ya should."

"Papa, who's that lady?" Lyla asked Drew, wanting to know why her daddy was crying.

"I'm wondering the same thing," he said to his daughter.

"Rebecca Sue, are ya gonna introduce yourself to our guests or are ya gonna brag ‘bout that fancy job of yers all day?" Lula said to her daughter.

Emmett finally let her go and turned to his family sitting on the couch. "Guys, this is Cousin Reba. Reba, this is-"

"Good Lord, he's even hotter in person!" Reba yelled after seeing Drew. "Too bad yer gayer than Liberace singing a duet with Elton John or else I'd take a crack at ya myself! I remember seeing ya kissin' Bubbles on Sports Center when ya came out. I tell ya what, that set tongues a waggin' ‘round here for months!"

Drew, having quickly learned that the standard greeting down south was a hug, wrapped his arms around Reba as he laughed at her comment. "It's great to finally meet you, Cousin Reba. Emmett's told me all about you."

"Uh oh," Reba said. "I hope some of it was good."

Drew smiled. "Of course it was. I'm glad you're here too Reba, because we have an announcement to make. Emmett and I are getting married, and we would love it if you could both be there. Each of you are important people in Emmett's life and it wouldn't be the same without you. We're having our wedding at a friend's house just outside of Pittsburgh on Halloween."

"That's great. I'll be back in the country from my job assignment by then," Reba answered before going over to visit with Lyla and Sawyer.

"Wouldn't miss it for the world," Lula said. "Ya'll didn't have to come all the way down here to tell me ya was gettin' hitched, ya know, although I love havin' ya here fer a visit."

Emmett looked down at his lap. "We mostly came down to talk to my folks, to see if they'd want to come to the wedding."

Lula's eyes widened. "Well, I wouldn't hold my breath over that request. I ain't talked to yer daddy in a month of Sundays, but I'm sure he's still the same hateful old cuss he always was. I still don't fergive him for running ya out of town like he did all those years ago, just ‘cause you're different. He's plum ignorant and dumber ‘n a box of rocks... no surprise that he didn't make it past the sixth grade. Can't believe we're related."

"Do you mind watching the kids while Drew and I go over there? I really don't want to expose them to any more negativity than necessary."

"I'd love to watch them babies for ya!" Lula happily answered. "I might could have a photo album or two ‘round here I can show ‘em, full up o' pictures of ya when ya was a pup."

"And I'm sure I could think of a story or five to tell ‘em," Reba said, winking.

"Oh God," Emmett said, covering his eyes as he recalled what a goofy kid he had been. "Alright, we'd better go before I chicken out. Be good while me and Papa are gone, kiddos."

Emmett drove himself and Drew to a small farm about two miles away from Lula's house. What was once a field full of cabbage was now nothing but cracked dirt and brown weeds. The three-bedroom house looked like it was about to collapse.

"Home sweet home," Emmett mumbled as he parked behind a rusted old Ford truck. "Fuck, I'm more nervous than a long-tailed cat in a room full of rockin' chairs."

Drew chuckled. "Less than one hour here and you sound like you never left."

"You can take the boy out of the South..." Emmett said with a smile.

Hearing a car drive up, Emmett's parents came out on the rickety porch. When they saw who it was, they glared at their son and his beau.

"Whatcha think yer doin' here, boy?" Arlee Honeycutt drawled. "Ya ain't wanted here no more than ya was b'fore."

"Mama, Daddy, I just wanted to introduce you to someone," Emmett told his parents. "This is Drew Boyd, my fiance. You probably recognize him, since he used to play for the Pittsburgh Ironmen. Do you still watch football, Daddy?"

"Good Lord, will ya listen to the Yankee accent on you! Didja think bringin' anotha fudge packin' faggot down here was gunna impress us, boy? I don't give a shit dat he used to play football, he's nothin but a disgrace to the game. You ain't got the brains of a slug iffen you thought dat."

Sadie Honeycutt just stood beside her husband, shaking her head at her son for letting his father say whatever he wanted.

"Youse can just take your highfalutin asses and go back to wherever your kind goes. No one wants you or your kind hangin' round these parts, so don'cha even think we're gonna invite you in. We don't need no fag germs in ‘r home."

Emmett ignored his father and looked over at his mother. "Hey, Mama. You're looking well... glad you got over that pneumonia you had last winter. You ought to come over to Lula's house with us to meet your grandbabies."

"How the hell you got babies boy, you got one of dem sex operations?" Arlee questioned.

Still ignoring his father, Emmett addressed his mother. "Mama, we adopted a little girl from Pakistan and a little boy from South Korea. Lyla is six and Sawyer is three."

Arlee threw his hands in the air. "What the hell, boy? Bad enough you got kids, they ain't even ‘Mericans! Least ya coulda did was fake it and marry a woman, had some kids the old-fashioned way. Git yer ass off my land ‘fore I git the shotgun and git rid of ya like I shouda dun long ago!"

With that, Arlee turned and went inside, slamming the screen door.

Sadie just stood there, staring at her feet as Drew cautiously stepped off the porch, not knowing if the old man was serious.

"Mama?" Emmett asked, hoping that his timid mother had toughened up over the years. "I was hoping you would want to come to our wedding in Pittsburgh on Halloween. I'll buy you a plane ticket and put you up in a fancy hotel."

"I'm sorry, honey," she mumbled before turning her back on her son and following after her husband.

Emmett walked back to the car. Getting in the passenger seat, he bowed his head and let the tears flow.

Drew got in and started the car. He then drove down the road and pulled over. Turning to his fiance, he pulled him into his arms and let him cry on his chest.

"Emmett, I love you so much. You are the strongest person I've ever met. To overcome that and become the man you are today certainly took more strength than I could ever have."

Emmett gave Drew a kiss and sat back in his seat. "Let's get back to Lula's. It's hotter than the hinges on the door to Hell out here."

The kids were having a blast at Lula's house. They were running through the sprinkler and sliding around on the wet grass, giggling like crazy. Lula was trying to get them to run off some of the sugar from her tea and cookies so they would nap before dinner.

She hoped that things had gone well at her brother's house, but she doubted that it was possible. She loved her nephew with all her heart and hated for him to be hurt, especially by the two people who should love him most.  

Emmett and Drew got out of the car and walked onto the porch, where Lula stood up from the porch swing to greet them. Emmett shook his head at her sadly and Lula hugged him.

"I'm makin' beef stew and biscuits for supper tonight," she said, knowing how much he loved her stew. "Do you want to help me chop the vegetables, like ya used to?"

Emmett kissed his aunt on her forehead and led her into the house. Drew and Reba corralled the kids and carried them into the bathroom to dry off.

As they prepared the stew, Emmett told Lula what had happened when he went to see his parents. She shook her head in disgust.

"That man ain't got the sense God gave a tick, Bubbles. I'll never understand how he could hate ya for bein' the way God made ya. He nearly bit my head off before when I told him that he was the one who produced a gay son. Well, ya know that Reba and I love ya just the way ya are, and Drew and those babies are just the icin' on the cake. From the way ya tell it, it sounds like ya got lots of people back home who are on your side. Ya rose above everything ya were given and I couldn't be prouder if I had given birth to ya myself."

"I always wished that you had, you know," Emmett said, thinking about his yellow-bellied mother.

"Ya wouldn't know it now, but yer mama was the smartest, prettiest girl in high school. She coulda had any boy in town she wanted, but she chose my dumbass brother. I can't count the number of times I told Sadie to leave that man over the years, but she wouldn't listen. I swear, she exchanged her backbone and her brain for her marriage license. She'd just kept on makin' babies with ‘im, diggin' herself in even deeper. Those brothers and sisters of yours ain't hardly worth a damn, neither. Carolyn married an asshole just like your father, livin' out in West Texas, last I heard. Have no idea where Suzanne is, but Gracie married that Campbell boy she dated in high school and moved down to Florida. Billy and Johnny are both in prison for drugs and theft, the dumbasses. Rhett bought the Sterling farm down the road, if you want to go see ‘im."

"No thanks," Emmett said. "All the kin I care about are right here in this house."

Emmett and Lula were finishing prepping the stew when Drew and Reba came into the kitchen after getting the kids down for a short nap.

"You alright, Bubbles?" Reba asked.

"Yeah Sticks, I'm fine." Emmett said, giving his cousin a hug.

"I just have to know, why do you call her ‘Sticks?'" Drew dared to ask.

Emmett cackled as he replied, "Well, Reba was always outspoken and protective-"

Lula snorted. "Was?"

"Is outspoken and protective, but she's always been small. Whenever someone would bother or tease me, she would defend me. She wasn't strong enough to hurt anyone with her fists, but she had great aim and would throw sticks at the bullies like they were darts. Most of the kids were afraid of her, even the ones much older and bigger than her, and they would leave me alone if she was around."

"Yeah, they were lucky I was small," Reba said. "Otherwise I'da beat the breaks off every one of them sumbitches for messin' with my Bubbles."

Drew laughed and shook his head at his fiancee's crazy cousin. He was glad that Emmett had her during his rough childhood.

Emmett, Drew, and the kids spent the next couple of days visiting with Lula and Reba and making plans for when the ladies would come to Pittsburgh in October. Reba happily accepted Emmett's request to stand up at the altar with him when he said his vows.

When they returned home, Emmett called Mae to tell her that his aunt and cousin would be coming to the wedding.

"They're the only blood I have, as far as I'm concerned," Emmett said. "Deb, Carl, and everyone else up here are my real family, along with all of the Boyds now."

"Well, blood may be thicker than water, but love is more important," Mae agreed.    

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