Wise-cracking Wiley Cantrell is loud and roaringly outrageous -- and he needs to be to keep his deeply religious neighbors and family in the Deep South at bay. A failed writer on food stamps, Wiley works a minimum wage job and barely manages to keep himself and his deaf son, Noah, more than a stone’s throw away from Dumpster-diving. Noah was a meth baby and has the birth defects to prove it. He sees how lonely his father is and tries to help him find a boyfriend while Wiley struggles to help Noah have a relationship with his incarcerated mother, who believes the best way to feed a child is with a slingshot. No wonder Noah becomes Wiley’s biggest supporter when Boston nurse Jackson Ledbetter walks past Wiley’s cash register and sets his sugar tree on fire. Jackson falls like a wet mule wearing concrete boots for Wiley’s sense of humor. And while Wiley represents much of the best of the South, Jackson is hiding a secret that could threaten this new family in the making. When North meets South, the cultural misunderstandings are many, but so are the laughs, and the tears, but, as they say down in Dixie, it’s all good.

Shaking the Sugar Tree

“You see?” he said, holding out both hands and talking like an Italian, “that’s why I like you. Right there. You make me laugh. Not to mention you have the whole Kurt Cobain thing going on.”


“I thought you said I looked like that peckerwood on The Walking Dead,” I pointed out.


“Him too,” he said. “In a scruffy sort of way. I can picture you with a crossbow.”


“Next thing I know you’ll be asking me to wear camo.”


“You’ve obviously never watched Duck Dynasty.”


“I’m just kidding myself,” I said. “I have a child to take care of. I can’t go out on dates with you. I can’t take you to nice places. I can’t be the sort of person you need.”


“I’m glad you know exactly what it takes to make me happy,” he said. “You might want to consult me on that, though.”


Chapter 31