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

If you’re good, I’ll buy you two potatoes.


You’re a potato,he said, sticking his tongue out at me. 61: Unfortunate Timing


The phone rang that evening as I made spaghetti and meatballs while Jackson and Noah played Xbox in the living room.


“Hello, Wiley,” she said. “I wanted to thank you for coming to the funeral and bringing my grandson.”


“Even so. It was kind of you. And I think we’ve turned a corner with Mr. Warren. He’s been asking me what we should get for Noah’s birthday present, so I thought I’d call you and ask.”


“I’m afraid we’d be…well, it might be uncomfortable. I can’t imagine we’re well-liked in your household.”


Chapter 80