When his snobbish future in-laws travel all the way from Boston to visit, wise-cracking Southerner Wiley Cantrell learns gay marriage is not without its disadvantages. He’s preoccupied by concerns over the health of his special needs son Noah, a meth baby who was not expected to live yet is now on the cusp of puberty, and the antics of Wiley's outrageous would-be mother-in-law and severely conservative father-in-law strain his relationship with Jackson Ledbetter, a pediatric nurse who poses problems of his own. As their respective families meet and greet, each just as meddlesome and inflexible as the other, North meets South and the fireworks and cultural misunderstandings are plenty.<br><br>Then a tornado blows through the small Mississippi town where Wiley's mother lives, wrecking his mother's house and leaving their lives in disarray. And Jackson's secret drug addiction comes to light, devastating Wiley and Noah. With so many stones in the road, Wiley and Jackson find their dream of becoming a real family falling apart. Though Wiley relies on humor to cope, he'll need something more to keep his happily ever after from slipping away.

Stones in the Road

“There’s always been a distance between us,” he said simply.


“So he’s gay because you weren’t there for his baseball games?”


“I was there as much as I could be, but my work kept me busy.”


“I’m a psychiatrist. Didn’t Jackson tell you?”


“Anyway,” he said grandly, “there will be plenty of time for talk later once we’ve become acquainted. I must say I’m very curious about Mississippi. It’s a solid red state—and we need all the solid red states we can get.”


“Of course we do. We need people who believe in the American dream and the American values of hard work and self-reliance, not a bunch of moochers on food stamps drowning us in debt.”


“I don’t know if we can take much more of Obama,” he went on. “The man’s not even American.”


I closed my mouth, felt something tighten in my belly. I looked in the rearview mirror and tried to catch Jackson’s eye, but he was busy talking to his mother.


Chapter 5