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

When he was born, the doctors warned me not to get my hopes up, said it would be a miracle if he lived more than three months. Three months came and went, and they extended the deadline to a year. Then it was two years. Then it was five years. Noah kept right on keeping on, oblivious to their deadlines and doubts.


I pushed long blond hair out of his face, and he turned to me in his sleep, putting his arm around my waist, snuggling up to me like he’d done as a small boy. After what we’d been through—the meth-baby rages, the darkness in his soul, the deafness, the health problems, the insecurities, his mother’s rejection and her unexpected death a couple of years back…after we had fought so hard to get to where we were…surely God wouldn’t let it end badly.


Surely God wouldn’t take my boy from me.


The possibility squeezed my insides into a painful knot.


Yes…a small, still voice said in the back of my mind.


Chapter 11