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

“All right,” I said, because I could never refuse her anything. “But I am notsinging this song with you at the First Baptist Nazi Youth Marathon Campfest Radical Christian Soviet Indoctrination Ceremony, or whatever the hell it is.”


“It’s the Youth Explosion,” she explained. “And all you have to do is help me practice so I don’t forget the words. You promised!”


She put the CD into Mama’s player and cranked up the volume.


“Mama doesn’t have a karaoke thingie,” I pointed out.


“Stop making excuses, you old fart,” she chided. “And you brats are the audience,” she added, looking at Josh, Eli, and Noah.


“Shut it, booger breath,” she ordered.


The opening strains of Pharrell Williams’s “Happy” floated out of the stereo, and Mary put on her Pharrell shades—large white sunglasses.


“I don’t even like this song,” I said.


Chapter 49