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

“You need anything?” Mama asked. She was dressed in a nightgown and a bathrobe and looked like she was a hundred years old. Her voice was full of something I couldn’t quite grasp. Anger? Despair? Exhaustion?


I struggled to get my shirt off. Mama grabbed hold of it, pulled it up and over my shoulders. The twisting of my arms as I lifted them made my chest seize up with fresh agony.


“Why don’t you take tomorrow off,” she suggested.


“I’ve already missed too many days, Mama,” I said.


She put a hand to her throat, looking at me with cautious but tired eyes. “You need help taking a shower?” she asked.


“You’d have to look at my penis.”


“Why does every conversation have to involve your little penis? Must you always wave it in our faces?”


Chapter 82