Years have gone by since the death of Noah his special needs son, and Wiley Cantrell realizes it’s time to move on. He and his husband Jackson try to adopt little Tony Gorzola, a deaf boy with HIV who is emotionally traumatized.<br><br>Difficulties quickly set in. Tony is a sweet boy but very damaged by abuse and neglect. And Tony’s mother, in prison, is unwilling to relinquish her parental rights. No sooner do they get the go ahead to foster Tony when another child they had considered becomes available -- the daughter Jackson always wanted.<br><br>With two children on their hands, life is complicated -- wonderfully so. But just as things begin to settle down, Tony, his immune system compromised, falls ill with pneumonia ... and Wiley and Jackson find their little family faced with crisis once again.

Go Tell It on the Mountains

“Look at you,” Jackson said, a smile on his face. “Crushing on your little friend.”


“He really got to you, didn’t he?”


“I miss being a dad. I miss all the boo-boos and the cuts and scrapes and all the noise. Our house is so quiet it makes me want to scream sometimes. Noah was my little wingman, you know. And most of the time we didn’t have anything, but at least we had each other, and that was all right. That was all I needed. Now I walk around half the time and I feel like I’m missing something. It’s like someone chopped off my arm, and I just want to get it back.”


“Sometimes I think you forget that.”


“I’ve never forgotten that, Jack. I wouldn’t have made it without you. You’ve put up with all my shit…”


“Well, yeah, there was a little bit of that.”


Chapter 35