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

“Maybe a little. Old habits die hard.”


“Thing is, I’m not the one who’s dying here, and my last memory—”


“Did I say youwere the one who was dying?”


“Is it about yourlast memory?” he pressed. “Or is it about being with someone on what could be the very last journey they make in this life?”


“Well, you know how to suck the air out of a room, don’t you?”


“Just think about it, will you?”96: Just Tired


The next time I woke, Jackson was standing beside Tony’s bed, dipping a sponge into a bowl of warm, soapy water. I watched as he ran the sponge over Tony’s arms, hands, his chest, and the underside of his jaw.


“I can do that,” I said, standing, wiping sleep from my eyes.


“It’s my job,” he replied. “Besides, he’s my son too.”


“Of course I do. What the hell’s wrong with you?”


“Maybe I’m not as good as you are at getting all emotional and everything, but I’m hurting too, Wiley.”


Chapter 107