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I’m such a goof. I forgot to write my acknowledgments the first time around with Boston Boys Club so this one will be a little long. So sit back.

A big thank you to my editor, John Scognamiglio, for his patience, kindness, and literary insights. Without John, Boston Boys Club and Miami Manhunt would not be in your hands.

I’d like to thank Juan and Milagros Diaz for supporting their only gay Cuban son even though they can’t read in English. Their support is boundless and not limited to Spanish. A thank you to my sister, Cary, who supports me in her own quiet way.

I’d like to give a shout out to my Boston Boys Club: Antonio DiPierro and my Cuban “loca” Rosco Cortinas for making Beantown feel like home. To my Miami Boys Club: Tom Welhaf and Carlos Castillo; Eric Vasallo and Eric Boylan who make leaving Miami so hard whenever I visit. To the Perez and Cuervos, my big Cuban family in Miami. A special gracias to Maria Sanchez, my loving godmother in Duxbury, Massachusetts. She has been one of my biggest readers since I began writing her letters from Miami when I was a lonely 12-year-old boy.

I want to thank my first creative writing teacher, Ricki Weyhe from Miami Beach High who always pushed me to show more than tell. A big thank you to my first real news editor, Patty Shillington, who saw something in a skinny, curly-haired 16-year-old kid and hired him as an intern at The Miami Herald in high school.

A heartfelt thank you to my old friend Rene Rodriguez, my newspaper mentor and dear friend for the past 10 years, even though we always disagree on movies.

I’d like to dedicate this book to the late Maria Krok, of Miami Beach, who wasn’t just a caring neighbor but who adopted me as one of her grandchildren. She not only invited me into her home every Thanksgiving and Noche Buena for 10 years, but she also invited me into her heart. By her example of helping others, this world is a better place, and I know her favorite granddaughter Cynthia Casanova would agree with me on that.

A huge thank you to la doctora Isabel Gomez-Bassols and her family, the Vasallos, for making me an honorary Vasallo all these years.

A thank you to dear FIU college friend and former Globe intern, summer of 1995, Anne “Martinez” Vasquez for always believing in my talent and looking out for me, especially when I was homesick during our first weeks in Cambridge. Ditto to Joanne Skerrett, another former Globe intern and fellow author.

A special thank you to my dearest friend Ryan Andrews for his unconditional support and love and for all those late-night, long-distance chats these last seven years when I needed to bounce dialogue and some ideas off him.

And last but not least, an infinite thank you: to my blue-eyed “Muggle.”