Fox McHardy leads a charmed life. Puget Sound penthouse, gorgeous boyfriend, jet-setting job -- everything he’s ever wanted, he’s gotten, including the heck out of the small Iowa town he grew up in. Even the trip he takes to Miami to surprise his boyfriend Jeremy is something of a long-shot wish fulfilled. Until he arrives in South Florida. Once things start to unravel, they do so with alarming speed, and he finds himself riding shotgun in a rented convertible with his new sworn enemy faster than he can say, “I want my old life back.” During an unscheduled stop on the cross-country road trip From Hell, Fox passes up a perfectly good opportunity to keep his mouth shut and finds himself planning the town’s first legal gay wedding -- his own, to a man he’s pretty sure he should hate. But someone needs to set a positive example for the queer and questioning youth in this corner of Middle America and, after creatively arranging certain of the facts of his life more attractively, he is proud to offer himself up as a role model. Small Town, USA, steps up; the grooms are widely celebrated, and generous offers of food, flowers, and picture-perfect venues pour in. The only real challenge will be keeping the lies straight and the truth under wraps until they can get out of town.

Crazy Like Fox

We’ve trotted the globe together, strode side by side across seven continents, sailed every ocean. We’ve sipped champagne on the veranda at the Ritz-Carlton and we’ve huddled together under a roadside lean-to eating crickets and rice out of a tin cup. We’ve crisscrossed the Atlantic on the Concorde and we’ve paddled up the Amazon in a hollowed-out log. And when we are home, it’s in a sun-soaked penthouse filled with friends, fresh flowers, and fine wines. We’re at the top of every guest list in Seattle, and people would rather miss their own wedding than one of our parties. Well, she didn’t missit, but she waslate, and it wasn’t until his second Thanksgiving at our house that her new husband finally forgave her. They’re divorced now, and can’t even be civil to each other save at a Jeremy/Fox shindig.


Chapter 6