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

Thumper sounded stricken when he called out, “Wait, Fox!”


Jeremy, for his part, had the presence of mind to keep his mouth shut and just stand there like an asshole and watch me go. Neither came after me. I would happily have split the lip of anyone who had. 4


My tiny, musty, overstuffed room started closing in on me before I even shut the door, so I jammed my feet into my running shoes and hit the beach. I clamored down the fire exit stairs and out the laundry room door; the better to avoid the lobby and any possibility of running into Jeremy and Thumper. The way I figured it, the ensuing bloodbath would have created unwanted attention for me and unnecessary extra work for whoever it was that would have had to mop up after, so I slunk out the side door undetected and took off.


Chapter 10