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

“Someone should be right with you,” I lied.


“Bullshit, ‘someone.’ You’re with us. You help us.”


A chorus of ‘yeah’ and ‘help us’ and, alas, ‘faggot’ rose up from the throng. My suitcase had already slid through the X-ray machine and I was feet from the 'belligerent jerk-free zone' of the concourse.


“Look,” I said, neither unreasonably nor untruthfully, “I can’t help you. I don’t know what’s going on, either. If I knew anything, I’d tell it to you, but I don’t. All I really do know is that you’re probablynot going to Curacao today. At least not on us.”


“Bullshit!” he yelled again. “Then where are you going? Why are you even here? You’re one of them male stewardesses, aren’t you? Why are you here if there’s no flights?”


“The hell you are! Don’t you walk away from me! Get someone out here to help us right now! I demand to speak to the president of the airline!”


Chapter 15