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

“Where? Southwest? So I can sling drinks off of a tray on ten forty-five minute legs a day? I said I wanted to tend bar on the upper deck of a 747, I didn’t say I wanted to grow up and be a flying vending machine in short pants. You’re still young, you’re still hot—why can’t you go get another airline job?”


“And start over again at the bottom of the seniority list?”


“Hey, there’s a big difference between choosing not to start over at another airline and not being able to start over. If you don’t want to go be junior guy at another airline, I get it, but it’s not like there are all these opportunities out there for me that don’t exist for you. You had a sweet gig around here for a long time.”


Chapter 25