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

“So, what do you have in the bank?” he asked me.


None of your business, I wanted to tell him, but he wasn’t being nosy. He was trying to balance our budget. I was embarrassed to tell him, “Nothing.”


“Nothing? As in, not one dollar? Come on, Fox. I’m glad to share the car—way better than driving home alone—but you’ve gotta help me out. I don’t have enough to get home on my own.”


“Look,” I said, eyes fixed on the road as the sporty little convertible gobbled it up, “I don’t want to talk about this, okay? This isn’t some sob story, it’s just…” Deep breath. “Jeremy took it.”


“We had a joint checking account, and Jeremy took all our money out of it. In Caracas. As in, before any of this happened. Before he got busted, before World Wind went under.”


“So, he was dumping me on my ass whether I came on this trip or not. Whether I found out about you or not. Believe this or not,” I grumbled, “but you’re not even my biggest problem.”


Chapter 26