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

“Hate to break it to you,” Bob-Gunnar said, leaning over the seat to make eye contact without the least concern for what might be going on in the road in front of us, “but you’re in McHardy now, son. Even the middle of nowhere is an hour’s drive.”


“Well, anyway, Fox’s brother was there, and I’m glad we only had to push the thing fifty yards instead of fifty miles.”


“Hunter’ll take good care of you,” Bob-Gunnar said. “He’s the best mechanic in McHardy.”


“Nice,” Thumper said, leaning back in relief.


A second ticked by, then another. “Aren’t you going to ask how many mechanics there are in McHardy?” I asked him.


Bob-Gunnar let loose another one of those laughs. “He’s it!”


Chapter 40