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

And on Wednesday, we opened with a sunshiny, “Good morning, Mikey.”


“You’ve got quite a reliable employee on your hands here,” I pointed out to Bob-Gunnar as the breakfast plates were heaped and passed. “The last one to go home at night, first one in in the morning.”


“I’m the only one who has to go home at night,” Mikey reminded me. “And besides, who says I went home last night?”


“Hey, we’ve got a big day today. I’m not afraid to pull my weight around here.”


“He is, however, afraid to pull mine,” Bob-Gunnar cracked.


“Pretty and smart,” I observed, winking at Thumper. He rolled his eyes. No worries.


“What do you boys have on today?” I asked.


“Boring work stuff,” Bob-Gunnar assured me. “Vidalia Sweet has some estate planning stuff she wants to go over. Nothing terribly complicated, but she likes to see everything just so.”


Chapter 49