Justin O'Dwyer is 19. Four days ago, his mother died of a drug overdose, and now Justin is back in Enterprise, Oregon, trying to figure out how to raise the younger siblings he's afraid of losing to the foster system. Justin is completely out of his depth. Harper is six, and hates him. Wyatt is four and doesn't remember him. And baby Scarlett, at fourteen months, has never even met her big brother before. When Scarlett gets sick and won't stop screaming, and when Harper runs off in the middle of the night, Justin is at the end of his tether. In desperation, he knocks on a neighbor's door begging for help.<br><br>Del Abbot is 38, and living in his grandparents' old place in Enterprise after his marriage broke down and he lost his restaurant in the divorce. He's a chef, even had his own show on cable for a while, but now he's looking for a new start, if he could just figure out what exactly that entails. When the O'Dwyer family barrels into his life one night, Del can't refuse to help. What begins as a trip to the hospital becomes a regular child-minding gig while Justin struggles to find his feet. And the more time Del spends with Justin, the more they both want more than friendship. But small town life comes with its own bigotry, and, in Justin's case, that bigotry has always been close to home.<br><br>When an act of violence threatens to destroy the small family they've built, both Justin and Del need to put aside their pasts and reach for their future together.

Family Recipe

God. He should have been here for the kids earlier. He closed his eyes as a memory hit him. He must have been four or five, and Mom was yelling at him for picking up a needle and playing with it.


“No, Justin, no! That’s for Mommy’s medicine!”


Justin opened his eyes to find Del watching him. He fussed over Scarlett as an excuse to look away. He wasn’t entirely sure why Del was here. “Neighborly” didn’t stretch far in Enterprise, at least with the O’Dwyers, and not without reason. A bitter, angry part of him wanted to demand to know why Del was here, why he gave a damn, but his eyes were kind and the lasagna smelled good, and the kids were so fucking sick of sandwiches for dinner. They hadn’t had a proper home cooked meal since Justin had arrived back on their doorstep, and probably not for a long while before that too. When Mom was good she was great, but when she was using again…well, here they all were, right?


Chapter 17