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

The boy beamed at him. Jesus, the kids were definitely in need of some positive reinforcement. “Here, I found the toys. Do you want to come see?”


Wyatt slid off the couch, leaving banana in his wake, but Del couldn’t be bothered. Together, they took off the lid and went through some of the stuff inside.


There were old, partially filled coloring books, which interested Wyatt a bit. The ancient cars—some of them might’ve been Del’s, actually—were nice, but didn’t light Wyatt up.


Then, on the very bottom of the bin, were a couple of off-brand Barbie dolls. The way Wyatt’s whole expression changed into enthusiasm made tears well in Del’s eyes.


The boy clutched the brunette doll into his chest and closed his eyes, as if it was the happiest moment of his life.


Del grabbed a box with maybe ten pieces of Duplos and took them to Scarlett on the other side of the table. “Here, girlie. You can look at these while you watch the show.”


Chapter 24