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

Half an hour later, Del had changed Scarlett once, and they were now going through the house, trying to find toys.


“Not in there, either, huh?” Del asked, when Wyatt came out of the hall closet, shaking his head.


Del was sure there’d been a plastic bin of toys there, when Abigail had been little back when Del’s Nanna had still been around, living in the house. He sighed, bouncing Scarlett on his hip. “Okay, buddy, let’s go to the kitchen. I need to make a call.”


Wyatt trudged after him, looking frustrated and a bit confused, and frankly, Del didn’t blame him. He grabbed his phone and a banana from the fruit bowl, then went to the living room to sit on the couch.


“You can sit here, and I’ll put your sister right…here!” He lowered Scarlett on the floor by the coffee table, and turned on the TV. Thank God Netflix had kids’ shows. “You guys can have banana and watch TV while I call my mom.”


Chapter 23