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

“He’s here, actually.” Before Bernie could jump into conclusions, Del added, “They all managed to squeeze into the guest room last night.”


“Sure.” Del held the phone to Justin. “She wants to talk to you.”


The sheer panic in Justin’s eyes would’ve been funny if it hadn’t been so real. “Why?” he mouthed.


“It’s okay,” Del mouthed back and thrust the phone closer to him.


Justin took it like he might’ve held a tarantula and put it on his ear. “Uh, hi, this is Justin.”


Del drank his coffee and watched Justin go through a gamut of emotions, rarely speaking, other than answering some questions like what size might the kids be. The expression on his face was heartbreaking, and at one point tears spilled from his eyes, and he angrily wiped his cheeks.


“Y-yeah, all right. I…yeah, you can send it to Del’s. Yeah. Okay. Thanks.”


He ended the call and put the phone on the table with shaking hands.


Chapter 29