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

Justin ate his Stew and listened to Del and the kids talking. Harper was full of opinions, and even Wyatt interjected once or twice. Scarlett contributed with a few shrieks and yells and sounds that weren’t quite words yet, but would be someday soon. The book Del had bought said that she should have been using words by now, and Justin thought that it would happen for her very soon now that people were talking to her. He wondered if, with Mom, she’d just been left in her crib and ignored.


Justin was still eating when Harper and Wyatt carried their dishes back into the kitchen, and Del went with them to load the dishwater.


Scarlett showed him a gummy smile from her high chair.


Could Justin give the kids this without Del? He didn’t want to do it on his own, but couldhe? He didn’t know. He didn’t think so. It was hard to think of his house and imagine it as warm and welcoming as this one. Some nights he didn’t ever want to leave Del’s house, and he knew the kids felt the same.


Chapter 38