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 rocked on Del’s lap, his body urging him into an awkward, faltering rhythm that was dictated half by panic, half by need.


His hands were shaking, and he couldn’t stop them. A sound caught somewhere between a whimper and a moan squeezed out of him, and he didn’t even care how stupid it sounded. Del pulled him even closer, one hand on the small of Justin’s back now, and the other one slipping down the back of his jeans, warm fingers sliding under the elastic of Justin’s underwear and brushing the cleft of his ass.


Justin jerked, his dick painfully hard, and made that dumb noise again.


“Come on,” Del whispered against his lips. “Take what you need, Justin. Come for me, babe.”


Justin cried out, the sound muffled by Del’s mouth, as he came in his jeans and then slumped heavily against Del. He panted for breath as Del carded fingers through his hair.


“That was so hot,” Del whispered at last.


“Even hotter than I imagined,” Del said.


Chapter 40