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

Suddenly Del’s heart was bouncing, and he realized he was anxious about what Justin thought of the idea.


“I mean…of course I’ve thought about it,” Justin admitted as he pulled away enough to be able to see Del’s face.


“And w-what do you think?” Del swallowed hard.


“I don’t know. What do you think?”


The expression on Justin’s face was one that had become familiar to Del in the last months. There was hesitant kind of hope there, but also a boatload of fear and what Del now knew was fierce independence.


Justin didn’t want to be reliant on anyone, but at the same time, he was already reliant on Del in some ways. Sure, he could cope, but—Del suddenly realized Justin was taking his thinking the wrong way.


“No, hey, babe? I wasn’t thinking about whether I want you here. Of course I do. You’re family already. It’s…I just don’t want you to feel trapped, okay?”


Chapter 50