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 shouldn’t have come back here. He should have stayed with Del. Should have been there right now, Del’s arms around him and Del’s kisses soft against his prickling skin. He should never have left the place where he felt loved. Where maybe he wasloved.


He wished he’d had the courage to ask.


And he wished that was his biggest regret as well, but it wasn’t. How could it be, when he’d brought the kids back into this house? An ugly sob tore its way out of his throat.


I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.


It hurt, and he was scared, and he was going to die and he’d never see the kids grow up.


His vision went black when Steve kicked him in the head.  18


Somehow, Del managed to run upstairs, pull on some clothes and grab his phone. When he made it back downstairs, Abigail looked wide-eyed as she huddled on the couch with all three kids.


Chapter 63