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

The kids had been shaken pretty badly, and everyone clung on to Justin more than they had in the time Del had known them. At least for the first few weeks after the hospital.


Abigail was there—Del still wasn’t sure about her plan of taking the semester off but it was her decision and he knew his niece well enough not to intervene too much—and Bernie had stayed with them for a couple of weeks. She had her own family in Colorado, after all.


The evening before Bernie was to leave with Abigail in tow because she needed to go clear her dorm since she was taking time off, there was clearly something on her mind.


“What’s up?” Del asked her quietly as they portioned the chocolate mousse into bowls for dessert.


“I’ll tell you in a bit,” she answered and flashed him a smile.


They carried the bowls to the table for everyone—including a low sugar one for Justin, and Del sat down next to him.


Chapter 71