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

“Don’t scream in front of the horses, Harper!” Justin warned her, and Harper mimed zipping her lip as she danced from foot to foot.


Del laughed, scooping Scarlett up off the floor. “I guess we’ll finish dinner later.”


Dusk was painting the sky brilliant colors as they made their way outside. Justin drew a deep breath as they walked over toward the paddock where the horses roamed during the day. Harper stuck her hand in his.


“What are their names? Can we ride them?”


“I don’t know their names yet,” Justin said. “Well, there are photographs in their paperwork and names on their stall doors, so I’ll figure it out. And no, we can’t ride them. They’re not ours to ride. Also, we don’t know how to ride horses.”


“Maybe,” Justin said, look at Del. Del shrugged. “That’s something we can look into, I guess, if we can find a riding school nearby.”


“And then I can ride the horses?” Harper asked.


Chapter 76