Preston Pruitt put aside his dreams of becoming a gourmet chef at a high-end restaurant to raise his daughter while her mother was on active duty in Afghanistan. Now Abby is a precocious eight-year-old in love with fairies and princesses, and Preston works at an unimaginative and monotonous job as a short order cook.<br><br>Abby has her quirks, and when she tries to wear a pair of costume wings for her school pictures, her father is called to help talk her out of them. That's when Preston meets Cam Richards, a handsome photographer with his own studio in town. Between Cam's quick smile and flirty manner, Preston is smitten and surprises himself by asking the guy out. Late night phone calls lead to dinner dates, and soon Preston is falling for Cam. It helps that Abby approves of her father's new special friend.<br><br>With Cam’s encouragement, Preston gets the chance to interview for an executive chef position. Now that he has all the ingredients, will he finally fulfill his dream of becoming a top chef and find the perfect recipe for romance?

Recipe for Romance

Moments later, the doorbell rang. Preston slipped out of the chair to answer it, knowing Mrs. Schroedinger had arrived. She would watch Abby while he was at work, then return in the evening after he’d fed his daughter dinner so he could go out with Cam. When he came back to the computer, he found Abby had commandeered the chair and taken over his side of the conversation completely.


Kissing her on the top of her head, he interrupted long enough to tell her and Tess both goodbye. “I have to get going,” he said. “You both be good. Abby, you be good for Mrs. Schroedinger. Tess, you take care.”


“I want a long email telling me all about your hot date!” Tess called after him. “Don’t gloss over anything, either! It gets boring here and you know it!”


He laughed as he hurried to get ready for work. Behind him, Abby assured her mother, “I’ll send you a long email, Mommy. What do you want it to say?”


Chapter 21