It only takes a few days for Ollie D'Angelo to lose his boyfriend, his job, and his home. Instead of mourning what he doesn't have, Ollie celebrates what he does: the freedom to pursue his real passion -- cooking. He begins Dinner at Home, a home-catering business, and it takes off.<br><br>Late one night, Ollie catches Hank Mellinger, a streetwise hood down on his luck, about to rob his car. Ollie soon discovers that appearances aren't necessarily what they seem. Hank isn't a criminal caught red-handed, but a hungry young man trying to make a life for himself and the four-year-old niece he's trying desperately to take care of.<br><br>Instead of calling the cops, Ollie offers Hank a job and a way to pull himself up by his bootstraps. Together, they discover they can really cook ... and that their shared passion for food just might lead to a passion for each other.

Dinner at Home

Even though he had a ton to do in a very limited time, he knew that taking a short break to center himself would make him more effective in the long run. That was a lesson he had learned both in prison and in rehab. And it hadn’t been an easy one, not with the temper with which he was saddled.


He slipped out the kitchen’s back door and, even though the day was gray and cold, sat down on the ground in the back, near the dumpsters. He leaned against the red brick of Haven and stretched his legs out. He groped in his jeans pocket for the battered pack of no-name smokes he knew were there and the book of matches. He lip up a cigarette and closed his eyes with pleasure and relief as the oblivion-bringing smoke filled his lungs.


Chapter 8