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

At that point Ollie said, “Just slow down and breathe, Hank. This isn’t a race. We have plenty of time.” Ollie peered up at the ceiling from which issued the sound of a low drone. “He’s still in the shower. I can hear it running.”


Hank turned to the counter to finish dicing the avocados and to add a squeeze of lime to them so they wouldn’t brown. “I bet you’d like to join him,” he whispered.


“What was that?” Ollie asked with just the tiniest hint of annoyance in his tone.


Hank thought fast. “I said, ‘I get the joy you get from this.’”


Ollie stepped up beside him, leaning in so he could look Hank in the eye. “Sure you did.” He grinned, but there wasn’t anything happy in it. “You need to let me know if you have a problem with working with gay people. It seems shocking to me that it would come up now, but the onlyotherreason I can figure for you behaving the way you are tonight is you’re jealous.” Ollie eyed him closer and Hank had to look away.


Chapter 42