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

“What was that, Ollie?” Rose asked from the table, once she could pull her lips away from Sophie’s hungry mouth.


“Nothing. Why don’t you girls take your coffee back to bed? After I get the stuffing in the oven, I’ll call you. We can have a proper breakfast.”


Ollie added a few ladles of hot chicken stock to the stuffing mixture, then poured it all in the casserole dish to combine with the sausage. He sprinkled the chopped sage in, added more salt and pepper, dashes of dried thyme, rosemary, and garlic powder, then stirred everything together, moistening it with another big ladle of stock. “Perfect.”


The girls giggled. Sophie was behind Rose and she pushed her out of the kitchen. Ollie thought he heard one of them say something about “sausage in the oven” that sent them off on even more gales of laughter.


Chapter 73