Personal chef Beau St. Clair, recently divorced from his cheating husband, returns to the small Ohio River town where he grew up to lick his wounds. Jack Rogers lives with his mother, Maisie, in that same small town, angry at and frightened by the world. Jack has a gap in his memory that hides something he dares not face, and he’s probably suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Maisie, seeking relief from her housebound and often surly son, hires Beau to cook for Jack, hoping the change might help bring Jack, once a handsome and vibrant attorney, back to his former self. But can a new face and comfort food compensate for the terror lurking in Jack’s past? Slowly the two men begin a dance of revelation and healing. Food and compassion build a bridge between Beau and Jack, a bridge that might lead to love. But will Jack’s demons allow it? His history could just as easily tear them apart as bring them together.

Dinner at Jack's

And he could hear Mom’s slippered feet approaching his door once more.


“What now?” he cried. He just wanted to be alone.


“I’m sorry, Jack,” she called from the other side of the door. “You just sounded so, I don’t know, overwrought? Scared? I just wanted to do something for you, honey. So I heated up some milk for you. And I grated some fresh nutmeg into it, like you used to like when you were little.”


She paused, and he could imagine her worried, careworn face out there. He hated that he was such a shit to her most of the time, but he couldn’t seem to help himself.


His first reaction was to tell her to leave it outside the door, after he rejected telling her to drink it herself or chuck it down the drain. And then maybe his cruel, damaged heart opened up just a little, and he called, “Yeah. Gimme a sec.”


Chapter 26