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

She looked ready to say something, and he stopped her. “Don’t.”


“You know what. Don’t tell me I need to see someone. I did that when I moved back here. Even did the whole hypnosis route. All I know is all I’ve ever known—I woke up on a snow-covered sidewalk in Seattle. Both of my eyes were swollen shut. I had a concussion and three cracked ribs. Someone had left me there, I guess, to die.” He looked away from Maisie as he uttered the next part. “And maybe I would have, if that nice cabbie hadn’t come along and bothered to stop. He took me to Virginia Mason.” He sighed and then mumbled, and not for the first time, “Maybe he should have just left me there.”


And not for the first time, Maisie responded, her voice tinged with hurt and indignation, “Don’t say that!”


Chapter 27