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 placed her head on his chest and let it rest there for a while. The warmth and the pressure was a comfort. Jack looked to his window and saw, through the slats of the blinds, the sky turning to that shade of gray peculiar to dawn. He touched his mother’s hair, surprised at its softness. He couldn’t remember the last time she—or anyone, really—had held him like this.


He wanted to tell her. He didn’t want to tell her. For to let her know the contents of his dream and the memory they signified would be a way of bringing it to life, making it an ugly, vile third presence here in the room. He swallowed around the dryness and the lump in his throat, remembering fists coming at him. Seeing the brick pavement of the alley rising up—too fast—to meet him as he fell or was pushed to its icy surface. He could see Doc Marten boots coming at him, kicking at his face and his gut, hurting, wanting to kill.


Chapter 72