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

“Why don’t you just do it, then? Get it over with. There are lots of good reasons to walk into the water, ignore its icy cold, farther and farther until you’re too far from the shore to swim back, until maybe a strong current drags you under, putting you out of your misery once and for all.”


One of the main reasons was his mother. She would be sad, of course, devastated, because she had built her life around her boy.


And that was just the problem. He was a burden. He kept her chained down just as surely as if he were made of links of iron instead of flesh, blood, and bone. Yes, he’d lost his own life in his panic, confusion, and pain, but he’d also dragged her down with him.


In what universe was that fair? To give love—and give and give and give—only to find that nothing was reciprocated, that there was only emptiness in the wake of your giving.


Chapter 73