Free Recipe For Seduction (A Madewood Brothers Novel) (Entangled Brazen) by Gina Gordon

all heard one of the kids in my program has passed away.”
    Gloria gasped. “I had no idea.”
    “That’s exactly the reaction you should have, Gloria.” Cole thrust his finger at the petite, older woman. “And what’s worse, he was stabbed on the street and left to die, all because he was dared to steal something.”
    “It’s awful, Cole,” Neil said, “but what does that have to do with the foundation? We have no liability.” Neil was always the best at keeping the conversation on track.
    “We can try to stop it from happening again.” Cole rustled through a stack of papers and handed them out.
    It was a makeshift proposal. Numbers were written all over the page. It was like a serial killer’s version of a business deal.
    “Cole, dear…” Gloria laid her hand on his arm as he placed the papers back on the table, but he jerked it away when he stepped back to hand a copy to Neil. “How do you expect us to stop kids from being victims of crimes?” Gloria had a family of her own—a husband, two sons, and five grandchildren. Finn used to keep them occupied whenever Gloria came over to visit their mother. And despite the occasional offhand remarks about Vivian’s decision to take in four stray teenage boys, Gloria had always been by her side, her staunchest friend and supporter.
    “By establishing the Madewood Boys and Girls Club.”
    They all stared silently at their brother. No one even dared make eye contact with each other for fear of Cole flying off the handle. He tended to do that sometimes, when he felt they were siding against him. But in this case, it wasn’t siding against him, it was doing what was best for the family and the foundation.
    “The Madewood Boys and Girls Club?” Neil was the first to cautiously speak.
    “These kids need somewhere to go. They need activities to keep them occupied. And—” Cole straightened and stuck out his chin. “It’s all going to be free of cost.”
    “Have you lost your mind?” Neil scoffed. “It’s one thing to give our time and donate food, but this…you’ll need buildings, staff, equipment. Where are you going to get the money for all that?”
    Cole looked over at Jack.
    Jack recoiled in his seat. “You want the foundation to pay for this?”
    “Come on. These kids need us. Half of them can’t even read a recipe. And it’s not like the words are difficult.”
    The recipes they used in the program were simple and reformatted to an eighth-grade reading level. Fancy cooking terms like chiffonade and rémoulade were never used. So, the fact that some of the kids couldn’t read them was a big problem. But reading and building recreation facilities were two entirely different things.
    “We can’t save the world, Cole.” Neil was always the last to get on board with an idea—unless it was his own. Then he worked balls to the wall until the idea became a reality.
    “Why not? Someone saved us. Why can’t we save others? It’s our turn to give back.”
    No matter how much good they did, it would never be enough. Not for Cole.
    “We may be fortunate, but we can’t do everything.” Jack folded Cole’s poor excuse for a proposal in half and laid it on the table.
    Cole glared at Neil. “We certainly seemed to move forward with your monstrosity of a restaurant.” Just a few weeks ago they’d held the grand opening of the Madewood Farm project, which had been almost two years in the making. “Why is there money for that and no money for a good cause?”
    “You know exactly why. Those funds were from the business and not the foundation,” Neil ground out. “It’s different.”
    “Then where am I supposed to get the money from?” Cole was becoming increasingly agitated with each word he spoke. The more Jack and Neil challenged him, the more passionate he became. They all had a soft spot for kids in need. Not only because they knew firsthand about the challenges those kids faced, but because their mother made sure they never forgot how