The Boy on the Porch

by Dee Holmes (2003)

This romance novel takes place in fictional Bedford, a "medium-sized" town in the "northern section" of Rhode Island. Teaser text:

On the one-year anniversary of her husband's death, Annie Hunter comes home to find a ragged-looking boy asleep on her porch. When he awakes, she discovers his name is Cullen Gallagher—and that he's convinced that Annie is his mother. Everyone knows his claim is preposterous, especially because she and her late husband, Richard, never had the chance to fulfill their dream of having children. Yet Annie finds herself drawn into the boy's search for his birth parents—and to Linc McCoy, the handsome, rough-edged director of the home for troubled boys where Cullen lives. Slowly, Annie begins to imagine making a place in her life for young Cullen—and for Linc, the one man who could heal her wounded heart...