Love In Moments (Love Distilled #2) - Scarlett Cole Page 0,75

was worried about you. Wait. No. That’s not quite right. You’ve always been so independent. You’ve never needed me. You’ve just got on with things, and I kind of admired that. In light of what you said, though, I’m sorry I wasn’t there for you the way I should have been. I guess I just figured that was how you preferred it.”

Anders rubbed his hands forcefully across his face, a deep pressure to chase away the unsettled feeling in his bones. “I don’t think it was what I preferred. I guess it was what I needed to do to protect myself. How do I change it?”

Karl studied Anders for a long moment. “What made you come to this realization? Or should I ask who?”

“Liv.”

Karl chugged his smoothie and placed his glass down on the table. “And are you questioning this because she wants you to change, or because you do?”

Anders shook his head. “Listen, don’t become all amateur psychologist on me. Liv and I, well, we talked about where this was going. I’m not going to share with you what was said. But some things really hit home about the way we’ve both been living our lives to this point. Do I want to change for her? Sure. But do I need to change for me? Most definitely.”

Anders glanced at the clock on his phone. “We need to go get ready for practice.”

They stood at the same time, but Karl shocked the hell out of him by pulling him into a hug. “We’ll figure it out, Anders. I’ve got your back.”

And for the first time in the longest time, Anders believed him.

13

Adrenaline ran through Olivia like a million spiders crawling beneath her skin. It was a continuous itch. In four days, the launch of the rebranded Dyer’s Vintage would go live. Her father’s pride and joy mixed with Jake’s innovative spin, and a retro-style packaging to honor its legacy in the Dyer family. The country music she had playing in the background did little to distract her from the source of her excitement and anxiety.

Olivia stood and straightened the burgundy cashmere sweater Anders had presented her with and smiled. Unlike the red turtleneck he’d given her, this one had a deep V and looked perfect with the gold jewelry she’d added. As she ran her fingers over the soft wool, she could hardly believe it was only five days since their declaration of love in the chalet. He was off to Anaheim that evening, so she’d agreed to meet him for lunch. Wearing the sweater was just an exclamation point on how much she loved him.

The morning had been busy. She’d checked off items on her spreadsheet like a fiend. The retailers involved in the launch had all received their orders, and bottles with the new branding would be shelved over the weekend. The media spend kicked into effect on Monday. Even though she knew everything was set, Olivia had flipped through the social media software she used to sequence all of their posts to make sure the pipeline was full. This week was dedicated to the story of their father, and his personal quest to create the smoothest contemporary gin. It focused on the love affair with her mother, and the distillery’s development. It featured fresh images of the original bottles and labels that had wrapped the gin. She included images of the stills with stories about how their names came about. All the social media and marketing materials were grounded in the notion that family and a passion for great gin is everything.

She was thrilled with the way the campaign looked, how the labels stood out on the shelf. The emergency printer had come through with the labels, and they looked great.

“They look amazing,” Jake said, bounding into her office, just as she was pulling her coat on.

“Don’t they, though? You’ve done an amazing job of breathing life back into Dad’s recipe and finding ways to make enough of it for us to do this.”

Jake shrugged. “All part of getting us back on our feet.”

Jake had been able to nearly double the amount of gin the distillery had been able to produce.

“It was a smart call to promote Stan to head of the bottling process as well as warehouse manager, it gives you more time to focus on the gin. And Sienna was a great promotion too.”

Jake had promoted Sienna to assistant production manager, and they had started a split-shift system. Jake ran Dyer’s Medallion on the main