Love In Secrets (Love Distilled #3) - Scarlett Cole Page 0,17

how is she?”

Cassie took a breath and allowed the anger to dissipate. “She’s good. Florida suits her, and her business as a financial advisor is doing well. We don’t chat all that often. No drama. Just distance and both busy. Don’t ever call her because she’ll badger you about whether you have a pension or not.”

“Well, thankfully I can answer that because I have one.”

“Phew, she’ll be relieved to hear it.”

Jake grinned. “Listen, I don’t know what your plans are for tonight. But my goal is an early dinner, a drink or two, maybe a movie if I can stay awake.”

Cassie groaned. “You have no idea how good that sounds. The hospital has my number and I asked them to contact both Marianne and me if anything changes in Dad’s condition.”

“I’ll see what I can pull together.”

She reached out to place a hand on his knee at the same moment he stood, brushing his thigh instead. A very solid thigh, as muscled as his biceps and abs had felt. “No need,” she said a little too quickly, snatching her hand away. “I stopped at the store on my way home and picked up some supplies. I figured it was the least I can do. I got some steaks, potatoes, and asparagus for dinner, plus some other things.”

“I could hug you right now. But you didn’t need to.”

“It’s enough you’re letting me stay, Jake. Grabbing some food seems like the very least I can do. If you want to deal with the steaks, I can handle the potatoes and asparagus.”

“Sounds like a deal. I’ll open a bottle of wine.” Jake offered Cassie his hand.

She took it and let him pull her to her feet. Jake made it look easy. While he was a little over six feet, and she was closer to five feet eight, he lifted her like she weighed nothing. “Perfect.”

Forty-five minutes later, they were seated at the table in Jake’s yard.

“What’s it like working in New York?” Jake asked as she cut into the steak he’d cooked to perfection.

“I love the energy of it. I get to play every day. Building it. Knocking it down. There’s something so fulfilling about redefining spaces and changing skyscapes.”

“Why didn’t you go into architecture?”

“Because design, to me, is so nebulous. It doesn’t exist until somebody builds it. I love the complexity of construction. How exacting it is. And how unforgiving it can be. A millimeter off at the bottom can be a meter off at the top. I love walking away from a project and knowing I’ve transformed the way human beings will interact with that little corner of the world for a long time to come.”

“You said Denver doesn’t feel like home anymore. Does New York? What is living there like?”

Cassie considered the question while she chewed on some buttery baked potato. In the end, she shrugged. “I live in a shoebox of an apartment in Brooklyn, and I miss sitting outside on evenings like this. I don’t know that anywhere really feels like home. There’s something missing everywhere. Here, I get my dad but no home. In Florida, I get Mom but no job. And in New York, I have my own place and a job but no parents. I miss family. I mean, I’m not lonely. I have friends and stuff.”

Jake glanced down at her hand. “No boyfriend?”

“No. There was someone I felt had potential, but we broke up before Christmas.” She didn’t mention it had been a failed long-distance relationship, and how calling it quits so close to Christmas Day had influenced her plans to stay home instead of visiting Orla’s family. She’d been back for New Year’s and they’d joined the chaos in Manhattan to watch the ball drop.

“That’s rough,” Jake said.

“Yeah. I think the fact I wasn’t overly upset, and how I was fine by the time I went back to work, says he didn’t have as much potential as I thought. I would have been more sad otherwise. What about you?”

She’d wanted to ask since she’d overheard him on the phone the night she’d arrived. What was it he’d said? Oh, yes.

That’s the best offer I’ve heard all night . . . If I don’t see you in the morning, I’ll stay late on Monday . . . Yeah, that sounds heavenly right about now . . . I gotta go, Sienna. You really are the best. I don’t know what I’d do without you.

Sienna.

The feeling of envy creeping through was uncomfortable and she picked