Love In Secrets (Love Distilled #3) - Scarlett Cole Page 0,22

father’s comments about being treated fairly rankled. But at least if she was back in New York, she knew she had the work ethic and capabilities to fix things. She’d get the school finished. Hell, she’d get it finished by Thanksgiving just to prove how incompetent Brandon was. And she could stay on top of The Grosvenor. She’d bat away every freaking barrier to her career until people stopped lobbing them at her.

If she stayed, the projects would slip further out of her reach, and Elijah would become less and less accommodating.

Her father coughed, bringing her attention back to him. “I don’t want to sell it because I hope every day you’ll come back home and take over from me.” The words were softly spoken. Almost a whisper, ripe with loss and longing.

She’d left because it was the right thing for her. She’d left because her father had no intention of intervening between her and Marianne. She’d left because if she’d stayed, it would have been impossible to work for anybody else other than him. She’d left because the world was so much bigger than Morrison, Colorado, where she was born, and her dad’s company was based. She’d left because the kind of opportunities she wanted were so much bigger in New York.

But did you find what you were looking for?

The words taunted her, adding to her confusion.

“Dad, I don’t—”

“When I paid for your tuition for college to study construction management, I knew there was a chance you’d never come home. While I always hoped you and Carter would come to me and learn the trade on the job, nothing made me prouder than the day we dropped you off in New York with all your stuff. I took a chance on you, Cassie. Now, I’m asking you to return the favor.”

The clatter of heels and Marianne’s loud voice filtered down the hallway.

“Don’t say anything, Cass. Think it through. We’ll talk after.”

After.

After he’d undergone life-changing surgery. How could she let him be put under anesthesia without assuring him she was there for him?

Marianne burst into the room, the scent of her aggressively applied Chanel perfume filling the air. Cassie watched as her father attempted to brighten, as Marianne fussed with his hair and kissed his cheek.

The words to say she’d do it were on the tip of her tongue. Her guilty conscience was willing the words out.

But her heart stopped her.

There were too many variables. Elijah would be pissed if she asked for a leave of absence, and she needed to know for sure what the implications would be if she took one.

Her stomach roiled faster than a concrete mixer, the contents as heavy as the stone and cement being tumbled inside.

She thought of Jake’s pep talk in the car. He’d suggested she take a break, take a walk and get some fresh air if she could. While Marianne made a fuss over her father, she took the opportunity to slip outside. She hurried down the corridor, suddenly in desperate need of fresh air instead of the antiseptic scent of the ward.

The double doors slid open, and Cassie hurried until she was in the exact spot Jake had dropped her off less than an hour earlier.

An hour earlier when his lips had accidentally brushed hers.

It felt like a million years ago, but she wished he were back here to hold her hand and tell her everything was going to be okay.

She just didn’t have the energy to figure out why his presence mattered so damn much.

Jake stood in his lab.

Well, it wasn’t exactly a lab. It was a corner of the distillery he’d set up for small-scale experimentation. He’d always preferred individual botanical distillation. By steeping and boiling each botanical on its own, he could fine-tune the process for optimal flavor. Juniper and citrus required different times to become perfect.

But he knew the process limited the capacity of the equipment. And while he wouldn’t mess with the Dyer’s Gin Distillery’s two hits, his father’s medal-winning Vintage, and his own medal-winning Medallion, it was on his mind that future gins may need to be a more consolidated process.

But only if he could perfect them.

He checked the stills were maintaining their production levels. Which gave him all the time he needed to consider how it felt when his lips had brushed Cassie’s.

Her chin held steady in his fingers, her eyes on his, looking up at him through thick lashes, the sun lighting the blue in her black hair—hair he’d often thought reminded