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

lawn.

By the time it reached his shoulders again, Cassie had been in New York starting her degree in construction engineering and management. Like father, like daughter.

“Jake,” Chris shouted over the noise. His shirt was pulled tight around his middle, and Chris hitched his jeans up as he walked.

Affection for the man who’d stepped in as a surrogate parent since his father’s death filled him. Chris had done so much for them. The construction costs should be way higher, but he’d been flexible, allowing them to pay for the materials over time rather than with an up-front deposit.

Jake knew part of the reason Chris looked out for them was because he missed his own kids desperately and was perhaps starting to realize how much his choices had alienated them. As a child, Jake hadn’t given too much thought about Chris remarrying after his divorce, but as an adult, he saw Marianne, Chris’s new wife, for what she was. Someone who wanted to be looked after financially with zero responsibility for his kids.

It was no wonder Cassie worked for some powerhouse developer in New York and rarely came home. Or how easily Carter, a successful stuntman with an adrenaline addiction, went wherever the Hollywood paycheck took him.

“I was thinking about the night Cassie cut my hair off,” he said as Chris reached him.

Chris shook his head. “The five of you together were dumber than a pack of rabbits. Carter had a hangover for two days after that night.”

Jake grinned. Growing up together had been part halcyon days, part chaos. Often it had been him and Carter, Emerson had been friends with Cassie, and Olivia had just trailed along behind them. But when they came together as a group, they’d caused mischief. “Now, now. We weren’t so bad.”

“Yeah, well. You weren’t on the receiving end of the phone calls that started with some version of I’ve injured myself can you come get me.”

“Really? I only remember the time Carter broke his leg when we tried to recreate the big fight scene from The Matrix.”

“So you don’t remember when Emerson took an accidental fist to the face that left her with a black eye, and one of you threw a makeshift weapon through the basement window . . . on the same day.”

Oh, shit. Yeah. They had. “In fairness, Carter was aiming for me. And Liv’s bat went through the window because she swung at the plank of wood Cassie had and—”

“And nothing. What about the time Cassie fell out of the tree because she’d decided she wanted to convert the tree house in your dad’s back garden into Helm’s Deep? Or when you decided to try and skateboard blindfolded, or when Emerson—?”

“Okay, okay.” Jake held up his hands in defeat. “We were idiots.”

Chris grabbed his handkerchief and dabbed his face again. “Yes, you were. I can’t believe you made it to twenty-nine in one piece. Or how you all became capable enough to run this place. And to think they let Cassie project manage fifty-story buildings. Only Carter hasn’t changed. He still throws himself off moving vehicles and buildings, though now he does it for lots of money.”

“Yeah. It’s been a journey, that’s for sure.”

Jake looked up at the current distillery building with the sage-green, white, and gold sign above the entrance. A sign his dad had hand-painted. It was looking worn and weathered and was past the point of repair.

“Paul would be proud of the three of you for sticking together.”

Jake hoped it was true. “It’s been a rollercoaster.” Taking on his father’s role as master distiller had been easy enough. Botanicals and distillation came easy to him. The hours to keep the business afloat when the storm had destroyed the event venue and when they’d found they were uninsured had been hard. But dealing with his grief and stepping into his father’s shoes, as a man who loved and protected his family, had been impossible.

“Any word on being able to catch up on the schedule?” Jake asked, eager to shake the slightly maudlin memories that always descended when he thought of his father.

“It’s why I’m here, to check it out. I think at best, right now, we aren’t losing any further time. I need to hire two more project managers, but I’m only getting inexperienced applicants. Since ArCon set up shop in Denver last month, they’ve sucked the market, including Cunningham Construction, dry of talent.”

The big multinational company had promised overseas contracts and better salaries. Chris had lost five senior people