Love In Secrets (Love Distilled #3) - Scarlett Cole Page 0,34

But, as I was saying, we’re practically brothers. So, I gotta say what’s on my mind. She’s leaving, going back to New York. You know that, right?”

Jake sighed. “Yeah. I know.”

“So, whatever this is between you guys—”

“It’s nothing. Honestly, nothing has happened.”

“Fine. Whatever. Go tell it to a judge. But whatever . . . is it worth messing up your family’s relationship with hers for a month of fun?”

Jake looked at Connor. He liked the guy. A lot. And maybe that’s why his quietly worded question stung so much. It was the calm voice of reason his head had been trying to ignore.

“You’ve made your point, Connor.”

“I’m not trying to score a point. You know what I gave up for Emerson. I know how painful relationships can be within families.”

“Does Emerson . . . have you told her?”

Connor shook his head and they both looked to Emerson, who was deep in conversation with Ali. “No. She’s too busy enjoying herself. I’m the one who observes things. She’s usually the one who makes sense of things. We make a good pair.”

“Yeah. You do.” Jake pulled the steaks off the grill and put them on the counter to let them rest. “Do me a favor and keep your observations to yourself, will you? For a little while, at least.”

Connor nodded and helped himself to a plate, stacking a huge amount of the kale salad Emerson had rustled up.

Jake shuddered. “Don’t know how you eat so much of that stuff.”

“Offsets the beer carbs. Don’t want to get flabby.”

“Who’s getting flabby?” Emerson asked, following Connor’s lead in grabbing food.

“Your boyfriend.” Jake pointed in Connor’s direction. “His percent body fat went from three percent to three point one four two just looking at the beer he’s drinking.”

Emerson put her hand on Connor’s abs. “Don’t talk about my little meal prepper like that. He’ll give himself two less pieces of broccoli and one less potato slice in each of his lunches now.”

Connor placed his hand on top of Emerson’s. “Funny, Em. And admit it, you like the convenience of grabbing them in the morning.”

Em pretended to gag, and Jake couldn’t help but laugh. “Yeah. I’ve seen her eat one of your lunch boxes and then eat two huge cinnamon buns right after.”

Emerson shrugged. “That’s why my percent body fat will never be three point one four two, which coincidentally, is the same number value in math as ‘pi’. And I happen to love pie.”

A line had started to form by the stone counter. The salads, steak, grilled vegetables, and thick slices of sourdough began to go down quickly. Noticing Cassie was still deep in conversation with Liv, he made up two plates and took them over.

“I got you two some food,” he said, offering the plates toward them.

At the same moment, Liv stood. “Anders got a plate for me. Why don’t you sit and eat mine? You’ve been dealing with food since we all got here.”

He watched as his sister wandered up the path to Anders who, while holding a plate in each hand, kissed her on the tip of her nose. A gesture both sweet as fuck and slightly nauseating.

“They’re good together, aren’t they?” Cassie asked as Jake took a seat.

“Yeah. They are. At first, Em and I weren’t cool with it, acted like jerks, really. You know what she’s been through. We couldn’t help but think it was too fast, too soon.” He turned to face Cassie. “We couldn’t have been more wrong.”

Cassie ripped a piece of bread. “It’s big of you to admit that.”

“I think the way we approached things with her actually held her back rather than boosting her forward. I still feel guilty about it. We all needed to be more honest with each other about how we were dealing with things. Dealing with Dad, dealing with the distillery, dealing with our stress and worries.”

“And Connor is so great for Em. I was worried when Dad told me Em was CEO, because I didn’t think that was what she really wanted.”

Jake shook his head. “It wasn’t. Well, it wasn’t back then. I think she felt she had time with Dad to grow into the role, to learn everything he did and took care of. Instead of being a slow and steady learning curve, it was like a tsunami. An overload of suddenly having to figure everything out on day one.”

They cut into their steaks and ate quietly for a few moments. “So, Connor is looking out for Em, and Anders has