Love In Secrets (Love Distilled #3) - Scarlett Cole Page 0,77

effect of chugging the whiskey really kicked in. He took another gulp.

Jake’s phone rang. Again. “Liv.” They’d be looking for him. Wondering why the stills weren’t running on a Saturday. Wondering if everything was okay. By the time he’d concluded he should probably answer it, it had stopped ringing.

“Fuck.”

“I’m going to make some coffee, get some water, and make some toast. Mainly because Liv will be pissed if you puke in the living room.”

Connor groaned. “We should tell them you aren’t coming in. You want to text them? Or do you want me to call?”

Jake lay back down on the sofa and groaned. “Do whatever the fuck you feel like.” He flopped his forearm over his eyes. “If I unlock my phone, I’m going to call Cass and leave pathetic messages on her voicemail begging her to come back, which won’t help either of us.”

“I’ll call Liv,” Connor said. “If I call Em, she’ll want to come right over and fix it. If you call Liv, she’ll convince you to tell her where Jake is because she has you wrapped around her finger.”

“Hey, I only let her think that,” Anders said. “But you’re right.”

“Fine. I’ll call her.”

“Alright. I’ll go get the coffee started.”

A phone rang, but it wasn’t Jake’s. No. Cassie wasn’t going to call.

“Connor Finch. Oh, hey, Liv, I was going to call you . . . No, not the campaign . . . Sure, that sounds great . . . Email me the file. Oh, and Liv? Jake’s not coming in today . . . He’s fine . . . That’s not necessary, sweetheart . . . Honestly, we’ll fill you in later . . . No. No, he isn’t. Anders? No. Why? Look, I’ve got a call on the other line. Bye, Liv.”

He felt shitty letting Connor blow off his sister. But, damn, he felt emptier than the bottles waiting at the start of the bottling line, although nothing was going to fill him up again soon. The only person who could do that was currently sitting in seat 23E on her way to New York.

“How’re you doing?” Connor asked.

“Inertia,” Jake replied.

“You want to expand on that?”

Jake opened an eye and glanced to where Connor sat. There was a time when he’d felt threatened by Connor. Threatened by his kick-ass degree, and his experience in a big company. Hell. He’d even thought him foolish for walking away from his father’s liquor distribution empire.

But then, he’d gotten to know him. Connor was still the fucking smartest guy he knew, but he was also ridiculously good for Emerson. “You know how when you and Em met, how bad everything seemed to be going at the distillery?”

“Yeah. Paul dying had left you guys with a ton on your plates and no capital to fix the business.”

Jake sat up and immediately regretted the move. He was most definitely drunk. And what followed would be a hangover that would lead him to hate his life choices.

“You saved Em. You made her believe she could run the business.”

“That was all Em.”

“No. You were her backbone. You propped her up until she could stand for herself. And I think I’m the opposite. I stood tall. I knew we could fix the distillery, that there was a path through it. I worked every single day without a drop of doubt in my mind. But I think I’m about to fall down, Connor. And without Cass, I think it’s really going to fucking hurt.”

16

Two days later, Cassie woke up to the sound of her alarm with a start. The bed was empty, the apartment humid, and she was well and truly alone. Disappointment flooded her as her still-raw heart stung painfully.

She slipped her feet out of bed and planted them firmly on the floor, spreading her toes out to ground herself in her space. She’d loved the black and cream rug when she’d bought it from IKEA, loving the way it protected her feet from the cool wood in winter. But it felt different than the softness of the rug next to Jake’s bed.

Cursing herself for thinking about him, again, she stepped to the kitchenette, popped a bagel in the toaster, and started the coffee. Once she’d solved her employment problem, she might treat herself to a new automated one like Jake had. The smell of coffee brewing when her alarm went off would definitely tempt her out of bed in the morning.

Jake.

Urgh. “You’ve got to stop doing this to yourself,” she muttered, grabbing a mug