Love In Secrets (Love Distilled #3) - Scarlett Cole Page 0,82

on its feet. Now it’s about being happy. And you deserve to be happy as much as Liv and I do.”

“When do you want to leave?” Liv asked.

“Next weekend. I know it’s short notice, but the idea of another weekend in the house by myself is more than I can deal with.”

Emerson sighed, then opened her notebook. “Let’s do a full count of inventory. I want to make sure we have enough volume to get us through with a week’s production on hand in stock. If the count is right, which I suspect it will be, then book a flight for Friday. If you start the production run early, I’ll call Sienna to see if she can start her shift early to cover you so you can get a flight around noon and get there for dinner.”

Dinner. He could work with that. “Thanks. I’ll fly back Monday morning. When Cassie was arranging to fly out here, she said she’d get the first flight out, but if she couldn’t get an evening one, she’d take the six a.m. flight that landed before nine. I’ll stay late and make up the volume.”

Emerson nodded. He could tell she was struggling. Torn between the roles of a sister who had almost been like a mother to him, and CEO of the company she needed to keep on its feet.

“Are you going to tell Cassie you’re coming?” Liv asked.

Jake shook his head. “No. I don’t want to give her an opportunity to talk me out of it.”

“But how do you know if she’s made plans?”

He turned to Emerson. “Could you ask her?”

Emerson raised an eyebrow. “Jake, I’ve deliberately kept messages with her cold.”

“Why?”

“Because she hurt you and I’m petty.”

“Em. You're the least petty person on the planet. Thank you for sticking up for your little brother, but this isn’t high school. You guys have been friends forever.”

Emerson shrugged. “I know. I’ll get over it.”

“Please, can you message her as if you’re checking she’s okay? Sound her out about her plans. For me, please.”

“Fine. I’ll do it.”

The ache in Jake’s chest eased for the first time since he’d watched Cassie disappear into the terminal doors. The fear he’d felt since the twenty minutes he’d stood there, waiting for her to run out and tell him it had all been a big mistake, ebbed too.

“Thanks, sis.”

“Yeah, well. Go bring her back, Jake.”

And he grinned, even though his heart told him that probably wasn’t going to be the solution they’d end up with.

17

“I’m going to fucking kill him, Cass.” Bruce Gambioni, the site foreman of The Grosvenor, marched into the office trailer they shared and threw his hard hat down on his desk.

She didn’t need to ask who he meant.

Brandon.

In a galling turn of events, despite being demoted, Elijah had asked her to split her time—eighty percent on the school Brandon had completely fucked up, and twenty percent on The Grosvenor to stop Brandon doing the same there. It felt like she was watching a burly toddler stomp around a china shop. Brandon had spent his day pointing out what a shit job everybody was doing.

“What did he do now?”

“I got wind he turned in a report to Elijah blaming the electricians for the delay to floors ten through twenty. And you and I both know they were running right on time until the cable didn’t arrive.”

Cassie rubbed her hand across her forehead. Fucking procurement problems. It seemed to be all she was dealing with these days. “He hadn’t put the procurement of the cables on the critical path, and I only spotted it when I came back.”

“Hell, Cass. I’m not blaming you. The punk ain’t got spit on you. It fucking blows what they did to you, sweetheart.”

Cassie’s heart squeezed at the compliment. She didn’t even have it in her to call him out for calling her sweetheart, a term she usually didn’t let fly on a construction site. “Yeah. It’s not my greatest hour. Listen, can I ask you a favor, please? In confidence?”

“Sure, Cass. What do you need?”

“I have an interview in a few days. ConTerra is hiring a senior project manager and I applied.”

Bruce’s eyes widened. “Elijah will have a cow if you leave for ConTerra.”

She shrugged. “He probably should have thought about that before he demoted me and left Brandon in charge. I’ve tried to accept it, but I can’t. I’m doing my old job here, plus the school, while Brandon leaves me voicemail messages at ten at night asking me to prepare