Love In Secrets (Love Distilled #3) - Scarlett Cole Page 0,89
me?”
“That’s an unfair question, Jake. You can’t walk away from your family.”
“It was a simple question. Do you love me?”
He was putting his life on the line for her, the least she could do was give him an honest answer, even though a part of her wanted to lie so he’d stay in Denver where he belonged. “Yes,” she whispered. “More than you know and more than I realized. The relief I felt when I saw you sitting on the stoop was indescribable.”
Jake smiled softly and cupped her cheek, rubbing his thumb back and forth. “Then the only question we need to answer now is how we can be together. You don’t want another long-distance relationship, and to be honest, after this weekend, I don’t think it would work for me, either. So, me moving here is all we got. And for you, Cass, I’d do it.”
She shook her head. “You can’t give up your legacy. And what about your dreams—the ones you told me that day by the lake. You want your kids to grow up with Em and Liv’s kids.” He wanted them to know each other. It was too much of a sacrifice for one person to make. “You’d hate me for it. Not immediately, but eventually.”
“I’d have you, Cass. And the life we’ll create. And I can find a job here. There are all kinds of local distilleries and microbreweries. And who knows, maybe I sell my house, maybe I sell my shares to Liv and Em, maybe Dyer’s Gin Distillery branches out and opens a new distillery here. I don’t even know. I haven’t thought all the options and possibilities through.”
Her mind whirled with everything Jake was saying. He was talking so quickly that she barely had the chance to take in one thing when he was on to the next. Liv and Em buying him out. “The distillery is you and your dad, it’s everything that is important to you.”
Jake shifted back onto the sofa. “My dad is what’s important. Moving here doesn’t change that.” He placed his arm around her and hugged her to him. “Maybe the timing of all this is fortuitous, or perhaps it was always meant to be. I wouldn’t be able to move right away. I’d want to stay and help Em and Liv move in to the new distillery building first, and then there would be the time it takes to find and hire a new master distiller and bring them up to speed on all of our recipes. Some of the nostalgia would be broken by no longer being in the old building.”
“What happens to the medal you won for it, though?”
“It stays with the gin, but I’ll always be able to say I created it. In fact, it would be a great selling feature on my resume as I look for jobs.”
Now it was Cassie’s turn to stand. “I can’t let you do that, Jake.”
“That suggests you have final say in the decisions I make, love. I’m willing to do this for you. For us. And, sure, there are probably going to be days when I feel a pang of . . . I don’t know, hurt maybe, that I left Denver. But I figure all I’ll need to do is look at you and our life and whatever new work I’m doing and friends I’ve met, and it’ll be worth it. I’m not coming here expecting you to replace every other facet in my life. That would put too much pressure on you and us. I need to find a life beyond you and me.”
He stood and wrapped his arms around her.
“Do you really love me that much?” The words were muffled by his chest.
“Yeah, Cass. I really do. Do you love me as much?”
“More. So much more.”
And when he kissed her, she focused on the positive. They’d be together, but a small piece of her wondered if the right person in their relationship was making the sacrifices.
By Wednesday evening, Jake had the foundation of a plan that would take a minimum of four months to put into effect. He’d taken into account the completion of the new distillery, and the mass production for both Christmas and Valentine’s Day campaigns. On Thursday morning, he reviewed it as the distillery came to life, as the lights flickered on, as the hum of machines coming to life filled the space.
He’d decided that he couldn’t stick around for the full renovation of the old distillery into the new