Gran almost smiled. “Because you needed to figure it out for yourselves. There’s interfering and there’sinterfering.But it was obvious that you liked each other and you were always so sweet around each other. You should go talk to her.”
Scott shook his head. “She’s quiet with me at the moment.”
“All the more reason you need to talk to her then. Find out why.”
“Trust me. If she wanted to talk to me about it, she would.”
Gran shrugged. “I don’t agree with you, but let’s look around the distillery.”
Somehow, being in her seventies had not stopped Gran from having enough entrepreneurial spirit to fill a brewery. She’d used crowdfunding and a variety of fundraisers to get the distillery up and running, using water from a recently discovered spring. And she’d delegated, because Gran was a master delegator and knew exactly how to get people to do things for her.
They’d commandeered an old factory, built near to the spring that had been discovered. The infrastructure was kind of already there and this was small batch gin, made from so many botanicals, none of which he could remember, but most of them were grown locally.
From somewhere, she’d recruited a specialist; a quiet, reclusive man who was around the same age as Scott and he’d set about perfecting the drink. It was going to bring more visitors to the town, which was only good and it was looking like there would be further opportunities for more employees to join.
The peaks were the backdrop of the distillery, the image of which was imposed onto all the bottles that had so far been produced. But the actually place had been turned into something he couldn’t quite accept as being the small, run down building that had been a blight to the area less than twelve months ago. The woman and her coven had cast a spell to get this place working and it seemed almost an inevitable success.
“Did you write a business plan for this?” Scott asked.
Gran gave a little huff. “I had to. That grandson-in-law of mine wouldn’t invest unless there was one.”
“I thought it was crowdfunding?”
“It is mainly, but we needed more in the bank so we didn’t have to run solely on the profits in the first year or two. Vanessa’s husband invested as a shareholder, as did the rest of his brothers and sisters.” She smiled but it belied a battle she’d more than likely had.
Scott wished he’d been there to witness it. He’d heard a little from Vanessa Moore, now Callaghan, about her new family and knew enough to understand that they were a good match for tackling Gran and her manipulative ways.
“I heard that her parents-in-law own a winery?” He saw Jake standing outside the distillery and felt himself stiffen. He was talking to Keren, and usually, before Scott had worked out what he had, that would’ve been normal. But now it was anything but.
“They do.” Gran looked from Jake to Scott. “It took you long enough, boy.”
“What did?” He hoped she wasn’t going to enlighten him with what he thought she was.
“He had eyes for her before you did. But she was never interested.”
Shit. He’d hoped he was wrong.
“Why didn’t I know?”
Gran grabbed his arm, tightening her fingers around it. “Sometimes it needs someone standing further away to appreciate the bigger picture. You were all kids, growing up together in a small town. It was inevitable that you were going to have crushes on each other.”
“I never realised Jake liked her.” It felt like a punch to the gut, even though it was a conclusion he’d come to himself after the Saturday night when Keren had fallen. He’d avoided Jake since, not sure what to say or if he was right because he’d been hoping that he was wrong, completely wrong.
Gran let go of his arm and tapped him on the back. “You were too focused on her. And I know that she let him down gently years ago.”
“But he’s still held a torch for her.”
She shook her head. “I don’t think so. An ember at most. But I’m out of turn talking about this, Scott.”
“I just can’t believe I didn’t see it before.”
Gran smiled. “That’s life, kiddo. We don’t see everything because other things block our vision. You should speak with him.”
“He lied to me about Keren. He told me she said she wasn’t interested in me, and that she made some cruel comments about why.” The anger ate at him like woodworm for many reasons and he wasn’t sure if speaking to Jake about it was the wisest move.
“But that water’s been rained out several times over by now, never mind under the bloody bridge.” Gran had a point but it wasn’t sharp enough.
“I’ll speak with him. Thank you.”
