Shine On (6 page)

“Gabe said that Silas said he just didn’t have time to get all wound up with some ‘good girl’ down here,” Ava smiled like that was the best news she’d ever shared.

“And you’re happy to relay that message to me because?” Emmie arched an eyebrow, thoroughly irritated.

“Because it means he likes you,” she testified, throwing her arms up in the air. Sometimes Ava really acted like she was about twelve years old. Emmie turned around and continued stirring the pot with more force than was necessary to break up some of the apples.

“Don’t you see? He just doesn’t think it’s worth the effort because he lives up there and is only here for a short while. But that doesn’t really matter does it, Emmie? We can show him he’s wrong. Marry him and we will be real cousins.” Ava laughed at her timeline.

“Well, maybe not quite that fast,” Ava corrected, “but it could happen. We can have fun trying anyway. Just come over for dinner tonight. The more you are around each other the better. I don’t like you avoiding the house anyway. Things are always better once they’re all out in the open.”

“Alright, I’ll come over, but just to be clear, it’s not for him. It’s just because you’re right. I’m tired of avoiding your house,” she clarified.

“Do you mind getting me a couple of jars out of the cupboard under the stairs?” she asked.

Ava moved around the corner toward the pantry. “Lord have mercy,” Ava shouted.

“What is it?” she called to her friend, only to receive no answer. She turned to see Ava emerge with a jar of moonshine in each hand.

Chapter Nine

“O
h.” Emmie looked taken aback for a moment.

“I really didn’t take you for such a drinker. Living a double life here, Emmie?” Ava teased. “Guess we found where Ronnie hid his stash. Last time we stumbled on it, a few years ago, it was just two jars in the barn. His habit must have picked up… A LOT.”

“How much was in there?” Emmie tried to remember the last time she’d dug around in that pantry. It had been months and there wasn’t any ’shine back then just stacks of old mason jars.

Ava didn’t answer her. She just sat the jars on the table and pulled her friend around the corner to peek into the small closet. Spotty’s toenails clicked on the wooden floor as he followed to see but quickly looked disinterested and went back to stalk the pot on the stove.

“Two, four, six, eight rows of ten. Good night, Emmie! You have eighty bottles of moonshine,” Ava said.

“Eighty-two counting those two on the table,” Emmie corrected.

“What are you going to do with them?” Ava picked up a bottle and eyed it suspiciously.

“I have no idea. Pour them out? I guess that’d be the right thing to do.” She took the other jar and put it back in the pantry, then went back over to give the apples a final stir.

Ava gave her a wicked grin. “Then why are you putting that ’shine back in the pantry?”

“I just don’t want mess around with it right now. I thought you wanted to head back to your house soon anyway?” She did her best to sidetrack her friend. She knew what she had to do with that ’shine but had no intention of telling Ava.

Pop!

She spun her head around from the stove to see her friend with a jar in one hand and the cap in the other. Ava took a big sniff and drew her head back with wide eyes.

“Just a sip to see what it tastes like, okay? Then we can pour the rest out. Promise.” Ava held the jar of ’shine over her heart like she was making a vow.

“Oh, alright.” One sip wasn’t going to hurt anyone. She got out a couple glasses and poured a tiny splash into each one. The girls clinked glasses and tipped their heads back.

Ava immediately sprayed hers back into the glass coughing like she had ingested some type of rat poison. Emmie forced hers down her throat. FIRE—it felt like fire. Burning all the way down to her gut.

“Oh my gosh,” she screeched, running to the sink to fill her glass with water. She drank the entire cup in an attempt to put out the burn. It sort of worked. When she finally caught her breath she turned to find Ava in fits of laughter.

“Your face…” That is all Ava could get out before another swell of laughter took her over.

“That stuff is disgusting. Why in the world people would spend their hard-earned money on that I have no idea,” Emmie laughed.

Ava picked up the jar to give it a closer inspection. Spotty barked and stood at attention, his ears cocked sideways. He ran to the front door before they ever heard the knock. All traces of humor left the room.

“Get rid of that. I’ll go see who it is,” Emmie told her friend.

***********

“Hey Miss Emmie.” Max waved before she got the door all the way open. Spotty bounced from foot to foot until Max reached down with his good hand to scratch behind his ear.

“Hello, Max, Walter,” she smiled at her neighbors. “Come on in.”

The three of them walked into the house and stepped into the kitchen.

“Sorry, Emmie, we didn’t realize you had company,” Walter said, tipping his hat and wiping his hands on his blue jean overalls.

“Oh, it’s fine I was just leaving. See you tonight, Emmie,” Ava said. She turned on her way out. “Oh, and I added that last ingredient to the applesauce.”

Last ingredient? Oh, you have got to be kidding me.
Emmie thought.

“Max you look mighty handsome in that hat. You know, those are all the rage in Chicago this summer,” Ava added, touching his newsboy cap on her way out the door.

Max’s mouth split open with a grin from ear to ear. “Thanks Miss Ava.”

She waved like a movie star and headed out the door. Just as dramatic as ever.

“What can I do for ya?” Emmie said, making her way over to stir the applesauce-moonshine mixture. Mainly just to be sure it wasn’t emitting some odd smell. The good news, it wasn’t.

The apple and cinnamon seemed to cover it up well.

“Sure smells good in here Miss Emmie,” Max added licking his lips.

“Well that’s because I got some delicious apples from some young kid this morning. You stop by the store tomorrow and I’ll have some for you, if you’d like.”

The boy nodded his head excitedly.

“Tell her why we’re here, boy,” Walter prompted.

“Well, I have an offer for you.” Max said, looking nervously at his feet. “You said the other day you seen how good I am at my numbers. That’s because Mamaw Mae practices with me every night. She helps me with reading too but I’ve been having a harder time with it. School don’t start for another couple of weeks and I…” he paused looking up at her. “I want to be good at this Miss Emmie. I’m not so good at some other things but I am good at book smarts.”

That just about broke her heart. She hated for him to think about the things he wasn’t good at. Who cares if he had a limp or one hand that worked better than the other? Some of the kids were so hard on him for it.

Max went on, “I figured since you want to be a teacher, that working with me on my reading might be good practice for you too. I can bring you more of them apples if you want? Or Papaw said we could get you some extra ears of corn,” he pleaded but kept his chin held high.

“I thought you might be interested in hearing his business proposition.” Walter’s eyes smiled at the way the tables had turned.

Emmie answered, “Of course, Max. I would be honored to work with a smart, hard-working young man like you. How often were you thinking we should practice together?”

They settled on twice a week for an hour. Emmie was excited about it. Tutoring him really would be good practice for her, if she ever got to enroll in that new teacher’s college up on the hill.

“Walt, can I talk to you a second?” she asked.

She led him over to the small pantry and opened the door. He bent down and peeked his head in. When he came out his eyes were wide and he nodded but didn’t say a word.

“Think you can get rid of it?” she whispered.

He didn’t answer just shrugged like he wasn’t sure.

“Maybe we can talk about it?” she whispered, a little annoyed.

“Later,” he said, heading back into the kitchen.

She said bye to Walter and Max went into her room to get ready. She put on a dress Ava had given her that she said just didn’t fit right anymore. It hung just past her knees with a drop waist, and a beautiful Irish lace overlay. Sometimes Emmie was pretty sure Ava was lying about the clothes not fitting her anymore, it was just an excuse to keep her friend up to date in the latest fashion she had seen in Chicago. Fashion usually took a couple years to make its way down to Kentucky.

The applesauce had cooked to almost nothing while she was getting ready. She had just let it go since Ava had ruined it. When she went over to turn it off, it surprisingly still smelled delicious. Out of curiosity she tasted a spoonful of the concoction. It was phenomenal, so much better than that disgusting fire alcohol she’d had earlier. It still tasted just like applesauce with a hint of the kick that set her mouth on fire earlier. She rinsed out the empty jar on the counter and filled it with the moonshine applesauce she had made. She covered the lid with a square bit of red gingham fabric that she usually used on jams to make it stand out from the other jars in the cupboard. Emmie wasn’t exactly sure what to do with it but she’d save it until she figured it out.

Chapter Ten

S
ilas saw her walk up to the house from his bedroom window. She was dressed up for him. He knew it. Damn it. He didn’t have time for this. Silas bent down tied his brown lace-up boots and buttoned his vest. If he could have just kept himself under control a couple of weeks ago he wouldn’t have been in this mess.

Now he was walking some tightrope between breaking this girl’s heart, which in turn would piss off his cousins, and just trying to get his job done. He was ready to get back to Chicago already. He had been sent down here just to take care of one simple job… one simple task turned into a huge cluster now he was back down here dealing with three-tooth moonshiners for God knows how long.

And to beat it all now he was going to have to spend the days working at his uncle’s law firm since apparently the family was telling everyone he was down here for work. Not that Silas really minded helping out. He had a degree and everything. It was just that when he spent the day at the office his brain wasn’t always as clear at night as it needed. He couldn’t afford sloppy mistakes.

Throw that girl into that mix and he was destined for failure.

“Hello, Emmie.” He gave her an easy smile or tried to anyway. Was she this short two weeks ago? He could have sworn she was taller.

“Hi, Silas.” She moved past him with barely a look in his direction and walked over to where Ava and the rest of the group stood.

That went well, he thought.

Silas reached down and pulled a cigarette out of his vest pocket and lit it, breathing in deeply and squinting to keep the smoke out of his eye while the flame took.

“Who’s cooking tonight?” Emmie asked, looking around for Ms. Jackson, the housekeeper/cook/everything else that was usually on hand when Ava’s parents were out of town.

“Oh, Applesauce,” Ava cursed with a wicked smile.

Emmie’s heart pounded and she turned to look at her friend before she realized Ava was using it as a swear word. Silly flapper lingo nearly gave her a heart attack. She was sure her friend was getting ready to spill her guts about the moonshine applesauce they had just created. Ava always had a big mouth.

The look in Ava’s eyes said she thought her little joke was funny. Then she continued, “I completely forgot Ms. Jackson is off this week. Well, I’m sure we can throw something together.”

“Doll, when is the last time you threw anything together in the kitchen?” Gabe laughed.

“That’s pollywampus. I can do this. We can do this.” She held out a hand to Emmie.

The girls entered the room twenty minutes later with a couple trays of meats, cheeses, and crackers, after raiding the cabinets.

“We didn’t have much to choose from. You need to go to the store tomorrow. Or I could bring some things by after work for you,” Emmie said.

“That’d be great if you wouldn’t mind,” Vince agreed.

Gabe and Ava went out for a walk after dinner. Vince excused himself to call his fiancée. Which left Trick, Silas, and Emmie in an awkward silence until Trick walked over to the piano. He sat down and became Beethoven Jr. Clearly showing off. It worked.