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Just as he’s about to shove her out of the way, Jack appears in the doorway. He slips past me and grabs Oscar around the waist. He hauls him into his arms and spins him around until I swear Oscar is going to puke.
He’s dizzy as hell, but laughing so hard he can hardly speak. And when Jack finally sets him down, he doesn’t get a break.
“My turn!” Olivia yells, running right up to Jack and holding her arms up at him.
“You’ve gotta tell me what’s going on in here first,” Jack states, his hands on his hips.
“Oscar was trying to take my bucket,” Olivia wails, really turning on the drama for Jack’s sake.
“We were about to have a grape war,” I add, knowing the drama will continue to overshadow the fun we were going to have if I don’t cut in.
“A grape war?” Jack questions, now intrigued by what that means. “Fill me in here, Ollie.”
The flow of huge crocodile tears cease immediately and Olivia begins talking so fast that I’m certain Jack misses ninety percent of it.
But that doesn’t stop him from shouting an enthusiastic, “I’m in,” and then he begins to name teams. “I’ve got Ollie,” he says, high fiving her and shooting a glare in my direction. “You’re going down, Lu.”
“Oh, you think? Oscar and I get the launcher!” I call running for the buckets and grabbing two of them before darting out into the fields.
Most of our fields are closed to the public and that’s a good thing, because something tells me we are going to make a huge mess.
Before I can even reach the launcher the kids and I made last summer, Jack has nailed me in the back with a handful of mushy grapes.
I drop the buckets where I stand and Oscar and I dig in, launching loads of smashed and rotten grapes in the direction of Jack and Olivia.
The kids are laughing wildly as grapes fly through the air. My face is covered making it hard to see and I’m caught off guard when Jack grabs me around the waist. He holds me in place and yells for the kids to attack.
It’s a set up; they’ve ambushed me and I’m being pelted with grapes as I thrash around trying to escape Jack’s grasp.
“Oh my god! You’re cheaters!” I scream, laughing so hard tears stream down my cheeks.
When I finally escape from Jack, I grab a nearly empty bucket and attempt to dump it on him. But he’s stronger than me and most of it ends up on my head, remnants splattering on Jack and the kids as they cling to him.
It only takes us ten minutes to exhaust all the grapes, but in that short amount of time, we’re all thoroughly covered, including Jack.
“This was the best day ever!” Oscar cheers, throwing his arms around my waist and then doing the same to Jack.
Olivia is still hanging on to Jack, smiling up at him and he picks her up, lifting her onto his shoulders.
“We gotta go get cleaned up,” I say, being the one to ruin the fun. “We’re having dinner with your mom and dad tonight and she’s going to kill me if we show up at my house covered in grapes.”
I lead everyone back to one of the sheds that has a shower and a clean-up station for the employees. It’s not just grape wars that cause people on the property to become covered in grapes.
Jack drops Olivia off his shoulders and I shove her and Oscar under the water. They both dance around rinsing off as I grab for Olivia, Jack reaches for Oscar and we begin washing their hair. This isn’t going to get them totally clean, but it’ll be enough for me to sneak them back to my house, put them in the bath and get them clean clothes before Ellen makes it back there.
They’re both wiggling around and it’s like trying to wrangle a greased pig, and once again they have Jack and I laughing. I look up at him as Olivia manages to slip away from me and the smile that is plastered on his face makes my heart race.
I feel my stomach flutter, the feeling of butterflies rising up into my chest.
I’m suddenly overcome with a dream of what my life would be like if Jack and I were in a relationship. This is what I imagine every day to be like. That I wake up feeling happy, that seeing him brings a smile to my face.
It’s something I long for. It’s something I’ve never experienced, and I realize now that had I gotten married, I would’ve sold myself short, because days like this should be the norm and they never were.
Jack steps toward me, his fingers swiping at the grapes that are stuck to my face.
“You okay?” he asks, his head tilted to the side and I wonder what the look on my face is telling him.
“Yeah, I’m great.” For once in the last year I actually mean it.
