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I give her a wink. “Guess we better.”
“Oooh and an Instagram page too. We can tie it to Somerville’s and Apple Jacks, but we should have our own for when we’re famous and stuff.” Penny’s smiling, her excitement obvious as she starts listing all the other things we will need for this business venture we’re apparently on.
“Okay, okay, settle down, we gotta make it drinkable first.”
“Honestly,” she says, nudging me with her foot. “Where’s your positivity?”
Couple of hours later and our honey is now clean and boiled and currently bottled in jars waiting to be turned into mead. We’re going with a single batch first up, no fancy flavoring or anything, just to make sure we know what we’re doing and aren’t going to kill anyone. If this works out, we’ll think about adding other stuff to create some different flavors.
“You good?” I ask we put away the equipment and head outside.
“No, I’m filthy,” Penny says looking down at herself. “Like covered in honey and whatever shit decided to stick to it.”
I let out a laugh. “Yeah, me too. Definitely need a shower. Come on, let’s head back to Somerville’s.”
We take the work truck back down to the main building of the winery, both of us literally peeling ourselves off the seats just to get out of the car. “Shit,” Penny mutters as she stands by the side of the truck, looking at herself.
“What?”
“I don’t wanna get in my car like this,” she says, glancing up at me. “I mean, I know it’s a shitbox, but still.”
“Yeah, I—”
My words are cut off as Oscar walks past, takes one look at us and bursts out laughing. “Oh my god, you two look like sh—”
“Hey!” Penny shouts, smiling even as she holds a finger up to him in warning.
“What?” he asks, arms out in mock innocence.
I can’t stop the laugh as I glance at Penny, who is also fighting a smile.
“I mean, seriously, guys,” Oscar continues, his hands now on his hips. “I don’t know what’s going on here.” He waves a hand between the two of us. “But you definitely need a shower.”
Before either of us can say anything more, Olivia wanders over, standing beside her brother, her arms crossed as she looks from Penny to me and back to Penny again.
“This is worse than when Uncle Jack got covered in that rotten wine,” she says, turning to her brother.
Oscar gives a nod of his head. “Right, total shit show.”
“Oscar!” Penny says again, even as I start laughing.
“Get out of here, you two,” I say, stepping toward them. “Before I come and give both of you a big sticky hug.” I hold my arms out wide, crouching down a little as I walk toward them.
Olivia squeals, grabbing Oscar’s arm as she attempts to pull him away. Oscar doesn’t move at first, just watches as I get closer and closer to them, his little brow narrowed as though he’s trying to figure out how serious I am. Just as I am about to reach them, he holds a hand up.
“Nope, I’m out,” and then he and Olivia turn and run, the laughter floating back to us as they head into the main building.
I turn to Penny, who’s smiling as she watches me. “What?”
“You’re good with them,” she says, tipping her head in the direction they ran off in.
I shrug, not quite sure how to respond to that. “I’ve known them all their life,” I say. “They’re good kids.”
“They are,” she says, nodding. “Cheeky little shits, but funny too.”
I turn back to the work car. “Yeah, worse now they’ve got Jack to imitate and look up to.”
Penny laughs. “Oh my god, I caught Oscar trying to do an Australian accent the other day, it was hilarious.”
