The Kids Grow Up by Trish Hanan (novel24 .TXT) 📖

it was his fault she had made the wrong decision.
“That’s not fair, you have more coffee than us,” she snapped. DJ laughed.
“You’d have at least two drums of coffee if you put yours in with us but you didn’t want to too, you thought you’d be greedy and keep yours separate, guess you’ll know better next time, won’t you?” he sneered and they put the drums into trailers for delivery. Harry, of course, delivered to Max and Linda because he got a weird sense of pleasure giving them coffee. He also delivered to Dr. George and Shelley. Gloria and David took their coffee home and hated that smug little bastard. Violet took hers home and cried. That stupid Susie got twice as much coffee as she did and she knew she wouldn’t share, she never shared her precious coffee or tea because Violet refused to share hers.
Summer came and Harry threw himself a big party on the beach like he did every year and the drink this year was junpar daiquiris which all the women loved and the men of course drank ice cold beer. David was in a giggling mood because he had over-heard people talking about Harry and Jake’s Liquor Mart being nearly empty and complaining about his high prices and he was going to have the market on booze once again and could make some serious money. Gloria was pleased because now that show-off Harry was going to get his just desserts and after the coffee, she just couldn’t wait.
Max made his usual tipsy speech and everyone laughed and Jackson was pleased that everyone was cheering for his dad again and that make him very proud. He beamed up at his dads and got a kiss.
“You like that when people cheer for your old man, don’t you, Son?” Jake teased and Jackson nodded. Jake grinned and hugged him.
“I do too, some of these people are grumps who only like the free booze so I love it when they cheer and make complete asses out of themselves,” he told him and laughed so Jackson laughed too.
The day after the party Harry sighed and turned to his husband.
“I guess its time to get some of that liquor out of the barns and take it to the plant and put it in those empty bottles we’re been collecting,” he said and Jake nodded.
“Have we got enough bottles?” he asked. Harry grinned.
“Oh, yeah, everyone turned in their bottles for the rebates, we’ve even got a lot of David’s bottles,” he snickered and Jake laughed.
“Cheap bastards,” he remarked. Harry shrugged.
“I’ll recode them for our store and he’ll never know. He’s so dumb he probably doesn’t know how to code the bottles in the first place,” he said and Jake nodded.
“Let’s get Tammy and Amy to help Fran watch the kids and I’ll help you, babe,” he said and Harry nodded. DJ, Steve, Charlie, Synta and Hans and the four boys, Mike, Davy, Billy and Bobby all wanted to help so they grabbed ten barrels of each kind of liquor from the barn and took them and all the bottles over to the Coke plant. Harry had made up different labels for the bottles on his computer and they spent the first couple of hours putting the new labels on the bottles. Fortunately for them Harry had the bottles organized so all the whiskey bottles were together and all the vodka bottles were together and so forth.
“I love these labels, Jack Daniels, made by the Talbert Distillery, Edenville, Eden, very impressive, Harry,” DJ said and everyone nodded.
“I’ve got the recipe for some other stuff too, like Kaluha and brandy, I’m going to try to make next, maybe peach brandy, that sounds good to me and Kaluha is made from coffee so that should be easy to make,” Harry told them. Steve grinned.
“Old David is going to cry when he sees all of this on your shelves,” he chuckled. Harry shrugged.
“I’m pretty sure he’s got the same recipes in his store that I have in mine so he can make whiskey too,” he said and they all laughed. Jake kissed him.
“He’s not as brilliant as you are, babe, that man couldn’t make Jello without help,” he said and everyone nodded.
Once the whiskey bottles were ready, Harry lifted the barrels and dumped them in one of the tanks and mixed them all up. Next the men loaded the bottles in the machine and turned it on. Everyone watched in awe as the bottles were filled and then capped in one quick motion and the bottles were moved down the line. DJ laughed.
“Man, I love this plant, are you sure you don’t want to give it to me?” he asked and Harry rolled his eyes.
“Sorry, buddy, but this one is for one of our sons,” he informed him and they all sighed with disappointment.
When they finished with the whiskey there was one bottle that was just halfway filled and Harry took it out and opened it. He took out a dozen shot glasses and filled them part way and all the men grinned and took a sip. Then they all smiled.
“Oh, man, babe, that’s great, Jack Daniels couldn’t have made it better,” Jake declared and they kissed. Steve nodded.
“That’s great whiskey, Harry,” he told him. Harry grinned and put the bottle in a box. Then he rinsed out the tank while the men boxed up the six hundred bottles they had just made for shipping to the store.
Next they bottled the gin, then the vodka, the light rum, the dark rum, the tequila and finally the scotch. All the men were slightly tipsy from tasting so Harry pulled out the sandwiches he had packed and they took a lunch break. DJ laughed.
“I love working with you, buddy, this has been a lot of work, but where else can you get drunk at work,” he teased and they all laughed. Harry grinned.
“We’d better wait an hour before we drive or else Carl or Frank will pull us over and we might lose our licenses for six months,” he warned and they all nodded.
“Wow, this is great scotch,” Steve said after lunch. Harry made a face as he sipped.
“I’ll have to take your word, I don’t like scotch,” he said and Jake grinned and kissed him.
“Its great scotch, babe,” he said and Harry nodded. Then they decided since they had an hour to kill and they were at the plant, they might as well do a soda run so they made a batch of Dr. Pepper and Coke and diet Coke because all the ladies insisted they had to have diet. And they made some Fresca for Fran because she loved it and some 7-up since that was a nice change from the Coke. They loaded everything up in trailers and drove first to the Liquor Mart and dropped all the booze off and then to Harry and Jake’s to drop off all the soda in the front lawn. Harry sent off an email informing everyone soda was available at his house and how much everyone was entitled to if they wanted it. Of course everyone did and they all rushed over and grabbed it up. He and Jake carried theirs in the house before everyone rushed over so no one knew they and the kids took more than they handed out. After all, they were the ones who ran it and they worked hard, Harry always felt hard work deserved reward.
The next day Harry sent out an email informing everyone about the Talbert Distillery and its fine products which were now available for sale at the Liquor Mart. He offered everyone in town a free bottle of each kind of liquor as a way to say hello to the community and said the store would be open on Saturday for the sale. Everyone was talking about it all week in anticipation and David was furious.
“How dare he make liquor, what is he trying to pull here? I thought he was out of alcohol, where did he get more?” he whined and Gloria shook her head.
“I don’t know, I’ll ask Violet to find out,” she said and she called Violet to ask her to ask around. Violet asked Billy who was always a blabbermouth and he told her all about the liquor in the barn and how Jake and Harry had made hundreds of barrels of it like eleven years ago and they still had tons of it left. She passed the information on and David burst into tears when he found out. Gloria hugged him.
“He’ll never run out of liquor now, we’re ruined, no one will ever buy from us. Why did that little bastard have to bring down a liquor store? He knew I picked out a liquor store and he brought one down on purpose, he hates me,” David wailed. Gloria nodded.
“I know, darling but don’t worry, one of these days we’ll get even with him, you just wait,” she consoled him. He nodded and went to lie down. She sighed and wanted to run Harry over with her car. She decided then to help Violet in anyway she could to steal Jake away from that little bastard and ruin his life the way he had ruined David’s.
Saturday everyone showed up at the Liquor Mart for their free liquor and Harry and Jake handed out a box with six bottles and everyone gushed over them.
“I should have known you would have a plan, Henry, and would find a way to keep your store filled with liquor,” his mother Kate said with a pleased smile. Harry grinned at her.
“You know me, Mother, it was just a big science experiment when I made all of this, I’m just glad it all turned out as tasty as it did,” he said pleased with himself. Barb giggled.
“Of course it did, Mouse, you’re a great scientist,” she declared and everyone laughed. Tracey their oldest picked up a bottle of whiskey.
“Can I have this?” she asked and Kate frowned and took it away.
“Not until you’re eighteen, dear,” she told her and Tracey frowned.
“That’s not fair, why do you get to drink it and I don’t?” she whined. Kate rolled her eyes.
“I’ll give you a sip when we get home, dear,” she promised and the little girl’s eyes lit up.
“Really, Mom, great,” she exclaimed. Barb giggled as they walked away. Harry laughed and handed Carl his box. Carl laughed.
“I have a feeling Tracey isn’t going to like Jack Daniels,” he predicted. Harry shook his head.
“I don’t think so either, Carl, but with some kids you have to show them,” he said and Carl nodded.
“I suspect old David is having a big hissy fit right about now,” he said with a big grin. Harry giggled.
“I suspect so too but he’s got the same recipes that I do so if he runs out of liquor and can’t make any he is in the words of DJ and I quote, “Shit out of luck”,” he said and they both laughed.
“Well, that’s what he gets for charging five hundred dollars for a twenty dollar bottle of Jack Daniels,” Carl declared and Harry nodded.
“You have a nice day, Carl, and we appreciate your business,” he said and the man beamed.
“Thanks, Harry, you have