Day one and another run in with The Law.

The following Monday as Spencer got ready to take Amy to school and Danielle was on her way to New York, Spencer found a strange sense of restlessness had taken over his body. Under the hot water of his shower, Spencer found the familiar sensations of the water hitting his skin causing his manhood to swell significantly. It was like he’d been infected with the libido of a boy half his age. He hadn’t even decided if he wanted to do anything while Danielle was away or not. Spencer’s brain firmly reasoning that this would be the perfect opportunity to showcase his devotion to Danielle and remain celibate once again and prove to himself that his slip up with Everly had been just that, a slip-up. The lower half of his body seemed to have come to an entirely different decision where he was soon stiffer than a groom on his wedding night.

At least today he had things planned to occupy his time and prevent him from distractions of the mind and flesh. John Monaghan was coming over to finish the excavation of the barn’s basement now that the remains of the old moonshiner had been removed.

John and his digger were already unloaded by the time Spencer had returned from dropping Amy off at school. Spencer having used his plans with John to escape the continued well-wishers about his new appointment on the school’s PTA. Back at home, Spencer acted as a spotter for John on the machine as they slowly started to uncover the earth that had caved in long ago. When much of it had been removed and the top of the old cooper still was exposed, John hopped out of the cab to see what Spencer wanted to be done with the old relic.

“What do you want me to do with that? Be a shame to wreck it,” John asked Spencer through the warming morning sun.

“I don’t have anywhere to keep it,” Spencer said with a shrug.

John made Spencer a suggestion he’d been thinking of. “If you like, I can keep it for you back at the construction yard and we could see about having it restored? You know, get it back in working order?”

“I thought it was the Scots that were the whisky distillers?” Spencer said with a grin at the big man’s typical Irish ginger features.

“Us Irish Catholics know just as much about whiskey as the Scottish. Least we spell it right!”

It was a bit more work to keep it safe but John and Spencer were able to use some straps and the excavator’s bucket to lift the old pot still out of the hole and up onto the back of John’s truck. The copper of the alembic contraption showed a sickly green in the places that the dirt and dust of untold decades had been scratched clear.

With that out of the ground, the digging was much quicker until they came to almost the final layer and started to encounters an assortment of mostly broken glass receptacles. Again, John jumped out of the cab to see what Spencer wanted to do with them.

“Fancy a try?” he asked as they took a look down into the hole.

“It would be ruined by now surely?” Spencer replied.

“That doesn’t go off. It’s near pure ****. It might have even improved with age,” John laughed.

“Like a fine vintage,” Spencer added with a raised eyebrow of doubt. “I’m game if you are,” he said with a shrug.

Jumping down the benched sides of the hole, John used his gloves to dig through the glass and dirt until he came to a mason jar that was still unbroken. Brushing the moist soil away, he held it up to the light to show the insides of clear liquid without any sediments. It looked for all the world like pure water. Grabbing Spencer’s offered hand to help him back up, John unscrewed the lid and took an experimental sniff. The fumes near singed his eyebrows off.

“Oww Jesus! It’s potent alright,” John said offering the jar to Spencer for the first taste.

“Not a chance!” Spencer shook his head emphatically. “The first one’s all you.”

Apprehensively John put his lips up against the sandy rim and took a cautious swig. He immediately started to cough and pound his chest.

“It’s not half bad!” John declared after his coughing fit had passed. “I could probably run my truck on it but it’s guaranteed to put hairs on your chest Spence. Massie always quite liked that in me.”

Laughing and against his better judgement, Spencer took a draw of the moonshine. It was like pure fire in his chest! Hacking immediately, Spencer felt a surge of energy course through his veins and his whole body came alive.

“Woo that’s got a kick,” he confirmed.

Their eye’s lighting up like two excited schoolboys, the two men returned to the earthworks to see how many other containers of hooch they could find between them. With some careful sifting of the soil, they were able to find just over two dozen between them that they agreed to split 50/50 between them. Spencer retrieving a couple of boxes from the house to store them in.

After that, it was just a simple process of refilling the hole with fresh dirt that John had trucked in and tipped back in and then the rest of the afternoon to compact it. Finally, everything filled and levelled, Spencer and John returned to the moonshine jar they’d opened earlier to toast their success. With the accompanying burn now expected, the straight spirit was ambrosia. A little over half of it was gone before Spencer remembered the time and the need to pick up Amy from school.

Spencer probably would have been better calling Darcie Collins or someone else to pick up Amy for him today when he was part of the way back into Avonwick and the red and blue lights of a patrol car lit up behind him. Pulling onto the side of the road, Spencer was relieved to see it wasn't Deputy Stockton this time but Evelyn Malone. He didn’t think he could pass the former’s road sobriety test this time.

As he drew down the electric windows, Deputy Malone lifted her shades over her eyes as she recognised Spencer driving. “Oh, sorry Spencer. I’m not used to your new vehicle yet…” Evelyn passed for a moment and sniffed the air inside his car. “What on earth have you been drinking?” she said as her nose crinkled adorably.

Spencer didn’t know if it was the moonshine or the lively spirit that had infected him this morning in the shower that made him answer, “why don’t you taste me and find out?”

Evelyn’s eyes went wide in shock at being spoken to by a member of the public like that but instantly recalled all that had occurred between Spencer and her. She had no leg to stand on with Spencer anymore. A sheriff’s deputy all her adult life, it was that tiny sliver of rebelliousness in her soul that compelled her to act just then. Pulling off her wide-brimmed hat, Evelyn first looked around guiltily before she lent down into the car and kissed him. She could taste the moonshine on him, her tongue invading his mouth as they kissed, Evelyn bent over into the cabin of Spencer’s car.

She had to place her hand on Spencer’s strong chest at long last to push herself away from him. She couldn’t make herself stop otherwise. She’d sworn to herself this wouldn’t happen again with Spencer but instead, she asked, “can I see you this week?”

“Come over one day when your off duty,” Spencer almost growled to her. Danielle and their agreement not even entering his mind at that moment.

“Friday?” Evelyn asked. It was her next proper day off. She’d have to work today and then the following two nights so would need Thursday to sleep and recover at least.

Spencer nodded his approval. “See you then,” he told her.

“Alright. Drive carefully and don’t speed,” she told him. Evelyn was amazed that she could actually hold herself back from kissing him a second time just then. Instead, she controlled her breathing and walked only slightly unsteadily back to her patrol car as Spencer cautiously pulled out and back towards Carter Senior High School.