“Aunt Pearl!” She was always incredibly blunt, but this was too much. I turned to Antonio and Trina. “Don’t pay her any attention. Let’s think positive thoughts. One step at a time.”
Aunt Pearl laughed. “Cendrine is delusional, as usual. Oops, that rhymes! You know, I love making up rhymes. Hmmm, let me see…”
She began snapping her fingers in a slow, jazzy beat:
Lombard wine
Is simply divine,
It ages with time,
No matter what,
It comes out fine,
First, we bottle it,
Then we coddle it,
To get a taste sublime,
Works like magic every time!
Trina clapped her hands in delight. “I love it!”
Aunt Pearl rubbed her palms together and smiled at me. “You said we should think positive thoughts, so that’s exactly what I did, Cen.”
My heart pounded as I realized Aunt Pearl had just cast another spell. She had enhanced the wine! That was cheating, pure and simple. I said in a loud whisper, “Aunt Pearl, stop!”
Aunt Pearl glanced at Antonio and Trina, but they were staring dreamily at each other and definitely weren’t listening to us.
“Stop what? You want Lombard Wines to go down in ruins? You want Antonio to lose everything he’s worked so hard for? You want Trina to lose the only job she’s had since high school? You want me to stop everything so these two can go back to their miserable existence?”
“Of course not! I don’t want any of that. But casting spells is the wrong way to fix everything.” My hand flew to my mouth. I gasped. I had almost revealed the secret. Despite vague rumblings about town regarding our eccentric family being witches, nobody took it that seriously. Antonio and Trina remained completely unaware that Aunt Pearl was a senior witch with incredible supernatural powers. And that she had not only cast an attraction spell on them but a spell on the wine too.
Luckily, neither Antonio nor Trina heard my witchy reference.
“It’s not a spell, Cen. It’s just poetry.” Aunt Pearl smirked as she repeated the spell:
Lombard wine
Is simply divine,
It ages with time
No matter what,
It comes out fine,
First, we bottle it,
Then we coddle it,
But not for long,
This wine is strong,
This fancy elixir
Needs no mixer,
Dollars and cents
I’m not on the fence
About this wine,
It’s just divine.
“I think that version works a little better for Antonio, don’t you?”
Antonio’s ears perked up at the sound of his name. “Hey, I like that poem! Can you start over? I missed the beginning.”
Aunt Pearl winked at Antonio. “You bet I can!
Lombard wine
Is simply divine,
It ages with time—”
Before I could protest, Trina raised her hand to stop Aunt Pearl. “It’s beautiful. Let me grab my guitar and we’ll set it to music. We’ll make it the Lombard Wines theme song.”
While a theme song could be a good marketing ploy, there would be no wine to market if we didn’t get it bottled.
Aunt Pearl pretended not to hear Trina and began reciting again:
Lombard wine
Is simply divine,
It ages with time—
“Stop it!” I clamped my hand over Aunt Pearl’s mouth. “You can’t do this—”
“I’ll do whatever I like, little miss party pooper. You’re such a downer. Now get your hand off my mouth!” Aunt Pearl stomped her foot on mine over and over.
“Ouch!” I released my hand and stumbled backward in pain. It was no use arguing that Aunt Pearl was the problem. Her spells always created unforeseen issues, but there was no way to explain that without getting into our whole secretive existence. The only good thing about the rhyming spell was that it appeared to cheer Antonio up.
He gave me a puzzled look. “Why are you manhandling Pearl, Cen? It’s a bit much, don’t you think?”
Aunt Pearl was a bit much. But explaining further would make me look like a raging lunatic. “Sorry…I don’t know what came over me. Let’s focus on getting the wine bottled.”
“Okay.” Antonio cast me a wary look. “I’m not the one you owe an apology to. Poetess Pearl was only trying to cheer me up. Right, Pearl?”
My face flushed as I glared at my aunt. I couldn’t explain without revealing that my aunt had been spellcasting, not songwriting. Unfortunately, my silent agreement made me appear as a bully, or worse, in Antonio’s eyes.
Aunt Pearl hummed softly under her breath. “This wine is divine…”
“Cheater,” I whispered.
“Just trying to even the playing field,” she said.
“You mean against Desiree? It’s not her wine that’s winning the contest. It’s because she’s sleeping with the judge. Your spell isn’t going to stop that.”
“It was never meant too,” Aunt Pearl said. “I meant even the playing field for Antonio to have a chance against Ruby’s Witching Hour Red Merlot. You think she made that merlot all by herself? On her first attempt at winemaking?”
“You’re jealous, Aunt Pearl.” Mom was so proud of her wine and rightfully so. She had worked very hard at it, following Antonio’s instructions to the letter. Mom would be furious at Aunt Pearl’s interference.
“I am not jealous.” She wagged a finger at me, then pouted like a two-year-old. “Nothing to be jealous about.”
Antonio was oblivious to Aunt Pearl’s tantrum as he raised a wineglass of syrah for a toast.
“To friends helping friends.” He sipped the wine and swished it around in his mouth before swallowing. “Mmm…I think this is even better than our 2001 vintage. In fact, it could be the best syrah we’ve ever produced.”
Trina and Aunt Pearl raised their glasses in a toast. “Cheers,” they said in unison before tasting the wine.
I glanced at the table and noticed one remaining wineglass. I didn’t recall anyone actually pouring the wine or offering me a glass. Had Aunt Pearl bewitched me too?
“Grab your glass and drink up, Cendrine,” Aunt Pearl said. “We haven’t got all day.” It was as if she had read my mind.
Chapter 8
We finished bottling the wine a few hours later. It was surprisingly fast, considering the amount we had managed to
