Page 56 of Home Is Where You Are

Moments later they walked over to where we were all gathered around the fire, causing the lot of us to divert our attention away from them.

Yeah, this crew was a rowdy bunch.

Brooks grabbed another chair for Callie and made room for her beside him. She was a meek and quiet person outside of the bar. While she was working, she was always upbeat, but never drew too much attention to herself. What she didn’t know was that her looks did that enough for her. She had beautiful tan skin and long black hair and an innocent look about her. Guys around here talked about her when she first arrived, but if Brooks had heard one word uttered, he always quickly shut it down. Holden, Leo, and I were stunned when he took a liking to her, especially considering he hadn’t shown interest in anyone before. Most people who came to Haven Valley were just passing through, but others like Callie, they stayed for longer periods of time. With the way Brooks was looking at her now, I realized that his feelings ran deeper than friendship, but he was too much of a chicken do anything about it.

“Hey, Callie. I’m Ainsleigh, Brooks’s sister. How are you doing tonight?”

“I’m better now that the creep is gone,” she whispered in a tone barely audible over the crackling of the fire.

“Did he happen to follow you once you left?” Leo asked full of concern.

“I don’t think so,” she said, shaking her head. She was clearly shaken by her encounter with this guy. When I met Callie, I could tell she had her secrets, but we never pushed new-to-towners into revealing anything.

“Good. Now let’s make some s’mores, shall we. Aspen here has never had one, so we’ve got to show her what she’s been missing out on. There’s plenty. You game?” Ainsleigh cheerfully asked Callie. I could tell Ainsleigh was trying her hardest to make Callie feel better, and it seemed to have worked as a smile slowly crossed Callie’s lips, and she nodded in approval.

“You see here, Aspen, the key is to make sure the marshmallow is just perfect. Not too burnt, but just enough to where it melts the chocolate just right,” Leo instructed as he grabbed a skewer and placed a marshmallow on the tip, holding it over the flame.

“You have to make sure to turn it so it gets all sides evenly,” Holden said as he did the same.

I could tell by the smirk on both of their mouths that they were up to something, and it’d likely cause all the girls to blush.

These fools always had something up their sleeve, but if it helped Ainsleigh have fun, I just couldn’t seem to care how bad they were about to embarrass the girls.

As the marshmallows were toasting, Leo grabbed two graham crackers from the box and broke off a large square from the chocolate bar.

Just as the marshmallow caught fire, he pulled it away and blew out the flame.

He placed the piece of chocolate on top of one piece of the graham cracker and put the marshmallow still attached to the skewer on top. Placing the other piece of cracker on top, he pulled the skewer back and the marshmallow slid off.

“See, the perfect amount of gooeyness in the center is key to the perfect s’more,” he said as he picked up the s’more from the side of the fire pit.

“It aids in melting the chocolate just right so it’s nice and creamy and warm on the inside,” Leo said as he took a bite.

All the girls then burst out laughing.

“You always have to throw in something sexual. How’s it possible that you managed that while talking about a s’more?” Ainsleigh questioned through her laughter.

“What? I didn’t do anything. I’m innocent here. All I was talking about was s’mores. Not my fault ya’ll’s minds were in the gutter,” he countered with a cocky smirk as he continued to chew.

“You and innocent go together as well as oil and water,” Holden joked as he blew the flame out on his marshmallow. The marshmallow was completely black, charred to a crisp, but he didn’t seem to care as he took a bite right off the skewer once it’d cooled down.

“You must think we’re stupid if you believe for one second we didn’t know what you were really referring to. I was born during the day, but it sure wasn’t yesterday.” Brooks laughed as he helped Callie make her s’more.

“Y’all are the perverts here. I was just talking about how well marshmallow and chocolate go together. Not my fault y’all took it the wrong way,” Leo countered, still feigning innocence.

“Right. We know you too well, big bro. That’s why we knew exactly what you were referring to,” Ainsleigh responded as she took a big bite of the s’more she’d just finished making.

Marshmallow oozed out the side of the graham crackers, and a little dripped down the side of her lips. I longed to be able to lean and get a taste, but refrained for fear she’d punch me in the face.

Instead, I did the gentlemanly thing and leaned over, using the tip of my thumb to wipe the remnants away.

The not so gentlemanly thing was I licked the tip of my thumb before pulling back and softly moaned so only she could hear me.

“Delicious,” I whispered, waiting until she looked up at me.

Our eyes locked for a beat, and I winked before settling back into my chair.

This bonfire couldn’t end fast enough.