Page 46 of Love on the Run

“See? I don’t hold things back.” He grinned, trying to restore his equilibrium.

“You have to beat the egg whites,” Callie said, biting her lip to stop grinning like a fool. “That’s what makes the pancakes fluffy.”

“There, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” Jake asked.

She shook her head, still giggling a little. The two sat back against the low stone wall, close enough to reach out and touch. Callie watched the sky turn into liquid gold as the sun slipped behind the mountains to the west, throwing an ever-lengthening shadow over the land. She sighed contentedly. If only she could stay in custody.

Jake stared into the fire, occasionally poking it, not for any real reason. A companionable silence settled in, broken only by the occasional sound of a bird, or Bruiser’s bark from the yard beyond, where he was prowling his canine territory. The sky turned from gold to orange to crimson while they sat.

“Should be okay for roasting now,” he said after a while, breaking the silence.

“I’m excited,” said Callie, happily reaching for the long, twiggy stick he handed her. The tip had been whittled to a sharp point. Jake reached into the bag and pulled out a few marshmallows. “Here you go, honey.”

Callie jammed a squishy marshmallow onto the stick and then held it over the fire. Jake followed suit, but he seemed more picky about where he held his marshmallow.

“How long does it take?” she asked after a moment.

“Depends,” drawled Jake.

“That’s not helpful,” she said, just as her marshmallow burst into flames. She yanked the stick back, staring at the burning mass with chagrin. “Oh, no!”

He laughed. “I knew that would happen.”

“What do I do?”

“Just scrape it off on the side of the rocks. We have a whole bag. You’ll probably figure it out eventually.”

“What did I do wrong?” she asked as she scraped the smoldering, sticky mass off on a stone.

“You had it in too hot a spot. You need to find a place that’s mostly embers, where it’s hot, but not too hot.” He had not taken his eyes off his own marshmallow, and now she saw it was a perfect golden brown. He pulled it out, examining it with an expert eye. “Looks good. Here,” he pointed the stick toward her. “Just pull it off. It won’t burn you.”

Callie gingerly pulled at the marshmallow, which slid off easily. She blew on it, then popped it into her mouth. The crunchy outside hid a perfectly sugary smooth interior, and she closed her eyes as she chewed. “Oh, wow,” she said, smiling as she licked some stray sweetness off her lips. “Why didn’t I ever do this before?”

“Don’t know, city girl. Here, why don’t you try again?”

It took a few scorched mallows before Callie got the hang of roasting, but she watched what Jake was doing and imitated him. Soon, after sampling one of her creations, he had to admit she had potential. Callie enjoyed experimenting with different roasting techniques, and even set another one on fire for the sheer fun of it, holding it like a torch in the air until it consumed itself.

“You want another?” he asked, after eating one of his own.

“Um, no. I might go into sugar shock.” Callie carefully placed her stick away from the fire, and settled into a comfortable position. She tilted her head back, looking at the stars. “It gets so dark out here. Back home, the sky is orange at night.”

“That doesn’t sound particularly alluring.”

“Just a side effect of having millions of people in one place. ‘Course, I don’t really spend a lot of time outside anyway. Always busy doing something.”

“You must meet a lot of interesting folks, though.”

“Oh, interesting is one word for it.” She shifted her gaze to the fire again. “Doesn’t mean they’re worth knowing.”

“There must be some good people out of all those millions.”

“There are. It’s just, I haven’t met many of them. I met the other ones.” She shivered as she spoke, partly from the memories and partly from the night breeze. Despite the fire, she had goosebumps. She rubbed her arms.

“You’re cold. Come here,” Jake ordered, pointing to the spot of ground in front of him.

She glanced at him, uncertain.

Jake rolled his eyes. “I’m not going to bite, honey. Just scoot over.”

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