Page 21 of My Knight Before Christmas
We finished our meal, leaving Bash to clean up.
“Are you ready for dessert?” Liam asked, holding a hand out to help me up from my chair.
I put a hand on my bulging stomach and groaned. “I’m not sure I can fit anything else in. Dinner was too delicious.”
He turned a sad, pouty face on me. “That’s too bad because I brought stuff to make s’mores. The fire has died down enough. It’s the perfect condition for a toasted mallow.”
I slapped my hand in his. “Fine. You convinced me.”
He chuckled, pulling me up with too much force that I slammed into him. He immediately wrapped his arms around me. He mumbled against my hair. “That’s better.”
I agreed. Wrapped in his arms, I found my safe place in the world. After a few minutes, Liam let me go to get our chairs situated by the fire.
“How many do you want?” He asked, holding a paper plate filled with one graham cracker.
“One will be plenty.”
He raised a brow. “Are you sure?”
I pushed his shoulder. “Yes, Liam. I’m sure.”
He passed me the plate with all my ingredients separated out. I set it on my chair before grabbing one of the roasting sticks leaning against the round metal pit, putting my marshmallow on the end. I circled the fire, finding the glowing embers that would turn my white cloud of sugar to the perfect shade of gold.
Liam joined me a moment later. “These were my favorite growing up.”
“Did you go camping with your family a lot?” I rotated my stick to get the side of my treat toasted.
“Yeah. It’s one of the few times in my life that I have a happy memory with my dad. What about you? Do you like to camp?”
“I’ve only been a handful of times. My mom hates bugs, so we didn’t go often. I remember liking it, though.”
“What about hiking?”
“What about it?”
He pinched my side.
I squealed and jerked away from his fingers. “I literally have a flaming weapon in my hand. Watch it.”
“You’d really hurt me?”
I shrugged. “Possibly.”
“I will keep my hands to myself then. But will you answer the question?”
“Hiking means bugs, so again, I don’t recall going a lot. I’d be willing to go on one.”
“With me?”
I looked at Liam, admiring his handsome face and muscled body. “Yes. As long as we’re not talking about a high adventure multi-day trip.”
He turned his stick, getting the last white spot of his marshmallow over the coals. “I have the perfect place that takes about an hour to hike to. But the views are worth it.”
Oh no. What have I agreed to? “By views, does that indicate a steep incline?” I practiced yoga, not scrambling up mountains. I was more of a lazy house cat than a goat.
“I promise you’ll be fine.”
I took my now puffed marshmallow and set it on my layers of graham cracker and chocolate and used the second graham cracker to slide my mallow off the stick. “When Meg gets back and I’m not working every waking moment, I’m game.”
