SURROGATE : Conception (+18) BOOK 1 (COMPLETE)

| 57 | Give Me S'More ||

"Another one?" Liam frowned over at his companion. This was what? Three? No, four?

"Yep." Penelope said. "With caramel this time if you will."

"You're going to get sick." He warned.

"I'm a big girl. I can handle my s'mores. Come on hand me the marshmallow bag please." She flicked her fingers to emphasize what she wanted. "Come on make haste before the fire dies out will ya?"

He was smiling so much sense they settled around the fire, what, an hour ago now, that his cheeks hurt. He just put another log on the fire not ten minutes before. She was being a bit theatrical, which he admitted he found enduring. "You know there are no hangover tips for s-more overdoses right?"

"Less talking, more passing. Thank you." She said, claiming the bag of marshmallows from him. "Haven't you ever heard of puff puff pass?" She giggled as she took out two marshmallow puffs to emphasize her point.

He shook his head disapprovingly, fighting the twitching at the corner of his lips.

He held up his hands when she offered him a puff. "No, thank you." He held up his hands when she handed the bag back to him. "I tapped out two marshmallow's back. Think I might need to eat some bacon or something to balance out all the sugar."

She laughed. "I told you to put peanut butter on the last one to get that salt balance, but you're hard headed. You don't listen. You just had to be a s'more rebel didn't you? Now you're suffering the consequences."

"I'm hard what?"

"Hard headed." She laughed a little bit then sobered, caught between the present and a memory. "It's what my mom would say to us when we did something against what she said and got ourselves in trouble."

"Trouble?" He let the thought marinate. "I don't know if I could imagine you in any real trouble."

She smiled only with the corner of her mouth and she let the marshmallows live right at the top of the flames. "I've come a long way." She released a silly laugh that made him smile and crinkle his forehead simultaneously.

"I have mastered the art of marshmallow roasting." She stood up and pushed the roasting stick in the air like a knight might a sword. That made him laugh out loud, the amusement flooding him from the inside out.

"What, are you a knight of the round table or something?" He adjusted his lounge on the chair.

"Not just any knight, I'm Sir S'mores A Lot. The knight to defeat all others in the art of toasting, roasting and layering deliciousness together." She giggled excessively, no doubt a product of the sugar that was rushing through her body.

He was now laughing and shaking his head. "Are you sure you only had one glass of champagne?"

"Didn't even finish that one. The bubbles were cute at first and then they gave me heartburn."

"Yeah, and that was good champagne too."

Some silence settled in as Penelope prepared her s'more and he contently watched her. Strange how there was nothing more appealing than exactly what he was doing in that moment.

"So," he said, clearing his throat. "You gave the cliff notes version of your meeting with Catalina, but I want to know how it really went?"

Penelope looked back at him, her mouth full of s'more. She raised an eyebrow, chewed, chewed some more, then swallowed. "Really?" She said. "You had to wait until after I took a bite to ask a question, huh?"

He laughed. "I didn't do it on purpose."

"Mhm," she licked the edges of her s'more distracting him. Memories started flooding in unprompted. "What do you mean 'really went' ?" She glanced over at him.