His Naughty Lessons-Chapter 204: Embrace Your Inner Child

** Harper **

Late Saturday morning was a busy time at the campground. The three of them arrived to a lively sight of dozens of tents getting pitched up all along the side of the creek, a bright dash of colors sprouting through the lush summer woods. Birds flitted through the dense canopy of treetops, adding tweets of cheery songs to the lovely scene.

"Wow, this place still looks exactly the same as I remember!" Harper gasped in amazement at the natural beauty unfolding before her eyes. "The creek, the woods, even that log cabin amenities house over there. I remember us trying to climb the big maple tree behind it back then. It was so much fun!"

She casually caught up with the two guys walking in front of her, patting each of them on the back with one hand in a "brotherly" gesture, hiding a soft brush of her fingers over Eli’s shoulder. She grinned when he surreptitiously reached up and held her hand for a moment, before pretending to brush her off with a nonchalant snort.

"It was fun until we got caught and your mom lectured us for half an hour," he reminded her.

"Didn’t stop us from trying again with the oak tree at school though," Tyler chimed in. "Hey, I was proud to have gotten so close to the top without anyone having to call firefighters to help me get back down."

"You what?" Harper gaped at the childhood anecdote that her brother casually tossed out. "Wait, did Mom never know about that? She would’ve grounded you from backpacking for the rest of your life!"

Eli chuckled. "I convinced our teacher that it was my idea and I coerced him, so the school didn’t bother with his parents and only called mine. Sometimes it’s actually convenient to not have parents who care too much."

Harper looked up instinctively at that, searching his face for the familiar expression of carefully hidden hurt and regret. But to her surprise, she saw none this time. There was only a faint trace of nostalgia, as if he understood that this was simply a memory from long ago, and nothing more.

She wasn’t sure how to interpret such a subtle change, though she preferred this expression much more to the usual. Knowing she was in his peripheral vision, she patted the head of the teddy bear in her arms and gave it a light kiss on the forehead.

Eli: "..."

Tyler: "??"

"What?" Harper met her brother’s befuddled stare with a shameless grin. "If you can talk about climbing trees like silly kids, why can’t I show my teddy bear some love like a little girl? Isn’t the whole point of a weekend getaway to embrace your inner child and have some fun?"

"Um, yeah sure ..." Oblivious to her real point, Tyler mumbled an agreement at his sister’s sudden strange antics and plopped his gear down at their designated spot. "Anyway. I assume you both still remember how to set up a tent?"

"Oh, absolutely." Harper joined him with a chuckle, hiding a second wink of the day behind her bear and threw a meaningful look at Eli’s shorts. "You might be surprised, Brother — I’m still quite used to seeing tents these days, and I can’t wait to start working on them again."

She smirked in triumph when Eli paused in his own unpacking. "Are you really?" he asked in feigned surprise. "I, for one, haven’t gone camping for so long by now. Why don’t you come give me a hand with my— tent, since you seem so experienced with it?"

It took her a tremendous effort not to burst into laughter when Tyler waved a hand at both of them, in a gesture of "yeah, whatever, spoiled city people", and she quickly joined Eli at his spot to help him with his tent.

~ ~

They took the next few hours easy, slowly setting up and getting comfortable with their camps. Harper was relieved that not too many people noticed her teddy bear show, and now that the stuffed animal was well tucked in behind the walls of her tent, she looked like just another normal camper again sitting next to the two guys, getting the firepit ready for grilling.

"You actually brought your own seasoning?" Tyler asked with no small amount of pleasant surprise when Eli took out his cooking supplies, consisting of half a dozen jars of spices and a small bundle of wood.

"Shop-ready mixes aren’t nearly as good in terms of quality and freshness. Practically impossible to meet the requirements you listed at the restaurant." Eli shook a pinch out of each jar and started a mix. "And the mesquite adds the smokey flavor. Hopefully the campground won’t give us trouble for creating too much black fumes."

"We’ll just have to treat them to a little slice of the meat. I’m sure they’ll change their mind and ask you to make more for everyone." Tyler eyed the pre-marinated steak coming out of the cooler longingly before turning to Harper. "You should’ve seen how he prepared that last night. So pro, and he made it look so tempting even though he was only marinating! I can totally see why you wanted to learn to cook from this guy."

Well, there was that. Among other reasons. Harper wondered idly if she should indeed spin a tale of how Eli had seduced her with the most gourmet dinner to end all gourmet dinners. Knowing Tyler, he might just buy that story and accept it better than any other versions.

As it turned out, the siblings were thinking quite alike today, because Tyler added next while Eli turned to brush the spices over the steak, "So, Eli, since you’ve somehow decided to pick up such a husband-material hobby now, should we assume that this is part of your new tactics for scoring the right woman next? Are you finally graduating from club pickups and moving on to seducing some high-class heiresses?"

Eli’s hand suddenly shook, and the spices spilled from the bowl, raining a mix of powder onto the ground.

Oops.