I didn’t have to wait long until I felt two squeezes on my hand.
“Jace?” I called out. “I think I might be done. My heels are hurting, and I don’t think I should walk any further in these shoes.”
Jace glanced up, looking from me to Max, understanding dawning. Immediately, Jace folded up the map. “Absolutely. Deal’s a deal.” Ryla started to protest, but Jace got to the balls of his feet in front of her, speaking so low I couldn’t hear them. After a minute, he’d performed a Smokey Mountain miracle when, without a fuss, she climbed up onto his back for a piggyback ride. Max and I walked behind them.
I was just starting to enjoy the serenity of the landscape again when I heard Ryla exclaim, “Ahhh! A bird just pooped on my head!” She immediately let go of Jace’s neck to claw at her face, and Jace, to his credit, quickly lowered her safely to the ground.
Speaking soothing words, I peeled back the hand from her forehead to reveal:nothing.
“Ryla, sweetie, there’s nothing there. Maybe it was a bug,” I tried to explain. However, this was equally as traumatic as she gasped, “A bug peed on me?”
She was an adorable little drama queen sometimes.
“Nothingpooped or peed on—Aaaah!” I shouted, my hand practically slapping my face as something wet landed on my cheek. I was relieved to see a drop of water on my fingers.
Jace held out his hand and looked at the sky. “I just felt a drop too. But not to worry, it’s only a few drops. Those clouds still look a ways off. It might sprinkle a bit, but trust me, it’s not gonna rain.”
Drip. Drip.
Drip, drip, drip.
The sound of rain hitting the soft vegetation filled the air as a steady rain began not one minute later.
“Run for your lives!” Ryla screamed and took off. Jace ran after her as Max, who actually looked more resigned than anxious, hurried along with me as we followed them.
Five minutes later, we were soaked and huddled underneath the small awning of an information sign, looking out at the steady rainfall.
“It’s gonna let up any second, and we’re less than a quarter mile from the parking lot. We’ll be in the car in no time. The mountains are known for little showers like this,” Jace was saying, smiling, trying to reassure the kids.
And as if it were a movie, Jace’s words hadn’t even dissolved into the ether before the steady rain became a downpour.
“Oh, come on!” Jace yelled, shaking his fist to the sky.
I held out my hand and shivered, delighting in the sensation of the cool rain on my palm. I hadn’t seen any lightning or heard any thunder; the darkest clouds had already passed. I took a few tentative steps forward, then spread my arms wide, becoming instantly soaked. Facing the sky, I let the cool rain run down my face as I turned in slow circles, laughing in delight. Ryla was looking at me like I was nuts and Max’s eyebrows were high on his forehead as they watched me hold my arms up as if I had an imaginary dance partner and begin to waltz. Because if there was ever a time that called for dancing in the rain, it was now.
I was so absorbed in what I was doing that I didn’t hear Ryla’s question to Jace out of the side of her mouth.
“What’s Momma doing?”
I also missed the proud smile on Jace’s face as he watched me, and the twinkle in his eye as he looked down at both of my children and replied, “She’s dancin’ in the rain.”
Hair plastered to my face, clothes utterly drenched, a warm hand grasped my outstretched one as a real person replaced the imaginary. And then, Jace began to dance with me.
We danced around the narrow trail in the rain, laughing as Jace tried to spin me, looking for all intents and purposes, like we were smoking something illegal. Ryla ran to my side, hugging me, then took Jace and my hands to start dancing in a circle. Eventually the dancing turned into spinning; we started to spin so fast that Ryla’s head fell back, letting out a little whoop as she went airborne, her beaming face looking free and alive. We stopped, dizzy and giggling, and I glanced at Max. I held my breath, taking a beat to look right into his eyes as if to say,I got you. Whatever you decide, I got you.Suddenly, Max made a break for us, and instantly, Jace and I let go of our joined hands to grab Max’s outstretched ones.
And then, we were just four imperfect people, soaking up all the imperfect moments, spinning in a circle and laughing in the rain, our conjoined whoops and ringing laughter floating up and mixing with the cool mountain rain.
* * *
On the ride home, huddled under jackets and the heater on full blast, Jace regaled Max and Ryla about camping stories filled with tents, bonfires, spooky stories and s’mores. Of course, this led to a dinner of microwaved s’mores once we got home and got all dried off. We capped off the night under a makeshift camping tent in the basement, made with two large king-sized sheets, chairs and pillows, using a flashlight to tell funny, not scary, stories.
Ryla’s eyes had closed half an hour ago, and Max fell asleep not long after. Jace and I were sitting diagonally across from each other, cross-legged, our knees almost touching.
“I think you may have scared them off hiking forever,” I whispered to Jace.
Jace groaned quietly. “I shouldn’t have let Ryla talk me into that last trail. I need to redeem myself. That’s never happened to me before. In good weather, on a trail I know, I’d never get lost. We can take them again, they’ll love it. And camping! I bet they’re gonna love camping with a real bonfire when they try it.”
I tilted my head. “Have you met my son?”
