“Three noisy, troublesome, adorable puppies. You mustn’t forget that part.”
“They are pretty adorable,” she admitted. “But I was barely keeping my life together as it was. Four dogs is a lot to handle. It doesn’t help that I keep hearing my mother say I told you so in my ear.”
“You need to give yourself a break. You’re doing the best you can. You’re finally on your own and that can be scary for all of us, no matter what age. After I moved away from home, I found myself calling my parents at least three or four times a day—until my mother gently told me I needed to stop, that it was time I started making my own decisions. That was quite a shock, I’ll tell you that. Especially when I only wanted to know which sort of washing-up liquid she favored.”
She smiled, charmed at his confession. “It can be empowering to feel responsible for your own mistakes. I’m trying to focus on that instead of the fear.”
“Good for you,” he said, and she wanted to turn toward the approval in his voice like a sunflower reaching for the sun.
Oh, this was bad. She liked this man so very much. She had to continually remind herself that falling for him would be a terrible mistake—far worse than taking home a pregnant dog.
“Are we almost there?” Thomas asked.
Sam released a breath, grateful for the distraction. “Nearly,” she replied. “If I remember correctly, it should be just around that curve in the trail.”
She really hoped she was remembering things correctly. The last time she had been here had been on a hike with Katrina several years ago and they had been in the middle of a deep conversation about the guys they had met the night before at a bar in Shelter Springs. She barely remembered the hike, though she oddly had a vivid memory of the conversation and of the guys.
“I think I hear it,” Amelia said.
Samantha listened closely. “I hear it, too,” she said at the low rushing sound that seemed to grow louder as they neared the bend in the trail ahead.
They walked on a little farther and then suddenly the falls dominated the landscape ahead of them, much more beautiful than she remembered from previous trips. Bridal Veil Falls did indeed look like a veil, plunging through a narrow break in the rock and rippling down at least thirty-five feet, glinting in the sunlight like it was sewn with diamonds. Around it, pine and fir trees seemed to have sprung out of bare rock, clinging precariously.
She caught her breath at the majesty of it. She lived an hour away. Why on earth didn’t she make more of an effort to come up here?
She would from here out, she promised herself. She would come hiking with Betsey again this summer and into the fall, when the sugar maples would be on fire with color. When she did, she knew she would always remember the day she came here with Ian and the children.
“Wow. That’s really pretty,” Amelia said. She stopped in her tracks, her expression captivated.
“It’s bigger than I thought it would be,” Thomas said, eyes wide. “Can we swim in it?”
“Brrr. That water would be terribly cold,” Samantha told him. “It’s basically melted snow coming down from the tops of the mountains.”
“I believe I would still like to go swimming.”
“Not here,” Ian said firmly. “Why don’t we take some photos in front of it, though, to send to Nana and Grandfather?”
“I’ll take your picture,” Sam offered.
For the next few moments, she tried to pose them in a way that allowed her to catch them and the falls in one frame, which turned out to be a difficult shot. Either they were tiny in the frame or she cut off the top of the water, which was the most dramatic part of the waterfall.
After a few different angles, she managed it.
“That’s a good one,” she finally said, handing Ian’s phone back to him so he could see it.
“We should take a photograph with all of us,” Amelia said. “That way we can always remember today and how much fun we had on our hike together.”
“Great idea,” Ian said. “I can set my phone up and hit the camera shutter with my watch.”
As she had done, he experimented with angles for a few moments and she and the children made funny faces that made them all laugh until he set it just right.
She felt a little odd being photographed with them in what was really a family picture but decided to just go with it.
“That should do it,” Ian said after several frames. “Wait right here while I make sure the pictures worked.”
He crossed to where his phone was propped on a rock facing them and looked at the images with a curiously intent look on his face. “Wonderful,” he finally said. “They’re perfect.”
“I want to see, Dad.” Amelia hopped down from their spot to where her father held his phone and took it from him. “Oh, it is wonderful!” she exclaimed. She held it out for Sam to see.
She looked at the image and felt a funny little catch in her throat. They all looked so right together. The children smiled brightly, as did Ian. She hadn’t seen him smile very often. It made him look young and handsome, even with his perennially messed hair.
“Can you text me these?” she asked. “It will make a wonderful memento of today.”
“Certainly. I’ll do it as soon as we get back to a signal.”
She handed the phone back to Ian. As he took it from her, their hands brushed and Sam hoped he didn’t notice her shiver.
“Who’s ready for lunch?” Ian asked.
Sam and both of the children raised their hands at the same time,
