for your Hope collection.” Josh carefully buckled the front of his backpack over his chest. “Ready to go forth and overcome the obstacles?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Emma asked.
“We came up the mountain on dry ground. Going down is going to be on a slippery slope, but we have lots of saplings to hang on to,” he explained. “I’ve only made this trip once after a hard rain, and I rolled most of the way to the bottom. Course, only my pride got hurt. I’ll lead the way, and we’ll go slow.”
“I can’t imagine life without art now that I’ve found it again. I love doing the small things.” Emma inhaled the clean morning air and felt happiness surge through her—real happiness. She took the first step and her boot sank down into at least an inch of mud, and even that didn’t spoil the joy in her heart.
A sucking sound came from Josh’s boots every time he moved forward. Emma grabbed a small tree trunk for support with each step. She slipped a couple of times, but she was able to get her balance before she took a tumble or sat down flat on her butt. But near the bottom of the slope, there were no more trees to hang on to, and the mud was even deeper. Josh went even slower at that point.
Emma kept her eyes on the ground and took one step at a time—right up until a big black snake slithered out of nowhere. She froze. Her breath stuck in her chest. Her hands trembled when the thing crossed right over the top of her boots. She tried to scream, but nothing came out. She shivered so hard that she lost her footing and fell forward, bumping into Josh on the way. Together, they tumbled, ass over teakettle, all the way to the bottom. When they finally stopped rolling, she was lying on top of Josh, and they were both covered in mud.
“I’m so sorry,” she apologized. “Snake . . .”
“Where? Are you all right? Did it bite you?” Josh wrapped both arms around her and sat up with her in his lap.
“It’s gone now,” she panted, “but it crawled across my boots. I hate snakes.”
“Me too.” His breath came out in short gasps. “Are you sure you aren’t bit?”
“I’m fine, but I lost my backpack.” She realized at that moment that they were sitting in a mud puddle that was at least six inches deep with cold water. When Josh gazed into her eyes, she wouldn’t have cared if the water came up to her chin. She didn’t even realize that anyone was nearby until Arty chuckled. She looked up to see him holding her soaked green backpack. “You kids doin’ some mud wrestlin’ or something?”
His voice startled Emma so badly that she tried to jump up but only fell again and landed on top of Josh a second time.
“Do I start countin’ now to see who’s the winner?” Arty laughed out loud.
Emma looked up at him. “Why would you count?”
“Haven’t you ever seen a wrestling match, girl? Got to count to ten or you don’t win this match. Hold him down and you can get the golden buckle.” Arty pulled a snow-white hankie from the bibbed pocket of his overalls and wiped his eyes. “Filly will be jealous that she didn’t get to see this.”
“Where did you come from?” Josh sat up again.
Emma stood up and stepped away from the puddle. “I’m just glad my mother isn’t here to see it.”
Josh got to his feet. “I wish she was here so she could see that her daughter has chosen to be a mud-wrestling queen. She might begin to believe that you are going to be yourself no matter what.”
“Well, thank you.” Emma did a curtsy.
“If you two are through flirting, we should get on home,” Arty said.
“I wasn’t flirting.” Josh blushed.
“We’re covered in mud. How can that be flirting?” Emma tried to wipe the mud from her jeans, but it just smeared.
“Yep, you were, and right there in a mud puddle.” Arty chuckled again. “Right now, we need to get you home and cleaned up.”
Home! Emma liked the sound of that. That’s what had been missing in her life. All she had needed to find herself was to find a home first.
“I’ve got the four-wheeler on the trailer, and Filly is worried about y’all. She went over to take some waffles to Em this morning and found her gone. Then when she stopped