“I don’t know,” I admit, rubbing the nape of my neck. “I keep thinking… what if she’s not ready? What if saying it out loud scares her off? She said she wants to see how things go in New York, but we’re still here. I can’t?—”
“Trust me,” Ethan cuts in gently. “She’s just as gone for you. You don’t see the way she looks at you when you’re not watching. But Sienna isdown bad.”
I glance toward the water, where Sienna and Aria are walking arm-in-arm, heads close together, laughing. Even from here, her laugh makes my chest ache in the best way.
God, I fucking love her.
“You think so?”
“You’re both overthinking this so much, and it’s fucking painful to watch,” he groans, rubbing his temple. “I never thought I’d have to be the logical friend here, but if you don’t say something… I might just tell her for you.”
I open my mouth to respond, but laughter cuts us off. Sienna and Aria are walking back toward us, giggling hysterically. Aria settles back down next to Ethan, but Sienna stays standing, her hand extended toward me, eyes soft.
“Can we talk?” she asks.
My heart kicks hard against my ribs. I take her hand without hesitation and let her lead me to a large rock overlooking the beach, just far enough from the fire to have some privacy. The waves hush gently below us.
“I brought something,” she says, reaching into her bag. She pulls out two folded sheets of paper I recognize immediately—the poems we wrote for each other during the bingo game. “I’m not sure why I kept them… but I did.”
I blink, surprised and deeply touched, as she passes me the one I wrote about her. Her fingers brush mine, sending a spark racing up my arm.
“I thought tonight felt like the right time to read them,” she continues, nervously folding the edges of her own paper. “That’s if you want to, obviously. You don’t have to. We can just throw them out and?—”
I turn to face her fully and gently cup her cheeks, my thumbs brushing her soft skin. “Idowant to.”
She smiles, her eyes searching mine. “Do you want to go first?”
I nod, unfolding the paper carefully. My own handwriting stares back at me, but the words feel different now—deeper, truer, and heavier with everything we’ve shared since I scribbled them.
I clear my throat, my heart beating steadily as I begin to read.
“Sienna,
You’re chaos dressed in sunlight—a storm that somehow brightens the sky. You move through the world like it’s a game only you know the rules to, and I already find myself wanting to learn every one.
I’ve only known you for a handful of days, but I can already feel this pull, this shift, as if the ground is tilting under my feet in the best way. And if forever starts with five days on this island, then I’ll take every sunrise after that with you by my side.
You’re my favorite kind of unexpected. My once-in-a-lifetime chaos.”
When I finish, the paper feels warm and heavy in my hands. Sienna’s eyes are glossy with unshed tears, catching the distant glow of the fire. She blinks rapidly, then leans in to press a soft, lingering kiss to my jaw, her breath warm and slightly shaky against my skin.
“That was…fuck, Milo,” she whispers with a breathy laugh. “Poetic. You’re a man of many hidden talents, aren’t you?”
I wink at her before urging her to read her poem. She takes a shaky breath and unfolds her poem with trembling fingers. Her voice starts quiet and unsteady, but it grows stronger with each line, wrapping around my heart like the waves below us.
“Milo,
Although I barely know you, I can already tell you’re the calm shore to my crashing waves.
You look at my chaos and don’t flinch. You touch my knee when my thoughts race too fast, and I catch myself wonderinghow you already know exactly how to calm the storm inside me.
I’ve only known you five days, but you’re already rewriting what I thought forever could look like—which is fucking crazy, because I had never thought of forever before I met you. And maybe I’m delusional, I don’t know… all I know is that ever since I saw you on that plane, I knew you were going to be someone I’d never forget.”
Her voice cracks on the last line, raw and honest. I pull her closer, wrapping my arms fully around her as she tucks her face into my neck. I feel the slight tremble in her body, the way her fingers clutch my shirt as if she’s afraid to let go.
“Sienna… that was beautiful,” I whisper into her hair. “You have no idea what you do to me.”
She lets out a soft laugh and pulls back just enough to look at me. Her hands frame my face with such tenderness that my heart aches. Her thumbs brush gently over my cheeks as her eyes search mine.
