Sienna and I pull up in the resort golf cart just as the morning heat thickens. She’s practically vibrating with energy, oversized sunglasses perched on her nose, and the picnic basket swinging from her hand like she’s on a mission.
An employee steps out of the hut and grins at us like he knows exactly how ridiculous this day is about to get. “Sienna and Milo?” he asks, clipboard in hand. “For the Cole wedding treasure hunt?”
“That’s us,” Sienna replies, flashing her most trouble-making smile.
He hands her a laminated card and nods toward the row of ATVs. “Pick any ride. First clue is on the house. Good luck—you’re gonna need it.”
“Thank you.” I nod as we begin walking toward the closest ATV. Sienna reads the first riddle out loud in full dramatic mode while I swing my leg over the ATV and start it up.
“Rubber duckie, you’re the one… but first you must find where the tall palms sway. Go to the place where the old bridge crosses the stream, then solve the next clue to join the dream.”
Ethan has always been obsessed with riddles, so I’m not surprised he’s incorporated something he loves into this. A riddle treasure hunt has his name written all over it.
“Hey! What if I wanted to drive?” Sienna complains, hopping on behind me anyway. Her arms slide around my waist without hesitation, her chest pressing warmly against my back.
“As beautiful as this island is,” I murmur, glancing over my shoulder. “I’d rather not die on it.”
That comment earns me a slap to the back of the head.
“I’ll have you know that I’m anexcellentdriver, thank you very much.”
I snort. “I think I vaguely remember Ethan telling me this one time you backed into?—”
Her hand clamps around my mouth before I can finish the sentence, and it causes a laugh to rumble up from my chest.
“We don’t talk about that,” she mumbles. “It was the lamppost’s fault.”
I mumble behind her hand.
“Anyway…” She releases her hand from my mouth and rests her chin on my shoulder as we pull away from the shack. “I can’t believe they’re making us hunt for bath toys in the jungle. This is the dumbest thing I’ve ever done.”
“Dumber than backing into a lamppost?”
She smacks the back of my head again.
The trail quickly narrows, winding through thick jungle. Every bump presses Sienna tighter against me. She keeps leaning forward to shouts directions in my ear, her breath warm and her laughter constant.
“Left at the big rock! No—yourotherleft. God, you drive like my grandma and she’s fucking dead!”
“I drive like someone who doesn’t want to flip us over,” I call back, grinning like an idiot. “Or back us into a lamppost.”
She grumbles. “Haha. Very funny.”
We reach the old wooden bridge twenty minutes later. A bright yellow rubber duck wearing pool armbands is perched on the railing, holding the next clue in its beak.
Sienna bursts out laughing as I kill the engine. “They actually dressed it up. That’s adorable.”
Not the only thing that’s adorable.
Hopping off the ATV, she snatches the duck and reads the next riddle with the same theatrical flair. We both climb back onto the ATV with her arms wrapping around me again and continue deeper into the jungle.
The trail gets rougher. I keep one hand on the handlebars and occasionally reach back to steady her when we hit big bumps. Sienna never stops talking—teasing my “grandma driving,” inventing tragic backstories for the ducks, and threatening to steal the wheel. Every time we hit a rut, she squeezes my waist tighter, and I’m embarrassingly aware of how much I like it.
I’ve never had this much fun being completely lost.
We find the second duck perched in the crook of a small palm tree. I help Sienna climb up to retrieve it, both of us laughing hysterically when her foot slips and she almost falls. She shouts triumphantly when she drops back down with the duck in hand.
“Two down, one to go!” she grins, wrapping her arms around me in a tight hug. She smells of coconut and sunshine. “We’re unstoppable, Milo!”
