Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
Milo
The ATV rental shack looks like it was built by someone with more enthusiasm than tools—a little wooden hut with a corrugated roof and a hand-painted sign that cheerfully reads “Jungle Adventures.”
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 an excellent driver, 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—your other left. 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!”
The final riddle leads us down a narrower, rockier path.
The ATV bounces hard over roots and stones.
In the distance, I spot a family of iguanas sunbathing.
I pull over, and Sienna quietly snaps a photo of us with them for the selfie with a local animal square, both of us trying not to laugh as they give us judgmental side-eyes.
Then we hop back onto the ATV and continue on our journey to find the final duck—with Sienna mumbling about what this one will be dressed as. Her arms are locked tightly around my waist, her laughter never stopping even as we hit a particularly nasty bump that nearly throws us off.
Then it happens.
The front tire slams into a jagged rock. There’s a loud hiss. Then another. Both front tires go flat at once, and the ATV skids to a sad, tilted stop in the middle of the trail, spitting up rocks and dust.
Sienna’s arms tighten around my waist. The jungle goes suddenly quiet except for the slow leak of air from the tires.
We both stare at the ruined tires.
Sienna is the first to speak. “Oh my God,” she whispers, her voice cracking in disbelief. “Did we just…?”
I kill the engine and swing my legs over. Both front tires are shredded. Sienna slides off, still clutching the rubber ducks like hostages, and walks around the ATV in stunned silence.
She pulls out her phone, holds it high, and spins in a circle. “Zero signal. Not even one bar. We’re completely, catastrophically screwed, Milo. Fucked. Doomed. Toast. Finished—”
I can’t help but smile. “Are you just naming different adjectives for how ruined we are?”
She stops spinning and blinks at me. “Now is not the time to scold me over adjectives. We’re in ruins, Milo!”
“Can you stop using adjectives for how wrecked we are right now?”
She grumbles something under her breath—probably calling me a few choice adjectives of her own—and the reality of our situation finally settles over both of us.
No signal. No spare tires. No rescue coming anytime soon. Just us, the jungle, and that ridiculous picnic basket I’d teased her about this morning. Funny how the thing I made fun of might actually save us from dying out here.
“So…” Sienna murmurs, looking at me. “We’re really fucked then?”
I nod once, holding her gaze. “Looks like it.”
“Well…” she looks at me with a mischievous look in her eyes. “What should we do until help arrives?”
The jungle suddenly feels a whole lot bigger with those beautiful brown eyes on me.
An hour later, we’re still sitting on the tilted ATV. Sienna has checked her phone approximately four hundred times. I’ve stayed mostly quiet, scanning the trail, hoping for any sign of rescue.
No one has come.
The heat is thick and sticky. Sienna’s hair is frizzing wildly in the humidity, and she’s complained about it far too often to count. But she looks beautiful, regardless. Finally, she sighs, slings the picnic basket over her shoulder, and starts walking into the denser jungle beside the trail.
“I’m not sitting here waiting to be rescued like a damsel,” she calls over her shoulder. “There has to be a clearing or a ridge with signal somewhere.”
Grabbing everything I need, I follow her. We’ve been walking for about ten minutes when she stops dead and tilts her head slightly.
“Did you hear that?” she whispers.
I freeze. At first, there’s only jungle noise. Then I catch it—a low, steady roar in the distance. Water. And a lot of it. Sienna takes off like a rocket, crashing through branches and over rocks, laughter trailing behind her.
“Sienna—slow down!”
She doesn’t. She just laughs louder and tells me to keep up. Not even a minute later, we burst into a clearing so suddenly it feels like the jungle parted just for us.
A stunning waterfall thunders down from a high rocky ledge into a deep turquoise pool ringed by mossy boulders and hanging vines. Sunlight cuts through the canopy in golden beams, turning the mist into sparkling rainbows.
Sienna skids to a stop at the edge, breathing hard, her eyes wide with pure wonder. “Milo… look at it.”
She already has her phone out, snapping a quick selfie of us with the waterfall behind us. Then she’s moving again—kicking off her sneakers and peeling off her tank top and shorts to reveal the same pink bikini that taunted me during our couples massage yesterday.
She’s about to jump into the sparkling water when she gasps, pointing toward a rock on our left. “The third duck, Milo!”
I look over to see the final duck sitting on the edge of a rock. It’s wearing a bathing suit and vibrant orange sunglasses. Sienna carefully maneuvers over there to grab it before peeling the note from its beak and reading it out theatrically.
“Congratulations on finding the final duck! It’s been a swimming time playing with you. Good luck on your next squares—if you have any more to complete. Have a quacking time!”
She’s next to me within seconds, and after taking the required photo, she doesn’t hesitate in running toward the edge of the pool with open arms.
“Come on!” she shouts, jumping in with a huge splash. She surfaces a second later, hair plastered to her face, grinning so wide it makes something in my chest tighten. “The water is perfect!”
I stand at the edge for a moment, just watching her.
Sienna’s laughing as she stands under the small waterfall, her head tilted back, letting the water cascade over her.
Droplets catch the sunlight on her skin like scattered diamonds, and her smile—bright, reckless, completely unguarded—hits me square in the chest. Something tightens there, sharp and sweet at once.
This woman.
Six days.
That’s all it’s been.
Six days and she’s already torn through every careful rule I thought I had. I should be focused on the fact that we’re stranded. That we have no signal. That we could still be here when the sun sets.
Instead, all I can think about is how I’ve never seen anyone more alive than she is right now… and how badly I don’t want this day to end.
She turns toward me, pushing wet curls off her face, her eyes sparkling with pure mischief. “Are you just going to stand there, or are you coming in?”
I shake my head, a smile tugging at my lips. “Just enjoying the view. It’s beautiful.”
Her cheeks flush, but she doesn’t look away. “Are you flirting with me, Milo Reyes?”
I tilt my head to the side, holding her gaze. “And so what if I am, Sienna Harlow?”
She smirks, biting her lip like she’s trying and failing to hide how much she likes it. “Then I say come in here and flirt with me properly.”
God fucking help me.
I’m in so much trouble.
I spot a hidden alcove behind the main fall—a small, dry ledge shielded by the curtain of water. I carry our things there, spread out the fluffy red throw from the picnic basket, then strip off my shirt and jump in after her.
The cold is a shock after the jungle heat. I surface right in front of her. She’s laughing so hard her dimples show. Before she can say anything, I scoop up a handful of water and splash her square in the face.
She shrieks, then retaliates with both hands, sending a massive wave at me. We’re laughing like idiots, splashing each other in the middle of a hidden jungle waterfall, the roar of the water drowning out everything else.
For a moment, being stranded doesn’t feel like a problem.
It feels like the best thing that’s happened all week.
And as Sienna swims closer, her eyes bright and smile unguarded, I realize I don’t want to be rescued anytime soon.