I don’t know exactly what time I went to sleep last night, but I don’t wake up until nearly lunch.
Chase isn’t here with me, but I guess I can’t really expect that. I take a moment to assess how I am feeling. My head feels clear.
I sit up and take the wrap off my wrist to study it. It’s a little bruised. A little swollen. But it doesn’t look too bad and doesn’t hurt much.
“Ouch,” I say when I stupidly decide to rotate it to see if it’s all better.
I look at the date on the alarm clock by the bed. It’s Wednesday, which means it’s movie-by-the-pool night.
It also means the number of days we have left here are dwindling. We leave on Sunday. And I know we can’t stay longer. The boys start two-a-days for football on Monday, and I have cheer practice.
Hopefully, the wrist is healed by then.
I peek at the window, trying to see what’s going on out back, but then remember something about a family activity today.
I get up, go in the bathroom, look in the mirror, and have to take a step back.
I look horrific!
My hair is a disaster, and I have what was supposed to be waterproof mascara smeared around my face. Of course, my hair was wet after the jump, and I never got to brush it. I hop in the shower to wash and condition it; otherwise, I don’t think a brush will go through it.
And the shower takes me back. To the rain. To Chase carrying me. The warm water. The steam. The feel of him.
I’m a little flushed when I get out and comb my hair, wondering if it’s because of my thoughts or the lingering effects of whatever I took last night. Whichever.
I throw on a bikini, a tee, and a pair of cutoffs and make my way to the kitchen. No one is around, so I heat up some leftover caramel rolls, slather some butter on the top, and pour myself a glass of milk. I check out the backyard and still don’t see anyone, but I do notice that the pontoon boat is gone.
Hmm.
Maybe I’ll take my food down there and see if they come by.
When I get to the dock, I notice someone is sitting in one of the swinging chairs, and based on their sandals, it’s either Chase or Phillip.
“Hey,” I say as the chair spins toward me.
“You’re finally awake,” Chase says.
“Where is everyone?”
“Family scavenger hunt. They’ve been out since early this morning.”
“What are they searching for?”
“Not sure. They brought over two other pontoons from the resort and split into groups. And they are all dressed up as pirates.”
“Pirates?”
“Yeah, apparently, it’s the theme of the hunt. I’m sure Ryder and Madden are loving it. And Damon kept talking about plundering booty, so you can imagine how that’s going.”
“My brother is funny.” I let out a laugh but then realize something. “Hey, that means we’re all alone.”
He holds up a walkie-talkie. “I’m supposed to let them know when you’re up.”
“Maybe I should go back to bed then, and you can come check on me.”
“I’ve checked on you quite a few times already,” he says seriously, and then he stops and grins. “Oh.”
“Yes, oh,” I say suggestively.
He taps his foot on the ground, thinking. “We wouldn’t have much time.”
“Then, we’d better not waste it.” I set my food down on a side table, grab his hand, and drag him up to his room.
We’re barely upstairs before he’s kissing me, taking off my top, and throwing me on the bed. I lie flat on my back and look up at him, watching as he strips off his swim trunks. His hair looks like he’s run his hand through it a million times this morning, waiting for me to wake up. His face is a little sunburned from being out in the boat most of the day yesterday, as are the tops of his shoulders. His torso is tan, and I’m just so attracted to him.
Is it lust? Is it love? Or is it all of it mixed together to form something almost combustible?
All I know is that when he lies on top of me and kisses me, I don’t really care to know the answer.
We’re lying in bed, his comforter a tangled mess that’s half on the floor, when we hear a boat in the distance.
“That’s probably them. Shit.” He jumps up, pulls his clothes back on, and tosses me mine. “Hurry, get dressed. I’m going to run downstairs and call them on the walkie-talkie. Tell them you’re up.”
He takes off, leaving me alone. I drop my head back on the pillow with a sigh and then get myself up and clothed. I’m coming out of the boathouse as a small brigade of pontoons come toward the dock.
Chase hands me the plate of rolls that I forgot about and then says, “I could have stayed in bed with you all day.”
Which makes me smile because I was thinking the exact same thing.
It turns out that Chase and I are not on the same team. He’s with his mom, dad, and sister. I’m with my dad, Jennifer, and Damon. Ryder and Madden are with the grandpas. Weston and Emersyn are apparently somewhere with the grandmas, who opted out of the hunt.
“It’s about time you woke up,” Damon says, stealing half of my roll as the boats leave the dock. “Damn, these are good.”
“How’s the wrist, Dani?” Jennifer asks me.
“Good, as long as I don’t move it.”
My brother makes a vulgar gesture behind Dad’s and Jennifer’s backs.
I stick out my tongue at him and say, “It’s my left hand. I’m right-handed.”
“What?” Jennifer asks.
“I think she’s still high on painkillers,” Damon says with a laugh.
“Hopefully not,” Dad says. “We’re going to need her help to win this. And we have to win.”
“What do we have to do?” I ask. “Have you found anything yet?”
“Yes, we have three items so far. But, basically, we have a list of riddles and a map. We have to match the two together and find the treasure with our team name on it.”
“What’s our name?”
“We’re the Deckhand Diamonds.”
“So lame,” Damon says.
“What’s everyone else?” I ask them.
“You have the Mackenzie Marauders, and the Swashbucklers are the grandpas and the younger boys,” Dad tells me.
“So, what’s next?”
Damon pulls a rolled up piece of paper out of a plastic treasure chest filled with fake gold beads. “It says, Shiver me timbers. More than booty can be found at the bend near the round.”
Jennifer points to the map on the table. “Anyone see any bends or rounds on here?”
“Oh! I know!” Damon says, sliding his finger on the map. “The Naked Cove!”
Dad rolls his eyes. “Damon, just because there are booties there …”
“No, he’s right!” I say. “When we went back into that cove, I noticed it wasn’t actually called the Naked Cove. I think that’s, like, a nickname. It’s really called Round Cove.”
“All right,” Jennifer says, “let’s go!”
“Will everyone else follow us?”
“No, we all have the same clues, but they are in different orders so that we can’t cheat.”
“Smart,” Jennifer says.
We’ve had a lot of fun, figuring out the clues and doing some of the challenges involved with them, like one of us had to do the swing.
One of us had to cliff jump.
We had to eat oysters from a place that was like a food truck, only everything was made on a boat.
We cruised the Naked Cove again, and I think my dad was just as disappointed by its name as Damon had been.
We dug up a treasure chest marked by an X in the sand.
We laughed a lot and tried to speak like pirates the whole time.
It’s nearly dinner before we have completed the hunt and are racing back to the house.
“Batten down the hatches, mateys,” Damon says. “I can see the storm brewing in me Dad’s eyes.”
“Yo-ho-ho and a bottle of rum.” Jennifer laughs upon seeing that the other boats beat us home. “Your dad’s going to need one after coming in last.”
“Hush, wench, or I’ll make ye walk the plank,” Dad replies.
Jennifer’s eyes get big, but then she starts laughing again.
“It’s all right, hearties,” I tell them. “We had fun either way. And who knows? Maybe them there landlubbers gave up.”
“Arrr,” we all say in unison.
“I agree with Dani,” Jennifer says, giving my dad a hug. ‘This was really fun.”
And when she wraps her arm around him, I can tell he doesn’t care as much about winning—or losing, as is probably the case in this situation.
We tie the boat up and then go up the hill to the smell of grilled burgers and hot dogs.
“Ahoy, mateys! How did everyone fare?” is the first thing out of my dad’s mouth.
“The boys got tired,” Grandpa Mac says. “Is there a pirate term for the wheels were falling off the wagon?”
“I don’t know,” my dad says, turning to Phillip and Chase, who are manning the grill.
“We got all but one,” Chase admits.
“Well, sink me!” my dad yells, which in pirate language is an expression of extreme surprise and is easily replaced with the F-word in our language. “We are the victors!”
“Woohoo!” Damon and I cheer, although I’m more excited about seeing Chase.
I slide up next to him. “Can I help with anything?”
“Have you iced your wrist today?” he asks. Which is not exactly what I was hoping to hear.
“Uh, no.”
He hands his dad a pair of tongs and says, “Come on. I’ll help you.”
Which makes me smile. Especially once we’re out of everyone’s view and he kisses me deeply.
“That sucked,” he says, “being away from you all day.”
“Well, we always have tonight. You never told me what you did last night. Did you stay in my room and watch the movie?”
“Nah. You were out fast. I stayed for about thirty minutes, and you barely moved, so I went down to the boathouse. Which worked out well because Damon was just getting home, and we sat on the dock, drank a few beers, and talked.”
“What did you talk about?” I ask as he lets go of me and does actually go into the kitchen to prepare a bag of ice.
“Oh, you know. Life. Love. The pursuit of greatness.”
“Greatness, huh?”
“Well, in your brother’s case, yes. He has big goals.”
“And what about you?” I ask as we sit on the couch and he gently places the ice on my wrist.
“I have cupcake goals,” he says, grinning at me.
“Cupcake goals? Like, Damon thinks your goals are too easy?”
“No,” he says, taking my cheeks in his hands. “My goals are everything you put on the cupcake. We always used to talk about the things we each wanted, but seeing them on the cupcake made them feel like our goals—a mutual dream.”
“I hope so,” I say, gazing into his eyes, because in this moment, there’s nothing I want more out of life.
“Can we throw a dog and a few kids in there?” he asks.
I can’t help but grin like a maniac. “Yeah, I think we can.”
He kisses me. It’s the most tender kiss we’ve ever shared—maybe because it feels like it holds so much meaning, so much promise.
When the kiss is over, he tells me, “And tonight, after everyone goes to sleep, if you’re feeling up to it, we’re going skinny-dipping, like we planned to do last night.”
“It will be the perfect end to the day.”
And later, when he holds me in this arms in the cool water under the moonlight, I know I was right.
“It’s getting a little chilly,” he finally says. “Should we warm up in the hot tub?”
“Hmm. Maybe your shower would be a better option.”
“Definitely more private,” he says with a grin.
