Page 24 of Fake Dark Vows
“So, does she want us to hide the treasure around the island?” I ask.
Kelly smiles at me, wide-eyed. “Oh no. This needs to be unlike any treasure hunt you’ve ever done before. The one thing you need to remember about Ruby is that whatever you expect, make it bigger, bolder, and grander, and then multiply it by ten.”
“Around the Keys then?”
Kelly nods. “We just need to figure out the logistics of planting treasure and leaving clues.”
I unlock my phone and type into the search engine: places to visit in the Florida Keys. It comes up with pages of websites all offering tour trips, but I skip those and instead I scan the travel blogs where the information supplied has been experienced first-hand. An idea is already forming in my head.
“What if we don’t plant treasure?” I peer at Kelly above my phone.
It’s crazy to believe that I’m here on Ruby Island, and crazier still to believe that I’m now planning a treasure hunt for a bunch of billionaires around the Florida Keys.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, we could set the guests tasks like, I don’t know, visiting the key lime pie factory and taking a selfie with the owner as proof that they were there.”
A smile spreads across her face. “Brilliant. They can collect experiences rather than objects.”
“The quirkier the better.”
“We’ll sort the guests into pairs,” Kelly says, already on board with the suggestion. I thought she might’ve taken more convincing than this. “First pair to complete the tasks and return with the evidence wins.”
“What exactly do they win?” I sip my lemonade and try to calm the excitement gurgling in my chest. I haven’t done anything this fun since high school.
“I’m sure Ruby will be as generous as ever with the reward.”
I place my glass of lemonade on the low wicker table between our seats and sit back. “Will you be taking part?”
“I’ll stay behind with the children and help Ruby with the birthday meal prep. It’s fine,” she adds when she sees my furrowed brow. “This week is all about Ruby and Harry.”
We spend the next few hours like kids set loose in a candy store, giggling, and squealing whenever we find another task to set.
“How hard is it to produce a sound from a conch shell?” I ask, grinning at Kelly.
“Harder than it looks. That can be task number one.” She types the clue into a handheld device, chews her index finger, and then makes her eyebrows dance independently. “Not just a sound though. We want to hear a tune!”
I suck my bottom lip. “A tune that we can recognize, not just a few duff notes masquerading as a song no one had ever heard of. Recorded of course.”
“Of course.”
The second task is to visit No Name Pub on Big Pine Key, take a selfie with the famous dollar bills pinned to the walls of the pub, and guess their combined total.
“Someone is bound to cheat,” I say, “and ask the owner.”
“Yep. Brandon is a sore loser.”
“We’ll contact the owners in advance and ask them not to tell anyone.”
We add several more tasks to the treasure hunt over the course of the afternoon. By the time the guests return from the beach, shielding their eyes from the sun with their hands, and swaying slightly from the champagne, we’ve settled on finding a sombrero (and wearing it) on Sombrero Beach, buying the most unusual object they can find in Rain Barrel Village, and bringing back a slice of pie—intact—from the Blond Giraffe.
I wish I was taking part too but remind myself that I’m lucky to even be here in this paradise, and that if I’ve helped Ruby Weiss’s guests to make some special memories, then I can walk away with a smile on my face when the celebrations are over.
“Where did the Scottish castle come from?” Brandon finds me when I’m preparing tonight’s choice of cocktails for Ruby: Gin Sour, and the classic gin and tonic.
“Scotland?” I say, glancing sideways at him.
He’s wearing another polo shirt with a designer label stitched onto the breast pocket, and I can smell his aftershave, subtle but obviously expensive. We’ve not spoken since yesterday’s cocktail hour. I was worried that he would be angry and ask his mom to stop me from interfering in conversations that don’t concern me, but Ruby hasn’t pulled me aside for the difficult chat. Yet.