Page 27 of Ex Marks the Spot

Hartley chews on her bottom lip. “It started with ak. Kapua, maybe?”

When I shrug, she repeats her guess to the man, who shakes his head.

“Dammit.”

I hate that I’m about to say this, but, “We have to go back.”

“I’m aware of that,” she snaps, pushing past me. “Maybe if you hadn’t been staring at an invisible bird, you would’ve been paying better attention to the sign.”

“How is this my fault? You were there too, and you don’t remember either.”

“Because I was too busy trying to keep you on task and read the clue!”

“I’m sorry for trying to briefly admire the country we’re in.”

She makes a weird growling noise before muttering, “I hate you so much.”

“Feeling’s mutual.”

Neither of us speaks again until we see Bobby and Padma approaching.

“Don’t tell them why we’re running back. With any luck, they won’t know either and they’ll have to do the same thing,” I say.

“Or we could ask them if they know, and if they do, we can run back with them and keep some of our lead on the other two teams.”

“If we’re going to make an alliance, it should be with a strong team. I don’t see the Niles lasting more than a few legs.”

“I was talking about sharing information, not forming an alliance.”

“You realize that’s literally the point of an alliance, right?”

“Don’t talk to me like I’m stu?—”

I interrupt her with a hearty, “Woo!” as we get within hearing distance of Padma and Bobby. “Raise your hand if you already need a shower.” I wave both arms in the air like an idiot, but I don’t mind because it works. Bobby’s too out of breath to say anything and Padma’s too busy chuckling and raising her own arm to ask questions about what Hartley and I are up to.

After they pass, Hartley whacks me across the chest.

“Ow! What was that for?”

“Stop. Making. Decisions. For. Me,” she seethes.

“I wasn’t making a decision for you. I was taking the lead on choosing the most logical option for this situation.”

“Whatever you say, Captain Caveman.”

CHAPTER 7

HARTLEY

Day 2—Costa Rica

The summer after I graduated high school, I flew to New York City with my three best friends. We were in our Meg Ryan era and spent a week traipsing across the city to see where some of our favorite Meg movies had been filmed. We hit almost two dozen locations while we were there, with my personal favorites being the top of the Empire State Building (fromSleepless in Seattle) and the Brooklyn Bridge (fromKate & Leopold—one of her more underrated films, and also what kick-started my crush on Hugh Jackman).

But anyway, my point is, I’ve been on the eighty-sixth floor of a skyscraper, and I’ve walked across New York City’s most iconic bridge with nary an issue, so imagine my surprise when I nearly shit myself in the middle of Mistico Arenal Hanging Bridges Park.

Our clue at Mirador Coladas (ceiba means kapok, by the way) told us we’d find the next clue on one of Mistico’s six hanging bridges. What it didn’t say was how much those damn things moved. I’d gotten about five steps onto the first one—which was suspended a staggering hundred and forty-seven feet in the air—before immediately returning to solid ground.

Courtney, of course, was less than thrilled because we’d fallen to tenth place and Moe and Randall from the Rockville Institute of Technology (withthe highly original nickname of Team Rockville) had just come up the trail, putting us at risk of dropping to eleventh. Personally, I think his attitude was because his two brain cells couldn’t understand that my newly discovered aversion to being on things that movedandwere high in the air was not the same as flying.

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