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Teddy flipped my ponytail over my shoulder. “Something like that, kid.”

“I get it,” I said, and flushed at the blatantly dreamy quality of my voice.

I might as well have had glowing red heart eyes broadcasting my crush across the Iceland night for all to see: Here we have the Northern Lights, folks, and over there, well, that’s an embarrassing amount of hero worship and sexual frustration emanating from an American lady.

I was very glad that full darkness had arrived so Teddy couldn’t witness my mortification.

I cleared my throat. “I mean, he seems really genuine and smart, but also nice.” Zoe’s words about all of Huck’s nice qualities came to mind, and I shook them off.

“Yeah. He’s great, a very lucky guy.”

I was struck by this characterization. Most people would’ve thought Teddy was the luckiest guy they know.

His dad invented a sensor that was in most modern boats, making his family so wealthy that I’d lost count of the number of mansions they owned and charitable foundations they’d founded.

Teddy had always been surrounded by people and he’d never wanted for anything in his life.

Not friends, or women, not cars or clothes or food.

“How so? I find it hard to believe his life is more charmed than Theodore Preston the Third’s,” I teased, jabbing him in the ribs as we stepped onto the porch. “Bestseller or no, can we take a moment to reflect on the size of this cabin? You have to admit it is objectively very small.”

“Well, he hasn’t had a book out in years. New York’s an expensive city. No wonder he didn’t want to invest in my nudist colony.”

“I don’t want to know.”

The cabin door opened and Huck waved us inside. “Come get warm, you two.”

“Teddy was just telling me how lucky you are.”

“That’s not what I said,” Teddy countered.

Huck tucked Teddy under his arm roughly. I hadn’t noticed before that he was several inches taller than him. “Oh yeah? I guess I am pretty lucky. Like that one time he stole that golf cart—have you heard this one, Stella? He crashed it into the pond on campus, knocking me out in the process.”

“Why would I tell her that, dude? I almost got expelled!”

“If I recall, I almost drowned and you ended up with a few weeks’ worth of detention. How’d you manage that anyway?”

“New library wing, courtesy of Pops, I think.” Teddy pulled off his boots. “Good thing it was my dad getting that call and not yours, right, Sully?”

Huck didn’t answer.

“Sounds like you two guys were trouble.”

“Just enough to be interesting,” Huck said. “He did almost do me in a few times with his antics, but he’s also a big part of how I got where I am.”

“What can I say?” Ted laughed. “I’ve got beauty and brains. I recognized his talent right away.”

“It’s extremely annoying that you’re brilliant and that pretty, Ted,” I said.

“Agreed,” Huck chimed in.

“Do I have a special talent for bringing out the best in my friends? Yes. I admit it. It’s one of my many skills. We won’t discuss the others right now.” Teddy winked at me. “Anyway, Sully just needed a bit of nurturing.”

“That’s you,” Huck said with a chuckle. “So nurturing.”

“A splash of fun, a couple of smidges of liquid courage, a few rooftop brainstorming sessions, one near-death experience, and more words of affirmation than I ever want to have to utter again…Sully’s creative talents were like a very high-maintenance houseplant.

He just needed the right conditions to blossom. ”

“Well, this is the cabin. I’d give you both a tour but this is basically it. The shower is right down the hall—as I mentioned, it’s a little finicky. Stella, do you want to use it first?”

“I’m okay, actually. What about you, Ted?”

“Oh, hells yeah, I’ll take the shower first.” He motored off down the hall, whipping his sweatshirt over his head as he went. I plopped down in a soft chair beside the fire.

“Did Teddy really help your writing career? Or were you just tending to his fragile ego?”

“You do know him well.” Huck laughed. “As much as I fear for the integrity of his self-esteem, it’s true. I owe him a lot.”

And I got it. I owed Teddy a lot too, though it wasn’t something I felt comfortable sharing with Huck, or anyone really.

There was the obvious bit—his financial support, which had started the day he got access to his trust fund and began underwriting our expeditions—but there was also the other part before that…

our origin story, the day we met on the beach when I was at my absolute lowest. I didn’t like to think about where I’d be now if Teddy hadn’t come into my life, much less discuss it.

What would have happened if I hadn’t met him that day after my dad left me on the beach with a bit of cash and a false promise that he’d be back in a few hours so we could head out to hunt for the Heart together for the summer.

I was finally going to be part of it. All these years later, I could almost see myself standing on that beach, slurping a sweet tea and scarfing down fries in the baking sun, full of hope and anticipation, completely ignorant of the fact that my dad was never coming back.

There were stories about how some treasure hunters were cursed by the bounties they searched for or found, and that certainly rang true for my family.

Treasure had torn us apart. My mom had loved searching shipwrecks for fun.

Her job as a pilot took her all over the coast of the Southeastern U.S.

, where she’d charted hundreds of potential sites to search for shipwrecks.

But my father was obsessed with finding one thing: the Elephant’s Heart—the centerpiece of the Stolen Treasure.

The Heart was a massive and brilliant red diamond, the rarest of all diamonds in the world.

A priceless treasure. He’d told me about it every night like a bedtime story when I was little. He was a true believer.

My mother argued that salving the wrecks she’d located would make us richer than we ever imagined, buy us a good life; the Elephant’s Heart was something we should leave alone.

It was an impossible find. But Dad wouldn’t listen.

He was determined and spellbound; we had to find it before someone else did.

That was why he was always running some scheme in pursuit of the Heart and we never had enough money.

He gambled her salary away trying to pay for a boat, double-mortgaged and lost our house.

When all his plans didn’t work out, he drowned his failure in alcohol.

They fought. And then just as I was starting high school, he had this idea to sell my mother’s maps.

I think that was the last straw. She went silent and one day she took off, leaving me and the maps behind.

She said she was done searching, but somehow… she was done with us too.

Dad sometimes told me tales when he’d had a few beers and hadn’t gotten weepy or belligerent yet, about better times when they were young and happy and would spend their days searching for treasure down the Carolina seashore and along Treasure Coast in Florida while I ran around in my bathing suit, a small, freckly girl, asking questions about storms and pirates and chasing the seabirds.

They’d taught me diving and navigation and I had a knack for both.

I was a good researcher too, but even with all that I hadn’t been enough to keep them around.

By the time I was graduating high school, he’d disappeared from my life as well.

My throat tightened. Not having answers, all these years later, still made me feel like I was choking.

The fresh intensity of the pain was surprising, even though I’d always carried it with me, just like my mother’s maps, which I managed to save.

The pain was what drove me to be so relentless in my own pursuit of treasure and the Elephant’s Heart.

I would show my parents, wherever they were, that I could do what they couldn’t.

A high-pitched screech reverberated from down the hall, snapping me back to the present; apparently the hot water had failed again. I was thankful for the distraction.

“I’m kind of glad I didn’t volunteer to go first,” I said. “Poor Teddy. He thought I was being magnanimous but, really, I was strategically avoiding being a guinea pig.”

Ted emerged in a bathrobe moments later and thrust himself directly in front of the fire. “This Lilliputian cabin has a vendetta! The temperature of that water went from tepid to unspeakable in mere moments. I’m not sure my nuts will ever emerge.”

Huck stifled a laugh. “That’s unfortunate.”

“And unnecessarily graphic,” I added. “As much as I love you, Teddy, I don’t want to think too much about the well-being or location of your nether regions.”

“That hurts, Stella, I thought we were close. Sully—please tell me that you care.”

“Oh yes, deeply . Glad to see you’ve helped yourself to my robe.”

“It’s very cozy. I might sleep in it. I saw you’ve got a pretty nice bed in there with a down comforter.”

“Help yourself.”

“Don’t mind if I do. You don’t care, do you, Stell? And if you do, you can always join me.” He wiggled his brows.

“Tempting,” I teased back. “But I think I’ll take the couch.”

“There’s a small guest bedroom,” Huck said. “It’s more of an alcove, but it has a door and a bed, so I’m sure it will be more comfortable for you. I can take the couch.”