Leaving the sealed roads of civilisation five minutes out of town, the gentle up and down of the bumpy dirt track was a fitting setting as Nicole listened to Danny tell stories of what he and his mates used to get up to in the bush around them when they were teenagers. Trapping goanna, collecting fallen branches and building forts, climbing the tall trees and jumping down beside unsuspecting bushwalkers, frightening them silly.

They turned a corner and her grip on the doorhandle tightened as the track (she assumed they were still following a track, though she couldn’t see one) got rougher and rougher.

‘You might want to hang on now, Nicole,’ Danny said. ‘It’s going to start getting bumpy from here. We’re taking a little side trip off the tracks.’

‘Off the tracks?’ She looked at him with wide eyes.

He simply shot her his confident, cheeky grin and winked.

She giggled as they jerked and jolted and slid and spun. It was either giggle or cry and she didn’t want to show any fear.

Moving between excitement and terror with each impact, she looked over to Danny a few times and he appeared calm and in control, which was at least somewhat comforting. But the fact that he was silent for the first time since leaving the cottage both reassured her and worried her at the same time.

And then, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, Danny stopped the vehicle and beeped the horn. Nicole took a few deep breaths and looked around.

‘I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but how is this,’ she circled her hands, ‘the best place in the cove?’

She looked around again in case she’d missed something. Nope. Trees, shrubs, twigs, dirt. The same scenery they’d been driving through for the past twenty minutes – only thicker beyond this clearing.

‘Well, we’re not there yet. The rest of the way is by foot.’

Danny got out of the car and went round the other side to open Nicole’s door.

‘Come on. Just a little walk past there.’ He pointed to what was possibly the largest tree Nicole had ever seen.

‘I believe I’ve seen this movie.’ Nicole stayed put. ‘It doesn’t end well for my character.’

Reaching out his hand, Danny laughed. ‘You’re safe – I’m not a murderer.’

‘Said every murderer ever.’

‘Besides.’ He smiled. ‘You’re Mandy’s friend and she and Trev are like family to me. You don’t mess with family.’

Nicole took his hand.

They walked for fifteen minutes, Danny with such purpose that Nicole could only assume he knew exactly where he was going. To her it all looked the same. Then they came to another clearing and Nicole stopped to look around.

‘This is amazing,’ she gasped.

‘Pretty cool, huh?’ Danny whispered in her ear and stood beside her.