‘I’ll have to get used to not having those memories, I guess,’ he said in an echo of her thoughts. He tightened his grip. ‘Is there something big between us that I should remember?’

Her lips parted, but she couldn’t say anything. The words were stuck in her throat because of the lack of recognition in his face. She tried not to let her heart shine out of her eyes. He stared at her mouth and she tried not to dwell on his.

‘Maybe you’re right. What if my memory needs jogging,’ he said, his voice gravelly, ‘in another way?’

Below the wave of dark hair on his forehead, she saw his eyes darken. It would be so easy to reach up and try that connection. To risk the awkwardness that had to follow if he didn’t remember her when they kissed. She could feel the undercurrent between them, the heat rising even though they only touched hands. How could two people create such intensity without him remembering?

She took a calming breath, then another. Not yet. If nothing jogged his memory when he did kiss her, then that disappointment would sting and kick her and frustrate the hell out of him as well. Make him wonder why he’d come to the back of beyond to their station when nothing was ringing any bells.

She saw the moment his eyes changed, the decision made to not go there. He probably saw her struggle because she was pretty darn sure that was sympathy crossing his face.

‘Cooee.’ The call came from towards the house. Ava pulled away unsteadily. Her chest rose and fell as she tried to slow her breathing, and when he put his hand out to catch her fingers to steady her, she found him holding her hand again.

She licked her dry lips. ‘My brother.’

Zac seemed to be watching her mouth. ‘Your brother.’

‘Jock,’ she said.

‘Jock,’ he repeated.

Maybe he had been feeling what she had, after all.

‘Echo,’ she quipped.

He blinked and focused on their surroundings. ‘Right, then. What were we looking for down here before we go back?’

‘Just the level of the waterhole.’

They walked around a small dark-red pool about the size of a child’s trampoline and climbed back up the hill, and this time she took his hand and clasped his fingers because she didn’t want to let go, and she decided then and there that they would walk like this for the whole world to see if he let her. Their tenuous relationship had subtly changed.

She’d changed him. And to her amusement, her brother’s stance was something else that changed as they walked towards him.