He stopped and then pulled her hand so that she leaned into him. He gathered her securely in his arms. ‘I love you, Ava. And after a reasonable, I-promise-I-won’t-rush-you engagement, I want to marry you.’ His voice reverberated low and deep through her skin and the wonder lifted the rays from the rock straight into her heart until it felt like it glowed as well. ‘But I’m offering commitment now. I want the engagement. A proposal of the old-fashioned kind. It feels right.’

Engagement?! But he wasn’t letting her think.

‘I’ve learned the hard way that life can be cut short,’ he went on in a rush. ‘When you left Alice it hit me. I’m not losing the opportunity to love you through faint-heartedness. And you’re not losing me. The distances between us in the next month mean we will be apart, so I want you to know I’m telling the planet. Here I am. Putting us out there. If you feel the same.’

Crazy man! She gestured to the desert as if the answer lay there. But he still hadn’t actually asked. Was she mistaken about what he meant?

He was watching her as she stared at the monolith in the distance. Listening for an answer. ‘Would it be easier for you if we drove there now? We have time before sunset. I wanted to ask you there.’

Her gaze jumped back to him, incredulous. How had he sensed that?

‘We could stand together and I’ll ask you properly.’ He raised his brows, gesturing at the champagne and flowers. ‘Then we’ll come back and celebrate. I want this to be the moment you dreamed of.’

‘And if I say no?’ she asked, more of a tease than a possibility, because suddenly she believed him. They could make it work.

‘I’ll leave as fast as I can to try to forget you,’ he said, only half teasing back. ‘And if you say yes, we will have a longer engagement than courtship, I promise. And I will never leave you,’ he vowed with a smile. ‘Would you like me to propose properly at Uluru?’

She was saving this moment to hug forever. Her romantic Zac. ‘Yes, please.’

Ava had never been this happy. Zac’s hand lay on her thigh as she drove, maintaining the connection between them. They were almost there, excitement building, Uluru growing larger in the windscreen as they curved towards the final approach, the rays deepening into glittering gold on the rock. It was so beautiful. So …

Something flashed ahead – a vehicle, a white campervan careering sideways around the last bend towards them on two wheels. Ava didn’t have time to understand as it grew larger and larger, approaching with ridiculous speed. She swerved, but there was nowhere to go.