Epilogue #2
It was ass o’clock in the morning when they started the drive up to the crest of Mount Wellington.
In the passenger seat beside Beckett, Sarah clutched her travel mug of coffee like a lover.
More than a year and a half on this adventure and she still wasn’t a morning person.
Probably never would be. He was okay with that.
Her look of profound gratitude and “You are my superhero” when he greeted her with already made coffee would never get old.
They only had a few more days left in Tasmania, and sunrise shots over Hobart from the summit had been high on Sarah’s list. They’d attempted this yesterday, but the peak had been shrouded in clouds.
Hopefully, today would go better. There was little traffic at this hour as they turned onto the winding road that twisted its way up to the top.
Only a few other intrepid souls who had the same idea to see the start of the day from what felt like the top of the world.
At the end of the road, they parked in the lot down from the observation decks, beside a handful of other vehicles.
The air was a lot colder at this elevation.
Beckett’s breath puffed out as he leaned into the backseat to grab a coat.
Sarah shrugged into her own, looking a little more alert now that the coffee had been finished.
She snagged her camera bag. “Looks like this morning might go better. I wanna get down to the end of the platform and set up before anybody else shows up to spoil the shot.”
There was still some cloud cover and mist swirling around them as they strode past the observation tower and down to one of the lower decks.
She paid little attention to the other people, too focused on her task.
But Beckett saw the woman hanging back near the observation tower, her blonde hair pulled into a braid, a baseball cap pulled low enough to hide her face.
As she spotted him, her smile flashed bright and she shot him a thumbs up.
Right. All was ready for what he had planned this morning.
Despite the cold, his palms felt damp, and he swiped them on his pants as he trotted down the wooden boardwalk steps after Sarah.
The past eighteen months had been incredible.
They’d traveled all over the world, exploring outdoor adventures and documenting them.
TerraVenture had been so delighted with their work, they’d been offered permanent positions with the company, continuing to do the work they loved.
He’d so enjoyed getting to see Sarah bloom, shaking off all the self-imposed rules and restrictions and sense of responsibility.
She’d begun making a name for herself in nature photography circles, and Beckett himself had been able to leverage his new platform to push the conservation message that still mattered so much to him from his National Park Service days.
Neither of them could have imagined this life when they’d met at Camp Firefly Falls, but Beckett was absolutely certain he didn’t want to do this with anyone else.
He hoped Sarah felt the same, or this was gonna get awkward really fast.
She already had the tripod out and was selecting the lens she wanted.
Not wanting to distract her, he hung back looking up at the stars in the gaps between the clouds.
The sky seemed a little lighter now, the endless black giving way to a warmer navy that told him sunrise wasn’t too far off.
At the camera, Sarah was adjusting settings and muttering to herself.
Then she took off the lens cap, stuffing it into the pocket of her puffer jacket.
“Now, we wait.”
“So we do. ” He reached into the pocket of his own jacket, fingers closing around the small box there.
They lapsed into a comfortable silence. It was such an incredible gift to be with a woman he could be silent with as easily as carrying on a conversation.
They simply got each other. They were happy.
There was absolutely no reason to expect this to go badly.
Still, Beckett was nervous. Asking the woman you loved to spend the rest of her life with you was scary business, even if you were 99. 999% positive she was going to say yes.
Shoulder to shoulder they watched the sky continue to lighten, the blues giving way to stunning pinks and oranges. The moment the first rays of the sun burst free of the distant horizon felt spiritual, perfect, broken only by the occasional click of the shutter.
Beckett could feel Sarah’s excitement, though she said nothing to break the relative quiet. This was what she’d wanted from this place. These were the money shots.
As the golden orb fully cleared the horizon, he heard the shutter click once. Twice. Three times before she muttered, “Absolutely beautiful.”
Knowing this was the moment, Beckett dropped to one knee behind her. “Absolutely.”
She straightened and turned, her mouth falling open at the sight of him kneeling on the boards. He was glad he’d waited for her to get the shot he knew she wanted, because in the moment, he wasn’t sure she remembered her camera even existed.
“Beckett,” she breathed.
“We’ve been on a hell of an adventure, you and I. At this point I’ve loved you across most of the continents on this planet. I’m hoping you’ll marry me while we knock out the rest and keep building the life we want together. How ’bout it, Sarah? Be my wife?”
The rising sun glinted off the tears in those big Bambi eyes. “Of course it’s yes. I wouldn’t want to go on any adventure without you.”
Grinning, he surged to his feet, arms going around her as his mouth found hers.
Another shutter clicked from somewhere behind them. “Oh, yeah. That’s the shot.”
Sarah’s head jerked up, and she gaped. “Taryn?”
Her sister beamed, lowering the camera in her hands. “Hey, sis. Congratulations.”
“What are you doing here?”
“Beckett brought me in to document, what with you being busy saying yes and all.”
He pulled her even closer. “I thought it was fitting she be a part of this since we would never have even met without her.”
She draped her arms around his neck. “That right there is proof that you are absolutely perfect.”
“Well, perfect for you, anyway.”
“Damn, you two are cute. Does this mean you’re going to do a segment on best foreign places to elope?”
But Sarah just waved her sister away and kissed him. Beckett wouldn’t have had it any other way.