Page 106 of Outback Reunion

Gabriela burst out laughing. ‘You crack me up.’

‘I’m deadly serious.’

Her laughing stopped, her jaw dropping and her eyes widening as she stared at him. ‘You really are insane.’

‘You saw me tonight. I fit right in. And I enjoyed it. I’m a quick learner. I’m not saying I’ll ever be able to walk the highwire or do any of the things the Dangerous Duo do, but the clown might be able to teach me a few tricks and—’

‘One night is very different to living on the road in a space barely bigger than your ute, doing the same thing day in day out, never really being able to take a proper break. I can’t ask you to do that. I won’t.’

‘You’re not asking. I’m offering, because one way or another I want us to be together. I don’t want to waste another minute without you in my life.’

Gabriela smiled at him, but it wasn’t a joyful smile. She cupped his face in her hands. ‘You’re a wonderful man, Mark—thebestman—but some things just aren’t meant to be. I won’t allow you to leave this beautiful place, your friends, your family and the farm for me. You’ll only end up resenting me.’

‘I won’t. That’s impossible.’

‘Oh, Mark.’ She sniffed and shook her head. ‘Don’t make this any harder than it already is. It’s been a wonderful week, but we both knew that was all it was ever going to be.’

He could tell by the tone of her voice that arguing would be futile. He’d never felt more defeated. Even with most of his football injuries, he’d known that if he worked hard and put the effort into his recovery, he’d come good. He may not be playing professionally anymore, but surgery and months of physio meant he could still do almost everything else.

How could there be nothing he could do to makethempossible? He couldn’t believe that fate had brought her back into his life only to rip her out again.

‘You’re breaking my heart,’ he whispered, pressing his forehead against hers.

‘I’m sorry,’ she sobbed, fresh tears pouring down her cheeks.

‘At least say we can stay in touch. I don’t want to lose contact with you again.’

She was quiet a few long moments, then said, ‘I don’t think that’s a good idea. I should never have slept with you in the first place.’

He didn’t know if she meant that first night in Melbourne or when they’d gone for it at his place on Sunday afternoon, but it didn’t matter. What mattered was that this really sounded like it was the end, and he couldn’t let that be the case.

‘I’ll take the camels for you.’

‘What?’

‘They’re more trouble than they’re worth to you right now and we have plenty of room for them on the farm. If the Saad sisters return or you want them back when you’ve got more people again to look after them, then you’ll know where they are.’

And maybe one day she’d have a reason to come find him again. It might be a tenuous link, but itwasa link.

‘Will your parents be okay with that?’ she asked.

Mark laughed despite himself. ‘Are you kidding? Mum will love it—she’ll spoil them rotten. Dad will grumble, but I think he secretly likes her rescues just as much as she does.’

‘In that case, thank you. You’re really too good to me.’

He pressed his lips to hers one final time—‘You’re easy to be good to’—and then he walked her back to the lot, making arrangements to collect the camels the following morning.

Chapter Twenty-eight

‘How d’you like your new home?’ Mark asked the camels as he leaned against the fence of the paddock nearest to the house. Rookie appeared to be both curious and terrified of the giant creatures and was running back and forth along the fence line in her usual insane manner, jumping almost a foot into the air if a camel so much as looked at her.

One of them leaned its head over the rail and tried to grab his beer, but he didn’t know if it was Lenore, Rosie or George. Luna had told him about their very disparate personalities when they’d been ushering the camels into the trailer yesterday, but he couldn’t yet tell the difference between them.

‘I don’t think so.’ He yanked the bottle out of its reach and took a sip. ‘I might share my land, but I don’t share my beer.’

To be honest, he wasn’t sure if it was his fifth or sixth of the evening—maybe even more—but if you couldn’t drink your pain away when the love of your life was about to leave town, when could you? Whoever said it was better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all was a lunatic.

Yet no matter how much he hurt when he thought about Gabriela leaving, he couldn’t regret the last week they’d spent together, so maybe the lunatic had a point.

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