Page 64 of Outback Reunion

Mark leaned into the car and grabbed the dog.

‘Thanks for a great night!’ Gabriela said, jumping into the driver’s side and slamming the door.

Thanks for a great night?That was it? She wasn’t even going to give him a kiss on the cheek?

He knew this was supposed to be just sex but still... it felt like a real kick to the gut.

Clutching a squirming Rookie to his chest, he stepped out of the way of the car, worried she wouldn’t think twice about running him over to get where she needed to go. ‘Looks like it’s just you and me again,’ he told the dog.

Yet although he saw Gabriela turning the key in the ignition, nothing happened.

A few moments later, she opened the driver’s door again and scowled.

‘Battery’s flat,’ she said as if this were his fault. ‘Do you have jumper leads?’

‘Of course.’

‘Well, can you please go get them?’

Leaving Rookie with her, he went inside to get his ute keys off the hook by the front door, then drove it round and parked so their bonnets were almost kissing. They went through the motions of attaching the leads to each battery and trying to start her car again, but it was futile. All they could hear was that click, click, click sound.

‘It’s completely dead,’ he told her eventually. ‘Looks like you’ll need a new one.’

‘Shit.’ Gabriela bit her lip as if trying to fight off tears. ‘Don’t suppose you have something like that lying around?’

‘Nope, sorry. But don’t stress. I’ll drive you to Adam’s to get your daughter.’ He couldn’t help sounding pissed off. ‘Then I’ll take you both back to the circus. In the morning, I’ll grab you a new battery, then come and collect you and bring you back to get the car.’

She looked as if she was going to argue, but what choice did she have? ‘Okay. Thank you. That’s very kind.’

‘I’ll just put Rookie in her crate.’

‘Okay. I’ll get my shoes while you do that.’

‘So, Luna is your daughter?’ Mark asked as they started down the long gravel drive to the road, his fingers tense around the steering wheel. ‘Why didn’t you tell me about her?’

‘I don’t know.’ Gabriela’s voice was barely a whisper.

He raised his eyebrows. ‘You don’tknow?’ She sounded close to tears again, and he felt guilty for pressing her, but he’d been so vulnerable with her this evening—talking about his marriage and how he felt about being back here—and she hadn’t even told him about the most important person in her life.

‘You never asked; she never came up,’ she said, crossing her arms over her chest. ‘And it didn’t matter.’

‘Your daughter didn’t matter?’

‘That’snotwhat I said,’ she snapped. ‘Or, not what I meant. Luna matters to me more than anyone and anythingin the world, but she’s got nothing to do with us. There is nous. We’re not going anywhere, so you didn’t need to know about her.’

‘Maybe not,’ he conceded, ‘but I’d have liked to have heard about her. We might not be headed down the aisle, but I wouldn’t have slept with you if you didn’t matter to me, and this feels like an important thing not to share.’

She ran a hand through her sex-mussed hair. ‘I’m sorry, okay, but... to be honest, I thought you’d have guessed when you saw her with me on the highwire.’

‘Yeah. You’d think.’ He suddenly felt like a stupid fool, but he’d been so consumed with her he’d barely thought about any of the other performers. Not even the little girl with the dancing dogs that everyone else in town was raving about. But of course they were connected in some way—why else would they do the highwire act together?

‘I really am sorry,’ she said, squeezing his knee. ‘I should have mentioned her.’

His annoyance faded as heat spread from Gabriela’s fingers all through his body. ‘It was just a shock, that’s all.’

Sucker punching him with one of her smiles, she removed her hand again and reached for the sun visor to look in the mirror.

The smile immediately disappeared. ‘Oh my God. My hair. I look like a mess!’

---