Page 13 of Outback Reunion

He stood and stepped over the discarded wrappers of chocolate scattered around him, then headed into the kitchen. Rookie followed close at his heels as he grabbed a beer from the fridge, cracked it open and tried to decide what to have for dinner. He’d probably end up eating something pathetic like beans on toast. Not exactly the dinner of champions, but these days what he put in his body was a far cry from what he had when he’d been training six days a week. It no longer mattered.

Hisbodyno longer mattered.

Defeated, and not hungry anyway because of all the chocolate he’d devoured over the afternoon, he took his drink out onto the verandah. He picked up a tennis ball for the dog, then hurled it half-heartedly into the front garden for Rookie to go fetch.

As usual, she raced after it but refused to bring it back.

‘Stupid mutt,’ he said, shaking his head as he slumped into a cane chair and took a much-needed sip. Perhaps Dad was right, and he was a fool to try and make the stray into a proper farm dog.

He didn’t dwell on this for long because once again his thoughts returned to Gabriela.

He still couldn’t believeshewas inhistown, the last place he’d ever expected to run into her. And after all this time.

For six months after their night together, he’d been possessed—googling ‘Gabriela’ and ‘dancing’, cursing himself for not asking her surname, checking out every show and club he could think of, trying to track her down, but it had been futile. It was as if she’d vanished from the face of the earth—either that or he’d imagined her. Eventually, he’d given up and reluctantly started dating other people. There’d been a few semi-serious relationships before Tahlia, yet when she came along, he’d known she was the one, because she was the first woman who made him forget about Gabriela.

Almost.

He’d be lying if he said he hadn’t sometimes still thought of the mysterious dancer and their magical encounter, wondering what she was up to, who she was up to it with.

And now she washere—probably getting all glammed up for their first show tonight—and Tahlia was not.

You should come.Gabriela’s words from the other day haunted him.

Had she meant it, or had it just been a throwaway polite comment? Did he evenwantto see her again? He wasn’t in the headspace for a relationship, so what would be the point? Then again, it wasn’t like he had a better offer. It was either give in to his urge to go see her, or beans, beer and reruns ofThe Blockon the couch with Rookie.

‘No offence, girl,’ he said as the dog came back without the ball, looking at him as ifhe’dlost it, ‘but to be honest, you’re not that great a conversationalist.’

Unoffended, she started chewing on one of the old boots by the front door as Mark put his beer down and slipped his phone out of his pocket. It wouldn’t hurt to check if there were any tickets left. Maybe they were all sold out. There were lots of tourists in town right now who’d be looking for something to do with their kids after dark. Half hoping this would be the case, he searched ‘Bunyip Bay circus’, which led him to the website ofThe Grand Jimenez Family Circus.

And there were still a few tickets available for tonight’s show.

He added one adult ticket to the cart, but his finger hovered over the checkout button. Was this insane? A circus,really? Just because some woman he’d slept with once years ago was in it. He tapped his foot, deliberating, but found he wanted to see Gabriela in action and maybe it would take his mind off everything else for a while.

Decision made, he paid for the ticket, tipped the dregs of his beer into his mouth, and then tossed the bottle into the recycling bin before heading inside to get ready.

After a quick shower, he stood in front of the steamy bathroom mirror scrutinising his appearance. Geez, he’d really let himself go since his parents left. Had he even shaved this year? With that thought, he whipped out his razor and went to town on his stubble.

It wouldn’t hurt to look his best, to show Gabriela what she’d missed out on by doing a disappearing act all those years ago.

He chose a clean, smart, short-sleeved shirt to go with his fresh jeans, slapped on some of the new cologne Santa had given him, and ran a comb through his hair.

‘Bye, Rookie, try and behave,’ he told the dog, distracting her with dinner inside her crate as he locked the door behind her and snuck out of the house. If he left her home alone with free run of the place, who knew what kind of destruction he’d return to.

The parking at the sports hub was all gone, cars already overflowing onto the kerbs along the road, so Mark had to park almost a kilometre away. As he walked towards the oval, he came across Ryan’s sister, Faith Forrester—Montgomery now—and Ruby Jones, whose parents used to own the Ag Store.

‘Hello, stranger!’ Faith said, wrangling her baby and a massive nappy bag as she pulled a pram out of the back of her four-wheel drive. It was so weird seeing people he’d known growing up with kids. Faith also had a toddler in tow, who looked the spitting image of his dad.

He leaned forward and kissed her on the cheek. Faith and Monty now lived down south in Mount Barker, but he guessed they’d come home for Christmas. ‘Good to see you.’

‘Same.’ She grinned. The little boy beside her jumped up and down like he’d just downed a can of Red Bull. Ruby looked to be gripping his hand tightly in case he did a runner. ‘You know Ruby, right?’

Mark nodded and smiled at the other woman. ‘Hey.’

Ruby smiled back. ‘Nice to see you again, Mark.’

He hadn’t known her well when they were kids because they’d both gone away to different boarding schools, and farm kids didn’t tend to hang out with town kids anyway, but he’d run into her a few times since coming home. When she returned to Bunyip Bay a couple of years ago, she’d brought with her a whole load of drama, which eventually led to her hooking up with Drew Noble, the new English cop. He’d heard all about it from his mum on their twice-weekly phone calls, which is how he kept up to date with everything going on back home. Thanks to her updates, he almost felt like he’d been here all this time and that his life in Melbourne was a dream, yet at the same time he felt totally out of place, like an alien beamed down from another planet.

‘You’renot heading to the circus, are you?’ asked Faith, placing the wriggling baby into the pram.

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