Page 78 of Outback Reunion

‘He did lots of things. We performed together on the highwire; he could do the Wheel of Steel and he wasn’t bad in the Globe of Death either. He believed that the boss of the circus should be able to do as many of the acts as possible.’

Mark couldn’t help feeling a twinge of jealousy. ‘He sounds like an amazing person.’

‘Was your knee giving you grief out there?’ she asked.

It was an obvious change of subject as if speaking about Dante was too painful for her, but she’d chosenhisleast favourite topic of conversation.

‘Nah, it’s fine. After my op, and with regular physio, it’s not that bad now.’ He forced a chuckle. ‘Well, when I say, “not bad”, I mean... clearly, it’s not good enough to play properly again, but it doesn’t hurt much anymore.’ Only when someone asked him about it. ‘I can do all the farm work and everything just fine.’

She frowned, a small crease appearing on her otherwise silky-smooth forehead. ‘I thought that might be why you were reluctant to go kick the footy with the kids.’

Mark’s chest squeezed as he realised he’d just dropped himself right in it. ‘Would you believe me if I said I just didn’t want to be away from you?’

Gabriela laughed. ‘No.’

‘Well, that’s also true but... I haven’t touched a footy since I left Melbourne. It’s...’

He looked down at the sand, unable to finish his sentence. He didn’t want her to know what a dark place he’d been in lately—he didn’t want to dampen their short time together with boring life shit—but she finished the sentence for him. ‘Too painful? Not physically, but emotionally?’

‘Something like that,’ he admitted, digging his heel into the sand. ‘It probably sounds pathetic, but I loved the game so much. There was nothing like the feeling I got when I had that ball in my hands and my sights on the goal posts. I thought I had a few more years... I thought mybestyears might still be to come... and it’s easier to avoid thinking about all that if I avoid football altogether.’

‘It doesn’t sound pathetic. I’m guessing that’s why you don’t want to coach the local girls’ team?’

Mark’s head snapped up to look at her. ‘How’d you know about that?’

‘When Stella found out we knew each other she asked if I could put a good word in for them.’

He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. ‘This town!’ Not merely content to pester him about his life choices, now they were dragging near strangers into their scheming.

Gabriela laughed. ‘Don’t worry, I told her you wouldn’t listen to me.’

‘But you think I should do it?’ He could tell by the tone of her voice and her pensive expression.

‘It’s not any of my business what you do, but have you considered that maybe cutting footy completely out of your life isn’t good for you either?’

His phone rang and he’d never been happier to be saved by the bell, until he dug it out of his pocket and glanced at the screen.Not again. Tahlia had already tried him twice that morning and both times he’d let the call go to voicemail. Someone must have died; that was the only possible explanation for why she’d be contacting him, but she had that prick Alex to comfort her now.

‘Problem?’ Gabriela asked as he scowled.

‘Nah.’ He shook his head, rejected the call, shoved his phone back into his pocket and focused on her. He wanted to lighten the mood again, so instead of returning to their conversation about football, he changed the subject. ‘Who’s your celebrity crush?’

She blinked, then half-laughed. ‘Why do you want to know?’

He shrugged—not about to tell her it was one of the questions in the article his mum had sent him.If only he’d seen the questionnaire before proposing to Tahlia, things might never have got that far between them. Then again, she’d lied about lots of things. He didn’t plan on asking Gabriela all the deep and meaningful questions, but some of them were fun. ‘Go on, tell me, who is he? There must be someone.’

‘Paul Rudd.’

‘What? Ant Man? Isn’t he a bit old?’

She shrugged. ‘He’s aged pretty damn well.’

Stupidly, Mark felt jealous of a celebrity that neither of them would probably ever meet.

‘Who’s yours?’ she asked.

‘Angelina Jolie.’ He still had a poster of her as Lara Croft in his walk-in robe and it was probably no coincidence that she could be Gabriela’s doppelganger.

‘She’s old too!’

---