Outback Reunion (Bunyip Bay #6)

Chapter Fifteen

Her daughter ?! What the actual hell?

As Gabriela hurried into the house, Mark stood there frozen, totally blindsided by the news she had a child. How old was this kid? What was her name? Was she the little girl in the circus?

He shook his head. None of this made sense. Why hadn’t she told him she had a daughter? He was still standing by her car, dumbfounded, when she rushed back a few minutes later.

Barefoot—she hadn’t bothered to locate her thongs—she hurried past him as if she were racing from a fire, not to a child.

‘Out,’ she ordered Rookie, who was still dancing around on the driver’s seat—and, of course, didn’t obey.

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’t know ?’ 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’s not what I said,’ she snapped. ‘Or, not what I meant. Luna matters to me more than anyone and any thing in the world, but she’s got nothing to do with us. There is no us . 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!’

Even if he’d wanted to, it would be impossible to stay angry when she looked so hot and utterly adorable. ‘You look like you’ve just had sex.’

Her eyes widened as she started rifling through his glovebox. ‘Do you have a comb or something?’

‘Nope. Sorry.’

She found a rubber band and ran her fingers through her hair, scooping it up into a messy ponytail. Then she pointed to her neck. ‘Is that a hickey? Oh lord, what are Stella and Adam going to think of me?’

She let her hair fall back down to cover it.

He laughed, suddenly finding the situation rather amusing. ‘Never mind about you; Stella will tell her friends when we turn up together, and they’ll each tell someone else. Tomorrow the fact that I had a circus performer in my bed is going to be all round Bunyip Bay!’

For the first time since her phone had rung, Gabriela laughed. ‘I’m sorry.’

‘Don’t be. It’s not like I haven’t been the subject of town gossip before, but this time, it was worth it,’ he said. ‘I’m guessing this is why you could only give me one night? Because of your daughter?’

‘She’s one of the reasons. I’m not usually apart from her, so I didn’t see how it could work, but when she decided to stay with Heidi, it seemed too good an opportunity to waste. I’m sorry.’

‘Stop apologising,’ Mark told her, unable to regret anything that had happened.

When he pulled up in front of Adam and Stella’s house, the porch light was on and he saw the silhouettes of Adam, Stella, Heidi and another little girl who must be Luna. ‘Shall I wait in the car?’

Gabriela unclicked her seatbelt. ‘Might be less awkward. I’ll be quick, promise.’

‘No rush,’ he said as she shut the door behind her.

He watched her jog through the garden, towards her daughter, her perfect hips swishing. His mouth went dry as he recalled his hands on those hips, all over her body less than an hour ago. He couldn’t believe how compatible they were—between the sheets and otherwise.

Lost in his own thoughts, he startled when the back door of his crew-cab ute opened and turned to see the young girl from the circus climbing into the back seat. Close up, she didn’t look much like her mother. Gabriela’s hair was light brown and she had snow-white skin, but her daughter had red hair and freckles covering her nose. He guessed Luna took after her father and felt slightly less stupid about not putting two and two together before.

‘Hi there,’ he said.

‘Are you my dad’s friend? Mum said you were busy, so you probably weren’t going to see each other again,’ Luna said, sounding as if she was accusing them both of a torrid crime.

But that wasn’t what shocked him.

‘Um...’ Her dad’s friend? He glanced at Gabriela as she climbed into the front seat, but she reached for her seatbelt without meeting his gaze.

‘Luna, this is Mark. I saw his farm sign when I was driving home and popped in on the spur of the moment. My car battery died so he kindly offered to drive us home. Put your seatbelt on.’

Mark wasn’t sure whether Luna bought this story, but she did as she was told. ‘It’s nice to meet you. Your mum’s told me lots about you.’

Two could play at this game.

‘What did she say?’ Luna asked.

‘I hope Heidi wasn’t too disappointed that you bailed on the sleepover,’ Gabriela said, giving him a look of reproval, before he could reply. ‘Weren’t you having fun?’

Luna folded her arms across her chest. ‘I missed my dogs. Have you got a dog, Mark?’

He smiled into the rear-view as he started the engine again—dogs he could talk about. ‘Yeah. Her name’s Rookie. She’s a bit of a ratbag though.’

Luna giggled at this. ‘Why? What does she do?’

‘Well...’ He told her about the damage to his mum’s shoes, cushions, magazines and more. ‘I’m trying to teach her to work with the sheep because dogs on the farm are supposed to pay their way.’

‘Like circus animals,’ Luna said. ‘Grandad always says that everyone needs to pull their weight—even the animals.’

Mark nodded. ‘Exactly. Unfortunately, Rookie doesn’t know the meaning of work. Every time I show her a sheep, all she wants to do is play with them.’

‘I bet I could train her,’ Luna volunteered. ‘I can train any dog, can’t I, Mum?’

‘You do have a knack,’ Gabriela said, ‘but training a dog to perform and training one to work on a farm are two different things.’

Luna refused to be deterred. ‘Does Rookie do basic commands like sit and stay?’

Mark snorted. ‘Not well.’

‘Then start with that.’

He stifled a smile at her matter-of-fact tone—she only looked about five but seemed way older. ‘What are your dogs called?’

‘Well, there’s Basset who Mum says is a big softie. She can’t say no when he wants to sleep in our bed. And then there’s also Princess, Cruella and Russell.’

By the time they were halfway back to town, Mark knew the personalities and life stories of all four dogs who had all come to the circus in much the same way Rookie had to him. Luna sure was chatty—much more than her mother, who seemed to consider everything she said—and he couldn’t help liking her.

‘If you’re Dad’s friend, why didn’t you come to his funeral?’ Luna asked as the few lights of Bunyip Bay appeared in the distance.

‘They only met once,’ Gabriela told her.

Luna’s shoulders drooped. ‘Oh. But Mum said you were friends on Facebook.’

Mark raised an eyebrow as he glanced over at Gabriela again for direction. He didn’t want to lie to Luna, but he didn’t want to put her mother in hot water either.

‘Luna, it’s late,’ she snapped. ‘Everyone’s tired. Leave Mark alone.’

‘I’m sorry,’ Luna said, not sounding sorry in the slightest.

He smiled at her. ‘It’s fine. I wish I could have gone to your dad’s funeral, but unfortunately, I was busy playing football and couldn’t get away.’

‘I thought you were a farmer.’ Again, this came out like an accusation.

‘I am, now, but I used to play AFL professionally.’

‘That’s cool.’ Luna’s pout morphed into a smile again. ‘Heidi was teaching me how to kick a ball today.’

‘I think what you do is way cooler.’

Luna beamed at the compliment, and it struck Mark again how odd it was that Gabriela hadn’t mentioned her. In his experience, people with kids never shut up about them. His mates who had children couldn’t go five minutes without mentioning something funny, cute or naughty their offspring had done.

And then an alarming possibility struck him.

But no, she looked too small for it to be true.

He glanced into the rear-view mirror again. ‘How old are you?’ Beside him, he sensed Gabriela stiffen.

‘Seven. But I’ll be eight in April. I’m small for my age, but Granny says what I lack in height I make up for in personality, just like Princess.’

Mark barely heard this last bit, his chest squeezing as he did the calculations. He knew pregnancy was about nine months and he had the date he and Gabriela slept together burned into his brain. The maths fit.

Was Luna his? Was that why he’d thought she looked familiar the first time he’d laid eyes on her? Did he recognise himself in her? He glanced into the rear-view mirror again, trying to scrutinise the girl’s features but it was too dark to see anything but a flash of bright orange hair every time the moon broke through the trees on the side of the road.

He looked back to Gabriela.

As if she could read his mind, she shook her head slightly.

What did that mean? No, it’s not what you’re thinking—she’s not yours. Or please leave it? We’re not talking about this right now.

Holy fuck.

His heart pounded. Was the kid in the back seat of his crew cab his daughter? His own flesh and blood? Could that be why Gabriela had been so cagey about her?

He didn’t know how to feel, what to do, but no matter how desperate he was to ask her outright, he couldn’t do so with Luna in the car.

Gabriela leapt out of the ute the moment he stopped in front of the temporary perimeter fence. She opened the back door to let Luna out. ‘Come on, munchkin, bedtime. Thanks for the ride, Mark.’

He didn’t know if she meant the lift or what had preceded it back at his place, but all he could think about was the Luna situation.

‘You’re welcome,’ he managed. ‘I’ll come back in the morning to help with the car.’

And to confront her about his suspicions.