I cursed pulling into the car park, its half-full state showing I was late to the party and in for a toasty hike up Mount Bruce. It was at least a three-hour return for a fit person, and I'd spent more time in my vehicle than trekking lately. I wished I'd never answered my sister's call this morning. The woman was relentless when she wanted to be.

After changing into my hiking boots, triple-checking my water supply, and grabbing snacks, I jogged toward the trailhead. A few groups of friends and couples were preparing to hike, but no solo hikers. Goanna Girl had probably already started. Her figure had looked active, but not overly athletic, so I could hopefully catch up or see her during her descent. Not that I needed to. She had just seemed refreshingly different, yet familiar.

Describing her like a beverage, great start, Neil. Women love that.

The hike toward the giant, composed of hills upon more hills, featured vibrant orange rocks and soil bleeding through its thin layer of green and brown flora. A few trees grew sporadically, but they were more decorative than suited to offer shade.

Serves you right for getting a later start.

The trail's slope was gradual, allowing me to jog a fair bit of it until I reached the Marandoo summit. It overlooked a giant open mine that the government had felt fitting to allow within the park. It sat beside the mountain like a crusty scab. The red-orange earth revealed layer after layer chipped away. As my skin prickled and I dismissed surfacing thoughts, I turned my back to the mine and hurried up the next sections of the trail. Switchbacks plus a tedious section with a chain handrail drilled into the orange rock near a substantial drop slowed my pace.

I passed other hikers, but didn't recognize any, not that yesterday's moonlight had given me a clear image of the woman to work with, nor had I met many others since my arrival. That was probably for the best. While our conversation was interesting, lady trouble was the last thing I needed. Completing my bucket list to spite my mates and ex was first.

The angle of the peaks kept presenting false final summits that I'd climb, only to discover the next challenge. By the end, it was like the mountain and brutal sun were laughing at me. My throat was too parched to return the gesture.

Two and a half hours after departing, I arrived at the summit. A warm breeze caressed my skin, sweeping across the outback and a low mountain range. Near a pile of orange stacked rocks, a woman sat crossed-legged, staring at a journal with a pencil in hand. Her brown hair was swept into a ladymessy bun with a few long strands framing her face beneath a black baseball cap that seemed vaguely familiar. Was it her?

"Goanna," I called out.

Her head shot up, and a smile graced her thin lips. She was beautiful in a natural way, cheeks flushed red from the heat, her tanned face only decorated with freckles and cheek dimples instead of make-up. "Tiger, you're late. I've been up here thirty minutes, boiling like a lobster."

My stomach flipped. Had she waited for me? I wasn't the sort of guy women got excited about, but maybe the moonlight had worked in my favour. Yet, here she sat in full daylight grinning at me.

She's waiting for you to say something, anything. Come on mate!

"You're cold-blooded, Goanna. It's good for you." I walked closer and sat a few metres from her. "Tigers are notoriously lazy unless they need to eat."

You should have stuck with the beverage line. Now you look like a prick.

She quirked an eyebrow and chuckled. "That's a strange apology."

I laughed, the action scratching my dry throat, and fished a water bottle out of my bag. The cool liquid made every penny and extra gram of weight of that insulated bottle worth it. Perhaps she had enjoyed our conversation enough to try to run into me. It was vain to assume so, but it would be rude not to apologize. "Sorry, my sister called this morning. Every once in a while, I get enough service to face real life."

She set her pencil in her journal and met my gaze. Her green eyes reminded me of fields back home. "Everything alright?"

My stomach twisted. "Usual drama." I dug in my backpack again and pulled out a couple of bags of fruit. "Celebratory mangos?"

"Thanks." She plucked a bag from my extended hand and ripped it open. "What are we celebrating?"

"Conquering the second highest peak in W.A." When she tapped her slice of dried mango against mine in some semblance of cheers, I couldn't help but grin. "How did you enjoy the hike?"

"It's a pleasant change from the gorges, which, don't get me wrong, are stunning, but my legs are holding a grudge, and I'm missing the refreshing swim halfway through."

That sounded heavenly right now. I finished my sweet snack and took another swig of cold water. "Fortescue Falls is next door to the campground."

"I like the way you think." 

"You must be sun-stroked and ready for the descent. I hope you weren't actually waiting for me."

"Nah, I got a little carried away with my sketch."

An artist? She opened up her journal to reveal Mount Bruce's undulating form, her hand shaking slightly as she held it. She'd even captured the fuzzy mulla mulla flowers growing at the base.

"That's amazing. You draw anything else?"

She flipped to a page featuring a familiar goanna, flicking its tongue and staring into my eyes. She had a keen eye for the patterns on its scales.

"That's brilliant."

Her cheeks dimpled as her smile grew and our eyes met. They dropped to her drawings. "It's just a hobby that gets more attention while travelling. At home, I mostly doodle, make birthday cards and the occasional comic."

"Did you never want to do more with it? You certainly could."

She shrugged and turned to a page with bouffant-haired galahs.

"May I?" I gestured toward the book she hesitantly handed over. She'd sketched the gorges, coasts, coral reefs in exquisite detail, lionfish, sea turtles, buff kangaroos, and the fuzziest koala bear. "These are incredible, and you're wrong about not being an animal magnet."

"Right place at the right time."

I flipped to the inner front cover where 'Give him hell, you badass' was scrawled in black marker. My forehead creased as the blocky text on the adjacent page caught my eye: Sadie's Bucket List.

Sadie. The name flowed through my mind like a gentle breeze.

A bead of sweat dripped down her face. "I've got one of them too."

She'd checked off several items like seeing the Southern lights, doing the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, scuba diving, and exploring glow worm caves. She'd even attached photos to the following pages. 

One item near the middle intrigued me. "You've cuddled a koala? Aren't they native to southeastern and eastern Australia?"

"Thought I'd save the wild ones the emotional trauma and try it at a sanctuary. There's one outside of Perth." Her emerald eyes sparkled brighter than any of the surrounding vegetation.

"You've done this all in two months?"

"Three, if you count my month in New Zealand. I met a few women who were eager to help, given the origin of my list."

"Yeah?"

Sadie tugged at the hem of her jean shorts that came halfway down her thigh and stared at the clump of wildflowers growing despite the inhospitable conditions. "I wish mine was a bet like yours."

I swallowed the lump in my throat. That had only been part of the truth.

She sighed. "I wrote the list with my ex. We'd planned it for ages and bought the tickets to Sydney and everything, but four months before we were supposed to go, he broke it off. I was devastated, but it didn't seem right to let his selfish actions ruin my dream—that jerk hadn't cancelled his plans—so I changed my plane ticket and added a few detours to avoid running into him."

Despite my sweat-slicked skin and the climbing sun in the sky, a chill crawled across my arms like a hairy tarantula. What were the odds her story was true? She couldn't know what I'd gone through, but the similarities were striking.

"Did you add Karijini?" I asked.

She nodded. "Heard about it while I was fruit picking, and it fit with visiting the outback on my list. Obscure enough to keep him away. Not that I'm in hiding. I'd just rather live without the reminder of him."

"Do you know where he is now?"

"No, I blocked his social media accounts and asked my friends and family not to mention him."

That sounded a lot healthier than my situation. "Good for you."

"I had to stop myself from drowning."

The genuineness in her tone unsettled me, but it lacked the self-deprecating bitterness my rants to my mates still exuded. I had another mouthful of mango, but their sweetness had faded. If I told her about Ally, would she be the person who understood why I couldn't make it work? My sister and friends gave me enough grief about it.

She played with a bright orange rock before setting it back in its place. "You're awfully quiet. You think it's weird, don't you?"

"No, I..." I drank more water to fight the dryness in my mouth.

"I had to do it, you know, at first to prove I could be the woman he thought I wasn't, but now it's bringing my new self into those moments and making them my own."

After handing her back her journal, I nodded. "I understand, maybe better than you might expect." I ran a hand through my sweaty and unruly hair. "Last night, I wasn't completely honest about my bucket list. I have a wager with my mates about it, but it's because it's a list my ex and I wrote together before she left me."

Sadie tugged her baseball cap down. "Please don't mock me, Tiger."

"I promise you, I'm not. Her name is Ally." Speaking her name released a well inside me, as the world around me faded into a hazy pub, brimming with chatter, clinking glasses, and laughter. "We met in uni at trivia night and were together for nearly two years. She's a ginger with skin so pale she'd have burnt to a crisp waiting up here. She has this shrill tone that grates the ears when she's pissed off, which was almost constantly toward the end." I stopped to catch my breath. My cheeks heated as my eyes refocused on the mountain top where other hikers were staring.

Her soft voice carried over in the breeze. "It's okay. I believe you."

"Sorry, I didn't mean to get worked up. I thought the same thing when you mentioned your ex, that somehow you'd found out about me and..."

"It's a funny coincidence. We're almost the same person."

"No, you are a far more composed version of who I wish I could be but know I'm too stubborn to pull off."

"Time, space, and distractions work wonders."

I hoped she would not launch into some self-help lecture. My sister had thrown enough of those at me for a lifetime. "I've had three months, nothing but space, and if my dream holiday to Australia isn't distracting enough, what is?"

"Time's important. At three months, I was hate-planning this trip. It's been seven now, and it's made a world of difference."

"You haven't met my granddad. The man still won't talk to a childhood friend he thinks banged up his car in their twenties. Grudges run deep in my blood."

She laughed. "Luckily, you're only one-fourth his blood."

I chuckled to myself. "Suppose you're right."

She ran her fingers over the red cover of her journal. "What if I helped you with your list? We must have some common goals if we picked the same country."

"I can't ask you to ruin your holiday with that."

"It'll be fun. If you made that list with her like I did with my ex, I'm sure you're dreading a few items, but maybe they would suck less if someone else was there. We could mock how ridiculous they are."

God, it was like she was in my head. Ally had several absurd items that my mates would absolutely make me do and ask for proof. "Like skinny dipping on yours? Your ex put you up to that too?"

"That one's mine."

My eyes widened. "Really, why?"

Sadie smiled. "I love swimming, and it has a rush to it."

"The rush of what, strangers staring at your bits?"

She chuckled and tucked her journal away. "We can stick to your list."

"That crap is on my list too. Bloody Ally." She'd always pushed further than I'd wanted her to.

"I promise not to stare at your bits, and I could look out for creeps if you felt compelled to complete that one."

I fought my laugh and rubbed my hands on my cargo shorts. "There are plenty of better items we can check off instead. But first, let's get off this mountain so you don't get heatstroke."

"I thought the sun was good for me," she teased. "Do you need a picture up here? For the list, or was this just for pleasure?"

"Good thing one of us hasn't lost our wits." I dug through my pocket for my phone. In my haste to reach the summit, I hadn't taken a single photo yet.

After she took my picture and we marvelled at the undulating landscape with a few nearby ranges breaking it up, I turned to her. "For the record, today was a mix of both, business and pleasure. It's nice to talk to someone with your perspective."

"Likewise."

"Careful, you'll be sick of me by the end of today."

"Is that a bet?" Her tongue poked out of her mouth.

I chuckled and put on my backpack. "No, because it's not one I want to win."