The Bush Doctor's Challenge

‘Thanks.’ Abby smiled. ‘If you show me where things are I’ll make it. You look as if you’re a bit busy.’

‘Just a bit,’ Shelly admitted, gesturing to the mountains of laundry adorning every available surface. ‘I’ll feel so much better when all this is done.’

Abby chose to ignore Kell’s upwardly mobile right eyebrow as she fumbled around the kitchen, watching with undisguised bemusement as Shelly proceeded to tear the wrappers off a pile of new baby clothes and bundle them into yet another laundry basket.

‘So how was the journey, Abby?’

‘Long.’

Shelly laughed. ‘Tell me about it. I remember the first time I came here I thought the journey would never end. It’s like another planet, isn’t it?’

Abby nodded, her smile finally genuine as she warmed to the likable Shelly.

‘Hard to believe it’s the same country. Just wait till Ross takes you out and you see some of the homesteads, miles and miles from anywhere. They make Tennengarrah look like a thriving city—at least we’ve got a pub and a few shops, and a hairdresser’s…’

‘Since when?’ Kell asked, perking up a bit and leaning forward.

‘Well, not a hairdresser’s exactly,’ Shelly conceded. ‘But June Hegley’s niece, Anna, is staying for a few months and apparently she trained in Sydney, so she’s going to set up shop at June’s house.’

‘I must remember to make an appointment,’ Kell said, shooting a wink at Abby, who realised with a start she was again staring at him.

That shaggy dark mane that framed his face could certainly do with a cut, but on the other hand it actually suited him, Abby couldn’t quite imagine Kell with the short back and sides which was so much part of the uniform of most of her colleagues.

‘The clinic’s nice,’ Shelly chattered on, happily oblivious to the sudden crackling tension in the room. ‘It’s really come a long way since we’ve been here. I think you’ll be quite pleasantly surprised.’

‘How busy does it get?’

Her question was aimed at Shelly. From their brief chats on the telephone and a couple of longer ones with Ross, Abby had gleaned that Shelly was a nurse who until recently had been working, but Kell, who obviously thought he knew everything about anything, decided to answer for her.

‘All depends. Sometimes you can go a full day without even getting a new patient, but those days are getting few and far between now. With tourism and everything the town’s thriving.’

Sucking in her breath, Abby bit back a smart answer, her eyes pointedly trained on Shelly. ‘So, how long have you been here?’

‘Just over a year. It took me a while to settle in but I think I’m finally getting the hang of it. Matthew, on the other hand, fell in love the first day he was here.’

‘Matthew’s Shelly’s son,’ Kell interrupted needlessly, and Abby didn’t even bother to answer him, again directly addressing Shelly.

‘How old’s Matthew?’

‘Three. He’ll be up soon, he’s just having an afternoon nap, which is great for me as I finally got a parcel today. Mum sent me some baby clothes and a few odds and ends.’ Holding up a box of laundry powder, Shelly grinned. ‘You’d be surprised the things you miss.’

‘They don’t sell laundry powder here?’ Abby asked, aghast, visions of washing her shorts with a rock in the creek gushing into her mind. What on earth had she let herself in for?

‘What’s laundry powder?’

It took a second for Abby to register Kell was joking. Blushing, she took another drink as Shelly started to laugh. ‘It’s not that bad, Abby. I wanted some soap flakes, but the local shop didn’t quite stretch, so it was quicker to get Mum to send some than wait till we do our big shop in town next month. Now, if you two don’t mind, I’ll just go and throw this lot in the washing machine.’

‘Go ahead.’ Kell nodded, flicking on the television with the remote. ‘I’ll go and get the other basket pegged out for you.’

Abby tried, she really did. She tried not to roll her eyes but sitting in the middle of nowhere discussing the merits of soap flakes versus detergent was just so far removed from her normal life she couldn’t help herself.

‘Something wrong?’ Kell asked.

‘Nothing,’ Abby retorted.

‘Shelly’s great,’ Kell enthused. ‘And if the conversation’s not up to your usual standards, bear in mind the poor woman’s about to give birth.’

‘I didn’t say anything,’ Abby protested, annoyed with herself for being caught out, and also irritated with Kell for his uneducated assumptions. Shelly Bodey did not look like a woman about to give birth!

‘You didn’t have to.’

They sat in uncomfortable silence for a moment or two before Abby succumbed, curiosity finally the getting the better of her. ‘Kell, why is she washing new clothes?’

‘You’re supposed to wash them,’ Kell explained patiently, his smile back in place to show her she was forgiven, ‘before the baby wears them. It gets rid of any perfume or harsh detergents.’

To Abby’s utter surprise she found she was actually laughing.

‘What did I say?’

‘Nothing.’ Taking a sip of her coffee, Abby started to laugh again then forced herself to stop. ‘It’s just the last thing I expected to hear from a guy like you.’

‘A guy like me?’ Kell asked as he stood up and picked up the laundry basket. ‘What, do you think I’m too macho to know about washing powders and the like?’

Finally she managed to look at him. It should have been so much easier now he was wearing clothes, but even without visual access to that toned body he was still stunning, and something about the way he was looking at Abby had her stomach doing somersaults. He looked so ridiculously gorgeous, six feet five of oozing masculinity with a laundry basket tucked under his arm and a handful of pegs!

‘You’d better get on.’ Abby smiled. ‘If you want to get your washing dry.’

It was Kell laughing this time. ‘Now, what would a woman like you know about laundry?’

As the fly door slammed Abby let out a long-held breath and sank back into the deep sofa, staring out of the window, her gaze filtering out the so-called town to the view beyond which seemed to stretch on to infinity. Mile after mile of red soil, no bay view, no skyscrapers, no hum of traffic in the distance, just the aching gap of emptiness. Staring moodily out as the sun bobbed lower in the sky, Abby truly wondered how she could possibly survive.

Three months, she consoled herself.

In three short months she’d be handing her washing over at the dry-cleaners without even meriting it a thought.

In three months she’d be a consultant.

CHAPTER TWO (#ucb9aa99a-9818-5e07-b338-45278d5bd7e7)

‘KELL!’

Shelly’s voice wasn’t particularly loud, but the note of urgency in it had Abby on her feet in less than a second.

‘Kell!’ Shelly’s voice was louder this time, more desperate. Putting down her mug, Abby cast an anxious look through the window, catching sight of an oblivious Kell, happily pegging out the washing, his mouth full with pink plastic pegs.

Unsure whether to call Kell or investigate herself, Abby tentatively followed the sound of Shelly’s increasingly urgent demands. As she pushed open the laundry door, she swallowed a gasp of shock as Shelly let out a deep guttural groan, two frightened eyes darting up to meet Abby’s as she hunched over the washing machine.

‘I want to push!’