Top-Notch Doc, Outback Bride

She nodded. ‘It was so kind of them to offer their house and the use of their car while I’m here. They sent me the keys in the mail. Believe me, that would never happen in the city. People don’t lend you anything, especially virtual strangers.’

Matt wondered again what had attracted her to the post. He even wondered if Tim and Claire and Trish had colluded to make the job as attractive as possible in order to secure a female GP, a young and single female GP at that—or so he assumed from her ring-free fingers.

‘So what do people do out here in their spare time?’ she asked. ‘Apart from reading, of course.’

‘Most of the locals are on the land,’ he said. ‘They have plenty to do to keep them occupied, especially with this drought going on and on.’

‘That’s what I thought you were at first,’ she said. ‘I had you pegged as a cattle farmer.’

‘I’ve actually got a few hectares of my own,’ he said, doing his best to ignore the brilliance of her smile. ‘I bought them a couple of years back off an elderly farmer who needed to sell in a hurry. I’ve got some breeding stock I’m trying to keep going until we get some decent rain.’

‘Is that where you live?’

‘Yes, it’s only a few minutes out of town.’

‘So do you have horses and stuff?’ she asked.

Matt looked longingly at his book. ‘Yeah, a couple, but they’re pretty wild.’

‘I love horses,’ she said, snuggling into her seat again. ‘I used to ride a bit as a child.’

The captain announced that they were preparing to land and she looked out of the window at the barren landscape. ‘So where’s the creek?’ she asked, and, turning back to him, continued, ‘I mean, there has to be a creek somewhere. Culwulla Creek must be named after a creek, right?’

Matt only just managed to control the urge to roll his eyes heavenwards yet again. ‘Yes, there is, but it’s practically dry. There’s been barely a trickle of water for more than three years.’

Her face fell a little. ‘Oh…that’s a shame.’

‘Why is that?’ he found himself asking, even though he really didn’t want to know.

‘I live by the beach,’ she said. ‘I swim every day, rain or shine.’

Matt felt his chest tighten again. Madeleine had loved swimming. ‘That’s one hobby you’ll have to suspend while you’re out here,’ he said in a flat, emotionless tone. ‘That is, unless it rains.’

‘Oh, well, then,’ she said with a bright optimistic smile. ‘I’d better start doing a rain dance or something. Who knows what might happen?’

Who indeed, Matt thought as the plane descended to land.

Kellie unclipped her seat belt once the plane had landed and reached for her handbag. Matt had risen to retrieve her bulging cabin bag from the overhead locker and silently handed it to her before he took out his own small overnight travel case.

‘So how far is it to town?’ she asked as they walked across the blistering heat of the tarmac as few minutes later.

‘Ten minutes.’

‘Tim and Claire’s house is a couple of streets away from the practice, isn’t it?’ she asked as they waited for her luggage to be unloaded.

‘Yes.’

She waved away a fly. ‘Gosh, it’s awfully hot, isn’t it?’

‘Yes.’

Right, Kellie thought, that’s it. I’m not even going to try and make conversation. She’d spent the last six years with a house full of monosyllabic males—the last thing she needed was another one in her life.

She looked up to see an older woman in her mid-fifties coming towards them. ‘How did the weekend go, Matt?’ she asked in a gentle, concerned voice.

Kellie watched as Matt moved his lips into a semblance of a smile but it was gone before it had time to settle long enough to transform his features.

‘It was OK,’ he said. ‘John and Mary-Anne were very welcoming as usual, but you know how it is.’

The older woman grimaced in empathy. ‘It’s tough on everyone. Birthdays are the worst.’

‘Yeah,’ he said with another attempt at a smile. ‘They are.’

Kellie was intrigued with the little exchange but before she had time to speculate any further, the older woman glanced past Matt’s broad shoulder and smiled. ‘Well, hello there,’ she said. ‘Welcome to Culwulla Creek. Are you a tourist or visiting a friend?’

‘I’m the new locum filling in for Tim Montgomery,’ Kellie said, extending her hand. ‘I’m Kellie Thorne.’

‘Oh, my goodness, aren’t you gorgeous?’ the woman gushed as she grasped both of Kellie’s hands in her soft motherly ones. ‘I had no idea they had someone so young and attractive in mind.’

Kellie felt her face go hot but it had nothing to do with the furnace-like temperature of the October afternoon. She smiled self-consciously as she felt the press of Matt McNaught’s gaze as if he was assessing her physical attributes for the first time.

‘I’m Ruth Williams,’ the older woman said. ‘It’s wonderful you could come to fill in for Tim while he and Claire are overseas. So tell me, where are you from?’

‘Newcastle, in NSW. I did my medical training and internship there as well,’ Kellie answered.

Ruth smiled with genuine warmth. ‘What a thrill to have you here. We’ve never had a female GP before, have we, Matt?’

‘No,’ Matt said, frowning when he saw the luggage trailer lumbering towards them. In amongst the usual assortment of black and brown and battered bags with a few tattered ribbons attached to various handles to make identification easier, there were four hot pink suitcases, each of which looked as if their fastenings were being stretched to the limit.

Kellie followed the line of his gaze and mentally grimaced. Maybe she had overdone it on the packing thing, she thought. But how was a girl to survive six months in the bush without all the feminine accoutrements?

‘I take it these are yours?’ Matt asked, as he nodded towards the trailer.

She captured her bottom lip for a second. ‘I have a problem travelling lightly. I’ve been working on it but I guess I’m not quite there, huh?’

He didn’t roll his eyes but he came pretty close, Kellie thought but she also thought, she saw his lips twitch slightly, which for some inexplicable reason secretly delighted her.

‘It’s all right, Dr Thorne,’ Ruth piped up. ‘Dr McNaught has a four-wheel-drive vehicle so it will all fit in.’

‘Er…great,’ Kellie said, watching fixatedly as Matt’s biceps bulged as he lifted each case off the trailer.

‘I’m afraid there are no basic foodstuffs at Tim and Claire’s house,’ Ruth said with a worried pleat of her brow. ‘I would have bought you some milk and bread but we thought you were coming next week so I didn’t organise anything, and the corner store will be closed by now.’

‘It’s all right,’ Kellie assured her. ‘I had lots of nibbles in the members’ lounge while I waited for the flight to be called and I’ve got some chocolate in one of my bags. My brothers gave it to me. That will tide me over.’

‘That was sweet of them,’ Ruth said. ‘How many brothers do you have?’

‘I have five,’ Kellie answered, ‘all younger than me.’