Flight to Coorah Creek by Janet Gover

they hadn’t had that awkward moment when she reached out to him. But they’d get past that. Compared to the other problems she’d had to overcome, a moment’s tension was nothing.
    Sister Luke moved back into the plane’s cabin. Jess expected her to shake Adam awake, but the nun’s hand stopped a couple of inches from Adam’s shoulder. Jess wondered if maybe it wasn’t just her. Maybe the doctor didn’t like to be touched by anyone.
    â€˜Adam,’ Sister Luke said quite loudly. ‘We’re home.’
    He started awake. His eyes flew open and for a few seconds they looked around wildly. Then they settled on Sister Luke’s face, and he visibly relaxed. Even from the front of the plane, Jess could see that there was some sort of special bond between the two. She wondered what it was.
    â€˜We’re home, Adam,’ Sister Luke said again.
    Adam nodded and looked past the sister to where Jess was watching from the pilot’s seat.
    â€˜Nice landing,’ he said, his lips curling into the suggestion of a smile.
    â€˜How would you know?’ she countered. ‘You slept through it.’
    â€˜That’s how I know.’ He slowly unfolded himself from the seat and lowered the aircraft steps.
    Jess was the last to exit. Adam was waiting for her on the tarmac. ‘Welcome to Coorah Creek,’ he said formally. ‘I’m sorry I had to drag you away so quickly yesterday. You didn’t even get to leave the plane.’
    Looking at his tired face, Jess thought she could see sincerity there. Jess wanted this new job to work – for so many reasons. She took a deep breath and decided to start all over again with both the town and its doctor.
    â€˜I’m just glad the patient was all right,’ Jess said, as she stretched her neck and shoulders to relieve the tension of too many hours in the air.
    â€˜It gets a bit like that out here. Sometimes there just aren’t enough hours in the day. Other times you’ll be dying of boredom.’
    â€˜Boredom sounds pretty good to me right now,’ Jess said. ‘As does a shower and some clean clothes. I am supposed to get somewhere to live as part of the job. You wouldn’t happen to know where that might be and how I can get there?’
    â€˜Ah, yes. Your accommodation,’ said Sister Luke. ‘Adam can tell you all about that. Can’t you, Adam?’
    Surprisingly, the question caused Adam to drop his eyes to his shoes with the air of a child who knows he is in trouble.
    â€˜I’ll take Jess to the pub,’ he said shortly.
    â€˜The pub?’ Jessica’s heart sank. ‘I’m not staying at a pub.’ The words came out louder and more strident than she had planned. But that was exactly how she felt. According to her contract she was to have accommodation provided as part of the job. She hadn’t expected anything fancy, but she had imagined a small house. Certainly not a room at some outback pub. Then there was the ever-present fear that someone would recognise her. They had newspapers and television even out here.
    â€˜Just for a couple of nights.’
    â€˜Adam,’ Sister Luke said in a chiding tone. ‘Please don’t tell me you forgot.’
    â€˜Not so much forgot as didn’t think about it,’ Adam replied. ‘Well, I got the call about the injured jackaroo. And I had a couple of patients I had to ring. To cancel appointments. I never got around to it.’
    Jess was starting to get a bad feeling. ‘Never got around to what, exactly?’
    â€˜We were expecting a male pilot,’ Adam explained. ‘The last pilot just stayed with the mine workers at the single men’s accommodation.’
    Jess’s eyes widened in horror.
    â€˜So,’ Adam hurried on before she could say a word, ‘when Jack met you yesterday, he rang and asked me to sort something out for you.’
    â€˜And?’ Jess looked at