Leap of Faith by Fiona McCallum

was already lonely, pining for him. Jessica swallowed. She was being silly; usually she and Steve spent most of their time apart. It would be different if she had Laurel and Hardy for company, but they’d chosen to stay out in the back of the ute – they had meaningful work to do, and knew it. They couldn’t be more different to the dogs who’d been lazing around inside yesterday.
    â€˜Right, so you’re sure you’ll be okay? You don’t want me to phone Raelene from next door and see if she can come over and keep you company?’
    Had he read her mind? ‘Darling, I’ll be fine. You just go.’
    They heard a car horn – Gary signalling his arrival. He would have seen Steve’s ute still parked beside the house.
    â€˜Well, call if you need me,’ he said, kissing her before striding to the door.
    â€˜Okay. Have fun,’ she called.
    â€˜You too.’
    Jessica looked around her. Bless Steve, he’d thought of everything. She poured coffee from the thermos into her mug and sipped as she thought about all the hours looming ahead of her. The only way she’d keep sane was to plan her time a little.
    She really had to rest, so she might as well give in and stop fighting it. Think positively , she told herself. All this time to do nothing. Think of it as a holiday.
    Jessica tried to remember when she and Steve had last had a holiday – actually left the farm. They had honeymooned six and a half years ago and Jessica’s parents had moved in to keep an eye on everything. Having a holiday off the place was such a major undertaking that it was easier just to stay home. It wasn’t fair to put their whole stockholding and livelihood in the hands of anyone else. And it was really too much responsibility to place on friends, though plenty had made the offer. Sadly, now neither of them had family who could step into the breach. So, instead of formal holidays, they tended to do the odd weekend away – usually coinciding with travelling for one of Jessica’s horse events or a stock or clearing sale that Steve wanted to attend. They had also been known to go camping for a week or two and had done so a few times with Todd and Tiffany, but never further away than would allow Steve to do a daily check of the property and stock.
    Friends and fellow farmers regularly had digs at them about their fastidiousness. While they always laughed them off, the truth was they were proud of their standards. They wouldn’t be where they were if they ran a slack operation – like many who jibed them did. Not that they would ever point that out; each to their own, and all that.
    Right, I’ll watch Sunrise until it finishes. Then I’ll … I’ll what?
    She wondered if she should log into her Facebook account – apparently that sucked up lots of time. She’d only recently created an account, mainly to appease the many friends and acquaintances who had been urging her to for years now. She was one of the few people alive who could use the internet but wasn’t on Facebook every day. The few times she’d logged on, all she’d seen was stupid posts from people announcing they were off to walk their dogs, or which restaurant they were eating at, etc. It was really quite annoying. Who cared what you were doing any moment of any day? As it was, she lost quite a bit of time between Googling and online shopping, which she happily did quite regularly. But aimlessly browsing shopping sites for the next six weeks could be very dangerous. Perhaps best to leave the laptop alone.
    So, after Sunrise she’d watch a movie or start reading one of the books Tiffany had brought; she’d see how she felt. Then at noon she could eat her sandwich and that would be the morning dealt with. She’d worry about filling the rest of her day later.
    Feeling a little better thanks to her planning, Jessica snuggled down into the cushions, turned the sound up, and