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But when Harvey joined him at the bar, Hazel made her escape. Clearly the answer was still no and as much as she insisted he hadn’t done anything, he knew there was something she wasn’t telling him.
With it being the pub quiz tonight, Gus was persuaded to join Harvey, his brother Daniel, and Linc, who had been playing his guitar out in the beer garden. Gus had been tempted to slope off home early but actually he enjoyed himself. Their team came in second place and Melissa’s team – the team Hazel was on – won the quiz.
‘Better luck next time,’ Melissa giggled as she came over to console her husband with a kiss and a hug.
‘Gus here got us second place,’ Daniel declared. ‘Without his answers about Japan, we would’ve been third.’
‘I got those,’ Gus admitted, ‘but there were plenty of others I had no idea about.’ And he hadn’t been to Japan either, it was just that as luck would have it, he’d read an article about the country and so knew that the name of the bullet train was the Shinkansen and that Osaka was nicknamed the ‘kitchen of Japan’.
Gus checked his watch. He’d told Sandy he’d be home around 11.30 p.m. and as it wasn’t that long until closing time, he knocked back the remains of his second orange juice as he heard Harvey asking, ‘Is she all right? Do you think we should call Arnold?’
Gus turned to see Hazel, who he’d had his back to for most of the quiz – he thought it would be less of a distraction – weaving between tables on her way towards the bar. Melissa went to intercept her, and it didn’t take a genius to see that Hazel had had way too much to drink and Melissa, as predicted, steered her away from the bar and back to their table, nodding to Nola’s offer of water.
Melissa came over to Harvey and explained what Gus could already see for himself. ‘Can we walk her home? Or we could call Arnold.’
Harvey finished his drink and picked up his keys. ‘We’ll walk her home…’ He looked more closely. ‘Or perhaps carry her by the looks of things. We won’t wake Arnold, no need.’
‘Is this a regular thing?’ Gus asked Lucy, who had taken the empties up to the bar for Nola.
‘Actually, no, it’s not. I mean, she enjoys a drink or two, she’ll drink and complain of a headache the next day, but she’s never like this.’
‘Listen, why don’t I run and get my car, I’m only around the corner,’ Gus suggested. She was what you’d describe as legless, and it would take two to carry her home. ‘You don’t want to be stumbling down those country lanes in the dark, the three of you. I’ll have her home in a couple of minutes, not a problem.’
‘Is that okay, Hazel?’ Lucy asked her friend, who only giggled. ‘Is it all right if Gus takes you home in his car?’
Hazel seemed to focus on him. ‘Gus!’ And then in something nowhere bordering on a whisper, behind a cupped hand, she told Melissa, ‘I’ve seen him naked, you know.’
‘I’ll go get the car.’ Gus left the pub and ran back to the house, quickly told Sandy what was going on, and drove back to the pub, by which time Melissa and Lucy were waiting at the end of the path and helped their friend into the passenger seat of his car.
‘He looks good naked,’ Hazel told her friends through the window Gus had already wound down. ‘I mean,reallygood.’ She was speaking as though he wasn’t there, and he gave the others a wave.
‘Let’s get you home.’
As he drove down The Street and indicated, he stole a look at Hazel. She’d already closed her eyes and was smiling away, humming to herself.
He eventually turned off and drove along the driveway, pulling up in the area right in front of Heritage View House. He tried to encourage her out of the car but with her eyes closed, she seemed to have forgotten where they were and so he got out and went around to her side.
When he opened the door, she’d obviously lolled against it because her body fell into his. ‘Whoa, come on, let’s get you into the house.’
She managed to step out of the car with a bit of help but flopped against him, unable to go any further. Her soft cheek rested against the top of his chest, and she was murmuring something about people hiding things. She looked confused, as though since getting out of the car, she’d forgotten where they were. She looked up at him, her hands against his chest. ‘Why can’t art show people’s insides?’ she asked bizarrely.
‘Um… that’s likely a different kind of art. Anatomy. I don’t know, not something I’ve ever wanted to know about. Unless it’s to do with animals, that is.’ God, shut up, Gus. He sounded like a total idiot, although he was pretty sure Hazel wouldn’t be remembering much about this by the morning.
‘I saw you, you know.’
‘I’m well aware of that. You drew me too.’
‘I saw you after.’
‘Yes, I live here in the village, that’s why.’ Reasoning with a drunk person was always difficult, although he didn’t mind holding her while she did it.
‘I saw you after the class.’ She wiped the side of her mouth before putting her hand back on his chest. ‘You were angry.’
She’d seen him? For some reason, he felt more exposed now than he had been posing naked, like she’d seen every last detail of him, his fury at its worst the night he was protecting his daughter.
Hazel pulled away and opened her purse, looked inside as though it was a very large handbag rather than a small item that would reveal its contents in one go. ‘I’m sure I put my key in here somewhere…’ She groaned. ‘It’s not here…’ But in the next breath, she gasped and her eyes widened. ‘Wait, we should go and say goodnight to all the horses!’
He grabbed her elbow before she could head over to the stable block. ‘I think the horses are already tucked up in bed, the way you should be.’
