AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘Are you offering to take me to bed?’ She looked puzzled and he wasn’t sure if their interaction was about to result in her slapping him or kissing him.
‘That wasn’t what I said.’
‘You’re funny.’ She went back to looking for her key in a purse that really wasn’t very big at all. ‘Got it!’ She held up a shiny key and promptly dropped it and groaned but made no attempt to bend down.
He did the honours. Probably safer that way, or she might well fall over. With the key in his hand, he was about to open the front door to Heritage View House when she stumbled into him again and went so weak he had to put an arm beneath her to support her.
‘There’s only one way to do this,’ he declared when he saw a light come on the other side of the door. They’d obviously woken Arnold up already and they could be here all night trying to get her over the threshold with Hazel as legless as she was.
When he scooped her up, she put a hand to his cheek and laughed, oblivious to her brother opening the door to their home. ‘You’re trying to sweep me off my feet,’ she told Gus and proceeded to bury her head in his chest and close her eyes.
Arnold simply shook his head and said, ‘Up the stairs, first door on the right.’
Hazel didn’t say another word to Gus, not until he’d pulled back the teal and white checked bedspread and laid her on the bed. He took off her shoes, which took a couple of attempts because they were strappy sandals; it was worse than trying to help Abigail off with her trainers when she’d managed to pull the laces into double knots. How women worked these things he’d never know. And at least with Abigail she wasn’t trying to roll over and beneath the bed sheets while he was removing her footwear.
Gus set the shoes on the floor by the dressing table and lifted Hazel’s legs onto the bed before pulling the bedspread over her. It was only when he reached the bedroom door to go that he heard her say, ‘You’re good naked but it’s what underneath that counts.’
He almost asked whether that was meant to be a compliment but there wouldn’t be any point trying to hold a conversation with her right now and he was pretty sure it wasn’t anything good. All it told him was that his hunch had been right – he had done something to get under her skin. And if it was that she’d seen him angry outside the art class, then that didn’t make sense. She’d been funny with him when he first saw her at the stables, and now he knew the reason why if she’d seen him having a go at those teenagers. But since then, they’d moved forwards and enjoyed one another’s company. At least, he thought they did.
But it was no use trying to get answers now. It was going to take a much more sober Hazel to give him any kind of explanation.
‘Apologies for the wake-up call,’ he told Arnold when he reached the foot of the stairs.
‘No worries, I’d only just headed upstairs. She’s all right?’
‘Nothing a good sleep and a lot of water won’t fix.’
‘It’s not like her to get wasted.’
‘It happens to the best of us.’
Gus had opened the door and was about to step out into the night air when Arnold told him, ‘Be patient with her. Don’t give up.’
He wasn’t entirely sure what he was supposed to be patient with, but he turned and waved before he got in the car and told Arnold, ‘I’m trying not to.’
It felt like the right thing to say.
