“What does a junkie look like?”
Zac stared. Liam inwardly cringed. Nice one, idiot. Do you want him to think you’re a complete knob? “Er, never mind. You getting in or what?”
Zac flicked his smoke away and opened the passenger door. “When you said van, I kinda thought you meant a Transit, like a works van.”
“Hettie is a works van.” Liam patted the dashboard. “I’ve been driving her since I was seventeen.”
Zac whistled. “Damn, so she’s nearly as old as you are?”
“Piss off and get in.”
Zac got in and pushed his hood back, revealing bloodshot eyes that suggested he probably hadn’t been to bed.
“Long night?” Liam asked, though he really didn’t want to hear Zac’s answer.
Zac shrugged. “Aren’t they all?”
He had Liam there. It had been long past midnight before he’d found rest himself and he’d been up again at five, walking the dogs and getting them sufficiently tired to spend the day with Rosa, tidying the shameful mess he’d let his bedroom become, and generally doing anything he could to keep his mind off his bizarre “date” with Zac. “Are you going to be warm enough in that hoodie? It’s blowing a gale.”
“Van’s got heating, hasn’t it?”
“She,” Liam corrected. “Hang on a sec.”
He killed the engine and got out of the van, moving to the back to open the tailgate.
“Damn, you’re such a dude.”
Liam jumped. He hadn’t expected Zac to follow him. “A dude?”
Zac peered around Liam and into the van. “You never said she was a camper van. This is the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. Is that a barbecue?”
“Fire pit, actually, but it’s got a grill.”
“Ah, and you’re veggie, aren’t ya? So it’s not much good to you, is it?”
“You’d be surprised, and I can’t resist the occasional banger, so it gets plenty of use. Here, take this to the front.” Liam handed Zac the thin, rolled-up duvet he kept in the van for the rare winter nights he slept out with Hettie. “She’s got heating, but it fucks with the engine. This’ll keep you warm.”
Zac looked at Liam like he’d grown horns, but took the duvet anyway. Liam grabbed a couple of pillows and shut the tailgate, and they both got back in the front.
Liam started the engine and eased into the flow of traffic heading north out of the town. In his peripheral vision, he saw Zac awkwardly fumbling with the duvet. “Put your feet up on the dashboard if you want. Get comfy.”
“You’re obsessed with me being comfy.”
“So?” Liam wasn’t in the mood to have that conversation again. “There’s something in the glove box for you, by the way.”
Zac leaned forward and opened the dashboard. He took the roll of notes Liam had left in there for him and frowned. “This is more than five hundred.”
“I know.”
“Have you got something in mind I don’t know about?”
Liam didn’t know quite how to explain the impulse he’d had when he’d withdrawn Zac’s cash from the bank the day before. The truth made him sound like a bit of a weirdo, but it was all he had. “I figured you could do with a bonus—call it holiday pay, whatever.”
“Holiday pay?” Zac looked mystified.
Liam shrugged. “I don’t know how often you, er, work, or what you need the money for, but I reckon it’s been a while since you took some time off. Am I right?”
Zac opened his mouth. Shut it again. “I don’t really take time off. I just work.”
