See you soon X
Zac bounded off the bus in Holkham and gazed around at the quaint village. There didn’t seem to be much here, save the bus stop and a few cottages, none of which were anything like the house Liam had described. Zac glanced at the directions he’d scrawled on a page of the free paper that got stuffed through the letterbox every week, and turned left, following the signs for the beach. For what seemed like miles and miles, he saw nothing but trees and fields, and wondered if he’d cocked it up, and then he saw the sign for the car park and turned right. In the distance there was a single building that looked like a barn . . . the converted barn that was Liam’s house.
Liam’s house. Zac’s heart skipped a beat. He’d been to the homes of dozens of johns over the past six months, kidding himself that it was better than hooking on the streets, but this felt like a strange new world that he had a teeny tiny place in, if only for today.
He followed the road until it turned into a dusty lane that led to a sweeping drive. Hettie was waiting for him by the garage, and then the front door opened, and two camel-sized dogs burst out of the house, tearing down the driveway like giant manic sheep.
“Jesus!” Zac steeled himself as the dogs leapt up at him, barging each other to lick his face. “Easy, easy.”
“Jazz. Dave. Down.”
The quiet authority in Liam’s tone had an instant effect. The dogs calmed and scampered to his side. Zac searched for his gaze and their eyes locked, and the clusterfuck of his morning with Jamie faded away. “Hey.”
Liam smiled. “All right?”
“I am now your sheep have stopped trying to eat me.”
“Eat you? Fat chance. These two would bring a burglar a cuddly toy and show him where I kept the sausages.”
Zac laughed, and it felt so fucking good he couldn’t stop. Liam chuckled too, though by his puzzled grin, it was clear Zac’s uncharacteristic humour bemused him.
“Are you coming in?”
Zac got ahold of his hysteria and nodded. “Lead the way.”
He followed Liam inside, shutting the heavy wooden door behind them. The heat from the open fire hit him like a warm hug and his face-splitting smile returned full force. “Wow. This place is amazing.”
And it was. The flat in London had been so luxurious it hadn’t seemed real, but even from the open-plan ground floor, it was obvious the converted barn was something else. Warm, homely, and as comforting as the smouldering fire, it was beautiful.
“Glad you like it,” Liam said. “I don’t have many people over, so it’s nice to hear that from someone other than my sister.”
“How long have you lived here?”
“Nine months.”
“Nine months? So you didn’t live here with—”
“Cory? No. We planned the building work together, but he died before it was finished.”
“Oh. So he never got to see it?”
“No, but that’s probably a good thing, because it’s nothing like how he wanted it.”
Zac didn’t know what to say to that. “Do you like it?”
“Actually, yeah . . . I do. If Cory had got his way, the whole place would be painted orange or some shit, and organised within an inch of its life. I prefer some mild chaos. . .” Liam gestured at the pale, neutral walls stacked with vinyl records, and the piles of books and clutter that made the house seem so wonderfully lived in. “A little bit of mess calms me. Helps me feel human. Can I take your coat?”
Zac shrugged out of his jacket. “Would you like me better if I dropped it on the floor?”
“Only if you dropped your jeans too.” Liam took Zac’s jacket with a devilish grin and draped it over a nearby bench. “Come through and sit down. Are you hungry?”
Of course Zac was hungry. Nerves and the lingering disquiet from his fight with Jamie had kept him from eating breakfast. He followed Liam’s direction to what was clearly the living room and took a seat on a couch that was covered in throws and blankets. One of the dogs came with him. Zac read his name tag—Jazz—and scratched his ears. “Hello, boy.”
Jazz grunted and tilted his head. Somewhere behind Zac, Liam chuckled. “You’ve got yourself a pal there. Jazz won’t share his couch with many folk.”
“He’s not on the— Oh.” Zac looked back to find Jazz had taken advantage of his momentary distraction and jumped on the couch beside him. “Oops. Is he allowed up here?”
“Sure he is.” Liam ventured further into the room from where Zac assumed the kitchen was and set a plate of giant sandwiches on the table. “Having a donkey sit on your head when you’re watching TV is part of the fun.”
