Page 126 of Everything That Kills Me
Jack chuckled. “The answer to that question, for once, is yes.”
Zeph put on his coat for the few metres it took to get to the house. Snow was drifting down, illuminated by the security lights. Jack shut the door and Django fussed around the pair of them.
“Ohh! Aren’t you beautiful!” Zeph stroked the dog. “Yes, you are. What a good boy. You like being tickled there?”
“You’re only allowed to tickle my balls,” Jack whispered.
Zeph let out a choked laugh. “I was not…” He straightened up and Jack realised Thomas had come into the hall.
“Thank you so much.” Zeph walked forward with his hand out. “It’s an imposition, I know. I’m sorry. Jack’s really hard to say no to. But if you want me to go, I’ll go. Well…maybe not tonight but—”
“Do you like pizza?”
“I love pizza.”
“Come and help me then.”
“I’ll show Zeph round first,” Jack said. “Are the beds made? We can do those.”
“Fine.” Thomas headed for the kitchen.
“Hang up your coat.” Jack put his own coat on the row of hooks by the door, then picked up both bags and carried them upstairs.
“It’s a nice house,” Zeph said as he followed him.
“Not as nice as the one in France.”Oh shit.But maybe Zeph wouldn’t assume the house in France belonged to Thomas.
“Nowhere will ever be as nice as that.” Zeph joined him on the landing.
Jack realised he’d got away with that slip. “This is my room. Our room.” He put the bags down and closed the curtains. Habit made him careful but he didn’t see anything that worried him.
“Will Thomas be okay with us sharing?”
“We’re not teenagers.” Jack took bed linen, pillows and duvet from the wardrobe and they worked together to make the bed. “Bathroom through that door. With a bath.”
“Okay.” Zeph smiled.
Thomas’s room was across the landing and they made his bed up too.
“Two more bedrooms on this floor.” Jack showed them to him. He wanted Zeph to see ways out in case he needed them. “I once jumped from this window into the tree.” When he’d gone to see Zeph.
“Are you nuts?”
“I like to know all exits, just in case.”
“Fire. Yes, that’s a good point. I do the same in a hotel. I’ve never thought about jumping into a tree though, then again, tree or fire—tree wins.”
Jack left the room. “Can you find the stairs to the next level?”
Zeph looked around, walked up and down the landing, tapping at walls. “No.”
“Look again. You’re on the right track.”
Zeph repeated what he’d done, then paused in front of a mirror at the end of the landing. “Here. The sound is wrong.”
Jack pressed the lever at the side of the mirror and the door swung open.
“Wow.” Zeph beamed at him. “Secret staircase! Can we go up?”
