Chapter 13

“Sunny, I’m going on lunch,” he finally says to the cashier.

“You already had lunch,” she reminds him.

“Then I’m taking a smoke break.”

“You don’t smoke.”

“Then I quit, okay? I’ll want my job back in about an hour, but I’m clocking out.”

Sunny shrugs. She’s not the one giving up an hour’s pay, it’s no skin off her teeth. Henry punches his time card, hangs his apron and his hat on a hook, and leaves through the back hall. Zack’s right where he left him, and he smiles when he sees Henry.

“You done?”

“For now,” Henry says.

“Can you drink in the middle of your shift?”

“Let’s find out,” Henry says.

They sit at the bar at the White Spot, order two big Nat Baileys. Zack’s in jeans and a blabber-mouth T-shirt that keeps very few of the details of his magnificent torso to itself. He raises his glass, and Henry does the same.

“To deadbolts,” Henry says.

Zack laughs. “I’ll drink to that.” They clink, and he does.