Page 77 of Worth the Wait
Alfie frowned. “What?”
“Last night. If someone inside starts asking where you went, you heard the sirens, and you legged it. End of.”
“Right.” Alfie rolled his eyes. “Whatever.”
“I’ll be right here at pickup.”
“Can I have my phone? In case I’m late or whatever.”
“Why would you be late?”
“Detention?”
Nathan let out a dry breath. “Easy fix. Don’t get one. We’ll talk about your phone later.”
He watched Alfie walk off, shoulders tense, hood up, weaving through the noise and chaos like someone already halfway used to surviving.
Nathan stayed put.
School wasn’t perfect. Wasn’t always safe. But it was structured. It wasseen. And right now, Alfie needed to be visible. To know someone was watching. That someone gave enough of a shit to show up. But the second Alfie disappeared inside, all the fear Nathan had been bottling up broke loose.
He turned out of the school road, steering towards the juniors’ entrance, where the parent crowd thickened.Mothers wrangled prams, toddlers clutched dinosaur lunch boxes and dads nursed lukewarm takeout coffees.
Then he blinked, slamming the brakes harder than necessary at the junction. Because there, walking down the pavement towards the infant school gates, was a figure he’d know anywhere. Different hair colour, lighter now. A light honey blonde. But unmistakable. Pushing a battered pram with one hand, holding a little girl’s hand with the other, the child’s pigtails bobbing with every skipping step.
Piper.
Nathan swallowed hard.
Older. Changed. But still Freddie’s sister.
He wound down the window. “Piper!”
Piper stopped, turned towards him, face twisted in a scowl, ready to offload her wrath at some prick catcalling her. Then she clocked him, and her scowl melted into a smile.
“Nathan Carter.” She planted a hand on her hip. “Heard you were back in town. How’s things?”
“Yeah. Good,” he lied, flashing a tight smile and popped his elbow onto the window frame, nodding towards the kids. “You been busy.”
“Tell me about it. Baby Ryan’s six months now. Teething like a bastard. And this little terror is Tilly.” She nudged the small girl hiding behind her leg forward. Tilly peered up at Nathan, eyes wide, suspicious, a finger tucked into her mouth. “Say hello, Tils. This is Nathan. Uncle Freddie’s bff.”
Tilly gasped, then frowned as she tugged her mum’s sleeve. “Uncle Freddie saidI’mhis best friend.”
Nathan chuckled under his breath. Cute didn’t even cover it.
“He is, honey.” Piper stroked through Tilly’s plaits and gave Nathan a subtle, all-knowing wink. “Nate’s a different type of friend.”
The subtext hit Nathan in the ribs. She knew. Knew what they’d once been when they’d kept it from everyone.
“Was actually on my way to your mum’s,” he said, shifting gears. “She still at Grove Way?”
Piper straightened, rocking the pram as Ryan fussed, that warning whine Nathan remembered meaning a meltdown wasn’t far off. “Yeah. But she ain’t there.”
“Oh.”
“Off on some retreat. Learning to be a clairvoyant.”
Nathan laughed under his breath. “That’s escalated.”
