Page 111 of Worth the Wait
“Fuck, Nate.” Freddie let it all go, and he dipped towards him, forehead landing on Nathan’s.
“I’m alright.” Nathan cupped Freddie’s face, gliding a thumb through his stubble. “Take more than some kid with a kitchen knife to off me.”
Freddie let out a breath that trembled as it left him. “You could’vedied. Christ, baby. You could’ve left me.Again.”
Nathan pushed upright, gritting his teeth against the pain, as he slid his hand around the back of Freddie’s neck. “I’m not leaving you.”
Freddie held his gaze. “You better not.”
Nathan kissed him. “Never. Not now I know you’re worth sticking around for.”
“What happened?”
“Saw a kid going for Alfie. He’d been waiting at the gates. So I put myself in his way.”
“Jesus.” Freddie closed his eyes. “Alfie okay?”
“Shaken up. Understandable. He’s with Ron and one of your lot. Safeguarding team. Has to give a statement. Then after that, he’ll be giving your CID all the intel he has.”
Freddie shook his head, frowning. “You know this could get worse before it gets better for him.”
“Yeah. I get it.”
“Radley lot are big bastards around here.”
“All the more reason to get them locked up.”
Freddie drew in a breath. “You catch the kid who was carrying?”
“No. I saw him. Would recognise him anywhere, but no names and Alfie doesn’t have a name either.”
“Probably an initiation for the kid.”
“Yeah.”
“Hang on.” Freddie pulled out his phone from his pocket, opened the photos and scrolled through. He stopped on the picture he’d taken a few days back. When he’d seen someone waiting outside the gates when he’d been picking Tilly up. He showed it to Nathan. “This the kid?”
Nathan took the phone. “Yeah. That’s him.”
“Fuck.” Freddie fired off a few messages, sending the image to Carrick. “He’s known to us. We’ll get a team out. Although, I say we…” He sighed. “I’m off the team. Desk duty for indeterminate amount of time. They found out I know you.”
“Ah.” Nathan fell back in the bed. “Sorry that came back on you.”
“S’alright.” Freddie tilted his head, drinking in the lines of Nathan’s bare torso. Every inch was a story. Scarsearned, muscles honed, that compass tattoo inked above his heart. He let his eyes rest there. On that spot. The one Freddie had laid his head on only that morning. “You’re worth it,” he said, voice catching. “The paperwork. The suspension. Bloody prison time, if it came to it.”
Nathan huffed a laugh. Quiet, disbelieving. Then he reached for Freddie’s hand, threading his through Freddie’s as if he’d been doing it in dreams all these years. And when he spoke, it wasn’t with fanfare or fire.
It was soft.
Simple.
“I love you.”
Not a confession. Not even an admission.
But truth. One that had always been there, quiet and certain, just waiting for the right moment to fall into place.
Freddie blinked, eyes burning. “I’ve been in love with you for as long as I can remember.” He lifted Nathan’s hand to his lips, kissed the back of it. “Since we were kids, throwing punches at the sky and kissing under piers like it meant nothing when it meant everything.”
