Page 116 of Worth the Wait
“Fine.”
“And a saveloy,” Piper rushed out. “AndI’llhave a can of Coke.”
Freddie laughed, then turned to Nathan with a raised brow. “Wanna give me a hand before I drop something and Mandy bans me for life?”
Nathan stood, screwing up the chip paper into a ball and brushing the crumbs from his jeans. “Only if you promise me a bite of your butty.”
“Always.”
Nathan smirked and planted a not-so-subtle, grease-slicked hand on Freddie’s arse before casually tossing the paper into the bin beside the wall. He winked. And Freddieshot him a look over his shoulder that made Nathan’s stomach do things it had no business doing at his age.
They meandered intoOh My Cod, where Mandy was still juggling the fryer, and they joined the back of the queue. Nathan peered into the glass at the golden offerings, all slowly greasing their way into early cardiac events.
“How’s Alfie, really?” Freddie tucked his hands into his jacket pockets.
Nathan mirrored the movement. And they stood there like teenage boys trying not to touch when that’s all they wanted to do.
“He’s… handling it.”
“It’s a long process.”
“Yeah. Court case’ll take months. In that time, we’ll have some protection but I’m not expecting quiet. There’ll be some retaliation.”
“Until they realise his dad’s ex-army and his dad’s boyfriend’s a copper.”
Nathan turned to look at Freddie then and something caught in his chest.
God, he wanted to kiss him.
Wanted to hold his hand. For the world tosee. He wanted more than secret glances and stolen nights in tents or the back seat of his car. He wanted mornings likethis. Queues at the chippy. The baby crying outside. Tilly being a menace. A life that felt lived in.Shared. To admit, as casual and carefree as Freddie just had, that he was his boyfriend.
Freddie narrowed his eyes. “What?”
Nathan opened his mouth, then stopped. No speech. No declarations.Action.
So right there, in the middle of the queue, in front of Mandy and her regulars, with Piper nursing a baby outsideand Tilly doing pirouettes in her wheelie shoes, Nathan stepped in close, dipped beneath the brim of Freddie’s cap and kissed him. Light. A brush of lips. But Freddiemelted, and for a second the busy chip shop stilled around them.
When they pulled apart, Mandy, with a chip scoop in hand, had a wicked grin on her face. “No tongue?” She smirked. “I gave himwaymore than that in year ten.”
Freddie huffed a laugh, then Nathan pulled off Freddie’s cap, and dropped it onto his own head, twisting it backwards, just the way he’d done on their first kiss, and he grabbed Freddie by the back of the neck to kiss him again.
Thatkiss was different.
Deeper. Slower. A little too long for public decency, if he was honest. But Freddie tilted his head, wrapped his arms around his neck and added enough tongue to make Nathan forget where they were, and Nathan responded instinctively, sliding his other hand around Freddie’s waist, drawing him in until they were flush, steady,certain.
It was everything Nathan had once been too afraid to even imagine having.
When they finally broke apart, the world rushed back in. Catcalls, scattered claps, a whistle or two. And slicing through it all:
“About bloody time!”
They both turned.
Reece, all leather and swagger, leaned against his parked Triumph outside the door.
“Reece.” Freddie wiped the corner of his mouth. “Since when do you eat carbs before a shift?”
“Since I stopped giving a shit about keeping a six-pack to impress arseholes who don’t stick around.”
