Release Blitz, Excerpt & Giveaway:
Worth the Wait
By C F White

Worth It, Book 1

It was never over. It was just waiting.

Nathan Carter didn’t return to Worthbridge looking for a second chance. He came back for a roof over his head, a job that pays, and maybe, if he’s lucky, a way to connect with the teenage son he’s barely known. Life in the army taught him how to survive, but not how to be a father… and definitely not how to live with the choices he made the day he walked away from everything. Including Freddie Webb.

PC Freddie Webb never left Worthbridge. Not the town. Not the ghosts. Steady, dependable, the man everyone trusts to hold the line when things fall apart, he’s spent years keeping his head down and his heart locked up tight. But all that control shatters the moment a routine arrest throws him face to face with the boy he once loved… and the son that boy now has.

What started between them as teenagers was messy, intense, and unforgettable. Sixteen years later, it’s no less complicated. Eespecially with Alfie, Nathan’s angry, guarded son, caught between them and already spiralling toward trouble.

As old desires resurface and old wounds reopen, Nathan and Freddie are pulled back into each other’s orbit. But with the whole town watching, tensions rising, and the past refusing to stay buried, they’ll have to decide: play it safe… or risk everything for the love they never got to finish.

Because in Worthbridge, the past never stays buried.

And some loves are worth every second of the wait.

Book Links

🚨 FROM THE DESK OF PC FREDDIE WEBB

People used to ask why I never left.

I could’ve. Probably should’ve. Had the grades, the offers, the drive to go somewhere bigger. Louder. Easier to disappear in.

But Worthbridge? It’s always been home.
I know its streets, its secrets, every name behind every tired front door. For a while, staying felt… noble, I guess. Like I was doing something that mattered.

But the truth?
I stayed because of him.

Nathan Carter.

He was a brooding little bastard from the start. I still remember him on that first day of infant school, clutching a plastic army man like it might shield him from the noise.

He had quiet eyes, and big dreams.
And I followed him around with hearts in mine for years.

I watched him turn from a scared little boy into a hard-edged teenager. Talked to him under car bonnets, pretending to care about what he was fixing, when really, I just cared about him.

Then one night, he kissed me like he meant it.
And left like he didn’t.

I told myself I got it. It wasn’t personal. He had responsibilities, a bastard of a father, a life that didn’t leave room for anything else. Certainly not me.

But the army was never in those big dreams of his.
He went anyway.

And fifteen years has gone by with him never having come back. Not for me, anyway.

So I moved on. Or tried to. Did the job. Walked the line. Kept people safe, even when I didn’t feel safe in my own skin.

Then, fuck me, he walked back into my town like no time had passed. Older. Harder. Carrying things he won’t let anyone see.

But he’s not alone.

And all the pieces I thought I’d buried? Taped over with hard fucks and even harder shifts.

Yeah. Still there. Still very fucking present.

This isn’t a fairytale.
It’s real. Raw. But maybe it’s not too late.

Maybe all this hope I’ve been dragging behind me wasn’t a waste.

Maybe it really was worth the wait.

— Freddie