Page 33 of Broken Ice
No, the problem was the dangers of having.
Beau knew what it was like to be alone during his heats. To not be taken care of. It wasn’t pleasant, necessarily, but there was safety in it. Beau’s crush would remain contained, quarantined by the lack of reciprocity.
Having Emilio soothe his pain and knot him and scent him while Beau was at his most vulnerable? Yeah, that wasn’t the greatest idea if he wanted to protect his pathetic little heart.
So, yeah, he thought about it, but mostly he tried to distract himself with other things. The team went on a West Coast trip, and Beau, along with Pavel, took the staff members to dinner. It wasn’t the first time Beau had done so, but it was nice to do it on the road too, and he was glad Pavel had joined in.
It did have the unintended consequence of one of the equipment managers getting food poisoning and having to stay behind in San Francisco. Beau made up for it by helping to unload the bags from the plane in Portland. Not that the team didn’t have enough people for the job, but Beau had been taught to respect the staff members first—everything else came second. That didn’t mean just saying his please and thank-yous. It meant going above and beyond to show his appreciation for all the stuff people did behind the scenes.
There were no cheers from the crowd for the trainers or the equipment managers or the doctors, but they deserved some love, too.
Despite the late hour, unloading the plane wasn’t a bad gig. Freddy, the equipment guy Beau was helping, was friendly and talkative. It turned out he also had two younger siblings, although both were Omegas while Beau’s were both Alpha.
“Was it hard, finding out you were an Omega and wanting to go into hockey?” Freddy was brave enough to ask.
Beau was usually a tiny bit irritated when thrown those kinds of questions, but Freddy had shared with him how he’d felt a little left out, sometimes, being older and the only Alpha out of his siblings. How there were times it felt like they were speaking a foreign language, connecting on a level he couldn’t get on.
“I mean…maybe at the very beginning. But my dad is like…he wouldn’t let me go there. He’s an Omega, and he’s one of the strongest people I know, so. And my mom didn’t change her attitude towards me when it came to hockey. She was a little awkward about my heats, but that’s just an Alpha-mom thing.”
Freddy snorted. “Yeah, my Alpha-mom was super well prepared for my brother’s and sister’s heats. I think she wanted to make sure they knew they could still go to her about that stuff, even though Dad was the obvious choice.”
Beau laughed. “That’s sweet, though. I think my Mom’s head would have exploded straight off her neck if she had to deal with anything heat-related when it came to her kids. I mean, she’d definitely do it, but it would kill her.”
By the time they were done with the equipment bags and had taken them to the right place, Beau felt totally at ease with Freddy.
Freddy seemed to feel the same way. “So…say no if this is too much, but how do you feel about going out for coffee after we get back to Miami?” It was funny to see Freddy—a huge Alpha with biceps the size of bowling balls—sound so shy all of a sudden.
“Yeah, man. Of course,” Beau replied. He loved making new friends, especially people who were part of the organisation he played for. He didn’t want there to be a player-staff power divide.
Freddy’s face lit up, which was pretty flattering. “Cool! Uh…if you wanna give me your number, we can set something up.”
“Sure.” They exchanged details.
All in all, a successful day.
***
Beau ended up going to lunch with Freddy—he wasn’t much of a sit-and-drink-coffee kind of guy, mostly having those on the go. Freddy appeared happy about the slight change of plans, meeting him at a good sushi place Beau liked.
“Damn, dude, looking sharp,” Beau complimented as Freddy showed up in light-wash jeans and a crisp white shirt.
“You look good too,” Freddy complimented, which was absolute bullshit—Beau was wearing ratty jeans and a hoodie. But whatever, he wasn’t one to turn down a compliment.
“Thanks.”
It was a nice afternoon. Maybe a tiny more formal than Beau had expected, if he was honest—there was something a little stiff about Freddy that hadn’t been there the last time they hung out.
Beau, being the blabbermouth he was, had to call it out. “You okay, dude? You’re kind of tense.”
Freddy fidgeted with his napkin. “Sorry. I guess I’m a little nervous.”
Beau raised his eyebrows. “About what?”
Freddy chuckled a little. “You know. About…” He gestured between them.
Beau frowned. It took him a second to catch on.
Oh, shit.Was this, like…a celebrity thing? Did Freddy think that just because Beau was a player, they couldn’t be friends?
