Page 19 of Full Body Hit: Part 2
Auston watched in fascination as a blush spread across Chase’s cheeks, his squinting gaze flitting away. “Yeah. We, uh…talked it out.”
Yeah. Sure. “Good.”
Auston hovered for a moment, but he didn’t exactly have a reason to linger. He retreated to his stall and put his shit away when an idea struck him.
He took out his phone, glancing at Chase to check that he was distracted and sent him a text.
Aunix
Thinking about you
He waited, watching Chase, but the kid didn’t even notice his phone lighting up. He had to wait, changing into the practice uniform as slowly as possible, until Chase finally realised.
Auston froze, attention intent as Chase tapped on the screen. There was a pause. And then, there, the brightest smile Auston had ever seen, a sun cresting over mountains, splashing everything gold.
His pulse throbbed in his neck, his fucking palms, his gums.
Chase might not know who he was doing these things with, but Auston was making him happy. Whether he liked it or not, he had a power over the kid that no one else did, and he was sick of doing the ‘right thing’ and hurting Chase in the process.
He was done putting his instincts away.
He managed to wait through a series of endless drills to approach Chase again.
“Good work,” he called out as the whole team jostled each other to get off the ice first.
Chase blinked at him, looking over his shoulder as if he were expecting Auston to be talking to someone else. It soured the back of Auston’s throat, but he kept it off his face.
“You wanna stay a while? Help me practice my shot?” He now knew Chase enough not to suggest they practiseChase’sshot, or he’d think the worst.
Amazingly, Austonwaslearning.
Chase had stopped skating to the exit, mouth open, staring up at him. “I…helpyou?”
“It’s okay if you don’t want to.”
“Oh, no—I mean, of course I want to. I mean…yeah. That’d be cool.”
Auston let a grin spread on his face. “You having a fanboy moment?”
Chase scoffed. “Shut up.”
Auston laughed, taking a detour to tell one of the assistant coaches that they’d be using the ice a little longer. She gave him the go-ahead and the bucket of pucks they’d just collected.
He turned, pulse thrumming, but his body froze as he saw Sammy standing with Chase, deep frown on his face. Auston skated closer slowly, Sammy homing in on him the second he was close enough.
“His slapshot is fine,” Sammy bit out.
“Sammy,” Chase complained. “We’re practisinghisslapshot.”
It was amazing how fucking scary Sammy could be, considering he was on the small side for a hockey player. Auston would rather fight with one of the 6´5 behemoths in the league than face off with Chase’s best friend.
Chase touched Sammy’s arm. “Seriously. It’s good.” Then lower, as if Auston couldn’t hear him, “He’s been nice since the concussion thing.”
Auston’s heart squeezed.
Sammy remained unconvinced, raising a sceptical eyebrow in Auston’s direction. Chase whispered something Auston didn’t catch, and Sammy softened around the eyes, turning back to Chase.
“Okay, but I’m checking on you later,” Sammy claimed.
