Page 100 of Full Body Hit, Part 1

It was hard to feel like a useless old fuck when there was a sweet Omega on the other end of the line trusting him, sharing his problems with him, being so fucking good for Auston that, surely, he had done something to deserve it.

Mark, the little snake, must have read the pause as a reason to self-congratulate. “Bro, is this really the reason? Because, let me tell you, I’m so fucking excited to have you on board with this. It was feeling kind of daunting to do this all by myself, not gonna lie.”

Oh, great. Now Auston felt like crap because he was a lot more fixated on Charlie and hadn’t given nearly as much thought to the business he was going to start with Mark.

Not that Auston had given anything as much thought as he did his baby. Not even hockey.

“Well, I mean…yeah, I’m pumped for the coaching thing, for sure.”

Mark’s grin turned sceptical. “But…?”

“Uh…” Fuck, why was this so embarrassing to talk about? I think I’m falling hard for a guy I’ve never met, who lets me pamper him with things and won’t come until I tell him to and, oh, he calls me Daddy.

Yeah, that wasn’t leaving his lips.

“So…you know that app you guys recommended…”

It took a second for it to click for Mark, his face lighting up. “Holy shit. You got on Lookr? And you found someone?”

“Okay, no need to sound so surprised.”

Mark laughed. “I mean—I’m not surprised you matched with someone, man. I guess I’m just shocked you let yourself. What’re they like? You got pics?”

This was the thing about having an Omega friend—if it were a fellow Alpha, they’d just be like, ‘That’s cool.’ They wouldn’t ask for pics.

“No, I don’t have pics. None that I can show you, anyway.”

“Oooooh,” Mark let out loudly, interrupted by the waiter bringing them their food.

“Smooth,” Auston said when the waiter had left.

“Whatever. Come on, if you don’t have pics—have you guys met? What’re they like?”

Auston lifted the bread of his sandwich, inspecting its contents before setting it back down. “No, we haven’t met. Not sure if we will, honestly. He hasn’t brought it up, and the point of this online thing was to be anonymous, so. I like how things are, honestly. It’s nice to not be Auston, The Hockey Player.”

Mark hummed. “Right. That makes sense with everything that’s going on. Damn, man, okay. Happy for you.”

Auston shrugged. “It’s not like we’re engaged. But. Thanks.”

Mark rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah. You should see your face. No shame in liking someone, you know.”

Auston waved him off. “Okay. Enough about me. We gonna talk shop? Tell me what the rink owner said when you asked about renting in bulk.”

“Right.”

They spent the rest of the meal going over the broader details of the youth program they wanted to set up—where they’d operate, how they’d recruit people, how classes would be divided.

It was exciting, getting into the nitty gritty, talking out possible problems, using his fucking brain for once. He liked the picture that was forming in front of him. How it painted his future in something other than blacks and greys.

And it’d been nice to talk about Charlie, too. It made it more real now that someone else knew. That it wasn’t just this little secret that could disappear without consequence.

***

Auston wasn’t regretting giving Charlie the training plugs, but he sure was suffering through the reality of having to watch him send Auston endless videos and pictures and voice notes of his progress.

And it wasn’t like Charlie was sending them when they were both home, either. The little brat would take a video at night and send it the next day, like he could fucking sense when Auston was at the rink, to torment him as much as possible.

Not that Auston had to open the messages. If he had an ounce of self-control, he’d ignore them until he got home.