#credit to mitch for always finding the hot islanders to hang with

[nhlarchived]

Part One ~ Part Two ~ Part Three ~ Part Four

Word Count: 2.1k

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You sat in the passenger seat of his car gazing out the window at all of the different beach houses on the strip, spotting the waves in between each home. Matt and Sydney’s house sat only a mile from the end of the island, leaving all the restaurants and entertainment about five miles down the strip, and with all of the stop lights on the island, it would take you about fifteen minutes before arriving anywhere.

“These houses are something else aren’t they.” Auston mentioned, sitting up farther in his seat to get a better view through the windshield.

“Says the millionaire professional hockey player as if you’ve never seen houses like this before.” You teased turning to look towards him. He rolled his eyes knowing he couldn’t argue with you on that one.

“I like how they’re all customized. How people put their home state flags up. Some different countries flags go up. Some people name their houses. It brings character, I like it.” He explained. He had a point. Matt & Sydney’s house had three flags. New York’s, Canada’s and America’s to represent where they were from. Although they didn’t name the house, Auston proved a point saying there was a lot of character brought to the neighborhood.

In fact, his statement shocked you. It showed how he pays attention to where he goes. He may have flown and lived in several different places around the globe, but he never takes it for granted. His words replayed in your mind as you now watched the houses through his perspective. The different colors, names, flags, they all told a story.

“I wish I could customize my own.” You admitted softly. You spoke into the window and honestly didn’t think it was even loud enough for Auston to hear, yet he did.

“I believe one day you can.” Auston added nudging your arm with his elbow. You chuckled at his comment, these houses ran in the millions. You believed it was almost impossible.

“You have too much belief in me.” You joked with a scuff. You faced his body once again that was focused on the road, his profile pulling into a confused glare.

“What? Why do you say that?” He said as if he was offended but the comment even though it wasn’t about him, cocking an eyebrow.

“I could never afford one of these houses.” You explained mimicking his expression.

“Y/n are you serious? Good things happen to good people I promise. Yeah you might not be able to afford it right this moment but you’re a really successful person. I’ve seen your potential.” He confessed changing his sight between you and the road. You couldn’t help but stare at him in a daze, trying to intake his words. He’d never really spoken to you that way. He’s always supported you, but never went out of his way to explain why.

You didn’t know how to respond. You started looking down at your hands fiddling with them not knowing what else to do. The tension was building up through the car as he awaited a response, but he eventually caught on that he wasn’t going to get one.

“You need to give yourself more credit y/n. Don’t let people make you feel any less than what you are. I know you’ve been off lately and not feeling yourself, but just know that I’ll always be here to support you no matter what.” He continued while stopping at a red light. You could feel his stare running through you like lasers. Once finally looking towards him you could see the sincerity in his eyes. He meant every word he said. You smiled at him and nodded acknowledging that you appreciate him.

His mouth pulled into a smirk seeing that he’s caught you speechless. You were pulled into a trance glued onto his eyes as the two of you sat in silence. His sight started switching between your eyes and your lips as he slowly leaned over the center console. You mimicked his movements as your mind raced a mile a minute.

You wanted him. There was no doubt about it, but you weren’t sure if this was the right time or not. You haven’t even forgotten your last relationship no longer having to jump into a new one. However, you also didn’t want to miss out on this opportunity of finally having the boy you’ve always wanted.

A loud vibration came from your phone in the cup holder. The two of you held eye contact for another moment before you looked down to see who was calling. You noticed the light you were stuck at had turned green but Auston was still stuck in his daze.

“The lights green.” You whispered, pointing awkwardly out of the windshield trying to pull him back to reality. You picked up your phone and saw Mitch’s name across the screen. As you swiped your finger across the screen to answer you felt the car move forward once again. Hearing a slight grumble escape from Auston’s mouth.

“What’s up?” You questioned to Mitch through the phone. You’d hate to admit it, but you were slightly upset. You were glad this gave you more time to think about taking the next step with Auston, but now you’ve realized you’re probably a little bit more interested in him than you thought.

“Where did you guys go?” Mitch asked. Due to the sound of his lips smacking you figured he had gone inside to grab a snack seeing neither you or Auston were still in the house.

“Uhhh” you paused turning towards Auston. You had no idea where he was taking you and you didn’t exactly want Mitch knowing that the two of you were running off somewhere secret just yet.

“We’re uhh we went to go to the grocery store.” You finally managed to get out. Auston immediately sent you a confused glare wondering what Mitch was questioning.

“We have a ton of food in the house?” Mitch continued clearly skeptic.

“Yeah maybe for the girls but not enough to feed us, plus six giant hockey players.” You argued and luckily you had a valid point. Matt and Syd didn’t go grocery shopping before everyone came over so the only food in the house is what they normally keep supplied.

“Good point.” Mitch spoke in between chews, clearly having food in his mouth. “Just make sure you guys don’t have too much fun.” He teased before hanging up the phone, not allowing you to respond. He knew you would quickly retaliate from his accusation, so he pressed the end button before you could speak another word.

You rolled your eyes clicking your phone screen off then placed it in your lap. You rested your head back onto the seat now knowing if you didn’t come back with loads of groceries, Mitch would be on to the two of you. Which you didn't want since you weren’t even sure what was going on.

“The grocery store?” Auston questioned clearly trying to hold back a laugh, thinking this whole situation was funny.

“It was the first innocent thing that came to mind.” You argued knowing that it was a better response than he could ever come up with.

“Yeah but now we have to go grocery shopping otherwise he’s going to tell the whole world how we hooked up in a parking lot or something.” He stated sitting up farther in his seat to now try and find a store the two of you could stop at.

“I’m very aware. Where were you taking me anyway?” You asked. Clearly the plans had been ruined but luckily you didn’t know where they were going to be in the first place.

“Can I be honest?” He started, you nodded your head yes in response. “I didn’t really have a plan. I was just going to wait for something to come up. So, I really hope you like shopping for milk and bread.” He teased with a smile plastered across his face from his own joke. You giggled and shook your head. It was a weird situation but at least the tension from the interrupted kiss was gone.. well so you thought.

“As long as I am with you I don’t really care though.” Auston barely whispered under his breath. You knew you weren’t supposed to hear it. At first you almost asked him to repeat it, but then figured it should be dropped. Besides, you didn’t want to think too far into it anyway.

Eventually Auston found a store a couple more miles down the road and pulled into the parking lot. This part of the jersey shore was your favorite. There were no commercial companies. It was all local family run businesses and it really made the area special. The grocery store had a gorgeous mural painted on the side of a farm with all different kinds of crops. You couldn’t help but stare at it for a while before following Auston who was watching you amusedly, halfway through the door already.

You jogged to catch up with him and was immediately hit by the cold air from the produce section that was off to the right. You grabbed a cart and followed Auston who you believed was pretending as if he knew what he was doing. It was your idea to go grocery shopping in the first place and it wasn’t like either of you knew the layout of this store, but he seemed to know exactly what aisle he wanted to go down.

He turned down the bread aisle picking up hamburger and hot dog buns, tossing them into the cart as if he was playing basketball. Obviously, you flinched a time or two not knowing how accurate his shot would be which caused him to laugh, so of course now he was going to do it the entire time you shopped.

He did it with the meats as well but this time you’ve stopped flinching now knowing he wasn’t going to hit you. You picked up a different variety of snacks as you followed him down each aisle and the cart was shockingly becoming quite full. Yet, the whole experience was becoming boring. You guys didn’t talk much besides “Hey do you think this would be good?” Followed by a yes or no answer. But the whole point of it was to get your mind off things and it seemed to have been working.

Auston picked up a carton of eggs and made the motion as if he was going to toss them into the cart with the other items. This caused you to have a borderline heart attack thinking he was actually going to do it, foreseeing the yolky mess he could have possibly caused.

“Auston I’m literally going to kill you.” You stated wide eyed holding your hand over your chest as you caught your breath. He couldn’t help but lean over the cart laughing hysterically at your reaction.

“Oh, shut up.” You teased slapping him lightly on the shoulder with the back of your hand. He stood up eyes still squinting from laughing as he held his arms out to you.

“Oh, come on you love me.” He accused wrapping his arms tightly around you, rocking your bodies back and forth. Of course, he was wearing your favorite cologne why wouldn’t he be? The scent filled your senses as you leaned your head into his chest and enjoyed the embrace.

Once his laughter had turned into only a smiling you looked up at him and shook your head not enjoying being startled, no matter how funny it was. His smile was contagious, causing you to smirk as well. Then, a domestic feature washed over his grin and his eyes looked as if they were studying you in a very loving way. You couldn’t help but feel the blood in your stomach begin to rush feeling as if a flower had just bloomed inside you.

“Come on. Let’s go back home.” Auston spoke, but it was in a soft seductive tone. Man, he was terrible at hiding his emotions. He slowly released his arms from around you and took the cart pushing it to the front to check out.

The way he looked at you moments ago was practically implanted into your mind. Every time he looked back at you to make sure you were following it reminded you of that soft glaze that had covered his eyes. You might not have been ready to move from your old relationship at the moment, but he was making it quite hard to resist. You knew it was about to be a long night.

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#auston matthews #toronto maple leafs #nhl #hockey #imagine #fan fic #fan fiction #trust me series