Page 134 of On Thin Ice

It was not Jacob, but his dad, looking sheepish and almost a little ashamed.

“What are you doing here?” Finn asked, trying to keep his voice level.

“To see you,” Morgan said, walking into the locker room the same way he always had—like he belonged there. Like heownedit.

They’d barely talked when he’d picked up his dad, drunk, from Jacob’s house two days ago.

Jacob had leaned in and kissed him briefly, and Finn had figured out pretty quicklyhewasn’t sober either. At least he wasn’t as drunk as Morgan, but still. “Take it a little easy on him, okay?” Jacob had murmured, unexpectedly.

Finn hadn’t been easy on him or hard or anything. How could he have, when his dad wasn’t talking to him still, at least about anything important? They’d barely exchanged half a dozen sentences before he’d dropped his dad off at his condo to sleep it off.

When Finn had asked Jacob what they’d talked about, he’d only shaken his head and gave a vague answer about clearing up some misconceptions.

And now Morgan was here.

Finn didn’t think Jacob had sold him out, but . . .

“Did Jacob tell you I’d be here?”

Morgan looked confused. “Gavin sent me the rink schedule. I like to . . .” He cleared his throat. “Thought maybe you wouldn’t mind sharing the ice with an old man.”

“You’re not old,” Finn retorted. “Old men don’t get day drunk.”

Morgan winced. “They feel it the next day, though.”

“Oh, is that why you’ve been so quiet?” Finn began to dig his equipment out of his bag.

“Partly yeah. And partly . . .Braun told me to get my head on straight before I talked to you, and as much as I hate to admit it, he was right.”

Morgan took a seat next to Finn, a few stalls away, but close enough.

“So what, you’re listening to Jacob’s advice, now? I thought he was what . . .a backstabbing pedophile?Isn’t that what you called him?”

“I was . . .surprised. Upset.” Morgan had the nerve to look ashamed, and Finn almost felt guilty for bringing it up. Heknewhis dad had a temper.

“Gee, I had no clue,” Finn retorted.

“Finn,” Morgan admonished. “I won’t keep you. I know you’re here to skate. But I wanted to clear the air.”

“Okay.” Finn sat and waited.

“You like him.”

Finn supposed he shouldn’t be surprised that his dad would start with a blunt statement like that, and not, say . . .an apologyfor being a complete fucking asshole.

“Yeah,” Finn said.

“I knew you did, before I even knew who he was. And then I found out who he was, and . . .” Morgan made a face. “I went insane. When Monica called me and told me she’d heard it from Braun’s PR woman’s assistant, I was sure it wasn’t true, but then I showed up at his house, and there you were, andugh, I lost my mind a little.”

Finn raised an eyebrow. “A little?”

“Fair. That’s fair.” Morgan hesitated. “I fucked this up a lot. A whole lot. But more than me being angry that it wasBraunyou were all starry-eyed over, it was . . .I was worried about you. I worried what he was doing to you. What he was going to do with you.”

“Dad, I know how to practice safe sex.”

Morgan looked like he wanted to drop through the floor and die. Now they werealmosteven for all the things Morgan had yelled the other day. “Of course you do, you’re smart. So smart. Smarter than me, for sure.”

“Then what the fuck were you so angry about?”

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