Page 137 of On Thin Ice

Morgan nodded at him, and Finn went to the opposite end and, after he finished his stretches, began to work through some of the specific movement drills that he and Jacob had been working on. Drills to make his reaction time quicker, to help him move faster and more fluidly from position to position.

For so long, he’d thought these basic drills were a waste of time. But now, not only did they reassure and ground him, Finn could feel the echo of them in every save he made during a game.

He could hear his dad’s stick against the ice, a rhythmic tapping as he took the puck down the ice towards the other net. But as Finn’s focus narrowed, even the noise of his dad skating and drilling puck after puck into an empty net began to fade away.

Maybe he was deep in the zone, but Finndidnotice when Jacob came on the ice. He hadn’t put a full set of gear on, but he had his gloves on and his kneepads and a helmet, one of the ones he’d worn playing for Team USA, a bald eagle spreading its wings across one side.

But he didn’t come in Finn’s direction first. Instead, he skated over to where Morgan was circling the other net.

They wereprobablynot going to kill each other, but Finn called out, “Do I need to remind either of you of the rule?”

Jacob pushed his helmet up. Shot him a knowing look, hot even across the ice. “No, we’ll behave.”

“Speak for yourself,” Morgan retorted.

But Finn already knew his dad was full of talk and nothing else, and it wasn’t like Jacob couldn’t dish it right back.

“Alright,” Finn said and went back to his drill, satisfied he’d done his due diligence, and actually,yes, trusting that they might not kill each other.

Jacob had noticed as soon as he’d skated onto the ice how deep Finn’s focus was, and he was worried him heading in Morgan’s direction might be distracting, but he did it anyway.

“How about it?” Morgan said, gesturing with his stick towards the net after Finn had warned them, and to Jacob’s relief, had gone right back to his drills.

Jacob raised an eyebrow. “You really wanna go?”

“Just like old times,” Morgan said.

“Notthatold,” Jacob reminded him. “I retired two years after you did.”

Morgan patted his still-flat stomach. “Best shape of my life,” he claimed. Which knowing Morgan was probably true.

“Kept up with you then, and nothing’s changed,” Jacob said.

Morgan grinned, and to Jacob’s surprise, he was smiling right back. And even more than that, Jacob was actuallyenjoyingthis.

They’d always chirped back and forth, but before, the comments had been sharp as knives. Morgan—and after a time, Jacob, too—had meant them to cut. To slice each other open.

But now, the exchanges felt normal, almost like a routine. Exactly what Jacob had traded back and forth with hundreds of other hockey players over the years. He didn’t know why it suddenly hurt less. Maybe because now, finally, they were bornout of respect for each other’s skill and not lingering resentment or anger.

“Well, get warm then,” Morgan said. “Let’s see what you’ve got.”

As Jacob finished warming up, he watched out of the corner of his eye as Morgan made sweeping circles around the ice, gaining speed as he went.

Morgan’s speed had always been deceptive; he had another gear that nobody imagined existed until he turned it on, and then he was charging so fast it felt impossible to react in time.

He’d be a hair slower now, at forty-one, but he was still Morgan Reynolds.

“You ready?” Morgan asked as Jacob settled himself into the goal, stick in front of him.

“Yeah,” Jacob said, nodding. Neither of them was wearing their full set of gear. Morgan didn’t even have a helmet on. But they’d played long enough they knew the limitations.

Even six months ago, Jacob never would’ve agreed to do this, because he wouldn’t have necessarily trusted that Morgan, the most competitive person on the fucking planet,wouldfollow any kind of limitation. But he’d begun to know the man better, behind the facade, and that had changed everything.

Morgan didn’t warn him, but then Jacob hadn’t expected that he would.

He just came in hard.

Exactly the way Jacob remembered he always had.

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