Page 34 of On Thin Ice

“I’m hoping to come to at least one practice a week.” He could manage that, right? He could. Hewould.“Specifically to work with Finn. And uh . . .the other goalie.”

There was a long pause. Jacob told himself he was imagining things—it wasjustsilence. But it felt loaded, like there was a whole list of admonitions Gavin was thinking and then discarding.

“Finn and Nick?”

“Yes, Nick.” He hadn’t even known the other guy’s name, even though he’d technically asked for one-on-one coaching before Finn ever had. But sure, he could help him, too.

Gavin chuckled wryly. “So Finn got to you, huh?”

“You could say that. You know—”

“Oh, I know,” Gavin said. Of course he’d know about him and Morgan.Everyoneknew.

“I don’t suppose we could keep this sort of under wraps?”

“Like give you a heads-up when I know Morgan’s coming into town?”

“He does that?” Finn hadn’t mentioned it, but that might explain why Finn felt like he was slowly being crushed to death under the pressure.

Unsurprisingly, Morgan never took his foot off the gas.

“Oh yeah, he swings by at least every few weeks.” Gavin paused. “I’ve told him it doesn’t help. He laughed that right off.”

“He would,” Jacob muttered.

“You’d know.”

Jacob sighed. “Yeah, I would. So he swings by, and what? Makes his son feel like shit and then fucks off, leaving you to pick up the pieces?”

“To be clear, I don’t think herealizesthat’s what happens after he takes off, but yeah.”

“How can he not know?” Jacob was reconsidering not flying to New York to beat Morgan’s ass. He’d deserved it for years, for all the shit he’d pulled with Jacob, and now there was Finn—and thatreallypissed Jacob off.

“Probably because he thinks he’s helping.”

“He’s not,” Jacob said flatly.

“I know that. Finn knows that. Now you know that.Hedoesn’t know that.”

“Ugh. And you’ve talked to him?” Jacob considered that maybe the next one to tell Morgan to leave Finn alone might have to be him, but what good was that going to do? Morgan had never listened to him, and he couldn’t imagine that changing now.

“Mentioned it a couple of times.”

“Okay. Well, if you know he’s coming, yeah, give me a heads-up. I don’t want to make things harder on Finn.”

“No, you’re trying to do the opposite,” Gavin guessed.

“Yeah.” He didn’t know if he could, but damnit he was going to try.

Hadn’t even realized just how determined he was to try until this phone call today. Last night he’d felt it too, but hadn’t wanted to look too closely at it. Probably because he’d been afraid. Worried that his desire to help was caught up in an entirely different kind of desire.

You need to get laid. By someone not named Finn Reynolds.

“I’m glad,” Gavin said. “He’s got good instincts, when he listens to them.”

“That’s what I’m telling him.”

“Good. I’ll send the schedule, but you’re welcome anytime.”

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