Page 44 of On Thin Ice

On the ice, one of Finn’s teammates—Jacob was pretty sure it was one of the first line forwards, the smaller, quicker one; sue him, he may have studied the lineup on the Portland U website—darted in and drilled an absolute beaut of a shot right past the opposing goalie’s skate.

Jacob shot to his feet, yelling his approval at the gorgeous fucking goal the Evergreens had just scored.

Finn added his own approval, tapping his stick on the ice.

“You were right, theyaregood,” Bryan said, when the crowd calmed down. Even though they were at Salem University’s rink, the Evergreens clearly traveled well, because it felt like half the fans were wearing their signature forest green.

“Told you the babysitter would be worth it,” Jacob said smugly.

But the Phantoms’ winger won the face-off and immediately made a hard push into the Evergreens’ defensive zone, swarming across the ice.

Jacob froze, watching intently as Finn moved, shifting into his stance just a second too late. Ramsey surged over, flicking a shot away, but the Phantoms’ center grabbed the puck.

Finn barely pushed it away, Brody catching it and passing it back over to one of their forwards.

“Shit,” Jacob muttered under his breath, hoping that Finn might have at least a moment of reprieve to reset, physically and emotionally, before he had to defend the goal again.

He leaned forward, fingers digging into his knee, breath in his throat as Finn popped up and Jacob thought,he’s not going tomake it, he can’t make it . . .but before he could think the rest, the horn sounded. The period was over.

“He’s good, right?” Bryan asked, then glanced over. “Better question: areyouokay?”

Jacob didn’t know. He’d been worrying about going to the game because of hisownshit, but just sitting here, only waiting and watching, was the most excruciating experience he could imagine.

Bryan reached over and put a hand on his. Which was still shaking. “Come on. Go talk to him. You can do that right?”

Jacob didn’t know that either. He wanted to, he knew that much.

Would Gavin turn him away if he went down to the tunnel, asked to be let into the locker room? He could probably make it that far, on his face alone, though he hated to trade on it like that.

But would he do it to talk to Finn, to reassure him? To reassurehimself?

Jacob shot to his feet.

“Good,” Bryan said, nodding with approval.

“And here I brought you to talk me out of stupid ideas,” Jacob muttered under his breath as he got to the aisle and headed down the stairs, dodging people as he jogged, trying to meet Finn at the barrier before he went into the tunnel and the locker room for the intermission.

He reached the wall just as Finn trudged by.

“Hey,” he said, and Finn glanced up. He’d pushed his helmet back, curls slicked with sweat, eyes wide and surprised as he realized who was standing in front of him.

“You’re here.” Finn stopped.

“Yeah,” Jacob said.

You fucking came all the way down here to talk to him. So talk to him.

“Uh,” he continued, forcing the words out. Far too aware of the people around them, listening in.

Finn’s lips quirked up. He motioned to the security by the door. “Come on,” he said to Jacob.

The security guard looked dubious.

“Don’t you know who this is?” Finn asked, conversationally. “This is Jacob Braun. He won the Cupandthe Vezina twice.”

The guy gave a nod and opened the door.

Jacob slipped through the door, carefully walking across the ice to the tunnel where Finn was waiting for him, and to his surprise, the assistant coach was, too. He wasn’t one-hundred-percent sure, but Jacob thought his name was Zach.

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