Page 45 of On Thin Ice

“You should’ve told Coach you’d be here,” Zach offered.

“You should’ve toldmeyou’d be here,” Finn said, lifting his chin and meeting Jacob’s gaze straight on, heat meeting heat.

Jacob flushed. Felt caught out, like a guy with a crush who’d just been discovered.

You’re allowed to be here.

Well. Sort of.

“It was a last-minute thing,” Jacob said.

Finn didn’t look convinced.

Zach gave him a look. “I’ll let Coach know you’ll be a minute.” Then he walked on, leaving the two of them alone in the tunnel.

“That last bit was rough,” Jacob said.

“Yeah.”

He hadn’t meant to lead with a criticism. Or for that tosoundlike a criticism.Get your fucking shit together, Braun.

“But you got through it,” Jacob said, awkwardly patting him on the shoulder. Touching anyone else didn’t feel like navigating a minefield, but it did when he touched Finn.

Like he might want to keep touching. Might want to strip off all these stupid pads, the jersey, and all those layers beneath.

Until he could feel the skin underneath.

“Thanks,” Finn said. “Any more backhanded compliments in your arsenal?”

Jacob let out an unsteady breath. “I told you, I’mnotgood at this. I want to be good at it, though, for you, to help you, to make this easier. Better. Less . . .”

Finn turned to him, his hazel eyes glowing green against his flushed cheeks. “Then just fucking do it, man.”

It was the same kind of blunt advice Jacob might’ve given Finn, but instead he’d turned the tables on him.

Resolve solidified deep down.

Bryan’s voice echoed inside him, reminding him why he’d gone to all this trouble to come down here. Not to criticize. Not to give Finn an awkward pat on the back and some meaninglessrah-rahspeech.

He’d come here for a purpose—and it wasn’t any of that shit.

“Hey,” Jacob said and gently pushed him back against the wall of the tunnel, gear and all, “hey,look at me.”

Finn did, the heat in his eyes still searing Jacob raw.

“I came down here to ask if you’re okay.”

Finn opened his mouth and Jacob was ninety-nine point-nine-percent sure that he was about to give him a flippant, non-serious answer. But then Finn paused. Hesitated. Considered it. “Yeah,” he said quietly.

“And I came down here to tell you that, no matter what you think, thatyes, you’re okay,” Jacob said. “You’re okay. You handled that. Not everything has to be perfect to be handled. You don’t have to be perfect to be okay.”

Finn moistened his lips, and Jacob’s eyes were drawn to them, helplessly.

Not here, not now.

Jacob mentally rephrased:Actually, not at all.

“I don’t,” he said, and it was half a question, half a statement.

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