Page 120 of On Thin Ice

Morgan laughed. “Actually, no.”

“I play hockey ’cause I love it, you know? But I started . . .I had the desire in the first place, because you did it first. Because you loved it so much.”

“Yeah?” Morgan’s voice cracked.

“Yeah,” Finn said. “I’d see you on the ice and you’d be smiling, like you never wanted to be anyplace else.”

He wanted to snatch his words back after he’d said them, because he saw the melancholy bitter twist as Morgan tried to smile.

Finn pulled his dad into a hug. Squeezing him tight. Morgan went and didn’t fight him, even as he cleared his throat and mumbled, “No, no, it’s good. I’m good.”

He gave him one last squeeze. “I know you miss it,” Finn said.

Morgan’s chin tilted down, like he was agreeing but didn’t want to make a big deal out of it. Which . . .typical Morgan. But he said, to Finn’s surprise, “I’ve been putting too much on you.”

“I can handle it,” Finn said, even though he certainly hadn’t been handling it well, before.

“Maybe now,” Morgan said wryly. “And not because of anything I’ve done. I told Braun at the game the other night how proud of you I was, and he asked me if I had ever told you that,exactlylike that, and I realized that no . . .I didn’t. Not like I should’ve.”

“Thanks, Dad,” Finn said awkwardly.

“I know it doesn’t fix everything, but we’ll get there . . .right?”

Finn didn’t know, but he remembered how he’d felt last night, when Jacob had confessed his worries. He believed, despite all the cards stacked against them.

The cards weredefinitelystacked against him and Morgan fixing their shit.

But for the first time, Finn thought that if Morgan tried, then he could try too.

“We’ll get there,” he told his dad. “Now where are we going to hang this?” He tapped the plaque.

“Oh, I’m not anywhere long enough to hang it on a wall,” Morgan said seriously. “It’s going right into my suitcase so I can take it wherever I go. Look at it every single day.”

And maybe they really would be okay.

They spent the afternoon watching football—and ordering in pizza—his dad complaining about how the NHL no longer played on Christmas so he was forced to watch the NFL.

“My friend Brody’s boyfriend is going to be a really famous football player,” Finn offered. “I know Ramsey went with him to a game, and I was thinking I should too.”

“So how’syourboyfriend and when am I gonna get to meet him?” Morgan wondered.

“What happened to all those warnings about dating someone during the season?”

Morgan shrugged. “You seem determined to do whatever you want, so what am I going to say about it? Besides, you were right, I married your mom during the season. Sometimes . . .sometimes we do things that don’t seem like they make a lot of sense, but they make us happy.”

“That why you married Mom?”

Morgan was gazing at the TV, but it didn’t really look like he was seeing it at all.

“Uh . . .yes. Yeah. Of course.”

But Finn wasn’t sure that he’d understood at all. He was just glad Morgan had gotten distracted from asking to meet Jacob.

An hour later he got out of the Uber at Jacob’s place and headed towards the door.

Jacob had it open before he was even halfway down the path.

“Hey,” Finn said, tilting his mouth up for a kiss hello.

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