Page 150 of On Thin Ice

“You’ve done a pretty good job keeping him in line,” Finn said.

And yes, that was true, but the more accurate truth was that Morgan had done a much better job keepinghimselfin line.

Point in fact: Morgan had textedhimthat, not Finn.

“I’d do worse, for you,” Jacob said, and that was way too fucking true.

Finn’s smile was like the sun. “Yeah? Well, then I’ve got something for you.”

“What is it?”

Finn poked him in the pectoral muscle. “Calm the hell down, okay?”

Jacob let out a short breath. Tried not to laugh, because this was serious. Well, sort of serious. “Yeah. Yeah. I can do that.”

“Good.” Finn’s head dropped back down to his shoulder. “One more episode and then we’ll go to bed?”

“Sounds perfect,” Jacob said, dropping a kiss onto Finn’s head. He wasn’t going to mention that when Finn fell asleep, he was probably going to lie awake, staring at the ceiling.

There was only so much relaxation ability in him right now.

“You’re perfect,” Finn said, and Jacob felt the warmth of that declaration all the way down to his toes. Then the corner of his mouth turned up in a tiny irresistible smirk. “Even though I know you’re lying and you’ll letmego to bed and you’ll stay awake, freaking out beside me.”

“Uh,” Jacob said, and Finn laughed.

“It’s alright, you’re still perfect.”

“Did you tell him about the way he’s got to watch the loose puck around the net? The Pens are aggressive on that shit, and if Crosby—”

“You need to take a fucking breath,” Jacob told Morgan, though that didn’t stop him. Not much could.

But then, probably nobody else other than Jacob knew how Morgan could be, when he got like this.

Jacob used to hate it, and he couldn’t say helikedit now, but he’d accepted it, and could even, on occasion, be amused by it.

Like now.

“Fuck you,” Morgan said. “This is important! He needs to know this.”

“Finn knows this. I think if a puck and Sidney Crosby get near the net, he’s going to be paying attention,” Jacob said dryly.

Morgan’s knee bounced up and down, which it had done nearly from the moment they’d taken their seats in the Sentinels’ arena. It was nearly full to capacity. Jacob liked to think a lotof these fans were here to see the Tampa Sentinels’ new and very promising rookie goalie make his first start, but the more accurate assumption was that they were here to see the Crosby-Malkin farewell tour.

Regardless, Finn would have a full house for his debut, and Jacob loved that for him.

“It’s not that I don’t think he’s capable, right? Or that he doesn’t know how to do this, but I just . . .” Morgan turned to him helplessly.

“You’re just going out of your mind?” Jacob asked.

Morgan’s lips were a flat line. “Don’t tell me you’re not.”

“Oh, I am.” As he’d predicted, Jacob hadn’t slept a wink last night. Finn, on the other hand, had slept like a baby.

“Doesn’t seem like it,” Morgan muttered.

“That’s because you’re emoting enough for both of us right now.”

Morgan made a disgruntled noise.

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