Page 154 of Body Check

“Glad to hear it.”

“Just trying to reduce my stress, cut down on caffeine, be mindful that most of what I eat is heart healthy, and cut down on drinking.” He shrugged.

Finn grimaced at his glass of whiskey. “Probably wouldn’t kill me to do that as well.”

Gavin shrugged. “Couldn’t hurt. But then again, it’s not like you have the genetics I do.”

“Yeah, no major heart disease in our family, thankfully,” Finn agreed. “Hey, speaking of family, I heard you and Thad are getting out on the ice together regularly.”

Gavin smiled, releasing his hand and tilting his head to the other side. “Yeah, we are. It’s been fun.”

“It seems like things are … easier between you two?”

“They’re getting there,” Gavin said.

Two decades of estrangement hadn’t vanished overnight. They still had a tendency to snap at each other and assume the worst, but they’d also learned to take some deep breaths and try again. Really hear each other when they explained what had bothered them.

It was progress.

Dakota had suggested Gavin and Thad go to therapy and when he’d brought up the idea to Thad, he’d scoffed a little at first, but admitted it probably wasn’t a bad idea.

Their parents would be a harder nut to crack.

Thad had assured Gavin that he’d talk to them, try to get them to come around, but Gavin had asked him to wait, wanting to cement his relationship with his brother first. Thad had agreed that was probably wise.

“Any chance Pat and I could get in on that skating?” Finn asked with a gleam in his eye. “I don’t want to interrupt your time with your brother, but I think the four of us could have fun on the ice.”

Grinning, Gavin straightened. “Sure. That could be fun. I’ll talk to Thad and see what he says about a little two-on-two hockey. O’Sheas vs. Racines.”

It felt great to strap on skates and battle it out over pucks. Doing that with two former NHLers would be a challenge, but a good one.

And Gavin had never met a challenge he wasn’t willing to face head on.

Halfway through the second period, the score was still 1-0.

Gavin watched intently during the next power play as Boston applied pressure, moving the action into New Jersey’s zone. Back by the net, Crawford collected the puck and shot it through traffic to Tanner. There were a few more high-danger passes that made Gavin silently mutter, “shoot the damn puck!” in his head.

But then Tanner floated back, batting the puck almost playfully as he surveyed the scene in front of him. He chipped the puck across the ice to Graham, who shot it to Connor with a beautiful backdoor feed.

Connor had been lurking beside the net, and he went to one knee, firing the puck with a short, hard shot over the goalie’s shoulder and into the net.

“Damn, that’s five now, huh?” Finn muttered.

“Yep,” Gavin said, grinning. “Your brother is on a niiice little hot streak.”

“I hate to admit it but that was a nice one,” Finn said grudgingly as Connor skated by the bench to get his glove taps from the boys.

From the other end of the ice, Jesse did a little dance in his crease before blowing a kiss toward Connor.

“They’re quite a pair, aren’t they?” Gavin asked with a laugh.

Finn chuckled. “They sure are. It’s good to see Con happy though. He needed something to liven him up. You did some great matchmaking there.”

Gavin shrugged. “I was just trying to get some solid netminding. I had no idea I was finding my captain a boyfriend.”

“Hockey’s a little different than it used to be in our day, huh?” Finn said.

“Just a little.”

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