Page 28 of Breakaway Goals

Six years later

Morgan knew he needed to relax, but if he was being honest with himself, relaxing was the last thing he was going to be doing during the next three hours.

Hyperventilating? Much more likely. And not just because Finn was in goal, either, about to warm up for his first NHL start, but because in a few minutes, Hayes was going to be right there on the ice, skating around like it was nothing, like this was just another game and Morgan wasn’t up in the stands, currently losing his goddamn mind.

“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 muttered next to him.

He wouldn’t say that he and Jacob were friends now. He wasn’t sure what he’d call them these days. Friendly acquaintances? Two guys who happened to both care about his son? Two ex-hockey players both struggling with the way the game had moved on without them?

Regardless of what he called him, he and Jacob were . . .well, not a thing— that was Jacob and Finn, their committed relationship a life swerve that Morgan had not seen coming—but some kind of odd couple.

The first time they’d sat together at an AHL game, Danny had texted him, Sitting next to Braun? You’ve officially lost what was left of your mind.

Danny still thought he was funny, and he still wasn’t.

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

You couldn’t take Crosby, even thirty-seven-year-old Crosby, lying down.

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

Ugh . Why had his son decided this guy was the guy?

It seemed like this was a Reynolds type of emotional shortcoming, because it wasn’t like Morgan had done any better picking for himself.

Not that Hayes wasn’t absolutely fucking perfect.

He was. Every inch of him was stunning, inside and out.

Hot as fuck. Charming. Fucking fantastic at hockey.

A guy who had seemed, initially, like he’d been built with Morgan in mind.

Except for one tiny, niggling detail: Morgan loved him utterly, completely, ridiculously, and Hayes had moved on.

Morgan wanted to hold it against him, but he couldn’t even manage that .

He’d been such an asshole. Such a stupid, afraid, monumentally blind asshole it was impossible to even resent the guy for kicking him out and then ignoring him for the next six years.

“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 .

. .” Between Finn’s first start and the fact that Hayes was Finn’s captain now, Morgan was definitely losing it.

Evidence for the bench: confessing these sort of emotional vulnerabilities to Braun .

“You’re just going out of your mind?” Jacob asked, the corner of his mouth tilting up, like Morgan’s pain was funny.

And maybe it was, in a sort of ironic, God-can-you-believe-cool-collected-calm-Morgan-Reynolds-is-like-this-now kind of way.

“Don’t tell me you’re not.” Morgan had seen too many of his own fears and hopes reflected in Jacob’s eyes. He’d hate the guy more, but there was no question he genuinely cared a lot about Finn.

“Oh, I am,” Jacob said with a wry chuckle as punctuation.

“Doesn’t seem like it,” Morgan said. Which was a total lie, but it wasn’t like he could do a total one-eighty and decide that Jacob was great. At least to his face.

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

Ugh, he was probably right. But then Jacob didn’t know about the Hayes half of Morgan’s current meltdown.

He’d known this day was coming sooner rather than later. The Sentinels needed a good goalie. Finn was a good goalie. From the moment they’d drafted him four years ago, this had been in the cards.

Morgan had railed against this inevitability in his mind—and to Danny—more than he wanted to admit.

“Also,” Jacob continued, “it turns out being amused by your total meltdown is a good distraction from my own anxiety.”

Ugh. This guy, Finn, really?

Morgan considered saying that out loud, not for the first time, either. But he didn’t, if only because he knew Jacob loved Finn and also because it was impossible to deny Jacob’s mentorship and coaching was a big part of the reason Finn was starting in the Sentinels’ goal tonight.

“I stayed up all night watching game tape.” Half of it wasn’t even the Pens, it was the Sentinels, and if I jerked off to one of Hayes’ pretty goals, nobody knows but me and my couch.

“Yeah, that’s really obvious,” Jacob said.

Morgan didn’t need to take this abuse. He shoved an elbow into Jacob’s side, but Jacob only yelped and then shot him a grin. Like they were actually friends.

“What? You’re being an unsupportive asshole,” Morgan retorted.

“Sucks, doesn’t it?” Jacob said unrepentantly.

Morgan had so many issues with Braun it was hard to know where to start, but it always began with Jacob reading him a little too well.

He shoved another elbow into Jacob’s side, but he just looked amused.

“I’m supportive,” Morgan defended himself.

“I’m even wearing his sweater! I haven’t worn one since—” He stopped abruptly.

Frankly, the whole thing felt weird as hell, the Sentinels’ logo splashed across his chest, not only because it wasn’t the Bandits colors he’d worn his entire career, but because they were Hayes’ colors.

Like an outward manifestation of the hold Hayes still had on him.

It said Reynolds on the back and not Montgomery , but it felt at least a little of the way Morgan had always thought it might, if he ever got lucky enough to publicly claim Hayes as his.

Jacob looked over at him and yeah, he got it, too.

Maybe not all of it, but most of it. Jacob couldn’t get the Hayes’ part, because he didn’t know about Hayes. Or rather, he knew there’d been someone Hayes-shaped in Morgan’s past, but not that it was Hayes Montgomery.

Thank God for small miracles. Danny knowing about Hayes was bad enough.

“It’s gonna mean a lot to Finn that you’re wearing it,” Jacob said gently.

“And he’s gonna laugh his ass off that we’re sitting here, like fucking twins in a Sears photoshoot,” Morgan grumbled.

Jacob grinned. Like he didn’t even mind that, and this was why Morgan had semi-gracefully accepted Jacob’s place in Finn’s life. Because anyone who was good for Finn, who loved Finn like this, was worth something, at least.

“Yeah, probably.” Jacob glanced over at him. “Don’t you dare shove that elbow into me again. I will kick your ass if you do.”

Like he could. Ha .

“No, you won’t,” Morgan said confidently.

He paused. Still wanting to prove how committed he was to Finn and his future.

Without being the worst version of himself, because he’d done that version enough and he was trying to be better.

“Did I tell you I’m cutting back on some of my ESPN commitments? ”

“No,” Jacob said. Not sounding like he was about to throw a parade for Morgan, which . . . unfair . He was fucking trying, here.

He’d always imagined that when Finn eventually joined the Sentinels, he’d bury himself in New York and never leave, because that meant he’d never come face-to-face with what he’d lost.

But when it had finally happened, he’d been so proud and desperately wanting to be properly supportive for Finn—and miraculously Finn had actually wanted him around—that he’d buried all his misgivings and essentially moved to Tampa.

“Well, I am. I want to be present for this, for Finn. It feels important, you know? I’m still doing segments, but they said I can do those from my rental house.”

“Good. Do more of those,” Jacob retorted, and then laughed, like a total asshole, at the grimace Morgan hadn’t been able to hold back.

“For the hundredth time, I don’t want to hear about your sex life,” Morgan said.

“Then stop interfering in it.” Jacob barely blinked when Morgan shoved another elbow into his side.

“Do you . . .should I . . .” Morgan trailed off, suddenly feeling like he might vomit.

“Spit it out, Reynolds.” Of course Braun didn’t sound sympathetic.

“Should I not have come?” He’d worried if he was overstepping. If he was actually a distraction, a drawback even. More than once. Or a hundred times. No matter how many times Finn smiled at him and said, I’m so glad you’re here, Dad.

“To this game? I don’t think Finn would’ve ever forgiven you for missing it,” Jacob joked.

“No, no . I mean . . .should I not have come down here? Rented the house?” It hadn’t been easy. And not for the reasons everyone assumed.

Danny was the only one who knew why it would really suck for Morgan to basically move to Tampa.

And he’d called him on it a bunch of times.

Danny gave him plenty of shit for not being over Hayes, six years later, but it was when he got careful and kind that Morgan realized he was actually kind of pathetic.

Danny had been really mindful about the whole Tampa thing, even for Danny.

“Oh, well, no the house rental thing was a good idea. You’d have really cramped our style if you’d insisted on moving in,” Jacob said.

Morgan made a face. Like he was ever going to live under the same roof as his son and Jacob Braun . That was not happening. There were limits. “I was never going to do that.”

“Thank God for that.” At least he and Jacob were on the same page about that. “But seriously, I think it’s good you’re here. Finn respects you a lot, and you give him a good perspective, and well . . .this is a big time in his life. You’ve been there, too. You get it.”

“So do you,” Morgan said, and yeah, this was the biggest reason he could stomach Jacob these days. He looked at him and occasionally saw the same pain in his eyes. It was hard to hate someone who was going through the same shit you were.