Page 54 of Breakaway Goals

Finn shot him a look. “Yeah, Dad. We all know. The fucking saviors of US hockey. We’re aware.”

Morgan ground his teeth together. “Right. Yes. We played together at the Four Nations tournament six years ago.” He risked a glance over at Hayes.

His expression was perfectly neutral. Maybe a little too neutral, like he was holding something—or everything—back.

“The only time we’ve ever played together. ”

“And I was there too. Let’s not forget that,” Jacob said, laughing.

“True,” Morgan said, even though Jacob’s presence on Team USA was not why they were having this conversation.

“Still,” Finn said innocently, “it’s not like you’ve spent the last six years talking about him.”

Morgan let out a weak gasp of a laugh. “Also true,” he said.

Someone nudged him under the table. It had to be Hayes. He was the only one who knew what Morgan was really trying to get at.

And yes, he really did need to get on with it.

“We . . .uh . . .” Morgan cleared his throat again, eyes glued to his plate.

He couldn’t lift them up or look Finn in the eye, even though he should.

Hayes kicked him under the table again and he managed to get his shit together.

Eyes up. Mouth open. “We spent a lot of time together at that tournament.”

Finn still looked vaguely bored and totally uninterested in this journey to the past. “Okay?”

God, he was going to make Morgan say it. Out loud. Out loud . “A lot of time.”

Finn’s eyes narrowed. “What does that mean, exactly?”

“Are you saying what I think you’re saying?” Jacob asked.

Finn looked over at Jacob. “What is he saying?”

He hated all of them. They could all fall in the ocean, as far as Morgan was concerned. Except Hayes. He was an angel and deserved only the best things.

“I’m saying that we spent a lot of time in bed. Hayes and I hooked up at the tournament.” There he’d said it.

“I wouldn’t have put it exactly like that,” Hayes said mildly.

“You’re—” Finn looked at Morgan, then at Hayes. Like this news was taking a brain recalibration. And yeah, Morgan understood that. He’d gone through one of his own, six years ago. “And you .”

“How would you have put it?” Jacob asked. He put his elbows on the table and leaned forward, clearly interested.

Hayes glanced over at Morgan. “At the tournament, we did have a fling where we spent a lot of time in bed, but that’s not all it was. We fell in love.”

Morgan nodded rapidly. Hoping that this might clear up a few things and not require him to make any more personal confessions.

But Finn was apparently still stuck on the fact he wasn’t straight. “I’m sorry what ,” Finn said bluntly. “Dad—you’ve never .”

“Well, clearly not never ,” Morgan said self-consciously.

“And all these times I kept pushing women at you?”

Morgan winced. “I should have been honest that I like both.”

“Yeah, no shit,” Finn said, crossing his arms over his chest. He had the Reynolds glower down pat.

“Truthfully, I wasn’t interested in dating anyone. Not after Hayes.” Hayes’ gaze was warm on his face as he said it. Warm and approving and encouraging. It was easier to look at him than to look at Finn, who still looked—justifiably—pissed off.

“Still,” Finn said with a pout.

“What’s the point of this history lesson, anyway?” Jacob asked, a little too casually.

“We both regretted how it ended. We . . .well, it was never going to be anything. How could it have been? We were on separate teams, separate coasts—”

“And you were an asshole,” Hayes added, still smiling.

Morgan couldn’t even be mad that he was being forced to grovel in front of his son. Jacob, that was a little tougher to swallow, but he’d dealt with far worse.

“ And I was an asshole,” Morgan agreed. “But now that I’m retired, and you’re here, and I’m here, we started talking again. Turns out we both—well, we both regretted how it ended. And we decided to give it another go.”

Finn burst out laughing. Not the best reaction to the news. Laughter had not even been in the top five when Morgan had considered how this was going to go.

He squirmed in his chair, unsure if he was embarrassed or angry or some other emotion that defied definition.

“Are you joking?” Finn demanded.

“Uh, no?” This was the worst. Morgan was now officially on record as regretting being the one to suggest this.

“You’re telling me you’re in love with Monty and that you’ve been in love with him for six years, and now you’re finally back together or whatever, and the words you’re gonna use are, give it another go ?”

“Your father is painfully unsentimental sometimes, you gotta forgive him for it,” Hayes said and smiling about it.

“Not that unsentimental,” Morgan yelped defensively. “I’ve said lots of romantic things to you. So many romantic things.”

“Yeah, we don’t need to hear those,” Jacob said dryly, taking a long sip of his wine.

“Good,” Finn said. “Monty’s a great guy. A catch . Don’t forget it.”

“I have zero intention of forgetting it.” God, he wanted to drop through the floor. Finn lecturing him on how to romance his boyfriend. There was no way this could get any worse than it currently was.

“As long as you’re happy, Dad, I’m happy for you.” Finn grinned at him and paused, expectantly. “Though, there’s only one question I have for you.”

Morgan tried not to cringe. “What?”

Finn gave him a hard stare. “Did you really think I didn’t know?”

Morgan’s jaw dropped. “What? What ?”

Finn waved his hand. “The first time you saw Hayes this summer, you literally froze in your tracks.”

“I did not,” Morgan muttered. Though he had, a little. But not obviously! He’d been more subtle than that.

Finn shot him an unamused look. “And then there was all the times you stared at him like he was a full buffet spread and you were starving.”

“I definitely did not do that, either,” Morgan said, feeling a flush creep up his chest from under his shirt collar.

“Oh, you did. The opposite of low key. I know what yearning looks like, and you were like front and center definition, Dad. It wasn’t that hard to ask Jacob if you’d hung out with Hayes at all, six years ago, and it was even easier to put the pieces together.

” Finn looked unimpressed. “I just can’t believe it took this long for you to get your shit together. ”

“It did—I didn’t want to—” Morgan gave up. Turned to Jacob. “You told him!”

“I did not,” Jacob said, laughing now. “But yeah, you were not very hard to figure out, bud. I knew the moment we showed up at Sentinels camp that he was the guy you’d told me about.”

“Oh my God,” Morgan said. “All those times—”

“Which times?” Hayes and Finn interrupted at the same time with the same words. They exchanged glances and burst out laughing.

“You literally said, and I swear it’s a direct quote, even you wouldn’t be stupid enough to pine after Hayes Montgomery .”

Hayes grinned. “You said that?”

“He said that.” Morgan glowered. “You couldn’t have thought it then .”

“Oh, I was convinced by the time I said that,” Jacob said.

He leaned back in his chair and pinned Morgan with the kind of hard-assed look that had always made Morgan want to kill him when he was in the net and Morgan was trying to slip a puck past him.

“Did you really think I wasn’t going to give you crap about this? After what you said about me and Finn?”

Oh, he had. It was half of why he’d been so nervous. “I didn’t react well, then.”

“No shit,” Finn retorted. “You accused Jacob of being a pedophile!”

Hayes shot him a soft look full of reprimand, which shouldn’t have been hot, especially not in front of his son and his boyfriend, but the skin under the collar of his T-shirt prickled.

“Not my best parenting moment,” Morgan allowed.

Finn snorted.

“Or what about when you accused me of sleeping with Finn in an attempt to get my youth back?”

Hayes raised an eyebrow. “You did that?”

“I didn’t mean it.”

“No, you did, and that was a good parenting moment,” Jacob said, suddenly serious. “Made me wonder if your guy was younger. And lo and behold . . .” He gestured at Hayes.

“You trying to do that too?” Hayes said, leaning over and teasing him in a low voice.

That was the easiest accusation of all the whole night to dodge. “No way. You know I love you because . . .because we’re the same. We get each other. Wouldn’t matter what age you were.”

“Wait, you are not the same,” Finn said, frowning.

Morgan straightened and met his son’s eyes. Wishing, not for the first time, that they were alone, and he could kiss Hayes.

“Actually,” Hayes said, shrugging, “we kinda are. Underneath.” He leaned over and was the one to press his mouth to Morgan’s. It was a brief kiss, barely a press of his lips, but Morgan’s heart fluttered anyway.

“Ew, gross,” Finn said.

“Be good,” Jacob said sternly to Finn. “How much PDA have we subjected your dad to over the years?”

Morgan wanted to say too much , but it was impossible to care, when Hayes was looking at him like that, heart in his eyes, happiness written across every line of his face.