Page 74 of Breakaway Goals

Morgan swallowed hard. “Um yeah. He’s good.”So fucking brilliant I can’t even look at him.

Jacob’s jaw dropped. “Are you joking?”

“What? No?” Morgan tried very hard not to sound defensive, but he was pretty sure he failed.

“Don’t tell me you have a problem with him too,” Jacob said. “From what I remember at Four Nations, you two were all buddy-buddy.”

Shit. Fuck.Abort, abort.

“No, no problem,” Morgan said.

“Why are you so weird about him then?”

“I’m not,” Morgan argued valiantly. “He’s a good hockey player—a great hockey player. And uh . . .he’s playing great. So not that surprising? Not much to say?”

Jacob shot him a look like he was nuts and for a single heart-stopping moment, Morgan was afraid that he’d given himself away. Jacob knew too much already. That there’d been a guy,once, and he’d been a hockey player and that it hadn’t ended well. He couldnotbe allowed to put together the correct theory that the guy was Hayes. Jacob would never let him hear the end of it, and then he’d probably push him to tell Finn, and well, fuck that noise. Morgan was not ever doing that. Not when he was already so viscerally aware of how pathetic he was.

“The craziest part of that argument is it’s actually believable that you’d think that.” Jacob shook his head. “You tell him that after he scored that goal at Four Nations?”

No, he had not.

He’d said lots of other things—and yet nothing that meant Hayes was still in Morgan’s life—but not that. Morgan might be an asshole, but he wasn’t a total fucking dick.

What did it say about him that Jacob actually believed he might pull that kind of move?

He pulled his phone out of his pocket. Tilted it away from Jacob’s prying eyes. Sent Danny a text.This is worse than I thought it would be.

He couldn’t remember if Danny had a game tonight, but if he did, he’d get it after. That might actually be better. Danny coming in on the tail end of his meltdown was always better than witnessing the whole ugly thing.

But no dice. Danny’s response came through instantly.Yeah, I’m watching the game. Figured you were freaking out.Finn’s playing great. Then there’s Monty, putting on a show, just for you!!!!

Morgan wanted to yell at him, but yelling was not very effective over text. Honestly, when it came to Danny, yelling was not very effective,period.

He’s not doing it for me.

Lie to yourself if you want, but don’t fucking lie to me, Mo!!!

“Who’s that?” Jacob asked.

“Uh, Danny,” Morgan said, slipping his phone back into his pocket as Hayes’ line headed back onto the ice. “Matt Daniels.”

“Didn’t know you played with him,” Jacob said.

“I didn’t, actually. He signed with the Bandits the season after I retired. But he’s a friend,” Morgan said.

Morgan was not going to go into the details of when and why. That all edged too close to the truth of what had happened at Four Nations, and as much as Morgan wanted Braun to be stupid and oblivious, he definitely wasn’t.

“Finn really did this,” Jacob said a minute later, thankfully changing the subject, tone of voice warm and proud. Full of love.

“Never doubted for a minute.”

Jacob shot him a commiserating smile. “Me neither. Just really fucking proud of him.”

Morgan had worried, but not doubted. Any goalie could have a bad game, and the Penguins could still bring it. He’d just wanted this one game, hisfirst, to go right for Finn. Set him up on the right trajectory.

But as time ticked down, it seemed that a Penguins resurgence, even with Crosby on the ice, wasn’t going to be happening.

The Pens pulled their goalie with two and a half minutes left, which considering they were down four goals seemed to be an exercise in pointlessness to Morgan, but Hayes went over the boards, along with the penalty kill, and they provided Finn the extra boost of defensive power they needed to keep the four goal lead.