Page 13 of Breaking the Ice

“So you have two guys who make each other better. Alotbetter.” Gavin was turning this over in his head, even though he didn’t want to. He wanted this to be someone else’s problem.

“Funny though, when I met Mal for coffee a month ago, after they’d hired me, you know what the first thing he said was?” Zach chuckled dryly. “Don’t you dare put me on the same fucking line as Jones.”

“Huh. They don’t like each other?”

Zach sighed. “That’s the theory. I don’t know how to deal with this. And we get any kind of coach in there who doesn’t get it, they’re gonna fuck this up. And the two of them—thethreeof them out there, really, ’cause Ivan’s a big part ofit, too, keeps them focused and centered, honestly—could be something special out there.”

Gavin knew it. He’d seen it, too, immediately.

“I saw it,” Zach continued, “and I knewyoucould handle it.”

Gavin swallowed hard. He didn’t want to be Zach’s savior. But there was no question this was an intriguing problem.

“What about the rest of the team?”

“Solid defense. Two guys who will definitely end up in the pros. Brody’s really a pure defenseman, one of the best I’ve seen. Give him five years, and he’s Jaccob Slavin.”

“And the other guy?”

“Ramsey Andresen. He’s like a freaking chess master out there. When the five of them are on the ice, it’s pure fucking magic.”

“Goalie?” Gavin told himself to stop asking. He didn’t want to know how good this team could be. How good they could be if they had a coach who understood, who knew how to bring disparate parts together into one well-oiled machine.

“And that’s where things get really interesting.”

Gavin’s jaw dropped. “They weren’t interesting before?”

“I know,” Zach said, laughing. “We just got a new transfer. Finn Reynolds.”

Even buried in the wilds of Michigan for four years, Gavin knew that name. “He’s not.No.”

“Yeah, Finn’s Morgan Reynolds’ son.”

“Shit.”

“What I’m trying to tell you is that weneeda coach who’s gonna be willing to be . . .well, unorthodox? Who’s willing to work with these kids and make them better. Help them live upto their potential.” Zach didn’t need to add,like you helped me live up to my potential, but Gavin knew they were both thinking it.

Gavin had never wanted to be a different person, with different baggage, more than he did in this moment.

He could see it now. Putting that logo back on his chest. Coaching these guys to the one thing he’d never won before—a national championship.

Taking one deep breath and another, Gavin scrubbed a hand across his face. “Why didn’t you lead with this?”

Zach shut the laptop and turned to him, and suddenly he was just as close as he’d been before. Maybe even closer. His thigh pressed hot and inevitable against Gavin’s.

Gavin could pick out the individual cerulean and green flecks in his blue eyes. He seemed flushed too, skin warm and golden, lighting him up inside.

It was that he was so familiar and so strange, too—creating a weird mix churning inside him. Making him unsettled. Making him temporarily lose his mind.

“I . . .I didn’t think I’d even make it to the porch,” Zach confessed softly. “And then I did and you . . .and I . . .”

Gavin thought he understood. This whole evening had taken him by surprise. Maybe Zach had known some of it, because he’d been the one to come here, but clearly he hadn’t expected to end up here.

“Yeah,” Gavin said, barely getting the word out, his throat suddenly thick.

The air was sluggish, hot even, and hotter between them. Zach leaned in another half an inch and if he did it again, well . . .Gavin wasn’t going to think about that.

Hecouldn’t.