Page 148 of Breaking the Ice

“Collusion?” Finn asked, mid-high five with Ivan. “What about collusion?”

“Nothing about collusion,” Ramsey muttered.

“That’s better,” Zach said, nodding. He looked over at Gavin. “You good?”

Gavin tried to paste on an expression that wasn’t flustered. He wasn’t sure he managed it. “Yeah, yeah. Great. Let’s uh . . .let’s talk about the game tomorrow.”

“Game tomorrow,” Zach repeated, raising his voice again.

“Yeah guys,” Ramsey added, his voice rising to meet Zach’s, “game tomorrow. Let’s get focused.”

If Gavin had ever needed to know if Ramsey was the right choice to wear the C, the way the whole locker room went right back to getting ready for practice, suddenly locked and dialed in, that was the evidence he would’ve needed.

But he hadn’t ever needed it.

Ramsey had been the obvious choice from the moment he’d shown up, and he’d only ever proven that gut instinct right, over and over again.

He finished getting ready first, and as he passed by Gavin on the way to the ice, Gavin reached out and grabbed his arm. “Hey,” he said in a low voice, “thanks for the support.”

Ramsey shrugged. “It’s not a big deal.”

Itwas, actually, but Gavin was okay pretending if that was what Ramsey wanted.

“We could play it easy the next two games—”

“No,” Ramsey said, shaking his head abruptly. “No. We’re not taking our foot off the gas.”

“Good.Good.” Gavin hadn’t realized how much he didn’t want to until Ramsey agreed.

“We got this, Coach,” Ramsey said, patting him on the arm. Then he shot him a knowing look. “More than twenty-five damn percent, that’s for fucking sure.”

When Zach wandered back after talking to Finn, Gavin was still chuckling.

“What’s up?” he asked.

“Oh, just . . .Ramsey being Ramsey,” Gavin said.

“He ended up being pretty perfect for this team, didn’t he?”

“I couldn’t come up with any way he could be any better,” Gavin said, and meant every word.

The second to the last game hadjustended—literally Gavin and Zach were still in the tunnel, following the players as they headed towards the locker room, when a figure peeled itself off the wall.

“Gavin,” the figure called out, and Zach looked over, pausing in his tracks as the guy joined them.

Of course it was Morgan Reynolds.

“Morgan,” Gavin said steadily, “what can I do for you?”

“Jacob mentioned Finn getting tomorrow off to rest for the playoff run, but that’s a mistake. You want him to be in the net tomorrow.”

“I do, huh?” Gavin asked, and Zach couldn’t tell if he was trying not to smile or trying not to throttle Finn’s dad.

“You want to set the record. You’ve just tied it. But if you don’t win tomorrow, you’re not the sole leader in the record books. You’d be just meeting history, not setting it.”

Gavin shoved his hands in his pockets, eyed Morgan up and down. “I’m so glad you’re here to tell me how to run my team,” he said bluntly.

Morgan’s face flushed dark red. “I’m—I’m right here. You know I’m right.”