Page 44 of Breaking the Ice

“And he fucked Finn up more as a result?”

Gavin winced. This poor damn kid. He needed to catch a break. “Yeah. Basically.”

“Well, we’re gonna have to fix that. We should tell Ramsey to reach out to him.”

It was a good idea, and Gavin was about to say so when he remembered the other thing he knew about Finn Reynolds. “Isn’t he gay though?”

“Yes,” Zach said cautiously. “As far as I know. No official statements, but I don’t think he’s really been hiding it, either.”

“I’m not worried about that, I’m worried about Ramsey deciding to seduce the kid,” Gavin snapped. Maybe a little harder than he should’ve. Because yeah, it annoyed Gavin that every time it came up, Zach acted likenow, this was the time Gavin was going to reveal himself to be a homophobic asshole.

“You really think he would?”

“Well I just called him a kid, but he’s not, right? He’s twenty, nearly twenty-one. And Ramsey is . . .” Gavin trailed off. Had he sort of admired the balls of Ramsey’s stunt with Marcus? Yes. But he also didn’t want the guy fucking up the chemistry on the team because he couldn’t keep his dick in his pants.

“Ramsey’s not an idiot,” Zach soothed. “I shouldn’t need to tell you this.”

“No, no, you don’t need to.” He didn’t. Normally, he’d have looked up a full bio of whoever he’d asked to be captain, ahead of time, but this time he hadn’t done it until he’d already offered it to Ramsey. But everything he read about him afterwards had only solidified his decision.

“Good,” Zach said approvingly.

“We talked about this,” Gavin said. “I . . .I just know interpersonal relationships can fuck up a team. And ours could besogood.”

“Yeah, but if anyone fucks it up, it’s not gonna be Ramsey.” Zach didn’t need to say who was more likely to fuck everything up—Elliott and Malcolm.

Ramsey on the other hand? Gavin thought about what he knew about him.

A lifelong foster kid, who’d ended up at nine years old, in a semi-permanent situation with a guy who coached hockey. He’d taken to it immediately, and by sixteen, he’d been off in the OHL, living with a billet family and playing for the London Knights.

Then at eighteen, he’d decided to go to college and been recruited by every powerhouse hockey college in the country. He’d been drafted at twenty by the Sabres and from what Gavin could figure out, had been invited to prospect camp before every year, but seemed satisfied to stay in school, for now, and to graduate, then join the team.

This was a guy who was searching for something, always, and Gavin wasn’t sure he’d found it yet.

“No way. Not Ramsey. He loves this team. Like it’s his family.”

That was what kept convincing Gavin that even if Ramsey could be restless, he was also committed to the Evergreens, and that was the most important thing.

Zach had also mentioned that his best friend, Brady, always played with him, and that from what he could see, Ramsey had semi-adopted Brady as his family.

“I’ll reach out to Ramsey, see if he wants to connect with Finn. I know he’s getting into town soon,” Gavin said.

“He will,” Zach said confidently. “I’m gonna talk to Ramsey, too.”

“About?”

“Oh come on, Coach,” Zach teased, “don’t you trust me to handle this? I thought I was the good cop. Thefriend.”

It should have done the opposite but Zach calling himCoachsent a thrill up his spine. And as much as he tried to pretend otherwise, it was not a platonic kind of thrill.

Gavin couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt this weak-kneed, stomach-clenching delight with someone else, but it was probably back in high school. When he’d realized the girl in orchestra who could play the flute like an angel kept smiling at him.

“I do,” Gavin said, wavering. Feeling weak all over. Not just his knees.

This was so much the same and yet so different, because he knew what those feelings turned into, and he didn’t want that. Not with Zach. Not withanybody.

“Good,” Zach said, a little smugly, like he knew just how much Gavin trusted him. How much helikedhim.

Fuck, that shouldn’t have been hot, either, but it was. Gavin’s fingers were trembling as he gripped his phone. This was supposed to besafer.More public. More upright. Less intimate.