Page 128 of On Thin Ice

“They wouldn’t,” Finn said. “Who else knew?”

“The valet at Andina?”

Finn laughed. “Yes, his first act after licking his wounds of rejection was to call my father, with his extremely well-protected phone number, and tattle on me.”

“You should be a lot more upset about this,” Jacob said. “He waspissed.”

“Yeah. I guess. More though because I think he believes that he should be. Frankly,” and Finn was smiling now, “I’m just relieved it’s over.”

“It could get worse,” Jacob pointed out. He didn’t want to be the Debbie Downer here, but this was Morgan they were talking about.

Finn shook his head. “No. His heart wasn’t in it. You couldn’t tell?”

Now that Jacob looked back, compared the fire of Morgan today to the fire of years prior, he could see what Finn was saying. He’d been angry, for sure, but also just going through the motions.

“Yeah, I can see it,” Jacob agreed. Hesitated. This wasn’t his place to say, but Finn should know. “Retirement isn’t easy, you know? I’m honest-ish about how I struggle with it. But Morgan?”

“Naturally he’d pretend he was fine,” Finn said, sighing.

“Might be why he’s in town. Besides of course wanting to see you,” Jacob said.

“Of course,” Finn teased, elbowing Jacob gently in the ribs.

“Hey, I know it’s still early . . .” They’d intended to have a late, lazy morning. Breakfast and then getting to training whenever it happened.

“I’m up, and you’re up,” Finn said shrugging. “You want breakfast?”

“Sounds good,” Jacob said, kissing the side of his head. “Grab the eggs, okay?”

Jacob was entering some new wine he’d just had shipped to his wine inventory app when the phone rang.

It was two days after the holiday, and despite the rude awakening on the day after Christmas, Morgan had been suspiciously silent.

Jacob had texted Finn this morning, asking if he’d heard from his dad, and Finn had sent a quick reply ofNo.Then a longermessage a minute later.No, and I don’t know whether to be pissed or relieved. Or hurt, I guess.

He hated it, because he cared so much for Finn.Loved him,actually, and even though he’d made theno bloodpromise twice now, he wanted to break it because surely Morgan hurting Finn made that promise obsolete.

Then Finn had sent a third message.Doesn’t change the no blood rule, no matter how much you want it to.

Damn it. It sucked how well Finn knew him. Well, sucked and was also totally fucking great. Jacob decided the latter won out over the former, every time.

Okay. How’d you guess?

Finn texted back.Silent too long.Don’t worry, this is just a reprieve. I’m sure my dad’s thinking of some new, fresh hell.

And here it was, now, when Jacob answered the phone.

Unlike the resignation of this morning’s texts, Finn sounded nearly frantic.

“Jacob?” Finn said.

“Yeah, what’s going on? Are you okay?” Jacob told himself to stay calm; that Finn was clearly upset enough for the two of them.

“I’m fine. I’m not the problem. I just got a call from a bar over by 23rd. Apparently Morgan’s drunk. Really fucking drunk, and they want me to come get him, but I can’t. I’ve got an optional skate I told Coach I’d be at, and I really don’t want to skip it.”

“Can’t they pour him into a cab or an Uber or something?”

“He won’t go. And he’s my dad.” Finn sounded utterly frustrated. “So they’re not going to force it on him, right?”

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