Page 6 of The Home Game

Antoni looked up at Matt, err, Matty, with a grateful smile.

What a nice guy. A little weird, maybe, but nice.

He was a total stranger and he’d gone out of his way to make Antoni feel better. How many people would invite a crying stranger into their home, much less feed them?

Hell, Antoni’s own friends had more or less ditched him once he went from being a guy with few responsibilities having fun on weekends to someone who fretted about a colicky baby and grocery bills.

He’d gotten a lot of “sorry, man, that really sucks,” comments. But few people had offered to help.

This guy who he’d met maybe half an hour ago was worried about him needing a break.

At this point, Antoni was too tired to argue. It felt nice to have someone looking out for him, even if it was only for a little while.

Even if Matty had scared the shit out of him at first.

He was a big guy with a solid, muscular build. Not the bodybuilder type or anything. He was fit as hell but those definitely weren’t vanity muscles. He was thick around the middle too, but in a strong way.

A bear, really.

At first, Antoni had thought Matty was going to beat the shit out of him. But then he’d smiled and spoken softly and Antoni’s fear had melted away.

Antoni liked his short brown hair and neat brown beard. He liked the sturdiness of Matty’s body and the broadness of his shoulders.

He had the kind of arms that looked like they’d be good for giving hugs. And God knew, Antoni would kill for a hug right now.

It was that smile and the warmth in Matty’s brown eyes that had undone Antoni. Made him spill his messy life out to a stranger, even if he felt embarrassed now.

“C’mon, eat,” Matty coaxed gently, nudging a plate toward him.

Antoni looked around, bewildered by the array of food spread out on the counter. There was a whole platter of sliced meats and cheeses, olives, and pickles. There were mini peppers stuffed with something—cream cheese, maybe?—other sliced vegetables, hummus, whole wheat pita, halved hard boiled eggs, fresh fruit …

“This is a lot of food,” Antoni said doubtfully. There was no way he was going to be able to eat all of this.

Matty shrugged. “Ahh, you know how it goes. Hockey players are always hungry so I never know how much normal people eat.”

Antoni gave him a quizzical glance. “You know a lot of hockey players?”

Matty threw his head back and laughed. “I am one. I play for the Fisher Cats.”

“That’s the, uh, NHL team here in Toronto, right?”

“Yep.” Matty smiled.

“Wow. God, now I feel really stupid.” If Antoni could just melt into a puddle of mortification, he totally would.

“Why?” Matty looked puzzled.

“I should have known who you are.”

Matty shrugged again. “Honestly, it’s kind of nice to have a conversation with someone who doesn’t want to talk about how bad we were last season.”

Antoni laughed. “Fair enough. It probably sucks to have all of those die-hard fans criticizing everything you do, huh?”

Not that he knew anything about sports, really, but his dad was a big fan of the team and always going on about what they should be doing. Antoni usually tuned that out but Alexis was super into hockey too and she’d had opinions about it. And if a fourteen-year-old got that rabid? Well, he could only imagine what grown-ass adults were like.

“You have no idea, buddy,” Matty said with a laugh. “But you know what will make me feel better?”

Antoni shook his head.

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