Page 158 of The Home Game

Antoni’s face brightened. “Really well! Reese fell right to sleep when I played the recording of you reading his favorite books.”

“Aww. Good. How did Eli do on their science project?”

Antoni beamed. “Great! They said their teacher raved about it. Hey, that reminds me, I want to talk to you about something with Eli. I keep forgetting but I don’t want to put it off any longer.”

Matty straightened. “Sure, what’s up? Everything okay?”

“Yeah, everything fine. I was wondering if you thought we should talk to Eli about puberty blockers?”

“Ohh.” Matty’s eyes widened. “God, I don’t know. Is that something they want?”

“I honestly don’t know,” Antoni admitted. “A couple of years ago, when Eli first came out as non-binary, Bethany and Corey looked into all of that. I remember at the time they said Eli didn’t seem to be too interested in the idea but I think Eli’s hitting a growth spurt now and this is about when puberty would start, you know? I feel like maybe we should revisit that conversation.”

“True,” Matty said thoughtfully. “Maybe we can both read up on it and when I get back from the trip we can talk to Eli. I mean, only if you want. I don’t want to overstep or—”

“No, I’d love that,” Antoni said. “As long as I’m not—not expecting too much of you.”

“You’re not.” Matty swallowed. He hadn’t really planned on bringing this up over the phone but well, it was something they needed to talk about. “I want to be—be your co-guardian, Antoni.”

Antoni stilled, blinking. “Legally? Like you adopting the kids?”

“Uhh.” Matty rubbed the back of his neck. He’d been thinking about this whole idea for weeks actually but he wasn’t sure how Antoni would feel about it. He hadn’t planned to bring up adoption tonight at all. But since Antoni went there first …

“I mean, yeah, I’d love to adopt them if you’re good with that. I meant more helping with the kids though. Not the little stuff but the big stuff like this. Like, making decisions about how they’re raised. If that’s … if that’s what you want. I don’t want to try to jump in where I’m not welcome but I thought—I hoped—when we got married that’s what it would mean.”

“Wow,” Antoni whispered.

Matty winced. “Too much?”

“No. No. Not too much. Just … I need a minute, maybe?” Antoni said, his voice kinda husky like he was feeling emotional or something. “To let it sink in. I know we talked about a lot of this stuff when we decided to get married but I wasn’t really prepared for how it would feel, you know?”

“Yeah,” Matty said softly. “I get that.”

“Bethany and Corey gave me the responsibility of caring for their kids,” Antoni said seriously. “And I’ve had this idea that it was my job and mine alone. But the closer we get—you and I, I mean—the more I think they’d approve of you.”

“Yeah?” Matty asked, touched by that idea.

“Yeah.” Antoni looked down. “They’d trust that someone who treated me well, treated the kids well, was someone important for the kids to have in their lives. So if you really want to co-parent, if you want to adopt them too, I’d love that. It’s one more layer of protection if anything happens to me as well. Because then you’d automatically have custody.”

Matty nodded. He’d had the same thought. “Should we ask Alexis and Eli?”

Antoni’s face went soft. “Yeah, I think we should. That’s a great idea, in fact. We can ask River too, even though I don’t think she’ll really understand what we’re asking. I do know she loves you though, so that’s something.”

Matty’s heart warmed at the thought. “Aww, you think so?”

“Oh, Matty, of course she does. All of the kids are crazy about you.”

Are you? Matty wondered but he didn’t say it aloud.

“Is it crazy if I say I really miss you right now?” Antoni said quietly.

“Only if it’s crazy that I miss you too,” Matty whispered.

The smile that lit up Antoni’s face was so warm that long after they talked each other through a spine-meltingly hot jerk-off session on the video chat and Matty ended the call and turned out the light, he could still feel it like the glow of the sun against his face as he closed his eyes and slept.

“No, no, no, no.” Antoni pounded his fist on the SUV wheel on Tuesday afternoon. “Fuck! MOVE YOU ASSHOLE!”

But no matter how much he swore or how much he beat up his vehicle, the line of traffic ahead of him didn’t move an inch.

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