Page 175 of The Home Game

Matty jumped. He hadn’t even heard Kate’s door open.

“Be right there,” he said, glancing over.

Kate nodded tightly and turned on her impossibly tall heels.

Ahh, fuck.

“Good luck,” Birdie muttered.

“Yeah thanks,” Matty whispered back. “I think I’m gonna need it.”

Kate and Gilly were both waiting for him as he stepped into Kate’s office. Their expressions were both grim.

The doorknob slipped in Matty’s sweaty grip and he fumbled to shut it behind him.

“Have a seat,” Kate said, her tone crisp and not to be argued with.

“Uh, so, I want to apologize. I know the video that’s going around looks bad,” Matty said when his butt was parked in a chair across from her desk.

“You’re goddamn right it does!” Gilly said with a scowl. “What the fuck were you thinking, Carlson?”

Matty took a deep breath because shouting at his coach wasn’t going to make this any better. Sure, some guys had ‘fuck you’ matches with their coaches and sometimes the coaches respected them more for it but sometimes it pissed them off.

If Matty had to guess, Gilly was the second kind.

Besides, that was his coach. It might be a little old-fashioned but Matty felt like that demanded a certain amount of respect.

“Look, things got a little bit out of hand last night. I’m sorry we got recorded but—”

“I don’t give a goddamn shit about your excuses. Someone is always watching or recording and the sooner you idiots get it through your thick skulls, the better. You’re benched, Carlson.”

“For how long?”

“For as long as it takes to sink in. Didn’t you hear a fucking word I said before the season started?”

Kate cleared her throat. “Michael, that’s maybe a little bit hasty. Let’s not make any decisions until we hear the full story.”

He gave Kate a skeptical look but sat back in his chair.

“Matty,” Kate said. “Explain to me what actually happened.”

He fidgeted, wondering exactly how much he should tell them? Everything from the beginning? What happened last night?

He and Antoni had talked about it this morning and Antoni had said he trusted Matty to tell them as much of the truth as he felt comfortable with. He’d been so sweet about it, so worried about Matty getting in trouble.

Honestly, considering the way Matty had acted, he probably deserved to get in trouble. He’d made a dumbass mistake and if that meant getting benched for a few games, so be it.

But he wanted Kate and Gilly to understand why he’d done it. Why the way this had been spun in the media mattered to him.

“This all started out as a fake marriage,” Matty blurted out.

Kate blinked, her eyebrows lifting. “Excuse me?”

“Uh, look.” Matty looked down at his hands. “It’s … it’s true.”

“You’re not bisexual?” Gilly asked, sounding surprised.

“No, I am,” Matty said, looking up. “That part’s not fake! Honestly, I’m not sure any of it is really fake anymore. But we … when Antoni and the kids moved in with me, it was to help a nice family out of a jam. And then—and then we became more concerned about the kids’ grandparents trying to get custody and, well, we, uh, we thought getting married would help.”

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