Page 185 of The Home Game

“I don’t know why this team is so fucking touchy-feely,” Dom grumbled but he let Dustin hug him.

“Don’t lie. You secretly love it,” Dustin teased.

Dom rolled his eyes.

Matty threw his arms around them both and squeezed tightly. “God, I feel so much better now.”

They pulled back and Dom glared, straightening his clothing. “Good thing one of us does.”

Dustin reached out and took Dom by the upper arms, looking him in the eye. “Do you feel worse now that we know the truth?”

Dom hesitated. “No. Not really, it just makes me uncomfortable to talk about. I—I think eventually, it’ll feel better but right now, I hate it.”

“I am sorry if we forced it out of you,” Matty said, feeling guilty.

“You didn’t—I mean, maybe a little but—look, it was time,” Dom said with a sigh. “I made a choice to open up and I don’t regret it. I hate it but I don’t regret it.”

Antoni closed his classroom door after the last student, staring at his phone.

Matty often sent him little texts throughout the day, but they were usually random little notes or pictures or memes or whatever.

The Hey, can you call me when you get this? was a little unnerving.

Antoni’s immediate worry was about the kids but if it was that urgent, someone would have called the office and gotten ahold of him that way.

So what on earth would it be about?

Only one way to find out, he thought grimly, pressing the green button.

“Antoni!” Matty said when the call connected. “Hey.”

“Is everything okay?”

“Oh, yeah. I just wanted to check on something,” Matty said, his tone cheerful. “I got an alert on my phone from the bank earlier. Did you have a couple of big deposits go into your account recently?”

“Well, I had the van sale a couple of weeks ago,” Antoni said, frowning. “Is that what you mean?”

“Ohh. Yep, that tracks with the first one. I’d almost forgot about that.”

“Yeah, me too. Rob got a pretty decent price for it. I don’t know anything about a second deposit though. When was this?”

“It went in a few hours ago.”

“Oh, hmm. Let me put in my earbuds so we can talk while I take a look at the app.”

“Sure.”

Antoni got everything connected, then said, “How was your day?”

“Oh, pretty good. Hanging out with Dustin and Dom.”

“Yeah?” Antoni asked distractedly, punching in his password. “That’s good.”

He knew there had been some friction with Dom lately so that was a good sign that they were working things out.

Antoni scanned the banking transactions. “Oh, shit that is a lot of money. What in the world is that from?”

“Maybe the bank made an error?” Matty suggested.

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