Page 3 of The Home Game

“I’ll meet you in the garage, yeah?” Matty coaxed.

“Yeah. Okay.”

Matty turned and walked back to his Jeep. Hopefully Antoni wouldn’t crash into any of the expensive shit Matty had stashed in there but whatever.

It was only money. He could afford to fix anything that got broken. Besides, it was just stuff. This guy was really going through something.

But when Matty opened the garage door, Antoni carefully cruised inside and parked. Matty pulled into an open spot beside him.

He’d just sold his Maserati Quattroporte sedan and the Ducati Multistrada bike he’d never actually learned to ride, so he had plenty of room in the six-car garage for the old, beat-up van.

Matty walked over to Antoni and offered him a reassuring smile. “You just wait here while I get rid of Sharon.”

“Th—thanks.”

It only took Matty a few moments to find Sharon standing in the entryway of his house. She was speaking to someone on the phone but her eyes widened and she wrapped up the call immediately and ended it, stuffing the phone in her designer bag.

“Mr. Carlson. I am so sorry. I must have misunderstood what time you’d be back.”

“No, I think it’s my fault,” he admitted sheepishly. “I got here a little earlier than we agreed on.”

She frowned. “I have no idea where Antoni is. My nephew, he was touring the place but he disappeared and—”

“Oh, he left,” Matty said as casually as he could manage. “Guy in a minivan, right? He looked like he was in a hurry or something.”

He was a terrible liar but Sharon didn’t know him well enough to tell that.

A concerned expression crossed her face. “Oh dear. I hope everything’s okay and that nothing happened with the kids.”

“How many kids does he have?” Matty asked.

“Four and one’s just a baby. Goodness, so much responsibility for a guy that age. And with no wife—or, well, husband, I suppose. He’s gay. I think.” She shot Matty a vaguely guilty look. “We’re not blood relatives, you know. I married his uncle a few years ago and I’ve only met him once or twice before today.”

“Makes sense,” Matty said, although none of it really made sense at all.

“I mean, to go from being single with no kids to raising four overnight, just like that?” She shook her head. “Huge responsibility. But, well, you remember that horrible pileup on Highway 401 last spring, yeah? When all those rainstorms came through?”

He nodded, although he only vaguely knew what she was talking about. His team, the Toronto Fisher Cats, had been in the midst of the playoffs at the time but he’d heard about the multi-car accident that had killed several people.

“Well, it was the saddest thing. Antoni’s friends died in that crash, leaving four helpless kids behind. Antoni was in the will as guardian of the children. What a single man knows about raising kids is beyond me but I suppose the parents never thought something like this would actually happen.” She shook her head again and sighed. “So now he’s looking for a home that will accommodate them all. I hate to say this, Mr. Carlson, but I don’t think it’ll be your place he buys. He kept shaking his head and muttering something about ‘too much’ the whole time we were touring it. Wanted something big enough for a family of five and in this neighborhood. Well, houses here with this many bedrooms don’t come up for sale often, you know, so I don’t know what else he thinks he’s going to find quickly.”

“Well, that’s okay,” Matty said with a reassuring smile. “I’m sure we’ll find the right family for this place eventually. I’m not in a rush.”

Her face brightened. “Of course we will! Anyway, I’ll get out of your hair. The gutter guy will be here Tuesday, and they’ll be resurfacing the tennis court Thursday. I promise, we’ll have the house up for sale next week with the perfect buyers for this place!”

“Sounds great,” Matty said with a reassuring smile as he tried to herd her toward the front door.

Matty sighed with relief when she finally disappeared down the sidewalk. Okay, now he just had to be sure Antoni was still in the garage. It had taken Matty a lot longer to get Sharon out of the house than he expected.

But at least now Matty understood why the guy was crying in his driveway. Or at least, he was pretty sure of why. Matty wanted kids but four of them unexpectedly? That was a lot for anyone. That sounded overwhelming as hell.

Thankfully, Antoni was still in the garage where Matty had left him. He looked exhausted, slumped back against the seat of his van with his eyes closed, and Matty’s heart panged.

Poor guy.

Matty coaxed Antoni out of the van and when he gently pressed his palm to Antoni’s back to guide him into the house, his steps hitched and for a brief moment, he leaned into the touch with a quiet sigh.

It made Matty feel good, like the guy really needed him, needed his help, so he herded Antoni into the kitchen, then pulled out a stool at the high island counter. “You sit here,” he instructed, patting the leather seat.

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