Page 31 of The Home Game

Thankfully the storm had stopped and she’d drifted off to sleep as he read her a story.

Antoni smoothed her hair off her forehead and kissed it, wishing he could do more for her. More for all of the kids.

He felt like he was barely hanging on by a thread these days and it was about to snap. But what more could he do? It was just one foot in front of the other and praying for the best. There was no time for feeling sorry for himself.

Antoni stood with a quiet groan, leaving the nightlight on as he pulled the door almost shut. River didn’t like it closed all the way.

He found Eli in the living room, playing with his phone. The minute Antoni had guardianship of the kids, he’d deleted his hookup apps and any not-safe-for-little-eyes photos, so he wasn’t worried about what Eli would find, just not sure what they were so entertained by. The only games Antoni had on there were dumb free ones.

“What are you doing?” he asked, amused.

Eli smiled. “Texting Matty.”

“Still?” Antoni asked, flabbergasted.

“Yeah. We’re talking about Pokémon. He likes them too.”

Somehow, that did not surprise Antoni.

“Okay, well, that was nice of him but it’s time for you to get to bed, kiddo,” Antoni said. “Tell him goodnight.”

“Okay.” Eli fired off another message but after a moment, they handed Antoni his phone back. “G’night.”

Eli kissed his cheek and Antoni hugged them tightly. “Night. Sweet dreams.”

After Eli disappeared into their room, Antoni fell onto the couch with a sigh. He had laundry and more house hunting and lesson planning to do and, at some point, he needed to shower too but, fuck, all he wanted to do was sleep.

He looked down at his phone with a frown. Maybe he should see what Eli and Matty had been texting about though. Not that he thought Matty was a creep but Antoni couldn’t be too careful.

Antoni smiled as he read through the conversation. Yeah, nothing but talk about Pokémon and video games and kids’ movies. Matty really was a sweet guy.

Antoni sent a message thanking him for being so nice to Eli but there was no response.

Shrugging, Antoni set the phone aside and forced himself to stand and get a load of laundry into the washer.

He worked on lesson plans while it ran its cycle and knocked on Alexis’ door to remind her it was bedtime and got an annoyed huff in response. He debated if he should tell her they needed to talk anyway but he was exhausted and he should probably wait until they both had clear heads.

Antoni worked more on the lesson planning while the clothes dried. After he showered, he folded laundry, yawning, then house hunted to no avail until his eyelids grew too heavy to stay open.

Antoni brushed his teeth and made his bed on the sofa. He’d forgotten all about his phone but when he checked it, he found a message from Matty waiting.

They’re great kids. If you ever want some help taking them to the park or whatever, let me know.

And Antoni pressed his phone to his chest and just breathed for a minute. Because God was that tempting.

It was tempting to say yes to Matty about the house too.

Because he knew if he did, Matty would find a way to help out. He’d probably feed Reese and cook them all dinner too because that seemed to be the kind of man he was.

And God, Antoni wanted that. He wanted to just move in and let someone else shoulder some of the responsibilities but he had to be reasonable. He couldn’t rely on someone who had no reason to stick around. Someone who wasn’t in this for the long haul the way he was.

But a park trip was reasonable, right?

I’ll think about a trip to the park, Antoni typed out. Night.

He was asleep before the reply came.

It felt like Antoni’s alarm went off as soon as he closed his eyes but he stumbled off the sofa and rubbed at his face to keep from falling back asleep.

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