Page 37 of The Home Game

Antoni frowned down at his food. “Uh, I guess that makes sense.”

They hammered out a few more details before Antoni finally gave him a reluctant nod. “Okay. As long as the background check is okay, let’s do this.”

“Awesome.” Matty beamed. “I promise. The worst they’ll find are some speeding tickets.”

Antoni chuckled. “Sounds good.”

“This is going to be so great,” Matty said happily.

Antoni gave him a dazed little shake of his head. “I hope you feel like that after we move in.”

“Hey,” Matty said, reaching out to take his hand. “I can’t imagine any reason why I’d change my mind but how about we write up a real rental agreement to protect you just to be safe? We’ll make it for six months and see how things go. I can have my lawyer include stuff like giving you plenty of notice if for any reason I do want you to move out. I know I won’t, but you’ll have that protection just in case.”

“Yeah?” Hope filled Antoni’s eyes. “That would actually make me feel a lot better. You don’t mind?”

“Nope. All I want is to help you and your family.”

“That’s … really sweet of you, Matty. God, I kept hoping a miracle would land in my lap and … here you are.”

Matty rolled his eyes. “Yeah, they call me Miracle Matty,” he joked with a laugh.

But Antoni smiled. A big, full smile that reached his eyes. Matty had never seen him smile like that before and it warmed his heart.

“Yeah, here you are,” Antoni said softly, squeezing Matty’s hand.

“Mom? Dad? Can I talk to you guys?” Antoni said later that evening as he loaded the dishwasher after dinner at his parents’ house. The kids were occupied in the living room and Reese was safely tucked in the playpen there.

Antoni’s parents paused, glancing up from the tasks they were doing.

“Is something wrong?” his mom asked.

“No,” Antoni said slowly. “It’s … I actually may have had some good luck for the first time in a while.”

She smiled. “That’s wonderful news. What is it?”

“Um, Matty—uhh, Matt Carlson offered to rent us some space in his house.”

She blinked. “That’s … generous.”

“Yes. But there will be a rental agreement and everything and I’m going to have a background check run on him just to be safe,” he said firmly.

After meeting with Matty earlier that day, he’d decided to dip into the money his parents had given him for the house down payment a little bit. Just enough to make sure that there wasn’t something crazy in Matty’s history or something.

“He’s Matt Carlson,” his dad said, scoffing. “What more do you need to know?”

Eliza leveled her husband with a look. “Just because someone is a public figure doesn’t mean they’re a good person, Enzo. It’s smart that Antoni does his due diligence.”

“Yeah, I don’t want to take any chances,” Antoni said. “And even then, it’s no guarantee. But he’s been nothing but wonderful to me and the kids since we met.” Not that Antoni wanted to think too closely about how little time had passed since then but …

His mom softened. “It certainly seems like it.”

“This will be great for the kids,” Antoni continued. “The house is close to you guys and in the same school district, which is huge. The kids will have a great backyard and there’s a tennis court and—apparently—a synthetic ice thingy in the basement that Alexis can use.”

“Ohh, she’d love that,” Enzo said.

“Yes.”

His mom stepped closer, searching his face. “You think this will be good for you?”

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