Page 43 of The Home Game

Charlie smiled brightly. “Oh, I love your skirt! That’s so cute! I almost wore one today too but I decided on this romper instead.”

“Yeah?” Eli looked Charlie over, their eyes lighting up. Presumably at the flower print outfit and the makeup and jewelry. “Oh wow, you look so nice though.”

“Thanks,” Charlie said. “I go by he/him pronouns, what are yours?”

“They/them,” Eli said with a small smile. “But it’s okay if you mess up.”

“We’ll do our best,” Charlie promised. “But if any of these big lugs do mess up, you just remind them. They might look scary but they’re softies on the inside, I promise.”

“Okay.” Eli beamed. “Do you wanna come help me finish packing, Charlie?”

“Sure!” Charlie said, holding out a hand. “Lead the way.”

And with that, Eli was off, towing Charlie after them.

“Let me go find the other two kids,” Antoni said with a laugh, a little amazed by how quickly Eli had made a friend.

Antoni walked down the hallway and found Alexis standing around the corner, wide-eyed.

“Oh my God,” she whispered. “Dude … is that half the Fisher Cats team in there?”

“Yup,” Antoni said although he actually had no idea how big a hockey team was. “And I guess a few more guys are on their way.”

Her eyes bugged out. “How? What is even happening?”

“Well, we are moving in with one of them today,” Antoni reminded her.

He’d finally gotten a chance to sit down and talk with her last week. He’d assured her that Matty had merely misspoken and that Antoni wasn’t trying to take her dad’s place. She’d seemed better since then, and when he’d casually mentioned that Matty had an artificial ice surface in the basement, she’d suddenly been very on board for the move.

He didn’t love resorting to bribery but in this case, he’d take it.

“Do you want me to introduce you to the guys?” Antoni asked. “I’ve probably already forgotten half of their names but I remember yours at least.”

He grinned and for the first time in a long time, she grinned back.

She nodded. “I can’t believe they’re all here,” she whispered. “In our house! Do I look okay?”

“You look great,” Antoni assured her. “But I bet they’ll care way more about your hockey playing than anything else. Now where’s River?”

“In her room, I think.” Alexis frowned. “She got scared because they’re so loud.”

“Crap,” Antoni said. “Okay, let me grab her.”

River mostly hid her face in his neck when he carried her into the living room but Alexis smiled at the guys, looking equal parts shy and excited. They were really sweet to her though and Dustin gave her a warm smile after he’d been introduced.

“Matty said you’re into hockey. Would you like to come to one of our practices sometime?” he asked. “Assuming that’s okay with your Uncle Antoni, of course.”

“Yeah,” she said, looking flustered and thrilled. “Oh my God. That would be great. Can we, Uncle Antoni?”

“Of course,” he said because shit, he’d bend over backwards to do anything that made her look that happy.

She let out an excited little squeal.

“Okay,” Matty said, bouncing Reese a little. “We’ll get the rest of these boxes out of the living room then. What’s next after that?”

Feeling like he was in some sort of weird dream, Antoni held River while he directed the guys on what to pack in their vehicles. Some of the furniture had come with the house—like the kitchen table and chairs—so that could all stay.

Several more guys showed up partway through and Antoni murmured a greeting to them. There was a freckle-faced kid who introduced himself as Colton Yates, a handsome black guy with a friendly smile who said his name was Jordan Stokes, and a quiet, good-looking Swedish man named Eric Jensen.

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