Page 96 of The Home Game

“Fine! I’m gonna go shoot pucks then,” she said with a glare like she was defying them to say no.

“And I’m going to go for a run to clear my head.” Antoni turned and stalked back toward his bedroom.

When he was gone, Alexis deflated a little. “He’s really mad at me, isn’t he?”

“Well,” Matty said slowly. “He’s definitely upset that you put him—us—in this position.”

“You don’t get it! I did it for Eli, okay!” she hissed and turned on her heel, running for the basement door and slamming it behind her.

Matty sighed and rubbed his face. “So, that went well,” he muttered.

And damn it, he hadn’t even gotten a nap in today. How was he supposed to help fix a problem like this on no sleep?

Since the only thing that cleared Matty’s head when he was feeling like this was a workout or cooking, he lifted some weights, took a quick shower, and was chopping vegetables by the time Antoni joined him in the kitchen.

His hair was wet too, like he’d also showered, and he wore Matty’s hoodie and a sheepish expression.

“God, I fucked up earlier, didn’t I?” He slumped against the counter, stuffing his hands in his pockets. “With Alexis, I mean.”

“Well,” Matty said, trying to word this carefully and not put his foot in his mouth and make things worse. “It was maybe not the coolest, calmest reaction ever but I totally understand why you were freaked.”

“What the fuck was Alexis thinking?” Antoni asked, but there was no heat in his voice, just confusion.

Matty shrugged. “Talking to her is probably the only way to find out. She’s done shooting and back in her room, so now’s probably as good a time as any.”

“True.” Antoni straightened. “Would you come with me?”

Matty must have looked surprised because Antoni added. “Only if you want to. I just … I think I might lose my temper with her again and I don’t want to do that. I thought maybe if you were there, you could pull me back if it starts getting too heated.”

“Yeah, of course,” Matty said, though some part of him had to laugh internally at that. The idea of him being the cool, calm, rational one would be a hell of a joke to anyone who’d ever tangled with him on the ice.

Then again, they’d made him alternate captain for a reason. He was pretty good at talking to the refs and calming his teammates down when things got heated.

Matty set down his knife, wiped his hands dry, then followed Antoni down the hall to Alexis’ room. He felt a twinge in his stomach at the sight of Carlson stretched across Antoni’s shoulders.

He didn’t hate that. He didn’t hate it at all. But now was not the time for thoughts like that.

Antoni knocked on Alexis’ door. “Hey, Matty and I would like to talk to you for a few. May we come in?”

There was silence for a moment before there was a surly, “Sure. Whatever,” from inside.

Matty followed Antoni into the bedroom and shut the door behind them.

“What do you want?” Alexis said, tossing her tablet on the nightstand. She was seated on her bed cross-legged and her scowl was ferocious.

“You know what I want,” Antoni said calmly. He took a seat in the chair by the desk and Matty got comfortable on the floor next to him. “I want to talk. Why did you lie to Judy?”

“I didn’t—”

“Alexis, you told Judy that Matty and I are dating and want to get married. That is a lie.”

“You went along with it.”

“And I deeply, deeply regret that now.” Antoni sighed and pushed his damp hair off his forehead.

The gesture made Matty want to do it for him, to press his lips there and smooth away the lines stress had created on his forehead but he folded his hands together and listened as Antoni kept talking.

“Just explain this to me, Alexis. Because I don’t understand your choices but I want to. I want to know why you felt like that was the right decision.”

---