CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

With Nico back on the ice, he and Matty were the top pairing again.

Matty couldn't stop his grin as the puck dropped to start the game and a fizz of excitement went through him as Dustin immediately took possession, smacking the puck straight onto Colton's stick.

Colton tore across the ice at breathtaking speed, darting between Montreal's defense, flying past them like they were standing still to tuck the puck into the back of the net before their goaltender could blink.

The Lynx had historically been one of the Fisher Cats' biggest rivals but they seemed slow and sluggish off the hop tonight, definitely no match for Colton's speed and skill.

Matty roared along with the crowd as he crashed into Colton, Dustin, Erik, and Nico, trying to pull all of them in for a tight hug. God he'd missed this.

The skating, the scoring, the cellies … all of it.

Across the ice, Matty spotted Dom's tight smile on the bench but he still tapped his stick against the boards and held out his fist for Colton to bump as he flew by.

Poor Dom.

Matty felt a pang of sympathy in his chest.

Colton was incredible to watch, and Matty had seen how hard he'd worked this summer to bring his game to the next level. He'd spent some time on their top line last season but he had officially moved into that role.

It had to be a blow to Dom's ego to see his own role diminish, shifted from top line center to second line last season, to the fourth line now.

Dom would do his best because he loved to play, loved the team, and only wanted the best for them. But Matty could imagine how it must hurt Dom to watch his skills and his usefulness decline.

He'd spent his career as the big goal scorer, the flashy player who won Cups and trophies, the guy who'd gone from having tens of thousands of people chant his name to booing him when he made a mistake.

No matter what Dom said to the media, no matter how fine he pretended to be, it had to hurt. It had to.

Matty had tried all summer to get him to talk about it but Dom had clammed up, even when Matty poured alcohol down in his throat in a desperate attempt to get him to fucking open up.

And look, Matty wasn't exactly the poster boy of talking about his feelings. His family wasn't big on that and well, hockey hadn't exactly helped. But he'd seen La Bouche do it and if their former goaltender could manage that, be the heart and soul of the team, become the first guy in the league to come out, and still have fans chanting his name, then why couldn't Matty?

He'd watched Dustin learn to open up and talk things out with the guys and Matty had also seen what it did to Felix when he did the opposite and bottled everything up.

So Matty had dug deep and gotten better. He'd tried to be really open and honest with Antoni lately and it seemed to be working and God damn it, Dom needed to get there too.

Dom's transition from star player to supporting role was probably making him feel like shit and he needed to talk it out. That was why Matty couldn't be mad right now.

Even if they still weren't really speaking except for hockey.

"Yo, you alive in there, Mats?" Nico hollered, popping him on the ass with the blade of his stick to get his attention. "You wanna play some hockey or something?"

Matty blinked, realizing they were lining up to drop the puck again and he shook his head and skated into position.

Okay, maybe the entire team needed to talk about their feelings more but there was definitely too much thinking going on right now. At the moment, Matty needed less thinking and more hockey.

After the temporary distraction, Matty settled into the flow of the game, battling for pucks and shooting clean passes to his teammates.

The Fisher Cats got a second goal but the Lynx slowly gained steam and by the end of the second period, they were tied 2-2.

Determined to get a win for Antoni and the kids, Matty played his heart out at the beginning of the third period.

He stole pucks and blocked shots and slammed their opponents into the boards.

"What the fuck, Carlson?" Chad Morrison said as he shook himself off following the last hit. "Why are you fucking playing like it's game seven of the playoffs, dude?"

Matty grinned. Morrison had been kind of a dick about Haler last season so Matty had personally enjoyed flattening him tonight.

"Hey, it's not my fault you can't handle all this …" Matty chirped back.

Morrison snorted and skated away, shaking his head.

The teams battled back and forth for a few minutes before Jensen got ahold of the puck. He swooped behind the Lynx's net and wrapped the puck around but it went off the skate of one of the Lynx's defensemen clogging up the net.

Jensen snagged it again, shooting it through traffic to Matty who settled the puck down and fired it across the ice to Colton.

One of the Lynx's players snagged it and they played keep-away for a few minutes. Spotting an opportunity to change, Matty and Nico hopped over the boards, and Jonah and Felix went out to take their place.

On the bench, Matty watched intently as the teams battled, the Fisher Cats gaining possession before losing it again.

When they got the puck back, there was too much traffic to see the net clearly but Jordan whacked away at the disc until it finally went in. His arms and stick went up in celebration and even halfway across the ice Matty could hear his shout of triumph.

Grinning, Matty hollered his own appreciation, watching Jordan's celly and the way the guys flooded around him to celebrate.

"Jord-y, Jord-y!" Matty chanted as he held out his fist for Jordan to bump as he flew past the bench, grinning widely.

Unfortunately, the Lynx quickly retaliated and after they tied it at 3-3, the game grew increasingly more desperate.

"Come on," Matty muttered around his mouthguard as he poked at the puck, trying to get it to go in the fucking net behind Montreal's goalie. "Go in, you fucker."

But he got no love and during the next TV time-out, he was sweaty and frustrated as he skated over to the bench and squirted some water down the back of his neck.

"Showing off for your man, huh?" Nico teased.

Matty grinned and shot Nico in the face with a blast of water.

Sputtering, Nico laughed.

"Arents, Carlson, cut it out!" Gilly hollered.

Matty glanced over. "Seriously? We're just having a bit of fun and the fans love it."

Gilly pursed his lips. "What have I told you, Carlson? The only response I want from you is, "Yes, Gilly!"

"Yes, Gilly," Matty dutifully parroted.

He tucked his water bottle into the rack on the bench, then skated away, but not before he caught a subtle sympathetic eye roll from Dom.

Good.

Maybe that was how Matty could fix shit with Dom. Bonding over Gilly being a dick. Right now, Matty would take whatever he could get.

But his annoyed mood quickly lifted as he caught a glimpse of Antoni talking animatedly to some of the SAPs, River sitting on August's lap, Eli craning their neck to look around, and Jonah's grandma, Ji-Min, in deep discussion with Alexis about something.

That sight made Matty even more determined.

They had eleven minutes to go in this game and Matty had to get a win for his family somehow.

He had to.

As the final five minutes of the game approached, Antoni was at the edge of his seat holding Reese.

River had gotten restless, so Kayla had taken her for a walk along with her little one so Antoni didn't have to miss a second of the game.

The Fisher Cats and Lynx were still tied 3-3 and Antoni chewed his lip as he watched Matty smash a guy into the side of the rink—the boards, according to Charlie.

Damn, Charlie was probably right.

Antoni had always found hockey a little rough and violent. A little too hypermasculine. But now …

The on-ice behavior was such an intriguing contrast to what he'd seen of the team. Off the ice, the guys seemed so much softer. They cooed over babies and dated men who wore makeup and well, Antoni hardly knew what to think.

He loved it but it certainly wasn't what he'd expected and some part of him really, really hated to admit how hot it got him to watch Matty throw his weight around.

Damn it, Antoni was a Canadian cliché after all. He was officially a convert to the game of ice hockey.

When Dustin got a goal off a pass from Nico, Antoni whooped with happiness, but there was an immediate whistle from the ref and, confused, he turned to Charlie and asked, "Wait, what's happening?"

"Goaltender interference, I think," Charlie said with a frown as the crowd went silent, staring at the Jumbotron. One of the referees skated out and made an announcement that they were reviewing the goal on those grounds.

"So what is goaltender interference?" Antoni asked over the boos of the home crowd and the cheers from the visiting fans.

Charlie laughed. "Honey, I wish I knew. As far as I can tell, no one knows. Not even the refs."

"Hey, watch it," August said, chuckling as he leaned around Charlie to look Antoni in the eye. "Charlie's partly right though. It's a complicated rule and the league hasn't made it as clear as it should be. The basic rule is that if the attacking player—the one trying to score the goal—uses their stick or body to interfere with or stop the movement of the goalie using physical contact, that's goaltender interference. Some of it's really open to interpretation though and it causes a ton of problems."

"So what happens if it is ruled interference?" Antoni asked.

"The goal gets called back," August explained. "And we—the Fisher Cats—are back down to 3-3."

"Hmm," Antoni said, watching the screen as they replayed the video of the goal. Weird. To him, it looked like the Montreal Lynx goalie was the one who made contact with Dustin, not the other way around.

But hey, what did he know?

To Antoni's surprise, August frowned thoughtfully. "You know, it looks to me like the goalie made contact with the player."

Antoni internally cheered. Maybe he wasn't going to be totally hopeless at this hockey fan thing.

He watched intently as the referees conferred, then did something with an iPad. It seemed to take forever for them to decide and Antoni held his breath as he waited.

He must have squeezed Reese a little too tight because he wriggled in protest, scrunching up his face.

"Sorry, kiddo," Antoni said, kissing the top of his head.

"Here, you can hold my hand," Charlie said with a laugh. "I don't want you to squeeze the baby until his head pops off."

"I might take you up on that." Antoni laughed and glanced down at Charlie's offered hand. The glint of his ring made Antoni's eyes widen. "Wow, that's quite a rock."

"Mmhmm. Dustin doesn't do anything halfway, does he?" Charlie tilted his hand, the ring sparkling in the arena lights.

"You aren't kidding. I am glad my mom went simpler for ours." Antoni held out his own hand.

"It's pretty though. Tungsten and rose gold?"

"Yeah." Antoni slipped the band off and passed it over.

Charlie inspected it carefully. "That's really lovely. What does the inscription mean?"

"When you know, you know?" Antoni asked.

Charlie nodded.

"Ahh, well …" Antoni glanced over at the bench. Matty was deep in conversation with Nico so Antoni didn't expect him to look up but he did, his whole face lighting up with a bright smile.

"My mom picked the inscription out too," he said faintly, his heart racing with the sudden burst of feelings shooting through him. "But I think she means that … that even if our feelings for each other aren't obvious at first, we'll know it when they change. We'll know it when—when we fall in love."

"And do you think you will fall in love?" Charlie murmured.

"I think I might be headed that way already," Antoni admitted, mouth suddenly dry. Was that possible? Was he really falling in love with Matty?

But before Antoni could dig too deep into his feelings, the referee skated to the red line and Antoni's attention turned to the game.

He held his breath as the ref said, "Up further review, it was determined that there was goaltender interference and we have no goal."

He flung his arms out to the sides and the noise of the crowd rose, booing his call and the sight of the score dropping from 4-3 to 3-3.

"That's bull!" August shouted and Antoni grinned when Jonah's grandmother said a few choice words as well.

God, this was a fun group. Now, if the Fisher Cats could just pull off a win tonight …

Antoni felt like he barely breathed in the last few minutes of the game as the teams battled over the puck. The air was loud with the clack of sticks and Antoni couldn't deny the thrumming in his veins as they raced up and down the ice.

With two minutes to go, the Lynx nearly snuck a puck in behind the Fisher Cats goalie, Jesse Webber, and Elena cursed something in Russian.

Or at least, Antoni assumed it was a curse. He could speak a smattering of Italian but he wasn't exactly fluent in Russian.

Ohh maybe he should learn so he could swear in front of the kids without them knowing. Then again, knowing Alexis and Eli, they'd pick it up really fast and get them all in trouble.

"Antosha wouldn't have fumbled the puck that way," Elena said with a scowl. "Webber is good but he's not ready yet."

Charlie gave her a sympathetic smile over his shoulder. "How soon until Anton's back?"

"Hopefully November," she said with a sigh. "If I have my way, sooner. That man is driving me crazy being at home so much. I don't need more babies to take care of."

Antoni and Charlie both laughed but as the play resumed, Antoni's attention returned to the ice once again.

The clock ticked down and it wasn't until they announced the final minute of the game that Nico smacked the puck toward the net.

It hit the post and Antoni blindly reached for Charlie's hand, gripping it tightly as Matty threw himself on his stomach, poking at the puck until it went in behind their goaltender.

Antoni didn't blink, didn't move, barely even breathed as he waited for the whistle to blow and for there to be another goaltender interference call, but Matty quickly sprang to his feet, barreling toward Nico and scooping him up in a hug and shaking him.

Laughing, relieved, Antoni grinned at the SAPs and his family around him who were high-fiving and celebrating.

Antoni got pulled into hugs and even Reese seemed to feel the excitement, because his blue eyes were wide and he clapped his hands.

And then Charlie nudged him in the ribs. "Look at Matty!" he hissed.

Antoni glanced over to see Matty pointing at him. He froze, not sure how to respond, but Charlie whispered, "Blow him a kiss! That means he scored the goal for you."

Still grinning, Antoni did it and he watched Matty roar and bang on the glass near him before he skated over to the bench.

The final few seconds of the game seemed painfully slow but Antoni's heart was still pounding as it ended with the Fisher Cats winning 4-3.

His whole body felt like it was buzzing as he gathered their things, tossing a diaper bag over his shoulder and making sure no toys had gone astray.

"So, what do you think about hockey now?" his mom asked as they left their seats, following Charlie toward a secret door into the hallway that would take them to the family lounge and locker room area.

"Oh my God, I love it," Antoni breathed.

Laughing, his dad slapped him on the back. "I knew I'd make a hockey fan of you yet."

Eliza snorted. "Oh, Enzo, it wasn't you. It was Matty."

He shrugged. "Either way, my boy's happy and we can watch hockey together. That's all that matters."

And a short while later, as Antoni wrapped his arms around a furnace-hot, still-sweaty Matty, Antoni kissed him deeply and thought, I am happy.

And he didn't know if the jolt that went through him at the thought was because he was afraid the happiness might end or because there was a chance it wouldn't.