Page 58 of Rookie Rules

Chapter 10: The Rules

Rowan invited Luca to his house because rules required neutral conditions.

That was the explanation he used while straightening two glasses on the kitchen counter.

His home was quiet, private, and nowhere near team facilities. No hotel corridor. No borrowed room. No apartment selected by the organization for a rookie who had not unpacked.

No ambiguity.

He had bought the house six years earlier because the commute to the arena was manageable and the neighboring lots were large enough to discourage accidental conversation. The kitchen had been renovated before he moved in. The living room furniture had been selected in one afternoon. Every object had a place, and almost none of them asked anything of him.

Tonight the rooms felt staged.

Rowan moved the bowl of keys three inches to the left, recognized what he was doing, and put it back.

On the counter, his phone displayed Luca's last message from the night before.

Sleep. Recovery matters.

Rowan had answered because leaving Luca without confirmation would have been careless. He had spent most of the day refusing to examine why carelessness was the word he chose.

The doorbell rang at seven.

Luca entered wearing jeans, a dark jacket, and the expression of someone arriving for entertainment.

"Nice place," he said, looking past Rowan into the clean lines of the living room. "Do you live here or protect evidence here?"

"Take off your shoes."

"Rule one?"

"We have not started."

Luca's gaze sharpened. "There are actually rules."

Rowan closed the door.

Last night returned with brutal efficiency: Luca against the apartment door, Luca asking him to say what he wanted, Luca listening when Rowan did. The softness afterward had been worse. Water offered without a joke. Luca giving him room to become afraid without pretending not to see it.

He redirected toward the kitchen.

"Water?"

"Is alcohol prohibited during negotiations?"

"Water."

"I drove. Water is good."

Luca hung his jacket on the hook Rowan indicated and followed him. He noticed the framed photograph beside the bookcase: Rowan at nineteen in a Wolves development jersey, his parents on either side of him. He noticed the row of game pucks in the cabinet and the absence of personal photographs after Rowan's first professional season.

"You were young," Luca said.

"Most people are at nineteen."

"You already looked concerned about defensive coverage."

"We lost that game."