Page 13 of Rookie Rules

"Mostly defensive-zone starts and strangers explaining why you should shoot more."

Luca stood. "I already shoot an excellent amount."

"I know. We all know. The glass knows."

When the meeting ended, players carried coffee cups and notebooks back toward the locker room. Luca waited until Rowan was pulled aside by Vale, then caught Finn near the equipment racks.

"How bad is it?" Luca asked.

Finn did not pretend to misunderstand. "Playing with me? Devastating. I snore on flights and steal good tape."

"The mentoring."

"Ah." Finn selected a stick and tested the flex against the floor. "Congratulations. You annoyed Vale into a promotion."

"He put a leash on me."

"Rowan doesn't believe in leashes."

"That's comforting."

"He believes in systems of increasingly specific doors."

Luca looked through the open locker-room entrance. Rowan stood in the corridor listening to Vale, posture still, expression giving away nothing.

"He always like this?"

"Like what?"

"As if every sentence costs him money."

Finn's smile softened at one edge. "Cap sees more than he says. Usually more than anyone wants him to."

The warning should have irritated Luca.

It did.

It also settled somewhere uncomfortably close to anticipation.

On the ice, Rowan began with spacing.

"Hold the wall."

"I know where the wall is."

"Then stop leaving it early."

Finn glided through the middle and tapped Luca's shin pad with his stick. "He says please with his eyebrows."

"I don't need translation."

"You will."

They ran the entry again.

Finn collected the breakout on the left and moved it down to Rowan swinging low through the middle. Luca accelerated on the right. His instinct told him to cut toward the puck, close the distance, make himself impossible to miss.

Rowan pointed once with his stick.