Page 126 of Rookie Rules

"Who was he?" Luca asked.

Rowan unlocked his car. "You heard Claire."

"Don't."

The single word stopped him.

Luca stood beside his own car with both hands in his coat pockets. He had waited until they were alone. He had done everything Rowan's rules demanded.

"We dated," Rowan said. "Years ago."

Luca's jaw shifted. "How long?"

"Eighteen months."

"You never mentioned him."

"There was no reason to."

"You forgot an event cue while talking to him. Graham moved away from you before a photograph like he knew exactly how much space you needed. There was a reason tonight."

Those were facts Luca had witnessed. Rowan could contest none of them.

"Why did it end?" Luca asked.

Rowan could offer incompatibility, schedules, careers moving in different directions. Each would be accurate enough to conceal the choice beneath it.

"He wanted more."

"And you didn't?"

"I couldn't give it."

Luca studied the hood of his car. "Couldn't or wouldn't?"

"Does the distinction help?"

"It tells me whether you think this keeps happening to you or whether you keep doing it."

Fear tightened into irritation because Luca had found the exact question without hearing anything Graham said in private.

"The endorsement is unresolved," Rowan said. "The team is 5-6. We have a game in two days. This is not the time to turn old history into a verdict."

Luca's face became very still.

"You promised a conversation after the trip," he said. "Then the contract was too important. Now the standings are."

"They are important."

"I know. Everything is important enough to come before me."

Rowan opened the car door and did not enter.

"Come home with me," he said.

The invitation was real. So was what Rowan wanted from it: Luca in his house, in his bed, close enough to silence the comparison Graham had left behind.

Luca's mouth tightened. "For what?"