Page 12 of Rookie Rules

Vale froze the frame after the release. "Better process. Worse result. We build the process until the results follow."

Luca leaned back. "Inspiring. Put it on the wall upstairs."

Claire probably would.

Vale clicked to a blank lineup screen. Three names appeared across the top.

MERCER - HALE - BENNETT.

The room shifted around Luca with the subtle interest of men grateful that somebody else's morning had become complicated.

"We test combinations today," Vale said. "This is one. Mercer stabilizes the left. Hale drives the middle. Bennett gives us a finishing threat on the right."

Luca looked past Finn to Rowan.

Rowan was studying the screen as if his name had appeared beside a routine maintenance notice.

Vale added, "Hale, Bennett is yours through camp. Video, routes, team standards. Make sure the improvisation has an address."

This time Luca did look at Rowan.

"Do I get a manual?" he asked.

"No," Rowan said. "You'd skip to the pictures."

A laugh escaped Finn before he covered it with a cough.

Luca's mouth wanted to answer before his pride had selected the right weapon. "I learn fast."

"I noticed."

Two words. No smile. Still, yesterday's short nod returned with them.

Vale moved on to the next combination.

Luca should have listened. Instead, he stared at the three names until the screen changed.

Top line.

Mentored by Rowan Hale.

Opportunity wrapped so neatly in containment that it almost passed for a gift.

When Vale dismissed them, the lineup remained on the screen for one extra second.

Luca caught the reactions in pieces. Jace lifted his brows in congratulations that could become mockery if invited. Mateo gave him a quick tap on the shoulder as he passed. Eli stared at the screen as if combinations were equations and someone had changed a variable without showing the work.

No one treated the assignment as punishment.

That should have helped.

Instead, it made the opportunity harder to resist. Top-line minutes meant better matchups only in marketing language. In hockey language they meant the other team's best defenders, fewer mistakes forgiven, and every ambitious winger in camp measuring the space Luca occupied.

Rowan closed his notebook and spoke quietly with Vale. Neither looked at Luca. That irritated him more than being discussed would have.

Finn rose beside him. "Welcome to the glamorous life."

"Does it come with breakfast?"