Page 133 of Rookie Rules

At the next stall, Luca unlaced his skates and listened to Rowan offer a clean version of them to strangers. The game tape would show Rowan knowing where Luca would move before Luca committed. It would also show Luca refusing the better option whenever glory presented itself.

After media, he found Rowan near the equipment corridor.

"Did you mean it?" Luca asked.

Rowan adjusted the strap of his travel bag. "What?"

"Trust."

His attention flicked toward the locker-room entrance. "On the ice, yes."

The qualifier required no thought.

Luca nodded. "Right."

"You need to stop treating a favorable rebound as proof that the shot was correct."

"I know."

"Then why did you take the empty net?"

"Because for one second I thought I could make the whole arena certain about me."

Rowan's grip tightened around the bag strap.

Luca had offered more truth than the hockey question required. Rowan answered only the part he could manage.

"Certainty is not the same as possession."

"That sounded almost personal."

"It was a hockey correction."

Of course it was.

Finn emerged from the locker room, saw them, and slowed. Damp hair curled at his forehead. The usual joke did not come.

Luca stepped away. "Bus in twenty, Captain."

On the flight home, the winning goal spread across social media. Analysts praised the line's instinctive chemistry. One caption said Hale and Bennett seemed connected by invisible wire.

Luca watched the clip once. Rowan stole the puck, Finn screened, and Luca carried a defender out of the shooting lane. They had solved the same play together without exchanging a word.

The next clip showed Luca icing the puck instead of giving it to Finn.

He closed the app.

Beside the window, Rowan reviewed game video with his headphones on. Finn sat across the aisle, awake but motionless, Kaito's glove tap sealed somewhere behind his closed expression.

Luca had never felt more connected to two men on the ice.

Away from it, all three of them kept their separate silences.

Chapter 21: Containment

Rowan corrected Luca before the puck reached the net.

"Hold the route."