Page 153 of Rookie Rules

He had not distrusted the play.

He had distrusted his right to make it with Rowan.

Luca stood, moved the coffee away, and set a roll of tape on the floor where Rowan's blade had been. He took a practice ball from his equipment bag and passed it against the wall. The rebound struck the tape.

Again.

The second hit the baseboard.

Again.

By seven, the exercise had stopped being about Rowan. It became angle, pressure, release. The lesson Rowan had repeated since September: emotion could inform a read, but it could not be allowed to replace one.

Luca had once heard that as a demand to become less himself.

Now he understood the useful part. Feeling everything did not require obeying everything.

Before the next rebound, the Boreal schedule lit his phone again. The first production day included six hours in studio, a short interview, and a social-media segment Claire had already marked OPTIONAL PENDING APPROVAL.

A month ago, Luca would have forwarded the whole thing to Rowan and asked which demands a serious player accepted. The impulse came now, familiar and useless.

He opened the schedule himself.

The studio call ended late enough to interfere with team recovery the morning before an away trip. Luca proposed an earlier call time and asked Claire to keep the interview questions to hockey, style, and the campaign. He approved the social segment only if Boreal provided the format in advance. No invented dating story, no teasing copy that implied Nadia was anything except his colleague.

Claire replied before he finished washing the coffee mug.

Good catches. I will push all three. Also, eat something before you turn contract review into cardio.

Luca set bread in the toaster. The decisions were small, but they were his. He could accept help without surrendering judgment, and he could protect his work without waiting for Rowan to tell him which risks counted.

His phone rang while he chased the ball beneath the sofa.

THEO BENNETT appeared on the screen.

Luca considered letting it go to voicemail. Theo interpreted unanswered calls as legal disputes with inadequate counsel.

He accepted. "You know ordinary brothers text."

"Ordinary brothers do not sign image-rights riders at six in the morning without sending them to the attorney in the family."

Theo's face appeared from a quiet office, dark hair neat, white shirt open at the throat. At thirty, he had perfected the expression of a man prepared to bill someone for disappointing him.

"Claire used outside counsel," Luca said.

"A phrase designed specifically to injure me."

"The agreement is good."

"I read it. It is good." Theo paused. "Why are you awake?"

"It is seven."

"You voluntarily wake before sunrise only for flights, hockey, or emotional catastrophe. You are at home, so I have eliminated one."

Luca retrieved the ball and sat on the floor.

"We lost."