Page 72 of Rookie Rules

Mateo occupied two recovery boots and complained that they made him look like furniture. Jace lay on a mat with one forearm over his eyes. Finn had folded himself around a foam roller and was negotiating with it in language Rowan did not consider useful. Across the training room, Gabriel sat quietly while Owen checked the bruise forming above his left knee from a third-period collision.

Winning had not made any of them younger.

Rowan stood beside the mobility rack and worked a resistance band around his knees. The right side of his lower back had tightened during the night, not sharply, not beyond the range he knew. The winner had required one rotation through contact. The final ninety seconds had required two defensive-zone draws and a block along the boards.

Normal cost.

He completed the next repetition without allowing the right hip to shorten.

"You're compensating," Owen said.

Rowan looked over. "You are six meters away."

"And yet."

Owen finished with Gabriel and crossed the room. He watched Rowan perform two more rotations, then pointed toward an open table.

"Five minutes."

"You said mobility only today."

"I said recovery at nine. I did not promise you could design it."

From the mat, Finn lifted his head. "He hates surprise services."

"Roll," Rowan said.

Finn returned his face to the floor.

Rowan sat on the edge of the treatment table. Around him, the room continued its ordinary work. Compression units cycled. Tape tore. Someone opened the refrigerator of recovery drinks and stared into it as if hoping for a better flavor to develop.

Luca entered from the locker room carrying two bottles and the game puck Vale had given him the night before.

"It has attended breakfast," Rowan said.

Luca looked at the puck. "Team-building exercise."

"Put it somewhere secure."

"Jealous yours is smaller?"

"They are regulation size."

Jace groaned from the mat. "That answer injured me more than the game."

Luca laughed and set the puck on the shelf above his recovery station. His gaze moved once to Rowan on the table, to Owen's hand at Rowan's hip, then away.

No joke about age. No question.

Rowan noticed the restraint because it matched the hotel room and because Luca had never been restrained by accident.

Owen asked Rowan to lie back, moved the leg through a controlled range, and stopped before the joint reached resistance.

"Different from baseline?"

"No."

"During the game?"