Page 143 of Rookie Rules

"I didn't ask you here for permission."

"I know."

"Do you?"

The coffee cup flexed once beneath Rowan's fingers.

Luca had rehearsed this conversation in three languages and trusted none of them. In English he could be precise. In Italian he could be honest. In the wordless language they had built on the ice, Rowan would understand everything and still find a way not to answer.

So Luca chose precision.

"I can live with private," he said. "I need you to understand that first. I am not asking you to tell the team. I am not asking for photographs, or a date in public, or some announcement that puts your career in danger."

Rowan's shoulders lowered a fraction, relief arriving before he could stop it.

That hurt more than Luca expected.

"But I cannot live with being treated like something you are ashamed of," Luca continued.

"I am not ashamed of you."

The answer came immediately. Captain-fast. Protective and insufficient.

"Then why do I disappear every time this becomes real?"

"That is not what is happening."

"Graham disappeared. Now I disappear. You call it privacy, but privacy is when two people protect something together. This is you protecting yourself from the fact that it exists."

Rowan looked past him toward the empty ramp. No one was coming.

"Graham had no right to involve you in that."

"He didn't. You did."

Rowan's gaze returned to him.

"You brought the same rules," Luca said. "You used the same door. You told me he wanted more, and your face told me what happened when he asked."

"This is different."

"Because I am younger? Because you are my captain? Because it is the season? Pick one. You have many good reasons. That is the problem."

Rowan set the coffee on the concrete barrier beside him with exact care. "The power difference is real. My responsibility to the team is real. If this goes badly, you are not the one people will say should have known better."

"It is going badly now."

"Because I asked for space?"

"Because every time you feel something, you turn it into a rule I have to obey."

The words hung beneath the fluorescent hum.

Rowan's jaw tightened. "I am trying not to use my position against you."

"Then stop deciding for both of us."

"It is not that simple."