Page 37 of Rookie Rules
Rowan stood. The pillow had helped. The stiffness remained, no worse.
As he passed Luca's bed, Luca moved one leg inward to clear the narrow space between mattress and desk. His hand rested on top of the duvet, palm loose.
Rowan stopped.
"Yesterday," he said. "The route behind Nolan."
Luca lifted his head.
"You saw the turn before Finn did."
"So did you. Eventually."
Rowan accepted the hit. "Call it earlier next time."
"Even if you haven't moved yet?"
"Especially then. Give me the information. I decide whether I can use it."
Luca considered that, the hockey question carrying an echo neither acknowledged. "Turn. One word?"
"One word. Loud enough for Finn to hear it too."
Luca tried it at conversation volume.
"Louder."
"The man next door will think we're rehearsing a robbery."
"He slept through Jace dropping a suitcase on the bus. He will survive."
Luca called it again, sharp enough to cut through imagined skate noise. Rowan's body prepared for the route before thought caught up.
"That," he said.
Luca's mouth curved. "There he is."
Rowan should move.
Instead, he reached down and tapped two fingers once against Luca's ankle beneath the duvet. Brief. Practical. The same contact he might use on the bench to get a teammate's attention.
Nothing about it felt like the bench.
"Sleep," Rowan said.
He returned to his bed.
The mattress remained wrong. The rain remained. Morning still waited less than five hours away.
Rowan set the alarm volume lower before placing his phone on the nightstand. Luca's alarm would sound first from the window side, but Rowan knew he would wake before it. He always did.
He considered saying thank you for the pillow. The words felt both too small and too revealing, gratitude aimed at an object when the real gift had been Luca turning away.
The missed chance remained in the space between the beds.
Across the room, Luca did not speak again.
Rowan lay on his left side with the hotel pillow supporting his hip and listened as Luca's breathing gradually lengthened.
