Page 56 of Rookie Rules

Rowan lay beside him with one forearm across his eyes. Luca watched the slow rise of his ribs.

The room contained evidence now. Shirts on the floor. Rowan's watch on the nightstand. The shape of two bodies beneath one sheet.

Luca wanted to touch him again, but not with urgency. He wanted to put a hand on Rowan's chest and feel it settle. The softness of that want alarmed him more than anything they had done.

He reached for the water on the nightstand instead.

"Here."

Rowan lowered his arm and accepted the glass. Their fingers touched around it.

"Thank you."

The words were so ordinary Luca nearly smiled.

Rowan drank, then looked toward the bedroom door. Luca watched the captain return by increments. Shoulders aligning. Breath measured. Consequence taking up residence behind his eyes.

"This does not change the team," Rowan said.

Luca stared at the ceiling. "There he is."

"I mean it."

"I know."

"We keep it separate."

"You're writing rules already."

Rowan sat up and reached for his shirt.

The movement hurt more than Luca expected. Not because Rowan was leaving. Because the choice had been so clear until consequence arrived, and now Rowan was dressing as if clarity itself had been unsafe.

Luca pushed himself upright. "You came here."

Rowan stopped with one arm in the sleeve.

"Yes."

"You said what you wanted."

"Yes."

"Don't turn that into something I did to you."

Rowan looked back.

For a moment, he was the man who had said you in Luca's doorway.

"I won't," he said.

The answer mattered.

It did not solve anything.

Rowan dressed with the efficiency of a road-game departure. Luca found his own shirt and pulled it on, suddenly unwilling to be the only one exposed.

At the bedroom door, Rowan paused.