Page 75 of Rookie Rules

The rest of the afternoon acquired a destination.

At home, Rowan completed the first half of his recovery sequence alone. He changed into soft pants and a long-sleeved shirt, set the reusable heat wrap on the kitchen counter, and cleared a scouting report from the coffee table.

He did not move the photograph by the bookcase. He noticed that he did not.

Luca arrived at six twelve with a paper bag in one hand and no performance prepared for the doorway.

"Soup," he said. "Rice. Chicken. A vegetable you cannot object to on moral grounds."

"You are late."

"Twelve minutes is romantic suspense."

Rowan stepped aside.

Luca removed his shoes without being told. That small evidence of memory made the hall feel narrower.

Before sitting, Rowan noticed Luca favoring his right hand when he opened the containers.

"Show me."

Luca looked at the taped knuckle. "Owen already cleaned it."

"Show me."

Luca held out his hand. The cut was superficial, the skin split where a glove seam had rubbed after contact. Rowan checked the tape without removing it.

"Dry after you shower. Retape before bed."

"You invite everyone over for this level of hospitality?"

"Only people who bleed on my food containers."

Luca's grin softened. He turned his hand and briefly closed his fingers around Rowan's.

The touch lasted one second. It carried the same message Luca had given him in the training room by looking away: I see you. I will not expose you.

Rowan released him before the message required an answer.

They ate at the kitchen island. Luca described Mateo's attempt to race the compression boots and Eli's explanation that stationary equipment could not produce a race. Rowan corrected one detail in the opening-night entry. Luca corrected the correction. The exchange lasted through most of the rice.

Neither mentioned the treatment table.

After dinner, Rowan rinsed the bowls. Luca dried them and put the first one in the wrong cabinet.

"Left," Rowan said.

Luca moved it. "You could label everything."

"Most people learn."

"Most people fear you."

"You do neither."

Luca looked at him over the rim of the second bowl. "I learn."

The answer settled between them with the weight of a promise neither had made.