Page 142 of Rookie Rules

"Boreal matched it. Five percent of your fee to the Northstar access program, separately credited."

That part had been Luca's request before Rowan offered any opinion. New skates would not make the campaign honest, but they would make the transaction useful beyond him.

He added the dates to his calendar himself. Fitting. Closed set. Launch. None felt like a verdict on who he was allowed to want. They were work he had chosen under terms he had helped write.

"Now are we done?" Claire asked.

"Now we are done."

He thanked her before ending the call. Then he saved the agreement in the folder where Theo had taught him to keep every contract, amendment, and approval. The decision had witnesses, language, and a paper trail.

It did not need Rowan's blessing to become real.

He set his phone facedown on the kitchen counter. The apartment was gray with early light. His gear bag waited by the door, packed with the neatness he used when everything else felt uncontained.

At six fourteen, he texted Rowan.

Can you meet me on P2 before skate?

The reply came before Luca had put on his coat.

Yes.

No question mark. No attempt to move the conversation into a video room, an office, a controlled category.

For one dangerous second, Luca loved him for that.

Then he picked up his bag and left.

The arena parking level smelled of cold concrete and exhaust. Fluorescent lights hummed above rows of cars belonging to staff who had arrived before the city woke. Luca parked near the service elevators and stood beside the hood with both hands in his coat pockets.

Rowan's truck came down the ramp four minutes later.

He parked two spaces away. When he climbed out, there was stiffness in the first step from the cab, a guarded catch at his right side that disappeared by the second. He wore a black Wolves coat zipped to the throat and carried coffee he did not drink.

"You are early," Rowan said.

"So are you."

"I usually am."

It was the kind of exchange they could have survived inside forever. Hockey offered a thousand harmless sentences for two people who could not say the necessary one.

Rowan stopped an arm's length away. "What happened?"

Luca almost laughed. The question made disaster sound recent.

"I accepted Boreal."

Something moved through Rowan's face, too fast to name. "All right."

"Claire got the protections. Separate frames, no romance angle, approval on the copy. Nadia is a coworker. The campaign is work."

"That sounds better."

"It is better."

Rowan nodded. "Then I am glad you got terms you can live with."