Page 176 of Rookie Rules

"It was not."

"Better."

Rowan released his wrist. Luca kept his hand there for another second before reaching for the door frame to steady him.

Trying, Rowan understood, would be made of such unremarkable permissions. A sofa. A separate apartment. A question answered without bargaining for the preferred result.

Luca turned his hand and linked their fingers briefly, hidden by the open car door but not hidden from each other.

"Front door," he agreed.

Chapter 28: Home Ice

Luca's red jacket had occupied Rowan's kitchen chair for thirty-one consecutive days.

This was not accidental. The coat closet had space. Rowan had pointed out the space twice, then stopped when Luca asked whether he intended to issue the jacket a stall assignment.

The jacket remained visible from the front door.

So did Luca's shoes beneath the bench, his coffee beans beside Rowan's, and the ridiculous ceramic bowl shaped like a lemon that now held both their keys.

Rowan's house had not become less orderly. It had become an order that accounted for another person.

Luca stood barefoot at the kitchen island on a morning in the week before Christmas and watched Rowan conduct rehabilitation with the concentration of a man disarming an explosive.

"Six," Luca counted.

Rowan drew his right leg inward against the resistance band.

"Seven."

"That was six."

"You paused long enough for it to develop a separate identity. Seven."

"You are not qualified to supervise this."

"Owen sent me the sheet."

"Owen sent you the sheet because you asked him privately."

"I asked in the group chat you created for my supervision."

Rowan completed the repetition and released the band. "It is not a supervision chat."

The chat was named HALE ADDUCTOR RETURN PLAN and contained Rowan, Luca, Owen, and twenty-three messages in which Luca had submitted photographic evidence of Rowan attempting stairs without his crutch.

"Of course," Luca said. "It is an accountability forum."

"Eight."

"That one was seven."

Rowan raised his head.

Luca smiled and sipped coffee from Rowan's former favorite mug. It had become Luca's through the legal principle of finding it first every morning.

Five weeks earlier, Luca had entered through the front door carrying Rowan's medical bag. He stayed that night on the sofa because Rowan could not turn in bed without pain and because agreeing to try again did not erase what had happened.