On his way to realizing his Olympic dream, Tom Alan Baranowski finds himself in the midst of a dilemma. His traditional Japanese coach is insisting upon an arranged marriage between his biological daughter Erika and adopted son Tom Alan, who are partners on the ice. Tom Alan loves Erika, and his coach literally saved his life, rescuing him from an abusive home. How can he say no?<br><br>Somewhat resigned to his “not so bad” fate, everything changes when Tom Alan meets British ice dancer Milo Fisher. The spark between them is almost hot enough to melt the ice beneath their blades, and the two fall into an affair.<br><br>What about Erika? What about loyalty? What about gold? For Tom Alan, the impossible throw quadruple jump is suddenly the least difficult thing in his life.

Quadruple Flip

“Kiki and I were raised in a way where we didn’t really even think of ourselves that way. Brother and sister. When I first went to live with the Tsuchinos, well, not when I first…” Tom Alan paused. “One day, I called Mr. Tsuchino Papa. It kind of slipped out, I think. I must have been feeling it. He was so good to me. He said, ‘Not yet, Tom Alan-kun.’ The ‘kun’ is an honorific, a term of endearment suffix, though not for a son. That’s important, that he used it up until a certain point.”


Tom Alan went on, self-conscious as he was. “Papa said I had to wait until I was eighteen to call him that, when I was old enough to be his son-in-law, even if I really wasn’t. Yet. I called him Mr. Tsuchino or Sensei until then. Still do, sometimes. Sometimes, truthfully, I’m a little confused about what to call him when.”


“Sensei…like from Karate Kid,” Kat said.


Chapter 29