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

He did. And though he’d watched video of himself skating time and time again—it was an integral part of improving, standard practice—what he saw in Jenn’s video, though blurry and poorly lit, was a flair, a wanton, reckless beauty he had never seen, not since watching Milo do “Swan Lake.”


“What’s different about this? What’s different about you, that you could do this tonight?” Jenn asked. “Gimme your e-mail.”


“You need to watch this over and over. Figure out how come, and don’t take this wrong, figure out how come that dorky, cumbersome, talented, athletic, but really self-conscious guy that skated with me this morning, tonight managed to pull off this.”


She sent Tom Alan the video and kissed him on the cheek. “I wish I could have the chance to skate with him,” she said.


“Sadly, I won’t be here tomorrow,” Jenn said.


Chapter 50