Ryan Talonovich is the star of his college hockey team, until an accident during practice leaves him confined to a wheelchair. The doctors say he'll walk again but a new season is already underway and he's been replaced on the team, which leaves him feeling alone and betrayed. What's the use of fighting to get back on the ice now?<br><br>Then he meets Dante Espinosa, a short track skater on the city's speed skating club. Though he has to work overtime to afford his sport, Dante is hell on ice, and dreams of making the cut on the U.S. Olympic Speedskating Team.<br><br>Their love of the ice brings them together, but too many obstacles stand in their way: Ryan's struggle with therapy. The memory of Dante's first boyfriend. Lack of funding to the event, Dante's harassing boss, a skating friend in love with him, and Wil Dietrich, who will do anything to win.

Power Play

Four and a half laps around the rink, that’s all he gets. Around the first curve he slips in front of Pennock—that wasn’t hard to do. The kid’s too damn big for this sport anyway. When he pulls up from the turn he sees Pennock stumble over one of the track blocks, he goes down on one knee, comes back up, falls again. As Dante takes the next curve, he notices Pennock skating to the edge of the ice, his helmet thrown down in disgust. Pissed, and he’s not even giving himself a chance just because he screwed up in the first lap. Dante can’t believe that—he knows this sport well enough to know anything can happen, anything at all. Quitting just because he might not win isn’t an option.


Chapter 10