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

His mother drops him off at the rink the next morning by 7:30, same as the day before. He suspects she’s all too happy to be rid of him for a few hours—as long as he’s not wheeling around the house or holed up in the den, she can pretend that things are still the same, he’s still at college and he’s still whole. When he does walk again and things dogo back to normal, he suspects that she’ll never mention the accident, as if it didn’t happen at all.


But going to the rink gets him out of the house, at any rate, and today she stands by the side of the van but doesn’t try to help him, just watches silently as he wheels up the ramp into the building. He wonders if he’ll get a chance to talk with Dante much before she’ll be back to take him to therapy at ten. He hopes so.


Chapter 17