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

Tugging down his shirts, Dante flops back into his seat, his sweatshirt balled up in his lap. “Look at this,” he says, and when Ryan obeys, he pulls the sleeve of his shirt up over one slim arm. Ryan sees tanned skin marred by a thin scar that runs the length of Dante’s forearm, from the base of his thumb to the crook of his elbow. Tracing the scar with one finger, Dante tells him, “Semi-finals last year, I got tangled up with Dietrich in the final stretch. Those blades are sharp, you know?” Ryan nods—he knows.


Tentatively, he touches the scar, Dante’s skin warm beneath his…will his legs heal this completely? Will this pain that rattles his bones narrow down to something as simple as this? A scar, a memory, a battle story told to another skater down the road? He hopes so.


Chapter 19