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

Thinking quickly, he tells her, “Seven thirty.” That’ll give him time to talk to Dante before the first race—


She stares at the food on her plate and doesn’t meet his gaze when she says, “That’s too early.”


“That’s when I have to be there,” he replies. His voice hardens as he adds, “If I could, I’d drive myself. Do you think I likehaving to hitch rides with you all over the damn place? Do you think this is funfor me?”


“You’re acting like I’m doing this on purpose,” Ryan interrupts, his gaze shifting from his mother to his dad and back again. Neither of them look at him, he hatesthat. What the hell does he have to do to get someone to seehim here? “I’m in a goddamn wheelchair—”


His mother’s hand jerks, knocks into her coffee mug, splashes tepid liquid the color of mud onto the tablecloth. “Don’t use that word in this house!” she cries.


“What, wheelchair?” Ryan asks. He watches as she sops up the spilled coffee, her hands trembling.


Chapter 45