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

Dante laughs again. “No, I’m not. God! You should see the look on your face!”


Now Ryan laughs, too—a shaky sound but at least it’s something. As he relaxes, he starts to giggle, relieved. “Oh damn,” he sighs, breathless. “I thought—shit, I was so sure—”


“Do you think I’d do something like that?” Dante wants to know, but he’s laughing as well, the mere thoughtof asking Ryan’s mother to pick out condomsfor them—


The driver’s side door opens and Mrs. Talonovich slides behind the wheel, grinning at them in the rearview mirror. “What are you boys carrying on about back there?” she asks. That just makes them both laugh harder.


In the back seat of the van, Dante leans against Ryan’s wheelchair just to feel his boyfriend’s arm pressed to his. They’re halfway to the rink before he remembers to tell Mrs. Talonovich that he won’t be practicing today. “They close at six,” he says. “I’ll just get out early tomorrow.”


Chapter 85