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

A little before nine, the ice clears and the first practice race gets underway. The fifteen hundred and even though it’s not Dante’s forte, he keeps up with the pack and is second across the finish line. Around them, people in the stands surge to their feet with a roar like the tide, and Ryan feels insignificant and lost amid the standing crowd. But somehow Dante sees him. He skates over to where Ryan is, leans on the boards, shouts out, “Second! And I suck at this race.”


“You don’t suck,” Ryan laughs, raising his voice to be heard over the din of the crowd.


Dante gives him a saucy wink. “I can, if you want,” he replies, and Ryan feels his face flush at the remark. He walked right into that one, didn’t he? “Tonight,” Dante promises, and with a wave at Becca, he skates away.


Chapter 149