Exclusive Excerpt from Playing Life

by V.M. Sanford

Ryan wriggled around, but he couldn’t leave. He wanted to, but he couldn’t do that to Kenny.

Right? Maybe he could make a run for it. Surely, Kenny would understand.

“You’ll be fine,” Kenny said from his favorite armchair.

“I know. It’s not the first time I meet new people.”

Kenny grinned. “Exactly. And they’re my friends, so they’re already vetted as nice people. They’re probably going to spend a lot of time tongue-tied and staring at you.”

“Were you trying to make me feel more comfortable? Because it’s not working.”

Kenny laughed. “I told you, there’s no need to be worried.”

“You just said they were going to stare at me for the entire evening!”

“But you’re used to being stared at.”

“That’s on the ice. This is different.”And not only because Ryan wanted in Kenny’s pants. He liked Kenny, and he wanted them to be friends. Which they kind of were, but meeting Kenny’s friends might confirm that—or break it.

They’d been going along fine since Ryan had moved in with Kenny. Ryan had friends in Sacramento, of course, but he felt closer to Kenny than he did to most of them. Kenny was a family man, a simple man who didn’t care what Ryan did for a living or how much money he had in the bank. That wasn’t something that happened often, and Ryan treasured it.

It felt like they’d known each other for years rather than a few weeks, and Ryan was aware of the way his feelings were already changing—had been changing almost since that first day. He was infatuated, and he didn’t know what to do about it.

That wasn’t true. He did know what to do about it, and that was nothing. He’d keep on being Kenny’s friend, nothing more, and that was why having Kenny’s friends meet him was so important.

What if they hated Ryan? What if they really spent the evening staring at him? Kenny was right, Ryan was used to it, but it was different when he was on the ice. There he had something else to focus on, and he barely even noticed the people watching the game.

There was no way he wouldn’t notice Kenny’s friends staring at him in Kenny’s living room. Hopefully, they’d be focused on the movie Kenny had rented. It was the latest superhero movie, and Ryan hadn’t had the time to watch it yet, so he was looking forward to it. He didn’t often have the opportunity to just relax during the season, and his summers weren’t much slower, what with training and everything. He still had a few years of superhero movies to watch, and Kenny was bent on watching all of them together over the next few weeks.

The doorbell rang. Ryan jerked, making Kenny laugh again. “Relax,”he said as he passed by Ryan to go open the door.

No way was that going to happen. Ryan wanted to make a good impression on the people in Kenny’s life. He thought he’d done a good job with Kenny’s family. They hadn’t kicked him out, which he supposed was a good sign.

About Playing Life

Sometimes you have to let go of your fears and start playing life.

When Ryan decided to spend his summer vacation in the tiny town of Augusta rather than in Sacramento, he expected to work on the house he inherited from his grandmother, go to the gym and train, and not much else.

He should have known better.

His grandmother’s house is a mess, and there’s no way Ryan can get it back to its past splendor on his own. He calls the Graves Brothers, a renovation company in town, and hires them to do the work.

When Kenny is offered the job on the house he’s been wanting to put his hands on since he was a kid, he jumps on the occasion. He doesn’t even care that Ryan, the new owner, is a player for the Sacramento Pelicans, his favorite hockey team.

Kenny offers Ryan his guest room until the house is ready, and they become friends, then more. But Ryan is in the closet and he’s not ready to come out and risk his career, while Kenny is still hurt over breaking up with his closeted ex-boyfriend.

Can they make things between them work even with all the obstacles and their own personal hang-ups? Or will their relationship be nothing more than a summer fling?

Available at: Amazon

About V.M. Sanford

V.M Sanford has been writing about the paranormal since he was a child but decided to give publishing a try only in his thirties.

He found out he likes writing about more than wolf shifters and already has several plot bunnies lined up, waiting for him to write their books.

He’s lived all over Europe and enjoys cats, ice hockey and reading biographies of kings and queens. He’s still confused about what and who he is even though he’s in his mid-thirties, but he finally decided to come out as a transgender man, at least to his readers.

Find out more about V.M. on his WEBSITE, FB AUTHOR and TWITTER.

As part of this blog tour, V.M. is giving away a $5 Amazon Gift Card and an eBook copy of Playing Life!! To enter, just click the link below!

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Please be aware that the only way to enter the giveaway is to click the Rafflecopter link above. Any comments on this post will not count towards entering the giveaway unless otherwise stated but are still welcome anyway.

Good luck!