Playing to Win (46 page)

Or more precisely, to
stave off
that demise. The Sunderlands’ world was crumbling as surely as the stone walls Andrew stood within now.

Part of him thought
good riddance
. The old traditions made a gay man like him a pariah, or at best irrelevant. Next month would see Scotland’s first same-sex weddings, proving that change was often a good thing. And since the referendum, the Scottish appetite for self-determination had only grown. The hope for a better future—a hope that had succumbed to despair for a mere twenty-four hours—was stronger than ever.

Yet another part of Andrew still treasured the old ways, how they connected him to the past and to something greater than himself. Somehow, by reaching forward whilst reaching back, he would reconcile
what
he was with
who
he was. Out, proud, but always and forever Lord Andrew.

With a rustle of loose rocks and soft footsteps, Colin came up behind him. He slid his hands beneath the back of Andrew’s shirt, lifting it up.

“Behave, you.” Andrew shivered at the feel of Colin’s nails and the cool breeze against his skin. “This is a public place.”

“I just want to see your ink.” He stooped to put his eyes near the line of text tattooed along Andrew’s right lat. “Healing nicely. Still sore?”

“No, but it itches like a beast. It’s a good job I can’t reach to scratch it.”

“A trick I learned is to smack the skin a few inches away. It distracts your brain from the itch.”

“Don’t even think about smacking me.”

“I’m not.” Instead Colin pressed his lips to the skin on the other side of Andrew’s spine, opposite the black-ink tattoo that showed, in Andrew’s handwriting, the Green Day lyric following the one on Colin’s back:

This is the dawning of the rest of our lives.

Colin stood up straight and wrapped his arms around Andrew’s waist. “I’ve got this pure weird feeling.”

Andrew stiffened, worried Colin sensed the approach of another debilitating infection. “What sort of feeling?”

Colin settled his chin atop Andrew’s shoulder. “That everything’s gonnae be okay.”
 

“Ah.” Andrew leaned back, trusting Colin’s newfound strength to hold him. “That’s not very Scottish of you.”

With a soft laugh, Colin pressed his lips to Andrew’s ear. “It is now.”

Thanks for reading!

I hope you loved spending time with Colin and Andrew as much as I did. No two characters have driven me madder—in a good way—than these perfectly imperfect men.

If you enjoyed this book, please consider introducing the Lads to your friends—online, offline, or anywhere in between. Thanks.

• Review
  Playing to Win
  on Amazon
  
• Review
  Playing to Win
  on Goodreads
  

Want more Warriors all to yourself? How about exclusive bonus material, including a free short story and sneak peeks at Liam and Robert’s novel,
Playing with Fire
, weeks before its release? Then sign up for my mailing list at
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and join the fun!
 

You’ll receive loads of Glasgow Lads stuff found nowhere else in the world—deleted scenes, author commentary, development diaries, and more. It’s like having a wee window into my brain (there’s loads of empty space in there to make yourself comfortable).

You might even learn a few Scots curse words, which could be pure dead useful one day.

Glasgow Lads Series

More Warriors are on the way! Each stand-alone novel features a new couple, with prominent appearances by other characters we’ve come to know.

• Play On
  (novella), May 2015
  
• Playing for Keeps
  , June 2015
  
• Playing to Win
  , September 2015
  
• Play It Safe (short story), November 2015
  
• Playing with Fire, January 2016
  

…and more to come after that!

I can’t wait to share all the Lads’ stories with you. Sign up for my mailing list at
www.averycockburn.com/signup/
to be the first to know about new releases, as well as receive exclusive bonus material and even free books.

Author’s Note on Scottish independence

Setting a series in contemporary Scotland without mentioning the 2014 independence referendum would be like setting a series in London in 1666 without mentioning the Great Fire, or Philadelphia in 1776 without mentioning this wee revolution thing going on.

So when I began writing the Glasgow Lads books in Summer 2014, I thought the referendum might appear in the background.

Hah.

As the 18
^th
of September drew near, it became obvious that the referendum was more than background for a story. It
was
the story. Yes or No, “indyref” would change the lives of modern-day Scots—especially young Scots like Colin and Andrew, brand-new adults still searching for their place in the world.

To paraphrase another revolution-set novel: it was the least-crap of times, it was the most-crap of times.

Though Colin and Andrew are fictional characters,
all historical details in this book are accurate to the best of my knowledge
, right down to the wording of tweets and news broadcasts. I fit the timing of story events around real life, rather than the other way around.

Only two facts were altered for story purposes:

• As far as I know, the Linkwood tower blocks, where Colin lives, have never had issues with mildew, unlike several other social-housing buildings around the UK, including Glasgow.
  
• American Idiot
  closed on Broadway in 2011.
  

But the rickshaw rider blasting the Imperial March from
The Empire Strikes Back
at a bunch of Labour MPs? That really happened. Which proves that truth is
always
stranger than fiction.

About the Author

Avery Cockburn (rhymes with Savory Slow Churn—mmmm, ice cream…) lives in the US with one infinitely patient man and two infinitely impatient cats.

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www.averycockburn.com

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