Sea's Nod: Excerpt Tour: One More Round

Title: One More Round

Author: Lauren Helms

Release Date: May 24, 2018

Publisher: Self-published

Series: Gamer Boy #2

Genres: New Adult Romance

Word Count: 65K

Format: Paperback, digital

Synopsis:

Can the gamer keep the girl?

Gia is living the dream with an amazing career and wonderful friends. Her life is on the right track, until a tall, broody blast-from-the-past breezes back into her life, sending her into a tailspin. She never forgot about Simon—her first love—or the way she cut him from her life all those years ago. Now, she doesn’t know what to do.

Simon never forgot the girl next door, or how she broke his heart when she left without even a goodbye. Thankfully, life as a professional gamer keeps his mind off his broken heart. That is, until he suddenly finds himself back in her path. Now he’s pushing her boundaries and testing her limits.

Simon and Gia have to find a way to coexist. They started as friends, and maybe it’s time to go back to the beginning. Only, this time around, being ‘just friends’ doesn’t seem to be enough. Simon has doubts, and Gia has secrets. Will they be able to let go of the past that hurt them both or will history repeat itself?

** This book can be read and understood as a standalone, but does contain minor spoilers for Level Me Up, book one in the series. **

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ONE MORE ROUND Excerpt

“I think it's Morgan's turn. Let's get started without her. Go ahead and list Pee-Wee Herman and Bart Simpson as two of the guys she's gonna marry." Ruby says excitedly.

"And why are we playing this again? Are we going to make those paper fortune tellers next?" Morgan asks as she plops down beside me on the couch.

"Oh, I love those," I add.

"We are playing this because watching movies and playing video games are all we ever do these days. I thought some margaritas and MASH would be fun." Ruby defends.

"Fair enough. But might I point out, that you are the only one really playing video games in your downtime? It doesn't count for Bern since that's what she does for a living. So...," Morgan trails off as she goes back to reading her texts.

She's right though. Video games have been thrown into our lives ever since Dex came along. He is a professional video gamer, so our little group - Morgan, Ruby, and I - has kind of been taken into Dex's group. Well, more like his team. He's on a team with several other players, Bernie being one of them so, video games are now a very prevalent fixture in our lives.

I don't mind. I used to love playing video games when I was younger. But, I stopped playing them the day my family uprooted our lives and moved to a new state. I pretty much left my life, and those in it, back in Wisconsin. A shiver shoots down my spine at the thought of that mess.

Along with Dex, my best friend from my old life, Simon, came crashing back into my new life. I hadn't thought about Simon in years. Mostly because I taught myself years ago not to. It hurt too much. But now, he's here. He's always around. Things are awkward. I mean, like he-hates-me awkward. I can feel it. I can see it in his face. I'd say I could see it in his eyes, but he'd have to make eye contact with me first.

Redirecting my thoughts, I realize that I'm being watched intently by Ruby. She's on to me. These days, I feel like she is always watching me, waiting for the perfect moment to ask me about Simon. I have this gut feeling that she, and probably Link, have been plotting and planning on how they are going to figure out what the hell is going on with Simon and me.

I've done a swell job of keeping the real history of Simon and Gia at bay. I've told them the basics. He was my friend, we had to move abruptly for family reasons, and we lost touch. The girls questioned how that would have caused the iciness Simon saves for just me, and I let on that we may have been more than just friends and I had let the communication between us drop.

It's the truth. More or less.

Fortunately, they've been so consumed with why after months of coldness between us, they haven't asked why we had to move. I consider that another bullet dodged. For the moment. Simon is the only one who knows why. He knows everything, and I've just got to hope that he will keep it to himself because if he doesn't people are gonna find out I'm really not the cool, easy-going, caring Gia everyone thinks I am.

About Lauren Helms:

Lauren Helms has forever been an avid reader from the beginning. After starting a book review website, that catapulted her fully into the book world, she knew that something was missing. Lauren decided to take the plunge and write her first novel. While working for a video game strategy guide publisher, she decided to mix what she knew best--video games and romance. She decided to take the plunge and joined NaNoWrimo and a month later, she had her first draft.