Young: Keeping Score

By Tawdra Kandle

Football is everything, but love is the only game that matters.

This is our backstory. 
This is how we started. 
This is what changed our lives forever.

How did Leo, Quinn and Nate become best friends? Where did their love stories begin?
When did everything change for Gia, for Tate . . . and even for Matt?
What was the life-changing heartbreak for Zelda and Tuck?
How did Sarah and Gideon become who they are?

It's all here.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tawdra Kandle
• Release date: Nov 14, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386005049

Tawdra Kandle

Tawdra Kandle writes romance, in just about all its forms. She loves unlikely pairings, strong women, sexy guys, hot love scenes and just enough conflict to make it interesting. Her books run from YA paranormal romance through NA paranormal and contemporary romance to adult contemporary and paramystery romance. She lives in central Florida with a husband, kids, sweet pup and too many cats. And yeah, she rocks purple hair.

Book preview

Young

Young

A Keeping Score/Making the Score Prequel

Tawdra Kandle

Tawdra Kandle Romance

Copyright © 2020 by Tawdra Kandle

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

Contents

A Note from the Author

Young

Thank you, dear reader!

The Keeping Score Preludes

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Prelude to Down By Contact (Gia)

Prelude to Down By Contact (Matt)

Prelude to Down By Contact (Tate)

Prelude to Next Man Up (Zelda)

Prelude to Next Man Up (Tuck)

Prelude to Game of Inches (Sarah)

Prelude to Game of Inches (Gideon)

About the Author

Also by Tawdra Kandle

A Note from the Author

Writing a book can be a tricky business. Sometimes, as the author, I know much more about the characters and their past, present and future than you, as the reader, need to know. Still, I’m passionate about sharing well-rounded, developed characters, so I usually try to err on the side of sharing more rather than less.

That was the case with the Keeping Score series, particularly with Leo, Quinn and Nate’s story. How they came to be who they are by the time they reach high school seemed very important to me—and it is. The things that happen early in their lives impact and influence the choices they make later in life.

But if you are a new reader to me and you picked up False Start in its original form, you might have been put off that it began when the trio was in fifth grade. The fact that most of the book takes place in high school is even slightly problematic, from a genre perspective—is this young adult or new adult?—so starting back in elementary school complicated that further.

That’s why I made the decision this year to pull the original start of False Start and instead to begin their story in junior year of high school. Although I was resistant, I will admit that it makes the book tighter and more cohesive. It was a good move.

However, I didn’t want to simply discard the first eight chapters, the ones that give us the background. I wanted my readers to be able to have access to that information, even if it wasn’t crucial to the overall story.

That’s why this book, Young, was born. Here, you’ll find that original beginning.

However, since I’d gone to the trouble of creating a new book, I thought it needed something more. So I also wrote some new material: prelude chapters for Gia, Tate and Matt from Down By Contact, for Zelda and Tuck from Next Man Up and for Sarah and Gideon from Game of Inches.

These chapters don’t necessarily contain spoilers for the later books, though you might be able to surmise some plot points from a few bits of dialogue. Still, for the most part, the preludes tell you more about the characters themselves, not about what’s going to happen to them.

I enjoyed writing these preludes, because some of the side characters haven’t had their own voice yet—and one won’t. It was wonderful for me to give them some more background and to further explain incidents that are mentioned within the context of the Keeping Score main books.

This prequel takes its title from Kenny Chesney’s song Young.

I hope you’ll enjoy them. If you haven’t read the Keeping Score Trilogy yet (False Start, Three & Out, The Comeback Route, Down By Contact, Next Man Up and Game of Inches), I hope this inspires you to read them next. If you have read all of these, I hope this gives you more insight into your favorite characters.

Young

We were brave, we were crazy, we were mostly young . . .

Thank you, dear reader!

Thank you for choosing this book and deciding to read it. You totally rock.

I’d like to get to know you better! Each Friday, I send out a chatty newsletter, with book news, sales and giveaways. You can sign up for it right here.

Enjoy your book! <3

The Keeping Score Preludes

Prologue

Present Day

---

Are you nervous? Morgan Baxter, the savvy and knowledgeable woman who handled promotion and publicity for the Richmond Rebels, tilted her head as she sat down in the tufted chair behind her desk. About this?

I sighed, slumping a bit in my own seat on the other side of the desk. I know. It’s crazy, isn’t it? I’m a journalist, and I’ve been working all different angles of sports reporting for a couple of years now. But what I’m doing today is different. I swallowed. What I’m talking about today isn’t really football. It’s . . . something else entirely.

Morgan nodded. It’s personal. It’s not a story about an athlete. It’s your own story, yours and Leo’s . . .

And Nate’s, I finished her sentence. Yes, that’s it. The responsibility is enormous.

But who better to tell the tale? You were there. You lived it. She shrugged. The world wants to know more about the famous Leo Taylor. They’re hungry for all the details. As we discussed, this is our way of controlling the narrative. You’ll get out in front of the momentum, and you won’t have to worry about rumors and lies.

I know all that is true. But the idea of being interviewed for a story that’s going to air on the largest television sports network— I blew out a long breath. You can’t blame me for having some butterflies.

Quinn, they’re going to love you. The world is going to love you. Morgan smiled. Trust me. You have the kind of appeal that every professional football player would love to have in his corner. She glanced at her phone. They’re ready for us. Shall we go?

I stood up, hoping no one noticed the slight wobble in my legs. "If we don’t go now, I’ll probably chicken out. Lead