Play With Me Read Online Free

six-foot-seven and built like an MMA fighter. She could train him to be NCAA’s top blocker – but first she had to learn Greek since he didn’t seem to speak English.  
    Ivan. Like Damian, he was also twenty years old, and he had been appointed as team captain by the previous one, Reid Chalkias, the university’s so-called Prince of Darkness. Since Reid was a player she greatly respected, Lace knew he must have had a good reason to choose Ivan as a successor. She just wished she could have asked him what it was. So far, Ivan was the one that puzzled her the most. It wasn’t that he didn’t have the skills. He was one of the most impressive players she had ever seen, as deadly inside the paint as he was beyond the three-point-line. But that was not the problem. What she couldn’t get was how someone so dispassionate about basketball could lead the team.
    The other players making up her 12-man team all had problems, too, but so far her starting five posed the biggest headaches.
    Coach Rob gestured for her to come over from the other side of the court, and she quickly jogged to his side. When she reached him, he blew the whistle, and everyone came to a halt, every player turning towards them.
    Then Coach Rob turned to her, too.
    Lace froze.
    “Anything you want to say to the team before we dismiss them?”
    Silence.
    A huge, gaping silence that was an embarrassing reflection of the current state of her mind. God. She was Lace Wyndham, the one girl who was never at a loss for words when it came to coaching players.  
    But right now, she couldn’t think of a single word to say to her one-month-old team. They were just so different.
    Her old team in high school had been like family, a group of unruly boys she had to alternately discipline and babysit, depending on which they needed more.
    And back at Northwest, even though everyone had been major assholes to her after their first month together, they had been immature assholes, and she had known right away how to handle them.
    But the mix of Greek and American players staring at her right now?
    They were anything but immature.
    Hell, they were perfect in every way, all of them capable of being a triple-double threat. They all had their problems, but did they really need someone like her to point it out? Wouldn’t they be able to figure it on their own anyway?
    “Wyndham?”  
    She jumped at Coach Rob’s tone, realizing that she had actually been silent for one full minute.
    “Anything you want to say?”
    Her mouth slowly opened—
    Say something, Lace Wyndham, she chided herself. “Good job, guys.” The words came out as a nervous croak, and God, she wanted to hang her head in shame right after. This was not her, dammit, but they were just too intimidating. Not one of them had been condescending or rude to her, and somehow that had even been more crushing. It was as if for these guys, she just didn’t exist.
    At her words, Coach Rob simply nodded. “You can go now,” he told the guys.
    There was a chorus of “Bye, Coach” from the players, but all of them only nodded at Lace when they walked past her on their way to the dugout.
    “Not going home yet?” Coach Rob asked.
    She shook her head. “I thought I’d shoot a few baskets for a while just to clear my head, if that’s okay.”
    “It’s no problem. Just make sure to have maintenance lock up when you go.”
    “Got it.”
    Soon, she was all alone, with even the groupies hanging out at the bleachers gone as well. Lace slowly walked towards the wheeled steel cart of basketballs, pushing it near the free throw line so she could start shooting.  
    Dribble. Aim. Release.  
    The ball hit the rim but didn’t go in.
    Dribble. Aim. Release.
    The ball rolled around the rim before falling outside the ring.
    Dribble. Aim. Release.
    Lace stared in horror as this time, her shot actually fell short. Oh God, an air ball. A goddamn air ball. She couldn’t even remember the last time she had one. What was