Seduced by the Game by Catherine Gayle, Cassandra Carr, Toni Aleo, Jami Davenport, Cindy Carr, Nikki Worrell, Jaymee Jacobs, V. L. Locey, Bianca Sommerland, Lisa Hollett Page A

probably go to some team that was
rebuilding somewhere far away. She believed that nothing could derail their
love. She loved him so hard that it was scary. The more she thought about it,
the more she knew that if he asked her to go, she’d go without hesitation.
    Looking across the table
at her father, she smiled when he met her gaze. His mouth curved in a grin, and
it made her heart happy. Her dad had aged so much over the last couple of
years, and she knew it was her fault. She knew he loved her though, and that
eased the guilt a little bit, but she wished she could take the hard years
away.
    “Daddy, can I invite
Karson to dinner next Sunday?”
    Grady looked up as Rachel
glanced up, too. Rachel had been coming to Sunday dinners since Grady asked her
out, but Lacey hadn’t brought Karson yet. Even though they had been together
for two months, she figured it would be a tough pill for her dad to swallow,
knowing his daughter was involved with someone. He had always been so
overprotective. He knew about Karson and he seemed indifferent to it all, but
still Lacey wanted to include Karson in their family get-togethers.
    “So it’s serious,
buttercup?”
    Lacey’s heart kicked up in
speed as she nodded. “Yeah, Daddy, it is.”
    “Do you think that’s a
good idea? I mean, they are saying he will be a number-one pick for the draft,
meaning he has a one-way ticket out of Chicago.”
    “I know, but we feel we’ll
be fine. You never know, I might go with him. I could transfer schools.”
    Grady’s brows shot up and,
unfortunately, so did her father’s as he asked, “Transfer schools? Leave
Chicago?”
    Swallowing loudly, Lacey
looked down as she said, “I mean, I don’t know. It’s all up in the air, but I
know that I care for him deeply. I want him to be involved in our family
dinners, and I want you to get to know him. He’s an amazing person.”
    “I know who he is. I’ve
trained him for the last two years. While yes, he is a great guy, I don’t think
he is the guy for you. I didn’t say anything when you two got together because
I figured it would end when he left, but you saying you want to go with him is
out of the question.”
    Her father didn’t yell at
her, it was more of a very stern voice, but it scared her as much as if he had,
but she wasn’t going to be treated like a child.
    “Daddy, I am eighteen
years old, about to turn nineteen. If I want to go, I will.”
    “No, you won’t. I won’t
pay a penny of your education.”
    “That’s fine, that’s why
there are loans. You are getting your blood pressure up for nothing though. I
don’t know what will happen. All I wanted to know was if my boyfriend could
come to dinner.”
    He looked at Lacey with
eyes that told her the answer before he spoke it. But still her heart dropped
when he said, “The answer is no.”
    Slowly, she nodded before
standing up. “If my boyfriend can’t come to dinner, then I won’t be here
either.”
    “Sit down, Lacey. That is
ludicrous,” he said, setting her with a look.
    Shaking her head, Lacey’s
eyes filled with tears as she said, “What’s ludicrous is that Grady can have
his girlfriend to dinner, but I can’t have my boyfriend. I am tired of the
double standards around here, and things better change before I change them for
us.”
    With that, she turned and
headed for the front door. Her dad called her back, but she ignored him as she
put on her jacket and hat. Fighting back the tears, she glanced up at the
portrait of her mother and said, “Bye, Mom.”
    Slamming the front door to
her house, she stomped to her car and drove off. She pulled her phone out her
pocket and dialed Karson. He answered on the second ring.
    “Hey babe, you done with
dinner?”
    “Yeah, can I come see
you?”
    “Yeah, of course. I was
hoping you would.”
    She worked her lip and
then asked, “Are you alone?”
    She could hear the smile
in his voice as he said, “Well, yeah, Grady was with you. I don’t know if he