Page 95 of Released from the Sin Bin

Creed grins when he sees me walking into the room hand-in-hand with Willa.

“Come, I want you to meet someone.” I bring Willa over to Creed as if I’m introducing my girlfriend to a father. Not my father, but I imagine this is what a normal person feels like when they have a normal father and an actual girlfriend. “This is Willa,” I introduce her after giving Creed a quick hug. “This is my chief, and the birthday boy, Creed.”

“Oh, this is Willa.” He gives Willa a friendly hug. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”

“Oh.” Willa’s eyebrows rise to the top of her forehead as she glances back at me. “You talked about me?”

I shrug. I told her all about Creed, and I told Creed all about her. Everything except the sex stuff. That stuff is private.

Willa fits right in with the guys. Most of them already know who she is from the news surrounding the team, but she’s able to roll so easily with their teasing.

I stay close to keep an eye on her, but she doesn’t need me. Soon, she’s asking them to tell her stories and they have no problem embarrassing me.

“There was this one time,” John starts it off. “We got called to a motel only to find Carter with his pants around his ankles giving the patient CPR.”

“She already knows about that, and that’s not how it happened,” I stop him from telling the story of Coach Higgins.

“I got one,” Mike chimes in. “This is when we had to rescue Carter.”

I know exactly what he’s going to say, and I don’t need to hear it told again.

“Alright, I gotta take a leak,” I announce to the group. “Are you good?” I check in with Willa first before leaving her.

“I can’t wait to hear this.” She grins, motioning for Mike to keep talking.

Creed winks to let me know he’ll watch over her. She’s safe in a room with a bunch of firefighters, but she’s in a room full of a bunch of gritty dirty firefighters. I trust them with my life, but I don’t trust any of them with her.

Willa is tough. She can take care of herself. Just like she doesn’t let me get away with shit, she won’t let them.

I’ll never find a woman like Willa. It hurts like a puck slapped straight at my chest that I know I’ll never get over her. She’ll always be the girl I let go of. The shot I missed out on, and the pass that I couldn’t catch.

I’ll never have that happy life. To have the girl of my dreams is a life I could never have. Just like my father, those demons will surface and destroy everything I love.

Chapter 23

Willa

Carter’s little firefighting crew are hilarious. He would never admit it, but I can see why he loves them.

They’re his family.

“Carter and a bunch of the guys on the team were butt ass naked.” Mike regales me in his story. “They were freezing their asses off, and Carter, of all of them, slid across the frozen pond.” He laughs as he continues the story. “He had freezer burn from his thigh, up his ass, and on his back. Of course, the other stupid kids wised up, and no one followed him. They were all stuck naked across the pond, and Carter had to call for help.”

“Oh my god.” I cover my laugh up. “I will never look at any of those guys the same again.”

“It’s the reason the team doesn’t haze the freshmen like they used to,” Creed chimes in as all the guys continue to discuss the night the seniors dropped Carter and a bunch of other freshmen at the time in the middle of nowhere to walk home naked.

The team is always doing stupid stuff like that, but lately they’ve been sticking to laser tag or the Nerf War games that the seniors join in on.

Carter comes back out and they all crowd him to talk about that night. It’s adorable how he keeps checking on me, catching my eye across the small room with a rise of one or two of his eyebrows to question if I’m still ok.

“I haven’t seen him this happy in a long time,” Creed says as he takes the seat next to me.

“Carter? Happy? That’s unheard of.” I catch Carter looking at me again and see those tiny creases deepen at the corner of his eyes.

“Don’t let that scowl fool you. He’s smitten.” Creed winks at me.

“Smitten?” I laugh it off. “He is happier around you guys.” I make note of the room full of his comrades. I’m happy he has them. The hell he’s living in can’t be easy, but he gets through it by having these guys to escape to.

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