Page 96 of Released from the Sin Bin

“Nah, it’s you.” Creed drapes his arm on the back of my chair. “He hasn’t smiled like that since his sister passed away. Here or anywhere.”

“His sister?” Carter has never talked about a sister. I never asked, but he’s never mentioned having a sister.

“Yeah, Janisa.” Creed lowers his head. “What happened to her is sad. Just sad. Carter was ten, and he looked up to her so much. No one saw it coming.” He shakes the thoughts out of his head. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have brought that up.”

“What happened to her?” I ask to get him to tell me more.

“That’s a story for Carter to tell you.” He clears his throat and forces out a smile. “Honestly, I think she got her freedom.”

With that bombshell, he stops talking as Carter comes over.

“Do you want to get out of here? It’s getting late.” He looks so happy and I wipe that moment of sadness away. I don’t want anything to bring Carter’s mood down.

“First,” Creed stops us from leaving, “how did you get that shiner?”

Carter winces and touches his face, but it seems nothing can bring down the good mood he’s in. “Willa slapped me around in the back of my truck last night.”

“What?” I gasp and stare at him.

“Oh, really?” Creed laughs.

“She’s got a lot of strength in these tiny arms,” Carter says as he squeezes my bicep.

“I…” I can’t even lie and say I didn’t. “I didn’t cause that,” I quickly cover myself. I reach out and pinch Carter’s nipple through his shirt to get him to shut up. “And I don’t have tiny arms.”

“Ouch.” He rubs his chest, wagging his eyebrows at me. “Don’t hurt me, or the Loch Ness Monster may want to come out to play.”

My face warms to a fiery red.

Creed shakes his head at us. “I don’t want to know. Go. Get out of here.”

“Happy Birthday,” I call out as Carter drags me away. “I can’t believe you said that in front of him!”

He said that in front of his chief! The guy, as Carter told me, is like a father to him.

“I was only joking.” Carter grins. “I’m too exhausted to give you a real ride anyway.”

“No more of that.” I glare at him. “You’ve officially been bumped up to my best friend, and there is no sex between best friends.”

There can’t be. Not if I don’t want to hurt my other best friend. Sex makes things complicated, and if what Creed said is true and Carter is smitten, we need to stop this before he gets hurt, too.

The team has lost four games in a row since the start of the new semester.

They were tough teams to beat, but we really need this win.

Carter has been working so hard and showing such significant improvements, but he’s still being so hard on himself. The entire team is blaming themselves while the board is blaming me.

Coach Renan won’t tell me that, but I overheard a conversation he was having with the dean. They’re pressuring him to hire someone else and let me go, but this is all I have now.

My boot is gone, but I still haven’t put on a pair of skates.

“If we have a shot of getting to the Frozen Four, we really need to win tonight,” Coach Renan mutters over the loud warmup music.

“It’s not you, Tomlin.” Coach Greardon stands next to me with his tablet to review plays. “The team has been spiraling down for over a year now, but after last year's loss, we were hoping for a win this year.”

“We can still make it.” I look out at the defeated faces on the ice. The team is already giving up, and the coaches are feeding into it. We can’t give up on them.

Jocelyn and some girls from the women’s hockey team came to watch tonight to give their support. I miss them. I miss my team and being out on the ice with them. They’ve been so busy, I’ve barely had time to hang out with them at all. But they came here and are cheering us on to get the win.

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