Page 60 of For the Win

Not kiss.Kisses.Plural.Scorching-hot, mind-scrambling kisses.Christ, it was hard to walk away from her that night.I wanted to pick her up, throw her in my car, and take her home with me.

I feel impatient, but I have to remind myself we haven’t known each other that long and have actually only been on a few dates.Not sure if this afternoon counts, but maybe she’ll let me buy her dinner after, or something.

There’s a loading zone in front of Prana, so I park there and put my flashers on before I head inside.Arya’s there with a few other women who all appear to also work there, about her age, all pretty and wearing exercise clothes.

“Hi!”Arya greets me with a luminous smile.She’s wearing a pair of cropped black leggings and a neon-pink tank top.Her hair is in a long, thick, messy braid that hangs over one shoulder.

“Hi.”I return the smile.

“We got things packed up.”She waves a hand at the cartons piled on the floor.

“Great.”I bend and pick one up.“I’ll get these out to the vehicle.”

“We’ll help,” Arya says.

“Eh.How heavy are they?”

“Only a couple are heavy.”

The girls pick up boxes and follow me outside.We load them into the back of my SUV.I make a couple of extra trips with the heaviest containers.

“Thank you so much for doing this,” one woman says to me.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I should introduce you all,” Arya says.“Ivy, Hazel, Willow—this is Harrison Wynn.”

“Great to meet you, ladies.”I flash them a grin and dust my hands off.“This is a great thing to do.”

“All Arya’s idea,” Ivy says.“She organized it.”

Arya smiles diffidently, lifting her shoulders.“It wasn’t that much.I guess we have everything?”

She and I climb into my vehicle and she pulls out her phone to give me directions to the women’s shelter.

“Is it a homeless shelter?”I ask.

“It’s for women who are victims of abuse, who need somewhere to go to get away from their abuser.”

“Ah.”I frown.A knot forms in my chest.“That’s, uh, good they have a safe place to go.”

“And they can bring their children,” she adds.“Hence the big packages of Huggies.Aurora House offers other services too...counseling, a crisis line, support groups.It’s hard for women to leave an abusive relationship if they don’t have anywhere else to go.”

I fucking hate thinking about women being abused.

“How do you know so much about it?”

“I did some research.”

I frown and tighten my hands on the steering wheel.“Were you...?”

She shakes her head.“No.I haven’t used a shelter myself.But...”She trails off.After a short pause, she says, “It’s an important service.”

“Yeah.”I like it that she’s doing something like this.It impresses me that she got the idea and did the research and made it happen.

When we get there, they’re expecting us, and a few people come out to help unload the boxes.We carry things inside.It’s homey—a living room, kitchen, dining room with a long table.I can see into an office, and a hallway leads to what I assume are sleeping rooms or bedrooms.Kids are playing in a corner of the big living space with a bunch of toys there.

Arya makes another introduction, this time to one of the women helping.“Harrison, this is Karen King, the Executive Director of Aurora House.Karen, Harrison Wynn.”

“You play for the Condors,” Karen says immediately, taking my hand and shaking it.“Thank you so much for helping today.”

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