Page 30 of Never Stop

And that was how kids work. In Cheyenne’s eyes, everything was okay.

The next morning I met Avery at the gym. I didn’t think he was going to go since he had rarely worked out since Nicole left. But he walked into the locker room as I was putting my things into a locker, and grinned when he saw me. I hadn’t seen him smile like that in almost two weeks.

“Nicole’s back,” he stated, happy as fuck.

Well, that answers that.I smiled back. “Good. I’m happy for you, dude.”

“And…” he said, dragging out the word, “we’re getting married!”

My arm stopped as the locker door slammed shut. “Say what?”

“We’re getting married.”

“Not that I’m not happy for you, but you two just got back together last night.”

He leaned his back against the locker. “I went all in. It was either get married or break up.”

I stared at him for a beat. It was too soon, but then again, they’d beentogetherfor longer than Brooke and me. He threw his keys and wallet into my locker, and I closed it. “Well, shit, Av, I’m glad you two worked everything out. I finally get to throw you a bachelor party.”

“We should have a double bachelor party.”

I shook my head. “That’s dumb.”

“Right.” He chuckled. “Sorry. I’m just really excited. We’re both getting married.”

We started walking toward the door. “Except neither one of us knows when, right? I mean, Brooke and I haven’t set a date yet.”

“Yeah, why is that?”

I took a deep breath. “It’s best to explain over beers.”

He grabbed my arm to stop me from walking toward the treadmills. “But you two are still getting married?”

I smiled. “Of course. There’s just something looming, and we need to find out what’s going to happen before we set a date.” At least that was why I thought Brooke hadn’t mentioned a date to me yet.

“Well, now I’m confused as fuck.”

Explaining FAP to Avery was something I wanted to do in private. I wanted him to process it and not make Brooke think more about it. She was already stressed about the C word, so shoving it in her face wasn’t the best plan.

I started to walk again. “Let’s hurry up here and then grab that beer.”

When we were finished at the gym, Avery followed me to Halo. After all, we could practically drink for free there. We greeted out staff and told them we were just going to be in the office for a few before we grabbed two bottles of beer from behind the bar and then made our way upstairs. Avery shut the door after us, and I sat behind the single wood desk as he took the black leather couch against the wall in front it.

The air around us felt weird. We told each other everything, and I wanted to tell him what was going on, I just didn’t knowhowto tell him.

“Just tell me. You know I can handle anything,” he prompted.

I took a few pulls of my beer and sighed. “It’s not that I don’t think you can handle it. I’m scared as fuck.” I frowned.

“Well, shit, you’re scaring me.”

I watched him take a few sips of his beer. “Brooke might have colon cancer.”

The bottle halted at his lips and then he lowered it. “Come again?”

“The day you got shit-faced here? We went to the doctor beforehand.”

He scrunched his eyebrows. “Right…”