Say You Swear

Arianna Johnson is about to start her first year at Avix University in Oceanside, California. For the past six years, she has been in love with Chase Harper, her twin brother Mason’s best friend. Ari, Mason, Chase, Brady, and best friend Cameron are all heading to the same campus — one where their parents have gifted them shared ownership of the family beach house on the coast. The summer before move-in is their last stretch of freedom.

Boys of Avix Series

Book 1: Say You Swear

Book 2: Promise Me Not

Book 3: Trust Me Always

Book 4: Keep Me Never

Main Characters

Arianna “Ari” Johnson: Mason’s twin sister, starting her first year at Avix University, in love with Chase Harper.
Noah Riley: Senior, captain and starting quarterback of the Avix Sharks, living in the team captain’s quarters at the football house.
Chase Harper: Mason’s best friend and Ari’s lifelong, unrequited love interest, freshman wide receiver at Avix.

Supporting Characters

Mason Johnson: Ari’s protective twin brother, freshman quarterback at Avix and Chase’s best friend.
Cameron Cox: Ari’s best friend and dorm roommate at Avix, developing feelings for Trey Donovan.
Brady Lancaster: Mason and Chase’s best friend, freshman lineman at Avix.
Trey Donovan: Noah’s closest friend, senior defensive lineman at Avix, beginning a relationship with Cameron.
Lori Riley: Noah’s mother, resident at Tri-City Rehabilitation Center following two strokes.
Paige: Noah’s friend from high school, now working as a teacher; present in the Avix social circle but not romantically involved with Noah.
Payton Baylor: A friend of the group, pregnant and grieving the recent death of her boyfriend, Deaton.

Recap Summary

The summer before college, Ari spends her last weeks at the family beach house with Mason, Chase, Brady, and Cameron. The line between Ari and Chase has held for six years, enforced by Mason’s unspoken rule: the five of them are family, and that line does not get crossed. At the beach, the tension starts to shift. Ari kisses Chase, drunk at a club; he panics, pulls back, and soon tells her it was never going to happen. Even so, he keeps closing the distance, then retreating each time. That same week, Noah Riley joins their beach bonfire. He is Avix University’s football captain and a friend of Mason and Brady’s. He flirts with Ari and leaves the next morning.

In the final days of summer, Payton receives a photograph from Deaton’s mother confirming his funeral was held without her. In the emotional wreckage of that night, Ari and Chase end up together by the water and sleep together — Ari’s first time. The next morning, he tells her it was a mistake, and Ari leaves the beach house early.

At Avix, Ari avoids Chase and the group for weeks, keeping just enough contact to make her absence seem like coincidence. She is still struggling when Cameron drags her to a student bar, and on the dance floor, she finds Noah behind her.

Noah and Ari talk for hours that night. He listens as she tells him everything about Chase, including the night on the beach. He walks her home, brings breakfast the next morning, and over the following weeks they fall into an easy rhythm: text conversations, cooking lessons, and road trips to Sunset Cliffs. Noah takes her to meet his mother, Lori, at Tri-City Rehabilitation Center. Lori had two strokes and has lived in residential care since. Noah chose Avix specifically to stay close to her, his only family.
Ari starts spending nights at the football house. She wears his hoodie to meet the bus when he returns from away games, and she visits Lori on Sundays. Chase’s visible displeasure grows, and his slow unravelling reaches breaking point over Thanksgiving at the beach house.

Drunk and alone with Ari on the beach at night, Chase tells her he wants her and kisses her, but she shoves him away. The group makes it through the holiday. Payton goes into labour, and they all stay with her. When they get back to the house, they find Noah has cooked Thanksgiving dinner for everyone.

Back at Avix, the tension between Chase and Noah finally breaks in the football house gym. Chase walks in on an intimate moment between Ari and Noah, and she turns it deliberate and pointed. Noah is hurt by being used to wound someone else. He drops her off at her dorm and asks her to think hard about whether she still loves Chase, telling her to let him go if she does. Ari falls apart for days as Noah gives her space to figure it out.

The team loses their playoff game. That same night, Ari goes to the football house with something to say and texts Noah to tell him she loves him. Before she reaches him, Chase finds her on the beach and confesses again. On her way across the road, a truck hits Ari.

Ari is hospitalised in a coma for eleven days, and Noah does not leave the hospital. She wakes with no memory of the past six months — everything after she left the beach house at the end of summer is gone. She learns she was seven weeks pregnant at the time of the accident and miscarried, assuming it was Chase’s. She asks not to be told what happened, wanting to remember on her own.

Noah does not tell her they were together and introduces himself only as the guy from the beach. Ari is released and returns to the beach house to recover. Chase starts spending time with her and treats it as his second chance. Noah stays nearby, says nothing, and lets the dynamic unfold.

In the weeks that follow, Ari cooks Noah’s mother’s chicken alfredo from memory without knowing where she learned the recipe. She takes his hand on the dock and asks to sit together in silence. Lori dies during the recovery period; Noah is alone at Sunset Cliffs when Ari finds him. They dance on his high school football field, and afterwards he breaks down, excusing himself. The signals accumulate, but her memory stays just out of reach.

Ari attends the football team’s winter gala with Chase. On the dance floor, Chase kisses Ari. She starts crying, and Mason pulls her away. Trey calls Ari to the stage to accept Noah’s MVP award on his behalf; she does, without understanding why the moment feels wrong.

Back at Avix to start the new semester, Ari opens her dorm room for the first time since the accident. Her wall calendar falls open to January: Gala with Noah, surrounded by hearts Noah drew in three colours. In her closet hangs the blue gown she bought to wear for him. She runs to the football house and, by instinct, goes straight to Noah’s room. He confirms what the calendar says: he drew hearts on her calendar, his calendar, and the one at his mother’s bedside. They sit on his floor and talk for hours.

Ari finds a pre-accident calendar entry for a print shop on campus. She picks up a ribbon-tied box she does not remember ordering. A note from the shop directs her to Tri-City Rehabilitation Centre. A nurse there gives her an envelope from Lori — Lori has died. Inside is a letter to Ari, a recipe book recorded from Lori’s spoken recipes over weeks of phone calls, and a letter inside the book addressed to Noah. Lori’s letter tells Ari that Noah fell in love with her, that Ari fell in love with him, and that meeting Ari allowed Lori to finally let go.

As Ari traces the inscription Lori copied from Noah’s tattoo at the bottom of the letter, her memories break through.

Ari ends things with Chase, telling him Noah loved her first, and that she loved Noah too, long before she understood it. She finds Noah at Sunset Cliffs at sunset. She gives him the recipe book and reads Lori’s letter aloud.

Next in Series

Promise Me Not follows Ari’s twin brother, Mason’s story.