Keep Me Never is set at Avix University in Oceanside, California, during the group’s final year of college.
Chase Harper is entering his senior year as Avix’s starting wide receiver, ranked top five nationally as the season opens. His friends are unaware that his mother emptied the family accounts and left the previous year. His grant covered this semester’s tuition, and his partial athletic scholarship covered housing, but his final semester has no funding.
Paige is in her final year as a student and dance teacher at a local youth centre. Her dance studio was destroyed in a flood before her insurance took effect. Approximately eighteen months ago, her billionaire maternal grandfather, Grant Randolph V, found her and wants her to take over Randolph Legacies.
Boys of Avix Series
Book 1: Fumbled Hearts
Book 2: Defenseless Hearts
Book 3: Say You Swear
Book 4: Promise Me Not
Book 5: Trust Me Always
Book 6: Keep Me Never
Main Characters:
Chase Harper: Fourth-year wide receiver at Avix, ranked top five nationally.
Paige: Fourth-year student, dancer, and teacher at a local youth centre.
Supporting Characters:
Grant Randolph V: Paige’s maternal grandfather, CEO of Randolph Legacies.
Prescott: Grant’s right-hand man.
Mason Johnson: Final-year starting QB, team captain, and Chase’s best friend.
Brady Lancaster: Chase’s best friend, a final-year defensive end, in a relationship with Cameron.
Cameron Cox: Brady’s girlfriend and part of the core friend group.
Ari Johnson: Mason’s twin.
Noah Riley: Ari’s fiancé.
Payton Baylor: Mason’s partner.
RECAP SUMMARY
The year opens with Grant pressing Paige to commit to taking over Randolph Legacies. Chase opens the semester training with unusual intensity, shaving time off his routes. He photocopies textbooks and skips meals to stretch his money. He applies for financial aid and academic scholarships but keeps everything from Brady, Mason, and Paige. Coach Rogan is aware of his situation and meets with him privately throughout the season.
Chase and Paige grow closer through the semester. Chase notices his mother arrive with a man, making her way towards his father’s seat. Distracted, he throws one bad interception. Later in the fourth quarter, he takes a significant hit.
The following day, back on campus, the doctor confirms spinal stenosis, a narrowing of the spinal canal that makes any further contact sport career-ending. Chase tells Paige about the diagnosis, but does not yet tell her about his financial situation.
Chase’s mother appears at a later away game with the man she left Chase’s father for. After the game, which Avix lose, Chase ends up drunk and alone on the practice field, and his mother finds him there. He begs her to return the money she took so he can pay his tuition. She refuses and leaves. Paige is there when he wakes at dawn on the field, and he tells her about the financial situation.
At a steakhouse dinner arranged by Grant, Chase steps away from the table, and Grant tells him directly that he knows Chase is not registered for the spring semester. He slides an envelope across the table: a cheque covering the exact cost of Chase’s final semester, including tuition, housing, and meals, made out to the university. The condition is that Chase ends his relationship with Paige.
Grant takes Paige on a three-week trip to Europe. On the night before they leave, Chase sells his truck to a stranger in a car park, putting the cash from the sale towards basic living costs. He moves out of student housing and applies for work. The group are aware that he has left his room, but not why.
When Paige returns, Grant tells her Chase accepted the deal, and he gives her no further details. Paige assumes Chase chose the money over their relationship and shuts herself in, refusing contact. The group, unaware of the deal, grow increasingly worried about Chase, who has also gone unreachable. Paige eventually goes to her studio, needing somewhere to be, only to find Chase there.
Chase accepted the cheque and used the entire amount to rebuild and restore Paige’s destroyed dance studio as a surprise.
Grant arrives at the studio while they are both there and tells Paige the truth: the cheque was a test he did not expect Chase to accept.
In the weeks that follow, a press release from Randolph Legacies announces the launch of a new division dedicated to supporting professional athletes in planning their futures after sport. The CEO role is listed as vacant, with Grant’s statement praising the future appointee’s firsthand experience and loyalty. Paige accepts her role in the company on her own terms, keeping full control of her restored studio. The friend group buy back Chase’s truck and surprises him with it at a drive-in.
NEXT IN SERIES
Keep Me Never concludes the Boys of Avix series by bringing all four relationships to their final stages and moving the entire friend group into adulthood. Mason is drafted to the NFL and Payton moving with him. Brady is drafted to a different team, with Cameron alongside him, and they begin planning an adoption. Noah and Ari marry after the birth of their son, Ian Cole. Chase steps into the CEO role Grant created, focused on supporting athletes whose careers end early.
Together, the group leaves the Avix years behind and establishes the foundations of their adult lives, closing the series with each relationship solidified and every character moving forward.
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