The Halo Series Boxed Set

by Kimberly Knight

  He was right, but I didn’t like being so far away from her. I couldn’t save Dana, but I was going to do everything in my power to save Brooke.

  She was a fighter.

  She was strong.

  She was my Superwoman.

  “Fine. Give Nicole my number and tell her to give it to Brooke. Tell her that I want to talk to Brooke—no, tell her I need to talk to Brooke.”

  “I will.”

  Avery left me standing in my kitchen, looking out the window and thinking about Brooke. Men are supposed to be strong, but around Brooke, I was wearing my heart on my sleeve. I wanted to show her how much I wanted her. The way she kissed me, I knew that she wanted me. I thought Jared was the hurdle, but the tumor might be the hurdle I can’t jump over.

  “Daddy, are you ready to go?” Cheyenne and Courtney came out of her room, bringing me out of my thoughts.

  I turned, pushing down the lump in my throat, putting a smile on my face and masking the pain I was feeling in my chest. “Yeah, Peanut, let me go change real fast.”

  As I drove my peanut to the field, I came to the conclusion that if I didn’t hear from Brooke, then she didn’t want me like I thought. There was a reason why she hadn’t given me her number and a reason why she’d left without a goodbye. She’d said it wasn’t goodbye, but when going through a major health issue, I could imagine wanting to disappear from society. I didn’t want her to go through it alone, so I would check in with Avery and see how she does through the process. I would be there for her.

  I tossed my phone, wallet, and keys in the bat bag that carried the equipment I’d bought for Cheyenne. Before we left for vacation, we threw the ball around, and I also took her to the batting cages. We still needed to work on her hitting since that was her weakness. She had never played any sports before and was jumping into fast pitch softball.

  “Girls, gather around.” Courtney’s dad, Phil motioned for us. He’d made me assistant coach and I’d loved it. I’d missed the game and couldn’t wait to teach the girls everything I knew.

  After introductions, practice was underway. There were some girls who couldn’t throw, catch or hit a ball, and after realizing she wasn’t the worse on the team, Cheyenne relaxed and started to play really well. She even tried to teach a teammate how to throw like a boy.

  I laughed as I watched her in her new element. Whenever I was teaching her how to throw, I would pick on her, telling her that she was throwing like a girl. She would stomp her foot and tell me that she was a girl.

  After the girls had warmed up by throwing the ball in pairs, we broke off into two groups. I hit soft infield balls to the girls who wanted to play infield, and Phil hit popups to the girls who wanted to play outfield. I didn’t think any of them really understood what each position did. I went around the horn, hitting a grounder to each girl and then telling them where to throw it.

  “I think I’m either going to choose third base … or shortstop. One of the two. Daddy, what do you think?” Cheyenne asked, buckling her seatbelt after practice. I thought she’d already decided on third, but women are always changing their minds.

  “Your mom played both. I think either one will be perfect.”

  “Yeah, but I can only pick one, right?”

  “No, not at all. It’s better to learn every position. Then you can be very valuable when you get to high school or even college.”

  “That’s true. Okay, let me think about it.”

  I laughed. She had all the time in the world. She wouldn’t be in high school for at least three more years, and with me and Avery coaching her, she was going to be the best girl in town.

  Once again, I couldn’t get a good night’s sleep. I tossed and turned, thinking about Brooke. I hadn’t heard from her, and I had half a mind to stalk her on Facebook—but I didn’t.

  I got up at six, made breakfast for Cheyenne, and then took her to school. Grabbing a coffee from Starbucks, I met Avery at the gym for a good workout before going to Halo. The bar was still standing and, believe it or not, Bethy had done a really good job managing. All the cash and credit cards were accounted for, a list of what we needed to order was on my desk, and everything was in tip-top shape.

  “Let’s promote Bethy to full-time manager,” I said to Avery as we both counted money.

  “I was thinking the same thing. I think we should get someone else as well.”

  “Why? I think one person will be enough.”

  “Not if we’re both spending our weekends in Boston.”

  “Brooke didn’t call me. I scared her off. So looks like it will just be you going to Boston on the weekends.”

  “Fuck—okay—look, you’ve been my best friend my whole life. I’ve seen you fuck around with a shitload of chicks. If you’re really serious about Brooke, I’ll give you her number. Nicole gave it to me because Brooke does want you to call her, but if you’re just going to hurt her, I’m not giving it to you. She’s in a really bad place right now and doesn’t need you fucking with her life more.”

  I leaned back in my black leather office chair, looking him straight in the eyes. If he had focused his attention on something other than Nicole’s pussy during the cruise, he would have realized that I was in love with Brooke. “You’re right, we have been friends our whole life and you know what? I love her more than I’ve ever loved anyone in my whole life—except Cheyenne, of course. You know what I mean. Anyway, I won’t hurt her, I promise. If anything, Jared is hurting her. I want to save her. I want to be there for her—to take care of her. Av, I need her. She needs me.”

  “Jesus, who’s the lovesick fool now?”

  “I know,” I said, hanging my head.

  “All right, here,” he said, handing me a piece of paper.

  “Thank you.” I glanced at my phone, checking the time and knew that she was at work, so instead of calling her, I sent her a text:

  Me: Hey, Superwoman! Avery told me about your tumor…I miss you, but I want to give you all the time you need. I’m here if you ever need ANYTHING! X–Easton.

  I didn’t go back to work after my appointment, and frankly, I didn’t care. Being told that you have a tumor was one of the worst things you could possibly hear from a doctor. Of course, there were other things, but none of us knew if my tumor was cancerous or not.

  After Dr. Sam had told me about the X-ray, she’d made me take a series of other images to determine how big the mass was and where it was located in my shoulder. I’d cried in Dr. Sam’s office until Nicole got off work at five. She followed me home and then dragged me to Yogurtland for dinner. Yogurtland wasn’t the healthiest choice since I piled on the candy, but Nicole was a firm believer that you should get ice cream after a doctor’s appointment. Or, in our case, frozen yogurt.

  I didn’t want to be in public with my tear-stained face, so we got our dinner to go and headed back to my apartment. As we sat in my apartment, drinking vodka and eating our yogurt, I told her to give Easton my number. I shouldn’t have left him the last morning of the cruise. I shouldn’t have stopped the kiss that I so desperately wanted.

  Jared was a lying bastard and an asshole for forgetting us at the airport. On the cruise, my heart was telling me to give in to the temptation of Easton, but my head was telling me no. I should have known to always listen to my heart.

  Fucking Jared.

  After getting a little tipsy from the vodka and lack of food, Jared finally came home. Nicole left me after she’d given him an earful about how much of a loser he was. During her rant, I left and went into my bedroom, locking the door behind me. I didn’t want to talk to him. All I wanted to do was take a hot shower and go to bed. I stood in front of my bathroom mirror, staring at myself and thinking of everything I could have done differently in my life. I didn’t know what caused tumors, but there was a reason I had one.

  I slowly peeled off my clothes, turning so I could see my shoulder blade as I stood in front of the mirror naked and imagined the tumor that was growing inside me. The radiologist sai
d that the mass was the size of a little bouncy ball that kids play with.

  Growing up, Bailee and I would buy the miniature bouncy balls whenever we went grocery shopping. She would beg me for a quarter, and she would always get a ball so that we could bounce them off walls, tables, floors—anything—and count how many times it would bounce. We’d made a game of going to the top of the stairs and seeing who could get it to bounce on the most stairs as it went down.

  Now I had a fucking mass the size of one of those fucking bouncy balls in my fucking shoulder.

  Fuck.

  As I stared at my backside, Jared tried to talk to me through the door, but I was mad and didn’t want to talk to him. I actually didn’t want to talk to anyone but Easton.

  After a long shower and crying my eyes out as I sat on the floor of the tub, I crawled into my bed with my bedroom door still locked. Jared could go back to wherever he’d slept the night before. He tried pounding on the door more, but I didn’t respond. After a while, he stopped. I didn’t know if he slept on the couch like he said he did the night before or if he left.

  And I didn’t care.

  I fell asleep clenching my phone, waiting for Easton to call.

  He didn’t.

  When I woke the next morning, I dressed for work, not putting any makeup on or drinking my usual morning cup of coffee. My mind was elsewhere, and I didn’t care if I got fired. No amount of coffee could give me enough energy to give a shit about anything.

  I arrived early to work and slipped in without anyone seeing me. Shutting my office door and locking it, I spent the next two hours staring out the window at nothing until my phone buzzed.

  Easton: Hey, Superwoman! Avery told me about your tumor…I miss you, but I want to give you all the time you need. I’m here if you ever need ANYTHING! X–Easton.

  I stared at it for a few minutes. He texted me.

  He missed me. I missed him, too.

  I wanted to go home to Easton and cuddle with him until my tumor magically disappeared. But that wasn’t reality. He had his own life in New York with Cheyenne. He couldn’t leave her and take care of me. He had responsibilities, and I had nothing but a stupid tumor and a lying boyfriend.

  Me: Thanks for the kiss. I really needed it, and I miss you, too. I’m sorry for the way I acted the last night…and the next morning.

  A few seconds later, he texted back:

  Easton: I’ll always want to kiss you.

  Me: You say that to all the girls, huh?

  Easton: Actually no…you’re the only one. You’re MY Superwoman.

  Me: I haven’t broken up with Jared.

  Easton: I understand. You got some big news yesterday. Is he at least taking care of you?

  Me: No…I haven’t told him yet.

  Easton: Can I call you?

  Me: I’m at work.

  Easton: Can I call you tonight?

  Me: Yes, I’d like that.

  Easton’s text put a smile on my face. He made my worries disappear for a short time; he was my distraction. Knowing that he missed me made me want to fight the tumor—made me want to live.

  I tried to focus on doing some work now that I had something to look forward to. But before I could get engrossed in all my work emails that I had missed from being on vacation and going to the doctor the day before, Nicole called.

  “Hey, it’s me. How are you holding up?”

  “Better. Easton just texted me.”

  “I see how it is. Hot men always win over yogurt. Sorry I didn’t cheer you up more last night.”

  “Stop being a bitch.” I laughed slightly.

  “Yay! That made you laugh.”

  “Get to the point,” I said, twirling the cord of my office phone. “I’m at work, and you know Ian doesn’t like us to take personal calls.”

  She sighed. “Dr. Sam talked to the radiologist and a surgeon. They want you to have a CT.”

  “Okay, when?”

  “Since it’s in-house and I work magic, I can get you in tomorrow.”

  “Maybe I should just take the rest of the week off.”

  “I’m sorry for the short notice, B, but Dr. Sam and I are pulling all the strings since you’re my best friend.”

  “I know.” I sighed.

  “Hey, hold on for a second.”

  “Okay.” I rested my head on the back of my office chair as she put me on hold. I knew I would need more testing; I just didn’t know I would have it so soon. I was angry with my first doctor who told me that it was a pulled muscle and didn’t even touch my shoulder. If she had just taken the time to get an X-ray, I would know if I had cancer or not, and I’d probably have had the damn thing removed by now!

  I was staring at the text from Easton and thinking about how he thinks of me as being Superwoman when Nicole got back on the line. “Sorry, B. Dr. Sam just came in, and she wants you to have a biopsy done, too.”

  “Okay, just schedule me for whatever.” I sighed again.

  The last few days, I’d noticed that I sighed a lot. It was as if the more I sighed, the more the weight on my shoulders would disappear. I didn’t want to deal with any of it. So many thoughts were running through my head. Things I could have done differently. I couldn’t imagine if I had cancer. The mention of a biopsy scared the shit out of me.

  Nicole placed me on hold. After about five minutes of Michael Buble serenading me, she returned to the line. “I scheduled your biopsy for Saturday.”

  “Saturday?”

  “Yeah, it’s at the hospital, not here. That way, I can go with you.”

  “Thank you,” I sobbed. No one had ever taken care of me, and just the thought of Nicole coming with me made me cry happy tears.

  I didn’t know how she was getting me into everything so fast, but I didn’t care. The quicker I had everything done, the sooner I would be pain-free.

  After I told Lucy about the tumor and assured her that I had been in my office the whole time, I went home for the day—well, the week. If Ian had a problem with me taking sick time, he could go fuck himself.

  As I sulked towards my front door, I heard giggling. When I opened the door and saw Jared sitting on the couch with Tramp Tarah, I lost my shit.

  “What the fuck?” I yelled, slamming the door behind me.

  “Brooke, it’s not what you think,” Jared said, standing and putting his hands up defensively.

  “Really? You have another girl in our apartment and it’s not what I think?” I asked, placing my hands on my hips.

  “I should go,” Tramp Tarah murmured.

  “You might as well take this asshole with you!” I shouted, pointing to Jared.

  “Brooke, let me explain,” Jared said, stepping towards me.

  I took a step back. “Explain what? Explain that you’re fucking cheating on me? Explain that you were with her when you were supposed to pick me up at the airport? Explain that you were with her when I found out I have a tumor in my shoulder and might have cancer?”

  “Tumor? Cancer? Wait. What are you talking about?”

  “It doesn’t fucking matter. Just get the fuck out!”

  “I live here, too!”

  “You have some balls if you think I’m going to stay in the same apartment as you when you’re a lying cheating bastard,” I said, turning his X-Box on.

  “What are you doing? Put my shit down.” Jared reached to turn the X-Box off, but I nudged him out of the way. “Brooke, just let me explain. Tarah’s my friend.”

  “Do you think that I’m an idiot?” I pulled Call of Duty from the slot.

  “Seriously, put my shit back.”

  I looked up at him as he hovered over me and, without a word, I snapped the game in half.

  “What the fuck? You didn’t seriously just break my game!”

  “Oh, I did. And I’m not done.”

  “If you break my X-Box, I’m going to kill you!”

  “You wouldn’t …”

  Something inside me snapped more. I ripped the X-Box from the wall an
d threw it on the carpeted floor, but it only bounced a little, so I started to stomp on it. It crushed beneath my black ballet slippers as I jumped, hurting my feet in the process, but I didn’t care. The X-Box was his heart, and I wanted to crush it.

  I didn’t love Jared like I thought I did but walking in on your boyfriend with another woman isn’t a fairy tale worth living no matter how unhappy you are with him. It felt good watching him freak out and gather the pieces of the crushed box.

  “You’re fucking crazy! You’re going to buy me a new one.”

  “You want to see crazy?” I ran into the bedroom, pulling open the walk-in closet door with too much force and stumbling back as I almost fell on my ass. I grabbed an armful of clothes and walked towards the front door.

  “What are you doing?”

  He raced to the front door, but he wasn’t fast enough. I threw his clothes over the railing of my second-floor apartment. I didn’t know where Tarah had gone, but I was thankful she’d left the door open when she left.

  “Get the fuck out and have your tramp buy you a new one!” I said, coming back to the crushed X-Box and throwing a big chunk at his head. It shattered against the white wall as he ducked. After he told me I was crazy a few more times, he finally got the hint and left. I stared at the broken pieces.

  Me: I went home early from work and walked into my apartment where Jared and Tramp Tarah were watching TV on MY couch.

  I knew Nicole wouldn’t respond until she got off work, but I had another text to make anyway.

  Me: I did it! I broke up with Jared.

  I set my phone on the kitchen counter as I grabbed a glass of water and took two pain pills. My shoulder was on fire. I grabbed my phone when I heard a text come in:

  Nicole: Are you okay?

  Me: More than okay. I walked in on him cheating on me.

  My phone started to ring in my hand. “I’m a fucking idiot,” I groaned without a hello.