Page 126 of Riding the Sugar High

“No—no.” She pulls herself up, her chest heaving. “I need to talk to Logan. I?—”

“I’ll wake you up once he’s here, don’t worry.”

She shakes her head but struggles to keep her eyes open. “No, you’re just trying to keep me from talking to him.”

“I promise,” I insist as I cup her shoulder. “I’ll wake you up.”

She nods, then slowly lies down. “You know what I miss the most?”

“What?” I ask distractedly as I tuck the blanket over her. I want to remove myself from this situation until Logan is back and I can talk to him.

“Riding bitch on his bike.” She bursts out laughing as if she’s just said the funniest joke, but my lips bend down. “And the sex, of course. The crawling and chasing and choking...” She half-laughs and half-cries. “You know what he’s like.”

A lump the size of an orange lodges in my throat as I think of the way I described Logan’s type: tall, skinny, with smile lines, long legs, and strong arms. She’s a woman who’s beautiful without makeup, or in this case, drunk out of her mind.

Josie.

Is she...Logan’s ex?

* * *

The door opens, then Logan and Aaron burst into the house, their steps echoing in the silence.

“Primrose?” Logan calls from the living room, and with a sigh, I glance over my shoulder at Josie, asleep. I haven’t moved away from her side, afraid she’d vomit in her sleep, but I can’t wait for someone else to be here.

My thoughts are incoherent, every piece of the lie forming a bigger picture.

Honestly, I don’t know how I missed it.

Logan said he and Aaron were already on bad terms when his brother gave their relationship the final hit by pulling out of the work at the farm. And, of course, there’s what he told me about his ex. How she’s still with the guy she cheated with.

But I also remember what he said about their breakup. How he wanted to be with her, and she was the one to end it.

Since then, he’s been single, and I assumed he’d kept away from women because of the break of trust he’d suffered, but maybe I was wrong. Maybe he’s been single all this time because he’s in love with Josie.

It would explain why he’s so angry at Aaron, but not at her.

“Hey. Are you okay?” Logan asks as he enters the room. He kneels in front of me, chest rising and dropping quickly as Aaron circles the bed so he can tend to Josie.

“Primrose?” he insists when I flinch at the contact of his fingers on my skin.

“Who’s your ex, Logan?”

I look up at him, and he’s wide-eyed, watching me.“Did...uh, did Josie...”

“Yeah, she did. It was a matter of time. Wasn’t it?” I ask, my voice barely a whisper. “She’s drunk half of the time, and the other half, she’s questioning me. But you didn’t think I should know that?” When he lowers his gaze, I insist, “Why didn’t you tell me, Logan?”

He can’t bring himself to look into my eyes. It's a visceral sensation, like a knife plunged into my back, severing the trust I placed in Logan and leaving behind a gaping wound that refuses to heal. Every word, smile, and touch shared between us now feels tainted, poisoned by deceit and omitted truths.

“Barbie, wait,” he says as I stand, and he jumps to his feet. “Please.”

“Just tell me if you lied to me. If you made me think it was real when it was not.”

“Of course, it’s real.”

My mind races with questions, doubts, and fears, each more painful than the last. Why didn’t he tell me? Why can’t he say something now?

He trails carefully behind me as I enter the guest room, and once I grab my backpack and begin shoving stuff inside, he whispers, “Barbie...”