Page 172 of Riding the Sugar High

“What?” she squeaks, a horrified grimace appearing instead of her smile. “You’re dumping me?”

“Dumping you?” My head jerks back. “Why?—”

“You can’t do it anymore?” she asks, her pitch rising. “Are you serious? I’m here because you told me to go—we’re launching the candy today. We made it all this time, and three weeks before I’m back, you?—”

I pull her closer and look deeply into her eyes. “Do you think I’d squeeze myself into a metal box that shoots through the sky for six hours, then wait in a line for two more wearing a pink cowboy hat that doesn’t fit my big head—all of it, to dump you?”

She pauses, her wide eyes blinking as if she’s realizing it sounds peculiar at best. “Right.”

“Right.”

“So, wait...what do you mean?”

Gently coaxing her closer, I lick my lips. I’ve thought about this speech for hours, and all the words I carefully crafted now seem light-years away.

“I’ve been miserable, Primrose. I mean—you’re part of my life, and that makes it...” I can’t even put the feeling into words. “Somuch better. But I also miss you all the fucking time. When I talk to you, I miss you even more. It’s like a clock that never resets, just ticks faster and faster until I can’t think of anything else but the fact that you’re not there, next to me.”

Her mouth opens, and for a few seconds, she stares at me. “Therapy is working out for you, isn’t it?”

It is. I’ve had three panic attacks since I started, but I was more prepared to face them. And I’m working on expressing my emotions. On processing them.

“The point is, I’ve done it for six months. I’d do it for six more—hell, I’d wait a whole lifetime for you to come back.”

“But?” she whispers.

But she’s been calling less and less. She used to text me all day, every day—to the point where Simon and Kyle started calling me Cyber Logan, because I was always staring at my phone. And now, she doesn’t have the time for it. It’s hurting me, but most importantly, it hurts her. “You’re too busy for a long-distance relationship, and I won’t let us grow apart. I won’t stand here and watch the most important thing in my life fall into pieces only because I didn’t do anything about it.”

“So, um...” She shakes her head. “Are you here to talk about us? To set some boundaries and?—”

“I’m here to stay.”

Her eyes widen again. “Stay? In Mayfield?”

“Yes, for now. Then we’ll go back to the farm, and then...I’ll be wherever you are. The work at the farm has been good, but now winter is approaching, and they can handle it without me. After that, we’ll see. But I’m not leaving your side for as long as you need to stay away.”

She smiles, which immediately relaxes my shoulders. She doesn’t seem to think I’m crazy, which was my main concern. “But, Logan, your whole life is there. You can’t just leave everything behind.”

I tuck a lock of hair behind her ear, my fingers rubbing the pink tips. I’ve missed those pink tips. “My whole life is righthere.”

Tugging at my shirt, she smiles. “Why haven’t you picked me up yet?”

I lean forward and, with the usual protective hand, pull her up against my chest, her legs wrapping around me.

“I love you,” she whispers then. “I’ve been so miserable too.”

“Yeah, I could tell.” I brush a thumb over her cheek. “But I’m here now, okay? And I love you, so I’m not leaving until you ask me to.”

She sniffles. “Okay. Three more weeks, and then we’ll be back home.”

“Iamhome.”

She leans forward, her lips pressing on mine, and the crowd immediately cheers, their claps and excited yelps turning into aooohs andaaahs once I deepen the kiss and taste her tongue.

Her hazy eyes meet mine when I pull back, and I jerk my head to the right. “Think we’re going viral again?”

“So be it,” she says before diving back in.

I pull back before it turns heated again, because the last thing I need is to have an erection in front of three hundred women holding their cameras to me.