Page 25 of Riding the Sugar High

“You’re supposed to sell candy. Happiness, childlike innocence, colorful hope. Not...tire slashing and, and...” She glances at the stupid post-it again. “And stalking, andexplicit, private fantasies.”

God, she’s talking as if I chose to have something so private posted online.

“He’s been making post after post about you, and people are believing his side of the story. So unless you can convince me and everyone else that you are done with this man, we can’t have you jump on board.”

Though there’s a chasm in my chest, I fight to hold myself together. This is supposed to be my moment—my chance to prove myself and get my name out there. But it’s slipping through my fingers, and I have no power to stop it.

She opens her mouth, but her voice is muffled by the sound of an engine. Turning the volume up, I glance behind the screen, where Logan’s pickup is approaching. Great. Just who I wanted to see during this meeting.

“—me.”

“Excuse me?”

Logan’s pickup stops at the top of the driveway, and with the farm back to the usual silence, Chloe’s voice blasts out of the speakers. “I said, convince me. Convince me you’re done with that man.”

I take a shaky breath, trying to push back the overwhelming wave of despair threatening to consume me, as the pickup door opens. Logan pops out, studying me, and at this point, I don’t even know how to feel about him. Since that first, amazing kiss, we’ve had plenty of unpleasant interactions to cancel out that one good memory.

It brings out your eyes.

The green of your underwear.

Asshole.

“I’m, uh...I’m really done with him.”

Logan steps in front of me, but I hold a hand out. If he walks past me on the steps, Chloe will see him on camera. Having a meeting to discuss my fuckups on a porch is unprofessional enough without some dirty boots peeking behind me.

With a loud sigh, he crosses his arms.

“Is that the best you’ve got?” Chloe asks.

“No. Of course not. Look, Chloe, Derek and I, we...we barely even had a relationship, okay? While we were together, I thought it was everything, but truly, all we had was an irrelevant, online flirt. We only met once, which is when we broke up.”

Her expression is coated in pity, and I can tell it’s done. I just lost the biggest opportunity of my life, and I have Derek Gracen to thank for it.

In fact, I have him to thank for my whole life going to hell.

“Look, Primrose, as much as I appreciate your work, I don’t think this?—”

Logan takes a step, and I nearly incinerate him with my glare, trying to communicate that he shouldn’t walk past me, but he leans forward, and his hand cups the back of my head. “Hey, Barbie,” he says softly before his lips press on my forehead, causing shivers to rain down my scalp and neck. It lasts but a moment, yet I distinctly feel my heart skip one long beat before it goes back to spasming inside my chest.

Then his hand and mouth are gone, and he’s hopping up the stairs.

He kissed my forehead.

When I look down at the camera, quick breaths puffing out of my lips, I see his lower half as he enters the house, then closes the door behind him.

“Oh, well.” Chloe says, a light giggle bursting from her lips. “Consider me convinced.”

“What?” I ask, my skin still tingling.

“I’d hardly be thinking about this...Derek person if I had that hunk of a man lying around.”

I smile awkwardly, then nod. “Yeah, it’s still pretty new, but...it’s been going well.”

She opens the folder again. “Okay, well, good for you. Now, we need to convince everyone else.”

I nod, but I can hardly focus on her words with the way my forehead tingles. It was a quick, chaste kiss—nothing like the scorching hot way he took my mouth with his last night—but I can almost feel the imprint of his lips.