Page 31 of Riding the Sugar High

“Fine, fine.” His trembling hand sinks into his jeans pocket, and I relent my hold. “Here,” he breathes out as he takes the piece of paper out of his wallet. He hands it over, and I keep my fingers relaxed around it to not crumple it. Even though everything in me is as tense as a bowstring.

I shove him back, and he lands with his ass on the ground. “Not one more word online. Do you understand?” I lean closer, then tilt my head Primrose’s way and whisper, “Not one word.”

After staring for a couple of seconds, he awkwardly stands. At first, it looks like he’ll say something, but he eventually stalks away. Once he disappears behind the gate, I pocket the list and bring the joint to my lips again.

I need to relax. Need to remember there’s someone I don’t want to scare. That I have too much shit to take care of, and I can’t afford to go to jail.

“Hey,” Primrose says as she joins my side. “Are you okay? What happened?”

Ignoring her, I walk back to my porch and breathe out, trying to release some of the adrenaline that has surged through me. “Did you want something?”

“No, I...I heard voices.”

“Are they telling you to start a fire?” I sit on the top step and exhale. “Because that would explain a lot.”

“Voicesout here. The ones I hear in my head can’t get any reception.” She throws a worried look over her shoulder, then turns to me again. “I made this.” She holds out a small bowl filled with green candy. “Mint and thyme.”

“No, thanks.”

One corner of her lips drops. “Come on, try it.”

“What’s in it?”

“Well...mint, thyme, sugar?—”

“White sugar?”

Her eyes narrow. “No. Refined cane sugars are likely to have been processed with animal products.”

Huh. So she does know her stuff.

“Still not eating it,” I mutter.

“Fine.” She sets the bowl away with a sigh. “Kyle said you don’t have Wi-Fi. Is that true?”

So shedidhang out with Kyle. He told me he’d go see her when his shift was over, but by the time I came back home for dinner, she was alone.

My eyes drift over the blueberries on her pink dress, her thick thighs underneath, and I briefly wonder why she’s wearing heels. “No Wi-fi here. If you want to use your connection, the front porch is the only place where the internet works.”

Her nose scrunches, the same expression as if I’d condemned her to a life without oxygen. I guess it would feel that way to her. “Why was Derek here?”

Shoulders hunching, I shrug. “Just saying hi.”

“Yeah, right.” Light blue eyes scan my face, but I ignore them until she sits next to me on the step. “You said if I stayed here, I’d get to talk to him. Why did you chase him off as soon as I came out?”

“You don’t need to talk to him.”

She crosses her arms, her shoulders rolling forward. “Is that so? And why doyouget to decide?—”

I fit a hand into my pocket and hold the list between my index and middle finger. “You can talk to him if you want. But you don’tneedto talk to him.”

For a moment, she looks at the piece of paper with her lips parted, then she snatches it quickly as if she’s afraid it’ll suddenly disappear. She unfolds it, her thumb grazing the lines scribbled on it. “I...Logan, I?—”

“It’s fine.”

She breathes out, as if she needs to get that ‘thank you’ off her chest. Really, she shouldn’t be thanking me. That list isherstupid clump of romantic fantasies, and he shouldn’t have taken it in the first place.

“Seriously, forget about it,” I insist as I look away.