Page 68 of Riding the Sugar High

“Look, I get it.” Her hand cups mine, and once I venture a glance at her face, her green eyes sparkle with compassion. “You don’t want to rat him out. Logan and I have been friends since we were eleven, and I know exactly what he’s been telling you. That we won’t figure it out, that we’ll let it be.” Lips stiffening into a hard line, she shakes her head, her fiery red hair swinging with the motion. “But we won’t. Connor and Derek won’t.”

My stomach churns as I weigh my options, but doubt creeps in, clouding my judgment and making it difficult to see clearly. What if she’s right and Logan is wrong? By withholding the truth, we’re extending our punishment. We’re getting into a sea of trouble. This was nothing but a stupid accident, and I can’t lose everything because of it, but I also can’t let Logan take the fall.

Maybe I should just trust Josie, tell her everything, and hope she’ll help us. It’s obvious she cares about him.

“I...”

She tilts her head, studying my eyes as she takes my hand. “Yes?”

“Okay. Look. What happened is?—”

The door opens behind us, and as Logan peeks his head out, she mumbles a curse under her breath. “Ready to go?”

Was she hoping to catch me alone?

“Yeah, absolutely.”

“Think about what I said, okay?” Her eyes are pleading as I stiffly nod her way. “It was so nice to meet you under different circumstances, Prim.”

“Yes, it was,” I say as I stand and straighten my dress.

She grabs the bottle, holding the railing for stability, then gives me a drunken smile before she hugs me. I meet Logan’s gaze over her shoulder, but he looks away, a somber aura around him.

‘Nice to meet you’ my ass.

I can’tbelieveI almost got played.

* * *

The phone rings, interrupting the silence, and the kiwi-pineapple gummy in my hands falls to the floor. Before I can even hope to reach it, one of the pigs enters the kitchen and swallows it without even chewing. “Hey,” I scold weakly as I walk to the phone. “Your dad said I shouldn’t feed you anything. He won’t be happy when he gets back home, young lady.”

The piglet watches me as if she’s actually paying attention, and with a giggle, I bring the phone to my ear. Logan left an hour ago to dosomething—and despite my insistence, he made it pretty clear that I’m not meant to know what. “Hello?” I say as I bring the phone to my ear.

“Uh—you’re not Logan. Do I have the wrong number?”

“No, this is the Coleman farm, but Logan is out right now. Can I take a message?”

“Yeah. Tell him Tom said he should buy a cellphone like a normal person.”

I snort, quickly deciding I like Tom, whoever he is. “Will do, but I can’t promise it’ll work.”

“Yeah, no kidding.” There are some traffic noises, then, “Well, look, he was supposed to come by my office an hour ago, but he never showed. It’s kind of urgent.”

It sounds like Tom is deciding whether he can share with me whatever he needs to tell Logan, but I don’t want to interfere with his privacy, so I offer, “That’s probably my fault. I, uh...dropped in earlier in the week without warning and took over his house.”

“Oh.Oooh,you’re his girlfriend. Well, okay. Tell him we have a potential buyer, but we need to act fast. I got the feeling they were fretting, so we don’t want to give them too much time to change their minds.”

My brows scrunch, but I nod. “Sure, okay. Hope you guys make the sale.”

“That’s very kind of you. I wish you were my client instead of that grumpy ass.”

I chuckle, leaning against the bookshelf. “I’ll keep you in mind if I ever need to sell something.”

“You do that. Apartments, villas, commercial spaces, and apparently, farms.”

My heart stops in my chest as my whole body turns cold. Did he say...farms? As in...Logan’s farm? Is Logan trying to sell?

“Hello? I think I lost you.”