Riding the Sugar High: a Grumpy Sunshine Romantic Comedy

5. You’re A Walking Red Flag

A faint knockingsound wakes me, and only after I open my eyes do I realize the knocking isn’t faint at all, only far. Specifically the front door.

I stand, rubbing my eyes to get rid of the sleepiness. The piglets are still bundled in the blankets I put out for them, and the male one opens an eye as I walk out of the bedroom.

Who could it be at this hour? Kyle and Simon have a key for emergencies they regularly use for non-emergencies, so it can’t be them. Besides, they won’t get to the farm for another half hour.

Could it be Derek?

Maybe he’s stupid enough to risk a fight with someone twice his size. Or maybe he’s brought his friends along.

Either way, if it’s him, I’ll have to make sure it stays outside. I promised Primrose I’d make sure nothing happened to her, and I meant it.

I reach the door, mind and body alert, and open it. Unfortunately, on the other side, I’m met by eyes just like mine.

Aaron.

“What the fuck, Logan?”

Here we go. “Good morning.”

“Arson? Seriously?” he asks as he barges into the house.

Crossing my arms, I close the door and try as hard as I can not to laugh at his hair, glued on his head. Did he dip his head in Vaseline? “Keep your voice down. I have a?—”

“A girlfriend? Yes, I heard. Is she also a criminal? Is that why she’s covering for you?”

Thinking of her rainbow earrings and the sloths on her underwear, I can’t help but smirk. “Oh, yeah. A real mobster.” Before he even opens his mouth, I raise a hand. “Look, I’ll tell you the same thing I told your wife. I had nothing to do with it. Now get lost before you wake Primrose up.”

“Primrose?”

“Yeah. The killer-for-hire I’m dating.”

“Not...” He swallows, then joins his hands together in front of his mouth, the smell of his fancy aftershave making my nose scrunch. “You don’t mean Primrose Bellevue? Sugar High?”

Uh, shit. Do I? What’s a sugar high?

“Logan?” Aaron presses his lips tight for a moment. “Tell me you’re not dating Derek’s stalker.”

My brows raise. “Huh?”

“The woman who keeps harassing him? The influencer?”

She’s an influencer?!

Oh my god. I don’t know how it took me so long to realize. She said she’s a public figure, and with those clothes? The amount of words that roll out of her mouth? Of course, she’s an influencer. Sugar High must be her username on whatever platform made her famous.

As if I needed another reason to lose what little respect I had for a woman who would ever date Derek Gracen.

“Wait—is she the one who tried to set his house on fire?”

I shake my head, trying to bury my concern under a mask of indifference. Aaron has always been too smart for his own sake. Smarter than me, for sure. With the fact that he’s five years older than me, he’s also convinced he knows better. “She’s visiting me from Mayfield, and we spent last night fucking in every position I could bend her in, okay?”

He looks away, shaking his head as if he knows I’m lying. “She threatened to kill his dogs. Did you know that, Animal Lover?”

Primrose? Threatened to kill Derek’s dogs? I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t even pet those two old bulldogs, let alone hurt them.

“She hacked his phone. And slashed his tires. And—and—” He looks away as if he’s remembering an old conversation. “She called and texted so many times he had to get a restraining order. She can’t even be here by law.”

“Hm. And you know all of this because...”

“Because Derek told me. Logan, they met once.” His hands join. “She’s known on social media for being some psycho, and people are bashing her all over the place. If you’re covering for her?—”

I raise a hand. “I thought she was covering for me.”

“Look, I know you’re not dating,” he hisses. “But if you are, maybe you should consider whether you’re part of some scheme to get to Derek.”

“Are you worried about my heart getting broken, big brother?” I snap back. “’Cause you’ve always had a funny way of going about that.”

His jaw tenses as he looks down, his lips pulled into a rigid line.

A movement in the corner of my eye has me looking past him and into the corridor, where Primrose is hiding against the wall, fearful eyes staring at me.

So maybe she is a little eccentric. If anything, it makes me dislike her less.

“If there’s nothing else...” I point at the door. “I have a day of meaningful work to look forward to.” I snap my finger. “You? Still crunching numbers at the loser factory, right?”

Aaron flips me off, and as he opens the door, he mumbles a “Fuck you” as if he wasn’t clear enough.

“Oh, hey.”

He looks over his shoulder.

“Is Josie working the morning or afternoon shift today?”

“Afternoon.” He turns to face me, eyes narrowed. “Why?”

Without uttering another word, I close the door.

Primrose is slinking back down the hall when I call out, “Hey, giant red flag. Wanna come out here for a minute?”

She stops, lips pulled into a little frown when she steps toward me. “Yeah? What is it?”

I huff out a chuckle, and as I’m about to speak, there’s another knock at the door.

With a groan, I swing it open. Kyle and Simon are standing on the other side, eyes widening as they land on Primrose.

“What the f?—”

Nope.

I slam the door closed, then focus on Primrose again, awkwardly standing beside the couch. “Hungry?”

“A little,” she says, studying the door with taut brows.

I walk to the kitchen, then open the cupboard. “Oats okay?”

“Mm-hmm. Who were those people?”

“Kyle and Simon. They work here.”

“Oh, all right.” She sits at the table behind me, and once I’ve put milk and oats into the pot, I set the coffee machine. We’re both silent as the bitter aroma takes over the kitchen, the low purring of the machine turning louder as the carafe fills.

“It’s not what it looks like,” she mumbles eventually.

I turn to her, apple and knife in hand. “Hm?”

“I didn’t threaten his dogs.”

Yeah, no shit. “So why does my brother think you did?”

“I don’t know. Because Derek is a liar? And...” She looks down at her nails. “I might have said I hoped his dogs would eat him.”

“Given the right opportunity,” I say as I cut up another piece of apple, “they probably would.”

When I throw another look over my shoulder, there’s a sad little pout on her face. “Did you slash his tires?” She shakes her head, so I continue, “Hack his phone?”

Her eyes meet mine. “I had to.”

“Did you?”

“Yes.” She sighs loudly, crossing her legs as she fidgets with a kitchen towel. “He broke up with me without a real explanation, and I’d shared a lot of professional and personal things with him. I had to know what was going on.”

“Uh-huh.” I fully turn around, unable to help a smile. “How did you even do it?”

“I hired a hacker,” she says, biting her fingernails as she sheepishly glances at me.

Yeah, she’s... something.

“Okay. And? What did you find out?”

“Uh...That he’s dating this girl. They use sweet nicknames for each other. And that they went on a trip together last month. Oh, and that?—”

“I thought you were looking for your secrets, not his.”

Lips pinching, she nods. “Right, yes. I didn’t find anything. He never even mentioned me or my recipes.”

“Recipes? Aren’t you an influencer?”

“A foodie influencer. I make candy.”

I try to rein in my disappointment, but that’s hardly a job, and my thoughts must be pretty clear because her lips twitch.

“I’ll have you know my audience didn’t just pop up overnight. I’ve worked hard on my platforms, and my social media landed me the job of my dreams, assuming Derek doesn’t run online and shout about this.”

“He can’t,” I reassure her. “Pending investigation.” She seems lightened up by the information before I ask, “What about the restraining order?”

“He tried to get one after I hacked his phone but was denied.” She bites her bottom lip. “But I haven’t even talked to him in weeks. And—okay, I broke into his farm last night...but I just wanted to talk.”

Dropping her head forward, she whines.

I turn the stove off, scoop some oats, and set them into a small bowl. Once I add apples and strawberries, I hand it to Primrose. As I prepare my own, one of the piglets enters the kitchen and moves under her chair, and she flinches, pulling her legs up.

She can’t seriously be scared of a pink fuzzy piglet, can she?

“Do they bite?” she asks, distrustful eyes studying the small animal.

“Bite, kick, and trample,” I say as I join her at the table. “Better not piss them off.”

When she swallows, her worried gaze darting under the chair, I clear my throat. “What are your plans for today?”

She energizes at the question, her face breaking into a wide grin. “I have a meeting about my product. The company I’ll work for—Marisol—wants to define some details.”

“Your own product?” I assume that’s the dream she was referring to. “What’s that?”

“Not sure—I’ll have to submit a few of my recipes.” When I nod, she seems disappointed by my lukewarm reaction, and insists, “I’ve been waiting for one of these big candy producers to notice me. I’ve networked, collaborated, worked my ass off, and it took years, but I’m finally there now.” She seems giddy with excitement and nervous tension, but just as quickly as it appeared, her enthusiasm flattens out. “I doubt they’d want to work with me if I was arrested, though.”

“Then you better learn how to lie quickly.”

Her nostrils flare as she stares down at her bowl. When her lips wobble, I set my spoon down, reminded of the reason why I hate dealing with people.

“Don’t cry.”

“I’m not crying,” she whines as tears fall down her cheeks. “I’m just—just...”

“Crying?” I suggest.

She furiously wipes away her tears. “Strong girls cry when they’re angry, okay?”

“No. Not okay.” I lean forward to stare right into her eyes. “You cry, and he wins. You show you care, and he wins. If you let any emotions slip out, you’re the weak one. And if you’re weak, people know they can take advantage of you.”

She sniffles, slowly shaking her head. “Emotions are normal, Logan. If you don’t express them, they build up until your mind can’t take it anymore, and they explode.”

I hold her stare for a while, knowing she’s referring to the episode I had last night, and once I’m sure she’s done crying, I pick up my bowl and continue eating.

Emotions are normal, yeah. They’re also inconvenient, and whether she cries over this or not won’t change the fact that Derek is a piece of shit who lied to her and humiliated her. So, what’s crying good for?

Nothing.

Nobody deserves her tears.

* * *

“She set Derek’s trash on fire?” Simon asks before breathing in his open hands to warm up. The spring morning is alive with the chirping of birds, the rich aroma of fertile soil mingling with the sweet fragrance of blossoming flowers and the tang of manure from the barns. Though it’s cold right now, we’ll be drenched in sweat in a handful of hours.

“By accident.” I fill the trough with feed as the goats gather eagerly, their soft, warm bodies brushing against me.

“What was it? Compost? Paper?”

My eyes roll. “That’s what you want to know?”

Kyle pops up next to me, piercing brown eyes as wide as the moon. “Wait, so she’s Sugar High? That Sugar High?”

I can feel the excitement bursting out of him from his voice alone, which means that prefacing my story with “It’s not a big deal” and “No, really, it’s not a big deal at all” didn’t work as planned.

“How many Sugar Highs do you know?” I ask as the five goats approach, and after making sure Russ’s injured thigh looks good, I store the feed away and hop over the fence.

“Is she famous?” Simon asks Kyle as he runs his finger through his orange-blond hair. “Like properly famous?”

“She’s got two million followers on Instagram alone.” Kyle hesitates. “Though, lately, she’s been known as...”

“As a psycho,” I fill in, my lips twisting at the horrible word. Simon’s chin jerks back, and he straightens his shoulders. “She didn’t take the breakup with Derek the...conventional way.”

“Well, he obviously used her,” Kyle offers as he hops onto the fence and sits. “I mean, he had five hundred followers when he started dating her. And now? Forty thousand. And he was flaunting the relationship—it was transparently fake.” He keeps scrolling on his phone. “I wouldn’t have taken the breakup well either.”

When he notices both Simon and I staring at him questioningly, he brushes invisible dirt off his light blue jeans.

“What? It’s the latest Instagram drama.” He hops off the fence. “But, on a bitter-sweet note, we do kind of have a cheat sheet to her innermost fantasies. Which, if you’re not planning on using, I might?—”

“What does that mean?”

“Just that if you’re not into her, I’d like to?—”

Eye rolling, I raise a hand to stop him. “I know you’re a thirsty teenager in a man’s body, Kyle. What’s that cheat sheet business?”

“Oh.” He taps on his phone. “Well, last week, this list was leaked online. She confirmed it’s hers.”

I grasp the phone from his hands, my eyes widening as I read line after line. Act silly around me, Cuddle me, Introduce me to his family.

It’s her love bucket list.

And it’s been made public.

“Look at the last ones. Spicy stuff,” Kyle says with a suggestive tone, my eyes instantly piercing his face.

Though it takes every drop of self-control, I hand the phone back, my jaw ticking. “This is private shit, Kyle. What the fuck are you talking about—cheat sheet? You have no right to read any of that.”

“It’s online!” He turns to Simon, lips parted. “Explain it to him.”

“Nah. He’s right. Just because someone posted it, it doesn’t mean you should engage.”

“Well, you two are no fun.” Pocketing his phone, he pulls his chocolate brown hair back. “I can’t exactly forget it.”

“Who leaked it?” I ask, the answer coming to me before Kyle can open his mouth. “Derek, of course.”

Kyle nods.

So when she said she wanted to see Derek, when she said she just went to his farm to talk, that’s what she meant. She’s trying to get her list back.

“He said that Primrose sent it to him, begging him to take her back. In her version, she accidentally left it behind when he dumped her.” He rubs his five o’clock shadow. “Wanna know what’s really happening?” His eyes narrow. “Derek thought his newfound audience was actually about him, while it was not. And once everyone moved on from the breakup and onto the next gossip, he made up all these lies to have five more minutes of fame.”

“And apparently, it worked,” I say as I think of this morning’s conversation with my brother.

“Oh, yes.” With a scoff, he crosses his arms. “People will believe anything as long as it’s entertaining, and now Primrose is suddenly a pariah.” His eyes roll. “She doesn’t deserve all the shit she gets.”

Goddamn it. “Kyle, you bring up this list in front of her, and you’ll be looking for your teeth in the grass,” I tell him as I point a finger at his face.

“Why would I?—”

“You seem awfully protective of this...stranger,” Simon interrupts as he takes a step toward the stables, and his deep-set eyes scan me the way they always do. It’s infuriating.

“Don’t make this about her,” I warn.

“Who should I make it about?”

“About bullies. Assholes like Derek Gracen.” I rub a tired hand over my face. “God, I’m going to kill that piece of shit.”

“Is her reputation completely shattered? Or could she...you know...” Simon trails off. When Kyle and I turn to him with a confused expression, he shrugs. “Seriously? Am I the only one who’s thinking it?”

Thinking what, exactly?

“She’s a famous foodie influencer.”

“And?” I insist, gesturing impatiently at him to speak.

“And, you might act like the farm isn’t struggling, but we’re not idiots, Logan,” Simon says as he follows me. His voice has taken that serious edge he’s developed since he became a father, and I can’t say I love it. “You’ve got half as many guys as last year working here, and the rescues have doubled. It doesn’t add up.”

Swallowing past the lump in my throat, I grab the bale and turn to him. He’s tried to broach the subject before, so he knows I have no intention of discussing it. “You want her to promote us.”

“Yes, of course I do. You should too.”

Shaking my head, I hold back a chuckle. “Well, I don’t. And besides, she’s been deceived by her ex for followers, and you want me to use her for promotion?”

“No, not use her. Ask her. You won’t sleep with her, so it’s not even remotely the same situation.” He rolls his thin lips. “Unless...”

Unless? Unless what?

Noticing Kyle and Simon’s eyes on me, I sigh. “There are as many chances that I’ll sleep with her as there are that I’ll sleep with you.”

Kyle perks up. “So she’s fair game?” He shoves his phone in front of Simon’s face. “Because look at this. Just look at the bikini.”

“Yeah, she’s cute,” Simon mumbles, and Kyle immediately smacks him in the chest.

“Cute? She’s hot.”

“Okay, hot.” Simon throws a worried look at me. “Tread carefully, Kyle.”

A familiar, hot anger moves up my throat until it morphs my lips into a sneer. “Did you not hear what I said?” I ask as the two of them share a look. “Why would I care? Say whatever you want.”

Kyle fits a hand into his pocket. “Nothing happened between you two?”

I shake my head, though my mind floods with memories of her lips moving against mine, her body arching toward my chest, of her thick, soft thighs in my hands. “No, Kyle. She’s all yours—in private.” I point a finger at him. “If Josie finds out we lied, I’m screwed. Don’t send me to prison because you need to wet your dick.”

“Sure, sure.” Kyle looks down at his phone again, a big, idiotic grin on his face. “God, look at her. How long did you say she’s staying?”

“Seventeen days. She exchanged her ticket this morning.”

“Nice. I think this is valley worthy.”

Lucky Primrose. She gets the treatment reserved for the crème de la crème of Kyle’s sexual escapades.

I walk into the stables, ignoring Kyle and Simon as they discuss Primrose’s pictures and videos. Though I’m curious, I can’t think straight.

I can’t believe that asshole posted her list online. It’s a stupid piece of paper, but it’s important to her. Important enough to break into his farm to get it back. Important enough to commit a crime that could jeopardize her future.

She should have saved herself the trouble and asked me.

Be it the last thing I do, I’ll get her list back.