14. Stand Up For Us
“I’d liketo point out that, just like dinner, the dessert was made by Aaron,” Josie says as she sets a chocolate cake at the center of the table. “I imagine it’s hard to impress you when it comes to sweets.”
“Please,” I reassure her. “People think that because I make candy, I must be an excellent baker, and they’re as wrong as it gets.”
“How does one get into candy making?” she asks as she cuts the first slice.
“I started out in high-school and fell in love with it. Friends were always asking me to teach them, so I eventually opened a social media account and, well...the rest is history.”
“So you can make anything?”
I take the plate she gives me with a grateful smile, then hand her Logan’s. “I’m pretty sure I’ve made every single candy you can think of—and came up with plenty of my own too. Kale candy canes, cinnamon bun jaw crushers, bacon gummies, chili pepper?—”
“Bacon candy?”
Logan’s horrified gaze reminds me that I probably should have left that one out. The man lives with pigs. “Uh, yeah. One of my best sellers, actually.”
His mouth widens. He blinks. He scoffs.
Then, before he can say anything, Aaron mumbles, “What’s wrong with bacon? It’s yummy. Right, Sadie?”
“Love bacon!” she says excitedly.
“Aaron,” Josie scolds before addressing Logan. “Don’t engage. He had a bad week at work, and he’s in a horrible mood.”
“Is he?” Logan’s gaze settles on his brother. “Didn’t know the most boring job in the world came with problems.”
“Plenty of problems. Thing is, I’m strong enough to face them.” With a fake grin on his lips, Aaron sips his drink. “On account of all the protein I eat.”
“I eat protein too, ignorant...” Logan covers Sadie’s ears. “Jackass.”
“Guys,” Josie tries to intervene, and as she cuts another slice of cake, my head bobs from one brother to the other. What the hell happened? We almost made it through the whole dinner without hiccups.
“Oh, give me a break. You and this damn veganism.”
“What about me and veganism?”
Aaron smirks bitterly, and with my eyes ping-ponging between the two brothers, I swallow hard.
“If being a vegan was so important to you,” Aaron hisses as he points his finger at the table, “then why did you take the farm, huh? Farms aren’t vegan. When you decided to turn Mom’s business into what you wanted, did you even think about everyone else?”
Josie meets my gaze as she smiles sadly, resignedly—as if it isn’t the first time this has happened, and won’t be the last. She stands and grabs Sadie off Logan’s lap.
“Since when do you even care about Mom’s business?” Logan spits back. “You split the second you could without looking back.”
“Split?” Aaron stands, eyes flared, and his chair scrapes against the floor with a horrible noise. “You’re not seriously sitting here telling me you wanted me to take over the farm.”
I watch as Sadie waves goodbye over her mom’s shoulder, and it looks like neither of the brothers even noticed Josie left. Should I follow her? Should I try to stop them?
“Fuck, no. You never loved it. If you did, you wouldn’t have run to Uncle Jerry to work at his”—Logan grimaces—“accounting firm.”
Aaron’s face darkens. “You didn’t want me there, Logan.”
“You’re right. I didn’t,” Logan says before shaking his head. “But don’t act like it was my fault.”
Aaron rushes around the table, and when Logan stands, I also jump to my feet. This has escalated so quickly that I wouldn’t be surprised if they resorted to physical violence, and should that happen, I’d need to get out of the way quicker than I can breathe. Though Aaron isn’t as big as his brother, he’s nearly as tall and definitely as pissed off.
“I might not be as pious as you and your vegan ass, but I’m not an idiot, Logan. I know you’re sinking her business,” Aaron hisses, keeping his voice low so Josie won’t hear him from the kitchen. “It’s been successful for decades, and you’re destroying it.” When Logan looks away, Aaron nods. “I thought so. So what’s the plan, huh? How do you think Mom will react to the farm failing? To her son being arrested again?” He gestures in my direction. “How do you think she’ll feel when she finds out this is all a sham, and you’re actually harboring a criminal who’s stalking someone else?”
Logan’s shoulders tense. “Don’t say another word about Primrose. I let you spew your bullshit about her once, but I won’t do it again.” Then, gesturing at Aaron’s chair, he mumbles, “Now sit down before I make you.”
Aaron’s lips harden, but he doesn’t say a word, and I wish I could turn into wallpaper and disappear in the background.
When he takes a step forward, Logan stands in front of me.
“What, are you afraid I’m going to hit your girlfriend?” Aaron spits as he backs up.
Logan doesn’t take his eyes off him. “She doesn’t need to be the target to get hurt.” He points his thumb at the kitchen door. “And I think you’ve hurt enough people today.”
Silence envelops us, and from the kitchen comes a faint cry that makes my heart clench. Sadie.
Oh, god, they made her cry.
Aaron huffs out a breath, blinking quickly as if to hold back tears, and runs his fingers through his dark hair. “Shit,” he mumbles as he walks toward the kitchen, and only once he’s far enough, Logan turns to me with a frown.
“Let’s go.”
“Don’t go anywhere,” Aaron calls. “We’re going to show Sadie we just had a disagreement. That everything is fine.” He rubs the back of his neck nervously, then turns around and enters the kitchen.
Sadie’s crying intensifies as she calls for her dad, and it’s so sad, I almost want to cry myself.
“Are you okay?” I ask Logan.
He presses his lips together, his jaw sharpening under my eyes. ”No.”
* * *
Aaron and Logan are on the couch, Sadie tucked between them watching cartoons, and though she looks perfectly content, the tension in here is all but suffocating.
Josie has been gone for five minutes. When I saw her slip away with a bottle of wine, I figured she was headed for the recycling bins outside, but this might be a runaway situation.
Silently, I walk past the couch and to the back door. I find Josie there, sitting on the step with the bottle by her side.
I open the door, and her eyes meet mine over her shoulder. “How’s it going?”
“Hey, Prim.”
I sit beside her. “Are you doing okay?”
“Oh, yeah. I’m fine.”
Her breath stinks of red wine, so I’m assuming the bottle she took out was not empty. It might be now, based on the droop of her eyes and the way she’s grinning.
“We’re all used to this. Which means you’re officially part of the family.”
I smile a little sadly, fidgeting with the hem of my dress. “Sounds like Aaron and Logan have a lot of history, huh?”
“Yes. They care about each other very much, and when there’s that much love...” She brings the bottle to her lips and takes a big gulp of wine. “Conflicts hit hard.”
Nodding, I look away.
“How’s he doing?”
I meet her concerned gaze and ask, “Logan?”
“Mhm.”
“Oh, he’s fine.” Actually, he seems to be the very opposite of fine. Isolated, lonely, distrustful. But I guess she knows that already. “He works hard.”
“Yeah?”
She almost seems surprised, which has me rearing back. He’s a farmer, possibly the most hard-working occupation I can imagine. And besides, Logan is all work, no fun. He wakes up at five in the morning, goes out for deliveries, stays in the fields until six in the evening, and is asleep by nine. Do these people know him less than I do?
“Good for him. Farming has always been his passion, but you know how he is.” She shrugs, smiling affectionately. “A little irresponsible.”
I nod, because I’m supposed to be his girlfriend, and his girlfriend would undoubtedly know that. But “irresponsible” does not sound like him. Maybe some version of his past that Aaron and Josie are familiar with, but not the Logan I’ve been getting to know these last six days.
“Sadie is gorgeous,” I say in an effort to tread safer waters.
“Thank you. She just turned four a month ago.” With an exhale, she shakes her head. “Crazy how time flies.”
“How long have you and Aaron been together?”
She turns to me, her brows arched over her eyes, and her mouth opens in a surprised little O. “Uh, five—four years and ten months.”
“Oh.” Does that mean—“Oh, okay.”
She huffs out an awkward chuckle. “I assumed Logan had told you.”
Nice. I’m already blowing our cover. “He doesn’t talk much about Aaron.”
“Right.” Hugging her knees to her chest, her black dress billowing out, she says, “It was supposed to be a one-time thing only. Then Sadie happened, and we made it work.”
With a nod, I look away. I don’t mean to sound judgmental, but that’s the least heartfelt way I’ve ever heard someone talk about their relationship. “Well, you look like a great couple.”
“So do you and Logan.” She grabs the wine, takes another sip, and settles the bottle between her legs. “An interesting couple for sure.”
There’s a little resentment in her words, probably due to a mix of wine and, from what I can sniff out, personal dissatisfaction. And she must recognize it too, because she gives me an apologetic smile.
“I want him to be happy.” The corners of her lips now seem hesitant, as if carrying the burden of long-buried sadness. “Both of us do. I just wish he could be happy with us in his life. Aaron misses him so much, and occasions like this, when we’re all back together, make me hopeful and then...they just crush me.”
Placing an elbow on my thigh, I rest my chin on a fist. “I’m sorry. I don’t know much about what happened, but I can see there are a lot of emotions involved. I’m sure they need time. Eventually, they’ll talk it out.”
“Maybe. Or maybe some scars are just too deep to fix.”
I let the silence spread until with a sigh, she reaches into her pocket and takes out a transparent bag. “Look, Prim. I’m not even supposed to tell you, but we found his keys in the small forest between his and Derek’s property.”
My jaw slacks, my mouth turning as dry as sand as I look down at the keys.
“We’ll find more evidence.” Her eyes are cloudy, and her voice soft, as if she’s speaking out of worry for her brother-in-law and not as a cop. “And then there’ll be nothing you or I can do to help him.”
Lowering my gaze, I try to breathe through the crushing sensation on my chest. Of course, I can’t tell her that I can’t say a word without incriminating myself, but I wish she knew that I’m not just being careless with Logan’s future.
“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’t believe I 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 do something—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.”
“No, uh, sorry. I’m here.”
“Oh, guess who just parked in front of the office? Sorry to bother you; it looks like your boyfriend was just horribly late.”
“Yeah,” I say faintly. “Okay. Bye then.”
Once I hang up, I bring a hand to my chest. Each new wave of emotion is chasing the last so fast that I can’t fully feel anything. Is he seriously selling this place? His home?
Kyle and Simon can’t possibly know a thing about it, or it would have come up. And his brother—his family. Nobody knows about this, I’m sure.
Why is he giving up on this farm? On what’s most important to him?
The fresh scar of betrayal bleeds again as I slowly make my way over to sit on the couch. I thought he was starting to open up to me—that we were becoming something like friends—but maybe Derek is right.
Maybe there’s no friendship, no affection or loyalty. Just an opportunity to escape jail. And I’m an idiot who’s falling for the same scheme a second time.