Page 129 of Riding the Sugar High

Nobody puts their hands on me,especiallynot Aaron.

I pull my arm back and crash my fist against his eye, the crunching sound carried away in the spring breeze. With a groan, he goes slamming against the doorframe before sliding down to the porch.

He grimaces, then touches the abrasion under his eye. My heart is pumping blood in my veins faster than it should, and honestly, what people say about revenge is bullshit. It feels great.

“Five long years overdue,” I grit out.

Gently moving his facial muscles, he nods and holds his hand out. “Is my debt paid now? Can you help me up?”

Fuck him. He’s not fighting me back because he has no ground to stand on. Because he messed up, and he knows he deserves it. But he also didn’t do anything tonight. He came here asking for help—hell, he’s probably worried about his drunk wife.

And Ineedhim to fight me.

I need to focus my anger on him.

“Get up yourself.”

He stands one tentative step at a time, then keeps his good eye on me as he holds a hand over the injured side of his face. “So, are we finally doing this?”

“Yeah, we are.”

“Good. Then let’s sit down.”

Sit down?“No, asshole. I don’t want totalkto you.”

“Fight me? That’s what you want to do?”

My fists clench beside me, and with a scoff, he walks to the steps and sits. He runs a hand through his hair, his chest heaving as he grimaces. “You think I don’t know how badly I messed up, Logan? I didn’t just lose my brother. My relationship and marriage were cursed from the start because of what I did.”

“I don’t care,” I growl.

“I know that too. You will never forgive me for stealing her from you. And she will never forgive me for taking advantage of a moment of weakness and ruining her relationship.”

I open my mouth to quip back, but once I register his words, I shut it.

Why wouldJosieblame him? She went along with it—hell, she chose him when I begged her to stay. Aaron didn’t make her do any of it.

“What? You think she doesn’t blame me for it? Because she does. She hates me. Mom hates me. Kyle and Simon and you—” He holds a fist over his mouth. “It’s only a matter of time before my own daughter picks up on it and I become the villain in her story too.”

Fuck that.

Fuckhim.

Why should I care?Hedid it. Nobody pointed a gun at his head and told him to screw my girlfriend. It was his choice, and now he’ll pay the consequences for it.

“You think I don’t hate myself, Logan?” He huffs out a joyless laugh as he rests his forehead on his fist. “But I love her. I’ve loved her for as long as I can remember, and I tried so hard to be the guy she’d fall for.”

My jaw clicks. “No, you didn’t.”

“Yes, Logan. Yes. I introduced you two, remember?” He leans back, shoulders deflating as if he’s been carrying the weight of this conversation for a long time. “She was my classmate’s cousin. And I’d always see her at his place and thought she was so pretty. Until eventually I asked him to introduce us.”

Right. Carl something. I’d forgotten about him. But this hardly changes anything.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I ask. “If you were in love with her, why didn't you say something when we started dating?”

“Why didn’t a teenager tell his younger brother he liked a girl who didn’t like him back?” He scoffs. “I didn’t tell anyone. And then one day, I saw the two of you making out in the parking lot, and I knew I’d missed my chance.”

He shakes his head, gesturing at me. “When shit went south between the two of you, I watched her be unhappy for months. You were immature, and she was a woman, and I...”

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