Page 60 of Not Your Average Vixen
“I am normal,” she whispered back, which, when whispered, sounded the exact opposite of normal.
He cleared his throat and turned back to the snowcat Santas. “Where should I park? We’re here with the cookies and to help with the spaghetti dinner.”
The man pointed down the road. “Over there, on the street! Just head inside. Tanner’s in the kitchen now. He can show you around. You’re the first volunteers to arrive.”
Deck the goddamn halls! Thank God! And this Tanner was going to have some explaining to do if his hunch about these freaking gummy bears was right.
He parked the truck, and Bridget bounced out the door with the basket of cookies.
“Hey! Wait for me!” he called.
She turned in circles as she walked, taking in the snowy, festive scenery.
“It’s magical here. It wasn’t like this when I was a kid. Look at all the decorations and lights. They’re everywhere!”
“It is Christmas,” he grumped.
“But this is like…” she trailed off, her words infused with wonder.
“Christmas on steroids?” he offered, taking in the town’s decked out Main Street.
She shook her head. “No, I was going to say it’s like Christmas on steroids.”
Shit! The more she talked, the more certain he became.
They entered Kringle Acres to find the main vestibule empty—a godsend because if his hunch was right, she’d only be getting loopier.
“Bridget, remember, you need to act normal,” he said, scanning the space.
“I told you, I am normal,” she whispered again, which didn’t make it sound any lessnot-normal.
“Hey, dude! Over here! I need to ask you something.”
Soren looked up to find Tanner waving to them from the other side of the room. He took Bridget’s hand and hurried toward the kid.
“I need to ask you something, too,” he replied sternly.
“Come on. Let’s get to the kitchen,” Tanner said with a nervous cringe as he led them down a hallway that opened up into the retirement community’s spacious kitchen.
The kid shifted his weight from foot to foot. “I was wondering if I left something in the mountain house kitchen. Something I was working on.”
Soren pulled the bag of gummy bears from his pocket. “These?”
Tanner’s eyes went wide. “Where’d they all go?”
Bridget did another twirl. “I ate them. I was so hungry, and they were so delicious, and then the chocolate started talking to me. Oh, and I’m a normal person, right, Soren?”
Oh, for fuck’s sake!
The kid’s jaw dropped. “You let her eat all of those?”
He shook the bag in the guy’s face. “I thought they were candy!”
“They are. Candy with a decent amount of THC mixed in.”
Dammit! That was exactly what he’d feared when he’d smelled them.
“These are marijuana gummy bears?” he hissed, lowering his voice, then glanced over to find Bridget tapping a row of hanging pots, telling each cooking utensil that she was a normal person.
