Crazy In Love (Secrets of Suburbia #3) - Ivy Smoak Page 0,64
a gust of wind. I had a feeling it was my house guest, though.
"Noah?" I whispered.
The timer on the oven started going off and I screamed again. I tried to cover my mouth with my hand and almost stabbed myself in the face with my knife. Jesus. I threw the knife across the room, like I just had with my stuffed animal. It made perfect contact with one of the kitchen cabinets and sunk into the wood. Great. How was I going to explain that mark to Detective Torres?
I pulled out the knife and then grabbed the brownies out of the oven. Ignoring the fact that the knife had been in a flowerpot earlier, I used it to cut the brownies into perfect squares.
"Noah! Supper is ready!" I giggled and took a bite. It was...a little funky. But actually pretty good. I took another bite. And another. Oh my God, what am I doing? I looked down at the half-eaten brownie in my hand. I was already worried about being high. I waited a minute and took a deep breath. But I didn't feel any different. I was fine. Definitely a-okay. I stuffed the rest of the brownie in my mouth. Noah wasn’t the only one who was hungry. I'd skipped dinner too because I was too busy trying to find his hidey-hole. Besides, chocolate always soothed me. I was feeling less jumpy already.
I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. Hopefully Noah was more susceptible to weed than I was. Because I was pretty sure the weed didn't do anything to me. I put the brownies in the middle of the kitchen island, which just so happened to be in perfect view of the kitchen window.
I clapped my hands together. It was time to finish my trap. Abandoning my knife on the counter, I grabbed an axe from the garage. "Noah! I'm going to go get us a Christmas tree!"
No response.
I grabbed the binoculars from the junk drawer. "See you in a bit! It'll probably be a half-hour or so! You know how I am about finding the perfect tree!" He didn't remember. That was why I gave him the fake time frame.
I whistled for Snuggle Muffins and he came running after me. I let us out the back door, but didn't bother locking it. The blanket of snow on the ground would show any footprints to and from the house. I'd know if Noah tried to leave. I'd also know because I'd be watching him the whole time with my binoculars.
The weed brownies were the perfect trap. I made my way into the woods, well out of view in the darkness. Then I peered through my binoculars into the kitchen window. Now all I had to do was wait for Noah to come out of his hiding spot, eat tons of brownies, and fall asleep. I giggled. I'd give it twenty minutes. Those brownies were actually pretty strong. It just took a few minutes for them to kick in. I giggled again and hoped that no one else was out in these woods tonight. Seeing me out here giggling wouldn't exactly make me look innocent. Not that I cared. I was already famous.
Chapter 21
Sunday
Snuggle Muffins whimpered at my feet. I lowered the binoculars and looked down at him. He was staring up at me with the biggest puppy dog eyes. His whole body was covered in snow, despite the fact that we were pretty well protected under the trees. Had he rolled around in it?
"What's wrong? Are you cold?" I ran my hands up and down my arms. "Me too." For some reason I hadn't grabbed a winter jacket for me or Snuggle Muffins. As soon as I had my money back, a cute little jacket for my new main man would be the first thing I’d buy.
"You shouldn't have played in it if you were going to be cold. It's called being a grownup."
I wasn't sure how long we'd been out here. I was used to checking my phone for the time, but I'd lost it somewhere in the house. For all I knew we'd been standing out here staring at the back of my house for hours. Or has it been days? I touched my forehead. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. Or was it moving faster than usual? I ran my hand down my face and realized I hadn't put on gloves. I was the bad grownup. Not Snuggle Muffins.