“The smell is a bit much,” I admitted.
“You get used to it,” he said with a smile. “Has the smell or the smoke ever bothered you when you’ve smoked it?”
I laughed. “I’ve never smoked weed,” I said in a tone that made me sound like a child theater actor in an anti-drug skit.
“Edibles? Vape?” Orion asked, confused.
“I’ve never gotten high.”
Orion paused for a moment, before turning and walking away without a word.
Raquel
THIRTY SECONDS LATER, Orion reappeared with a small plastic bag filled with what looked like green candies of some sort.
“Here,” Orion said, placing a small green gummy in my hand.
“A frog?” I asked with a nervous giggle.
“It’s an edible.”
“I figured that out. I’m notthatsquare,” I said.
“The fact you just used the term ‘square’ sorta says otherwise, doesn’t it?”
“Brat.” I smacked Orion’s rock-hard chest. “Why do I have it?”
“Because you’re going to eat it,” he said plainly.
“Why would I do that? I just told you I don’t get high. I’ve never ingested cannabis in any form.”
“Well, you’d better buckle up, buttercup, because you’re about to,” Orion said with a grin.
“My research is purely scientific and aimed entirely at the medical field. I have no interest in the recreational weed market,” I said, attempting to give the gummy back to Orion.
“Thisismedical research,” he said, refusing.
“How will me getting baked help fight disease?”
“Baked? It’s a ten-mil edible, not a trip out to the Mystery Machine with Scooby and Shaggy,” he said in an easy laugh that made my heart flutter.
“What if I scromit?”
“Scromit?”
“When you ingest copious amounts of Marijuana, you can scream and vomit uncontrollably.”
“That’s not a thing.”
“Scromiting is absolutely a thing. It’s becoming quite prominent in medical journals, as a matter of fact.”
Once Orion stopped guffawing enough to breathe, he shook his head and said, “I promise I’ll never let you ingest enough pot to scromit, Frazzle.”
Orion possessed a natural warmth like no man I’d ever known. Except for maybe his father. And even though I was in a pot lab with a biker who was attempting to give me drugs, I felt as ‘safe as kittens’ as Nana used to say. I laughed on the inside at the irony of the situation, as this was the exact type of scenario my brother had tried to shield me from my entire life. Not only tried but succeeded. Tristan had always done a great job of protecting me from the dangerous side of his club, while doing his best to promote the best traits of its members.
Of course, the Dogs were a vastly different club from the Howlers in just about every imaginable way, but still. I’d always had a feeling about Orion that made me trust him in a way that I trusted my brother.
“Look, Chan has asthma. Real bad, actually, so he’s an expert in all things edible, because he can’t smoke. His formulas are world-renowned, but this needs to be your decision, Razzle, and I can give you three reasons why I think you should become friends with Mr. Hoppy there,” Orion said, pointing to the edible still clutched within my sweaty hand.
