Page 10 of The Gingerbread Bakery (Dream Harbor #5)

Chapter Ten

Now

I t was a freezing December Saturday, and the café was packed. Every table was filled, and the line ran from the counter to the door.

‘She must be in here,’ Annie said.

‘Everyone in the entire town is in here,’ Mac said, guiding Annie into the line. Miraculously she hadn’t swatted his hand away and he was fully taking advantage of the opportunity to touch her, even if it was through several winter layers.

Annie stood up on her tiptoes scanning the crowd but, from what Mac could see, Estelle wasn't here.

‘Maybe we should ask if anyone has seen her,’ he said, getting ready to raise his voice above the crowd. Annie sensed it and clapped a hand over his mouth. Her skin was so soft against his lips he nearly groaned.

‘No,’ she hissed. ‘We can’t announce to the entire town that Estelle is missing.’

She dropped her hand before Mac could do something insane like run his tongue from her palm to her fingertips.

‘Then how are we ever going to find her?’

‘We’ll find her. But if these people know we’re looking for her, it will inevitably get back to Jeanie and Logan. And a missing grandmother is not part of the plan.’

She had leaned in close to him during this little speech, whispering in his ear. Her breath was warm on his face, and she smelled like mint and vanilla. He wanted to tug her closer and keep her there, but that was a surefire way to get a knee in the groin.

Instead, he flexed his fingers on Annie’s lower back, putting a little more pressure there until she was nearly flush against him. He didn’t miss the light tremor that ran through her at the proximity.

‘Okay,’ he said. ‘So, what do you propose we do next?’

Annie blinked up at him like she couldn’t quite remember what they were doing here or why they were standing so close. She gave her head a slight shake and little tendrils of blonde hair escaped from her ponytail.

‘We should probably get coffee,’ Mac suggested.

Annie nodded slowly, coming back to herself. She took a small step away from him. Annie was always taking small steps away from him.

‘Right, coffee. We should definitely do that. And we can finish our search after.’

‘Why don’t you go take a lap, just in case she’s sitting in a back corner somewhere. I’ll get the drinks.’

‘Okay.’ Annie nodded, setting off on a circuit of the café, while Mac waited. He needed a break from her nearness. It was doing things to his brain, making him unable to think straight.

‘What can I get you?’ Crystal asked when he got to the counter.

‘Peppermint hot chocolate, large, extra whipped cream and a spiced chai latte.’

Crystal raised an eyebrow.

‘What?’ Mac asked. ‘It’s the holidays.’

The barista smiled as she typed in his order. ‘It sure is.’

Christmas music played quietly over the speakers, and the counter was trimmed in pine boughs and holly berries.

The display case was filled with cookies he was sure Annie had made, not that he could figure out when she could have possibly had the time.

Outside, a light snow had started to fall, as if on cue.

‘Excited about the wedding tomorrow?’ Crystal asked as Joe made his drinks.

‘Of course. Love weddings. Any chance you don’t already have a date?’ he asked, suddenly feeling desperate not to end up alone around Annie again.

‘Sorry. Travis finally locked it down.’ She waggled her ring finger at him, the huge diamond sparkling in mockery of his situation.

‘Lucky guy.’

Crystal smiled. ‘Don’t worry, Mac. You’ll get her one day.’

He chose to assume that Crystal was speaking of a generic ‘her’ and not the specific ‘her’ the entire town knew he’d been after since he moved back here.

‘Thanks. Hey, you haven’t seen Estelle this morning, have you?’ He knew Crystal wouldn’t get the town talking.

‘No, but Dot was in earlier and mentioned that she was meeting up with Estelle today.’

‘She did? Any chance she said where?’

‘Something about the inn. I figured they were greeting family coming in for the wedding.’

‘Yes, amazing. Thank you!’

Crystal seemed understandably surprised about his enthusiastic reaction to Estelle’s plans for the day, but he didn’t have time to explain.

Plus, Annie had sworn him to secrecy. He took his drinks, looking around to find Annie, when he bumped into a group of local high-school kids he’d had to take fake IDs from last weekend.

They were still trying to get them back ‘to dispose of properly’.

Luckily Mac wasn’t that big of an idiot.

‘Come on, Mac! Be cool.’ Hayden, the boldest of the group, tried to step in front of him.

‘I haven’t been cool in years. And you know I can’t give them back.’

‘In Quebec they can drink at eighteen.’

‘Then go to Quebec to drink.’

‘Mac…’

‘Next time, don’t try to use a fake ID at a pub filled with people who’ve known you since you wet your pants during the annual Christmas pageant.’

Hayden’s friends burst out laughing at that and Mac gave him a hard pat on the back.

‘That was way harsh, bro.’

‘Sorry, bro . At least I didn’t call your mother.’

Hayden blanched at that threat and relented on his mission to reclaim the ID, shoving his friends toward the counter.

Mac shook his head with a laugh. Some days he still couldn’t believe that he wasn’t the one begging for his fake ID back.

At least he and his friends would go a few towns over to drink.

This kid needed to learn some life lessons on how not to get caught.

But that was probably not something he should say out loud.

He’d spent so long putting off becoming a real adult that, when he first came back to town to run his dad’s pub, he felt like he was faking it. It took him a year after he bought it to stop calling it his dad’s.

But he’d wanted to make it his own. He’d worked for years to ensure that he was the Sullivan people thought of now when they came in. He’d added trivia nights and karaoke. He’d updated the menu. He’d put a lot of love into that place. Had Annie noticed any of it?

While he’d been out on the road, he’d realized the places he liked best, the ones that were the most fun to work at, were places that had regulars. The pubs, restaurants, and cafés that had repeat customers, that created a sense of gathering, of community, those had been his favorites.

And now he got to do that here in his hometown.

Annie had asked him if he hated it, running the pub. He didn’t hate it all. He loved it. He wished she could see that, that she could see he belonged here as much as she did.

‘Friends of yours?’ Annie asked, sliding up next to him and taking her drink.

‘Ha. No. But I do have a lead.’

‘A lead?’ Annie’s face lit up and Mac wished he could make her look that happy by doing something other than simply asking the barista where an old lady had gone off to.

‘Yep. Crystal says Dot was in earlier and was meeting Estelle to head to the inn.’

‘Oh my gosh, perfect! Let’s go.’

They were making their way to the door when they were intercepted by the book club. Because of course they were.

‘Mac!’ Jacob called, waving at him from his seat. ‘Did you read the book this week?’

Annie froze in her mission to beeline for the door. She turned to stare at him. ‘Macaulay,’ she said, her smile growing. ‘Are you a member of the book club?’

Was he a member of the book club if he’d only come to one meeting?

He still felt like he’d been tricked into it.

Jacob had left a book behind at the pub once and it happened to be a slow night, so Mac had read it.

It wasn’t Mac’s fault that it was so good .

He needed to talk about it with someone.

So, he may have gone to one meeting months ago.

The book club hadn’t given up on him since.

‘Not really,’ he said to Annie, even as Jacob was waving wildly for him to come over to the table, yelling about the latest book they were reading.

‘I really think you’ll like this one,’ Jacob was saying, even as Mac was trying to inch his way to the door. ‘It's a second-chance romance. Very angsty. I think it's really your type of story.’

‘Yeah, maybe I’ll get it from you another time,’ Mac said, trying desperately to get out of the situation. ‘I’m right in the middle of my yearly reread of War and Peace .’ Jacob shook his head at that, not buying a word of it.

‘Come over here, you two!’ Nancy called in her no?nonsense teacher voice and Mac felt compelled to obey. ‘We have wedding questions.’

Annie shuffled over to the book-club table, looking like she’d rather be headed to a root canal.

‘What are you all doing here on a Saturday?’ she asked, clearly trying to avoid the wedding questions.

‘This was an impromptu meet-up,’ Kaori said. ‘Not an official meeting.’

‘Have you seen the barn?’ Isabel asked. ‘Is it going to be ready in time?’

‘Of course. It looks great. Kira has everything under control.’ Annie nodded confidently but the book club still looked skeptical.

The Christmas Tree Farm had been open all month selling trees, but Kira had kept the barn a top-secret project, barricading off the back fifty acres to keep out nosy townsfolk.

And the townsfolk hated to be kept out of anything.

Kira had caught plenty of people ‘accidentally’ wandering around the barn claiming to be looking for the perfect Christmas tree.

Nancy had been escorted off the property several times.

‘And how’s Logan?’ Linda asked, stealing the last piece of muffin from Nancy's plate. ‘We haven’t seen him in days.’ She said it as though there was some conspiracy to hide the groom. In fact, Logan avoided town as much as possible, so it wasn’t that big of a surprise that no one had seen him.

‘Logan is great! He is very excited to marry the love of his life and everything is fine.’ Annie assured them.

The book club did not look appeased. It was like they sensed something else was wrong.

Mac found himself biting down on his tongue to avoid blurting out that Nana was missing and they had no idea where she was or when she would be back or how Logan would react when he found out.

Apparently, some of Annie’s anxiety about the situation had seeped into him.

‘We should really get going,’ he said, his hand finding its way to the small of Annie's back again. Jacob’s gaze tracked its journey and he smirked at Mac, a perfectly groomed eyebrow raised in question.

Mac dropped his hand. They needed to get out of here before the book club knew about more than just the missing-Nana problem.

‘Okay, but I really think you should read next month's book with us, Mac. He’s loved her for years!’ Jacob was clearly prepared to relay the entire premise of the book. Mac took Annie by the elbow and guided her away from the table before Jacob could make any life-to-text comparisons.

‘Bye, everyone!’ he said. ‘Important wedding duties to attend to.’ He steered Annie out the door.

The last thing he needed was to read about another poor bastard who had loved the same woman for years.

And, while he was sure the book would end up happily, he was not at all confident the same would happen for him.