Page 14 of The Gingerbread Bakery (Dream Harbor #5)

Chapter Thirteen

Then

T hey’d been walking around the Christmas market for over an hour, and honestly, Mac was surprised Annie had showed up.

Almost as surprised as he was that she offered to help in the first place.

She was obviously freaked out when they’d woken up together a few mornings ago.

She was clearly embarrassed that she’d been all snuggled against him, but Mac had been relieved that it hadn’t been the other way around.

If he had been the big spoon, it would have been all too clear what he had been dreaming about right before he woke up.

And he was pretty sure that waking up with his boner pressed against her ass would have been a surefire way to never see Annie ever again.

And at this point he was positive he wanted to keep seeing her.

‘How about we take a break?’ he suggested.

Annie looked at him, her cheeks rosy above her scarf, and his mind returned to mulling over his new plan. The one in which he kissed Annie, preferably by the end of the day. It had taken precedence over figuring out his cross-country plan. That one seemed significantly less important at the moment.

He still wasn't quite sure how to go about it, though.

He had wanted to kiss her when he rolled over and saw her next to him in bed—like his dream had somehow come to life.

But kissing her in bed seemed like way too much of an escalation, and one that Annie would not have appreciated, especially after he mentioned brushing her teeth.

That was a dumb move. Now they were out of bed, and he still wanted to kiss her and he still couldn't figure out how to do it.

‘Yeah, a break sounds good. It’s freezing out here.’ Annie rubbed her mittened hands together.

‘We can grab hot cocoa in the warming hut,’ he said.

‘Perfect.’ She smiled at him, and he wanted to do it right then.

He wanted to take her face in his hands and press his mouth to hers until they were both warmed up, no cocoa required, but they were in the middle of the crowded path and Annie was moving toward the hut before he could do anything about it.

He followed her through the other Christmas shoppers into the little makeshift cocoa cabin.

It was more of a tent than a cabin, and it wasn’t much warmer inside than outside but at least they were protected from the wind.

They went up to the table and got their cocoa and found a seat at a picnic table in the back corner.

An older man with a guitar was playing Elvis Presley Christmas classics in the other corner and two of the tables were filled with a mix of kids and their parents.

It wasn’t exactly a romantic setting, but Annie was cozied up next to him, so Mac was feeling pretty good.

‘You warm enough?’ he asked.

Annie laughed. ‘I’m sure I’m warmer than you,’ she said. Mac still couldn’t bring himself to put on a hat.

He lifted up his hands. ‘Hey, at least I'm wearing gloves today.’

Annie nudged him with her shoulder, snuggling in closer. ‘Well, I guess that's progress.’ She took a sip of her cocoa and gave a little sigh of contentment. Mac wondered if she would make a noise like that if—no, when —he kissed her.

‘So,’ Annie said, ‘your mom…’

And that killed any thoughts of the noises Annie would make.

‘… what else does she like?’

So far, the only things Mac had come up with for possible gifts had to do with cooking—which Annie immediately vetoed, saying he could not get her something chore-related for Christmas—or a new scarf, which they had seen at every other craft table and Annie vetoed as being too impersonal.

‘She likes…’ He was stumped. Annie sighed like she was disappointed in him, and Mac hated that.

He thought harder, racking his brain for something else his mom might like.

Now he needed this gift not only to soften his mother up to his drive-cross-country plan, but it was becoming more and more important in his impress-Annie-enough-to-kiss-her plan.

‘She likes to read, I guess,’ he said.

‘Okay, that’s good. We can work with that.’ Annie perked up and Mac’s chest swelled with pride.

She was fully leaning against him now, her arm pressed against his and it reminded him of the way her body felt wrapped around his, so warm and soft. She took another sip of her cocoa clearly deep in thought about things other than Mac, even though all his thoughts seemed to keep circling her.

‘I think I saw e-reader covers at Bernadette’s stand. We could look there,’ she said.

‘Right, yeah, that’s a good idea.’ But neither of them was in a hurry to leave the protection of the tent.

They sat pressed against each other. The warmth of Annie’s thigh against his took up all of his attention.

He barely heard the man crooning ‘Blue Christmas’ or noticed when the families traipsed back outside.

They were alone in their own little corner of the tent, and it felt like how the past few days had felt, like he and Annie were the only two people that mattered.

Eventually, Annie shifted next to him as she finished her cocoa. She turned to face him on the bench and Mac thought maybe now was his moment.

‘I have to ask you something,’ she said.

‘Okay, anything.’

He leaned in a little closer and took Annie’s glance down at his mouth to be a promising sign.

‘I just…’ She started and then shook her head like she was being silly. ‘I just…’

‘You just what?’

Annie’s cheeks flushed pink. ‘I was just wondering if you had ever woken up next to a girl before? I mean it was new for me, and I felt awkward about the whole thing, and I was just wondering if you felt the same.’ She shook her head again, clearly embarrassed by the whole situation.

‘Sorry, it probably doesn’t matter. I don’t know why I said anything. ’

‘There's been a few girls…’ he started.

‘Right. Of course. Of course there has been. I shouldn’t have asked.’

‘No. No, I mean, I dated some girls, but I’ve never stayed up half the night talking to any of them.’

‘Oh.’

He couldn't help but grin at the way her cheeks reddened even more at that. ‘And I liked waking up next to you.’ He leaned in even closer.

‘You did?’

‘Of course I did. What's not to like?’

‘I don’t know, I thought maybe you found the whole thing weird, especially when I was clinging on to you. I want you to know that I totally understand what this is, and I get it. You're leaving soon and this is just…’ Her voice trailed off.

‘This is just what?’

‘This just isn’t a thing. We’re not a thing. I didn’t want you to think I was getting weird romantic ideas about us.’

Mac smirked. ‘Romantic ideas?’

‘Oh God.’ Annie put a hand over her face. ‘I made it worse, didn’t I?’

He took her wrist and gently pulled her hand away. He smiled at her. ‘You didn’t make it worse. And you might not be getting romantic ideas about us, but who says I’m not?’

Annie’s eyes widened in surprise.

Now was definitely his chance and he wasn’t going to blow it.

He leaned in close enough to hear Annie's breath hitch.

Her blue eyes were bright with anticipation.

He reached out and tucked a wisp of hair behind her ear, letting his fingers brush along her pink cheek and there was that little sigh he'd been hoping for.

‘Annie, I?—’

‘Sullivan! Sullivan, is that you?’

The booming voice of one of his former teammates crashed through the tent.

Mac winced, squeezing his eyes shut as though he could block out the voice and the person and the whole disastrous moment, but Sean wasn't having it. He headed straight for them, completely oblivious to the fact that he was destroying Mac’s entire life. Or at least that was how it felt to Mac.

Annie had straightened and moved away from him on the bench so quickly that, by the time Mac opened his eyes, she was already practically at another table.

Damn it.

‘Hey, man, what are you doing here?’ Mac tried his best to sound friendly and not like he wanted to murder his old buddy.

In fact, if this had happened a week ago, he would have been thrilled to see somebody back in town.

But right now, he wanted nothing more than for Sean to disappear.

He glanced over at Annie who was pretending to be very interested in the musical performance and wouldn’t meet his gaze.

‘You know me, I’m here for the food.’ Sean held up a bag of kettle corn and a box of chocolate fudge.

He was a big guy, known by everyone on the team as someone who’s real joy in life was eating.

Mac’s mother, as someone who’s real joy in life was feeding people, absolutely loved it when he came over.

Sean devoured everything she made. Mac couldn’t help but laugh, seeing the man now piled high with Christmas snacks.

‘Glad to hear you haven’t changed.’

‘Not a bit.’ Sean grinned. ‘What about you?’

‘Christmas shopping.’

Sean’s attention skittered over to where Annie was picking at the edges of her paper cocoa cup.

Mac didn't know why, but he felt reluctant to draw attention to the fact that he was here with Annie. Not that he was ashamed of it or anything, but there was something unsettling about seeing these two together. It was like Sean was reminding him of who he had been in high school and that Mac never would have been this close to kissing Annie. He wasn’t sure he wanted to be reminded of that guy, especially not right now.

Mac cleared his throat. ‘You know Annie. She was… uh… helping me.’

Annie looked up and gave Sean a terse smile. Sean looked confused like he had never seen her before in his life, but he politely smiled back.

‘We had Biology together,’ Annie reminded him.

And Sean laughed. ‘Biology, right, right. I didn’t always attend that class.’

Mac could feel Annie resisting an eye roll.

‘Yeah well, it’s been fun reminiscing, but I should be going anyway.

’ She stood up and Mac wanted to stop her, but he couldn't think of any reasonable way to do it other than grabbing her and throwing her over his shoulder, which he obviously wasn’t going to do.

Although he had to admit the idea did hold some appeal.

‘You don’t have to go,’ Mac said but Annie was already up and moving, tossing her cup in the trash and heading for the tent exit.

‘I really have to get home,’ she said.

Before Mac could go after her, Sean was already patting him on the back and telling him about the plans to hang out with other members of the team tonight and all Mac could do was watch Annie walk away. Even though that was the last thing he wanted to do.