Page 17 of The Gingerbread Bakery (Dream Harbor #5)

Chapter Fifteen

Then

‘A nnie!’ Her sister, Charlotte, burst through the bedroom door breathless with excitement.

Annie looked up from her book with a sigh.

‘Don’t you ever knock?’ The idea was laughable in a house filled with as many siblings as Annie had, but it would be nice if her sister would respect her privacy.

Not that she was doing much that required privacy.

Ever since being pushed aside by Mac this afternoon at the market, she had retreated to her room for a cozy evening by herself.

She was prepared with a stack of books, plenty of Christmas cookies, and a room to herself, thanks to the fact that her older sister had finally moved out.

Charlotte rolled her eyes and tossed her long blonde hair over her shoulder. She was Annie’s youngest sibling, but at thirteen she already thought she was painfully cool.

‘This is too important for knocking! Mac Sullivan is at the door.’ The way Charlotte said his name you would have thought Mac was her latest K-pop obsession. How did her little sister even know who he was? Sometimes this town was far too small for its own good.

But the mention of his name certainly got Annie's attention. ‘He’s at the door right now? Our door?’

‘Yes! He’s at our door. Talking to our dad.’

Annie’s blood went cold. ‘He’s talking to our father right now?’

‘Yes, this is what I am trying to tell you! It was too important for knocking!’

Annie jumped up off her bed where she had been happily reading her latest mystery novel and glanced down at what she was wearing. She was dressed head to toe in a holiday onesie complete with a full-length zipper and front pocket.

‘I can’t see Mac looking like this!’

Her sister crinkled up her nose in disgust, confirming for Annie just how bad the outfit was. But then she shrugged like there was nothing to be done about it. ‘Well, you don’t have time to change unless you want Dad to keep talking to him.’

Annie groaned. That was not what she wanted at all. She loved her dad, she really did, but the man had a tendency to talk anyone’s ear off and, after the week’s multiple embarrassing events, the last thing Annie wanted was for Mac to have to enter a full and awkward conversation with her father.

‘What are they talking about?’ she asked, looking frantically around her room for something, anything to throw on that wasn't reindeer themed.

Charlotte gave a little shrug, plopping down on the end of Annie’s bed. She was already losing interest in this particular drama. ‘I don’t know. When I left them, they were discussing all the possible ways for the Pats to make it to the playoffs.’

‘Okay, that's not too bad.’ Football was safe. Although how long had Mac been here and no one told her?! Sometimes there were so many people in this house that visitors simply got absorbed into the chaos.

Charlotte gave a little smirk like she knew something that Annie didn't.

‘What is it?’

‘Oh,’ Charlotte said, twirling a long blonde lock around her little finger, ‘did I forget to mention that Madison is down there, too?’

‘Oh God!’ Annie groaned. Mac, talking to her sixteen-year-old sister was far worse than Mac talking to her father. She needed to get down there ASAP before Maddie had the chance to tell Mac every embarrassing thing Annie had done for the past decade.

She hurried out of her room with Charlotte tagging along behind her, the tin of cookies she’d swiped from Annie’s room tucked under arm.

Annie was going so fast she nearly tripped and fell headfirst down the stairs but luckily caught herself at the last minute.

Instead of falling, she skidded down the last two steps and landed abruptly in front of Mac.

‘There she is,’ her dad said, as though they had all been searching for her for hours when really no one had bothered to let her know that she had a guest.

‘Here I am,’ Annie said. ‘But what are you doing here?’ She directed the question at Mac, deciding to ignore his amused perusal of her jammies.

‘Annabelle, don’t be rude. Mac here stopped by to say hello and wish us a merry Christmas!’ her dad said.

She raised an eyebrow at Mac, and he grinned. ‘Yeah, Annabelle, I came by to wish you a merry Christmas.’

‘And I was just telling him the story about the Christmas you tried to climb the tree and the whole thing fell over on you,’ Maddie piped up from her perch on the sofa, wearing the exact same onesie as Annie.

They looked like crazy people. Thank God her father wasn't wearing his. Instead, he’d gone with an understated sweater.

The one with a giant Christmas tree on the front that, if he turned on the switch in his pocket, would light up with real twinkle lights.

If she was right and Mac really had been leaning in to kiss her that afternoon, he certainly wasn’t going to try again. Not after this little visit.

‘You weren't even born that year,’ Annie said.

Maddie shrugged. ‘I’ve heard the story enough times and it’s a funny one.’

‘I have to agree with her on that,’ Mac said, chuckling, and Annie made a mental note to borrow and never return that sweater of Madison’s she’d been eyeing.

‘Okay, well, story time is over. Now that you've wished everyone a merry Christmas, I think you can head on home.’ She took Mac by the hand and dragged him to the front door.

‘You don’t have to kick him out. He’s welcome to stay,’ her dad said, but Annie had had enough of Mac for one day.

‘Yeah, I didn't even get to tell him about the time you peed on Santa’s lap,’ Maddie said with an evil glint in her eyes.

Annie gave her best I’m going-to-kill-you-later scowl. Forget the sweater she had her eye on, she would now be donating the majority of Maddie’s closet. To a good cause, of course.

‘Out!’ Annie said, slipping her feet into the closest pair of boots and grabbing a coat as she pushed Mac out the door, making sure to glare at her sister one more time on her way out.

‘Bye, Mr. Andrews. Bye, Maddie,’ Mac called over his shoulder as Annie slammed the door behind them. He was still chuckling as she spun to face him.

‘What are you doing here?’ she hissed.

‘Besides enjoying seeing you in that onesie?’ he asked with a smile. ‘And hearing so many nice stories about you?’

Annie refused to be embarrassed any more today. She rolled her shoulders back as though she was proud of her current ensemble and not at all horrified by what her sister had told him.

‘It's cozy,’ she said. ‘And those stories are wildly exaggerated.’

‘It looks cozy.’

She was going to tell him to go to hell, but he seemed sincere, and he wouldn’t dare say a word about her peeing on any beloved holiday figures. So, she didn’t immediately shove him off her front porch.

‘It is cozy, but really, what are you doing here?’

‘I wanted to see you.’

Annie blinked. ‘You saw me already today.’

‘Is there a limit? Am I already filled up on my Annie quota for the day?’

‘No…’ There had to be a catch. It was one thing when they were both bored or when Mac needed help with something but why would he want to see her now? ‘I figured you would be out with your friends tonight.’

Mac shrugged. ‘I'll probably see them later. But there was something I was meaning to do earlier and didn’t get a chance.’

‘Are you still looking for a gift? We could go back out tomorrow and keep looking, I guess, if you still need my help…’ Annie trailed off as Mac stepped closer to her.

‘No, it’s not about the gift.’ He cupped her face in his hand, running his thumb along her cheekbone.

‘Oh,’ Annie breathed out as she realized what was happening. Macaulay Sullivan was about to kiss her. Even after meeting half of her insane family. Even though she was dressed like a holiday reindeer.

He dipped his head to hers until his lips brushed against her mouth. She was almost embarrassed by the little sigh that escaped her, but then she remembered she was done being embarrassed today. She wrapped her arms around Mac’s neck and pulled him closer. She could feel him smile.

‘I thought this could go either way,’ he said, not pulling away but speaking softly against her mouth. ‘I thought you would either be into it or punch me in the face.’

Annie’s smile met his. ‘I’m into it.’

Mac groaned before deepening the kiss. His lips pressed against hers, his arms wrapping around her waist and Annie melted into him.

Fantasies don’t often live up to the hype. Kissing Mac was not like that. Kissing Mac far exceeded the fantasy.

The December air was cold around them, but Mac was warm.

Warm lips on hers, warm tongue sliding along hers, warm hands clinging to her hips.

Annie couldn't feel the cold anymore. All she could feel was Mac. The kiss had started off gentle like he was expecting her to change her mind. But now the kiss was slow and deep like Mac wanted to get his fill, like he’d been thinking about doing this and now that he had the chance he wasn’t going to waste it.

By the time he pulled away, Annie was breathless.

Mac’s lips tipped into a lopsided grin. ‘Well, I feel better,’ he said.

Annie ran her fingertips over her lips. Still there. Still her lips even though they felt altered by the experience.

‘Can I see you again soon?’ he asked, when Annie still hadn’t managed to formulate a sentence.

‘Sure,’ she said, her voice nothing more than a weird, choked whisper that made Mac’s smile even bigger.

‘Great. I’ll text you later. Good night, Annabelle,’ he said, turning and leaving her so stunned that she forgot to tell him not to call her that.

She’d just had the best kiss of her life with the boy she thought she hated.

What was she supposed to do now? She turned back toward the house to find the smug, grinning faces of her sisters watching from the window.

They’d seen the whole show and were never going to let her live this down.

She put up the hood on her onesie and trudged back into the house.

And even though she knew she would spend the rest of the night being tormented by Maddie and Charlotte, she couldn’t seem to keep the smile off her face.