Page 19 of The Gingerbread Bakery (Dream Harbor #5)

Chapter Seventeen

Then

‘W hat do you keep looking at?’ Charlotte said, apparently catching Annie glancing to the back of the auditorium for the twelfth time since they arrived.

‘Nothing.’

That was a lie. Annie was fairly certain she’d seen Mac back there, but maybe she was hallucinating.

Ever since he kissed her, she thought she’d seen him everywhere.

She could have sworn she’d spotted him at the grocery store when she went to grab milk, and then she really could have sworn he was in front of her in line at The Pumpkin Spice Café, and she was absolutely positive she’d seen him out for a run one morning down her street, but none of those men had turned out to be Mac.

She was clearly losing her mind over this boy, which was really not something she did.

But everything with Mac felt different. This whole December felt different.

She glanced to the back of the room again and Charlotte huffed a little laugh. ‘If you're looking for your boyfriend,’ she said, ‘that’s definitely him back there sitting next to his mom.’

‘It is?’ Annie whispered, trying not to disrupt the concert. Her older sister was playing the cello tonight as part of the town Christmas concert, but frankly Annie had more pressing issues than to ooh and ahh over her sister’s musical abilities.

‘Yep,’ Charlotte said smugly. ‘That’s him. I spotted him as soon as we sat down.’

‘Well, you could have told me sooner.’

Charlotte rolled her eyes. ‘I thought you saw him. Isn’t he your boyfriend? Why don’t you just text him?’

‘He's not my boyfriend, ’ Annie hissed. No, that wasn’t what was happening here, just because they had kissed and she couldn’t stop thinking about him. She wouldn’t call him her boyfriend, right? Right.

‘I’m going to go get something from the concession stand,’ she said in between songs.

Charlotte smirked. ‘Yeah, okay, that’s what you’re doing—“getting a snack ” .’ The way her sister did air quotes around the words made Annie want to smack her, but she didn’t have time for that before the next song started.

‘I am getting a snack.’

Her baby sister winked at her like she knew exactly what was going on.

Annie shook her head and got out of her seat, signaling to her parents where she was headed.

She walked down the aisle of the auditorium, passing former friends and teachers along the way, but she was single-minded in her pursuit of a ‘snack’.

She caught Mac’s eye before exiting the auditorium and it didn't surprise her when he appeared behind her in the concession line a minute later.

In fact, it filled her with relief that he wanted to see her, too.

‘Hey, Annabelle,’ he said, his voice beside her ear. ‘Enjoying the show?

‘I am. What are you doing here?’ She didn't turn around. Just kept her eyes on the snack choices, trying to play it cool. They’d texted a few times since the kiss, but neither had made the next move. They could hang out, or not, whatever, she thought even as her heart picked up speed.

‘My cousin’s in the show this year and Mom wanted to come.’ He had stepped closer; his chest brushed against her back. ‘I’ve been waiting for you to come say hi,’ he said. ‘I saw you looking at me.’

Annie shrugged. ‘I was just taking in the crowd.’

Mac chuckled as she made her snack purchase. ‘Come on,’ he said, grabbing her hand. ‘Let's take a break from this concert.’

He led her through the empty halls of the high school, stopping alongside a row of lockers.

He pulled her closer, not wasting any time now that they were alone. ‘Can I kiss you?’

Annie's breath caught in her throat. Kissing Mac was all she had thought about for the past five days.

She nodded. Mac seemed to be the only person on the planet that was able to leave her speechless.

He grinned and cupped her face with his hands, kissing her gently on the lips.

His smile grew and Annie couldn’t believe that the cutest boy in school was kissing her.

For a minute, standing in the dark hallway of their high school, she forgot that they weren’t students here anymore, that they were technically adults.

All she felt was the giddy joy of her crush liking her back.

‘What d’you get?’ Mac asked, pulling away and gesturing to the candy she still had clutched in her fist.

‘Peanut M&Ms,’ she said, sliding down to the floor. Mac joined her, their backs pressed against the lockers.

He put out his hand and she poured some candy into his palm. He tossed them all into his mouth at once, crunching happily.

‘So,’ he said. ‘What have you been up to this week?’

Besides thinking about you?

Nope, don’t say that . ‘I helped my mom decorate the house and I took Charlotte to her basketball practice and I did a lot of baking. I actually had a few people place orders for Christmas.’

‘That's awesome. You’re like a real business.’

Annie beamed. She was like a real business.

‘What about you? What have you been up to?’

‘Mostly spent a lot of time thinking about wanting to kiss you some more,’ he said with a grin.

Giddiness raced through her. She felt like she might float away. Mac was thinking about her while she was thinking about him!

‘You can,’ she said. ‘I mean you can kiss me some more if you want.’

Mac leaned toward her and this time the kiss was less gentle. By the time they pulled apart again, Annie was breathless.

‘Pretty fun doing that here and not having teachers split us up,’ Mac said with a laugh, and Annie could not imagine any version of herself that would have done this during school hours.

‘Yeah, that never happened to me,’ she said.

Mac looked at her, studying her like he was trying to figure her out.

‘Never got detention, either, I guess.’

‘Nope.’

‘Skipped class?’

‘Never.’

‘Faked sick so you could stay home?’

Annie thought about that one for a minute. Had she? ‘No, not that either. I didn’t want to get behind.’

Mac tipped his head, considering her. ‘What would have happened if you did get a little bit behind? Like what’s the worst outcome?’

Annie shrugged. ‘I would have ruined my perfect GPA.’

‘Right. Failure.’

‘Exactly.’

He looked at her for another minute and nerves fluttered in her belly. Maybe now was when he remembered that they didn't really make sense together. There were reasons they had spent the first thirteen years of knowing each other not hanging out.

‘Just so you know…’ he said, and Annie braced herself for what came next.

Just so you know, I'm tired of hanging out with you .

Just so you know, this has gotten weird .

Just so you know, I remembered I have other people I’d rather be friends with—people that aren’t so… intense.

But he didn't say any of those things. He smiled at her and said, ‘Just so you know… I would still like you even if your GPA had dipped a little.’

Annie laughed, the sound echoing through the deserted hallway.

‘That’s good to know,’ she said.

‘I’m having a lot of fun with you.’ He leaned closer again, running the tip of his nose along her cheek.

‘Me too,’ she whispered.

‘Want to hang out tomorrow?’

‘Definitely,’ she breathed as his lips brushed against hers.

‘Cool.’

Very cool.

He kissed her and he tasted like chocolate and crushes and like the best December of her life.