Page 3 of The Gingerbread Bakery (Dream Harbor #5)

Chapter Three

Now

T he rehearsal was a bigger deal than Mac was expecting.

He’d left the pub in Amber’s capable hands for the night and had shown up to The Christmas Tree Farm right on time to find a nervous-looking Logan getting ready to walk down the aisle they’d set up through the center of the newly renovated barn.

‘Hey, here he is,’ Noah said, giving Mac a hearty pat on the back when he joined the group of groomsmen.

‘Sorry, I’m late.’ Mac tossed his coat over the closest chair.

‘You’re fine,’ Logan said. ‘They’re still figuring things out over there.’ He gestured to where Jeanie was surrounded by her bridesmaids, all animatedly talking about timing and music and procession order.

Annie caught him looking and narrowed her eyes.

Christ, that woman was never going to let it go. Howlong did he have to repent for sins committed when he was nineteen?

He winked at her just to see her cheeks redden in anger before she tore her attention away from him and redirected it to Kira who was explaining how things would look on the big day.

He had to hand it to Kira; it already looked amazing in the old barn.

The fact that it had a roof was a big improvement, but she’d really transformed the whole space.

It was large enough to have rows of white chairs leading up to the makeshift altar on one half, and then tables and chairs for the reception on the other.

There was still a lot to be done before Sunday, but it looked good. Of course, if Mac ever got married, he’d much rather just go to the courthouse. Judging by the slightly ill look on Logan’s face, he felt the same way.

‘Excited?’ Mac asked him.

‘To be married to Jeanie? Yes. To stand up in front of everyone? No.’

Mac laughed. ‘Just don’t say the wrong name and you’ll be fine.’

Logan looked at him in horror. ‘Why would you even say that?’

‘I was joking! It’s going to be fine!’

‘You’re going to do great,’ Noah chimed in. ‘It’s just a few words to recite.’

‘Says the man who eloped,’ Logan grumbled.

Noah grinned. ‘I couldn’t wait to make Hazel my wife,’ he said with a shrug. ‘What can I say?’

It was at this point that Mac seriously regretted not finding a date to this wedding. Apparently, while he was slinging drinks every night, everyone in his life had paired up.

‘Looks like the girls are ready to start,’ Bennett said as Kira came to stand at the end of the aisle.

Not only was she the owner of the barn, she was also the wedding planner.

Word at the last town-hall meeting was that she was throwing herself fully into this new event-planning venture.

And selling Christmas trees one month a year, of course.

‘Okay, this is how it’s going to go…’

Mac didn’t pay too much attention to the directions.

How hard could it be? Walk up the aisle, stand next to other groomsmen, don’t stare at Annie, walk back down the aisle.

It wasn’t some elaborate dance sequence or something.

Logan looked like he wanted to run away as it was; if they tried to get the man to do some fancy steps down the aisle they might lose him completely.

Mac made his way between the mostly empty chairs and stood in position between Noah and Bennett. A few family members were seated in the first two rows. Mac said a quiet hello to Logan’s grandparents, Estelle and Henry.

‘Good,’ Kira said, still in half bridesmaid, half wedding-director mode. ‘Now it will be me, Annie, and Hazel. And then, of course, the star of the day, the bride.’ Jeanie beamed at Logan and suddenly the man looked like he would perform a one-man show if she asked him to.

‘Remember not to walk too fast,’ Kira instructed. ‘And hold your flowers down here like this.’

The women all mimicked Kira’s stance with their invisible bouquets, which Mac assumed would be real on Sunday during the actual ceremony.

‘All those years attending her mother’s benefits and fundraisers have really paid off,’ Bennett whispered.

It was true. Kira clearly knew how to wrangle people, set up an event space, handle the logistics of a big occasion, and do it all with a smile.

‘She’s killing it,’ Mac said with a quiet laugh. ‘She did a great job in here.’

‘Yeah, man. She’s been working really hard.’ The pride in Bennett’s voice was obvious. It made Mac think of how he’d talk about Annie’s bakery, if she would let him. How he sometimes did when she wasn’t around. She’d come so far from the little table at the Christmas market eleven years ago.

‘No chitchat during the ceremony,’ Kira chided, flashing Bennett a flirty smile.

‘Sorry, babe.’

‘That’s okay. Now, Jeanie’s dad will be here for the actual ceremony, but for today you can walk down alone.’

Jeanie nodded and the women began their procession.

Kira, Annie, Hazel, and Jeanie, but all he really saw was Annie. Story of his life since he moved back here. Annie was all he ever saw.

Annie frowning at him. Annie scowling at him. Annie huffing and sighing and occasionally, if he was lucky, yelling at him. And because he was some kind of masochist, he still wanted to be around her.

He wasn’t sure what the women would be wearing at the actual wedding, but today Annie was wearing a cream-colored sweater and dark jeans.

Her blonde hair was pulled back in her usual ponytail.

A light blush graced her cheeks, and her glistening eyes gave away that she was already emotional about her friends’ wedding.

Mac didn’t hear most of the run through of the ceremony.

He was too busy thinking about a different Christmas season.

The one, and only one, when Annie had let him hold her.

When she’d smiled at him like he wasn’t the bane of her existence.

His favorite Christmas, if he was being honest. Which was so pathetic he could barely admit it to himself.

He’d tried to forget Annie so many times, tried to purge her from his system, to replace her with other women.

But it never worked. No one ever lived up to her memory, to the memory of that one perfect Christmas.

A memory that he had been hoping had been blown way out of proportion over the years.

But then he’d moved back here and found she was just as perfect as he’d remembered.

And it sucked.

It sucked that life hadn’t worn down some of her shine, that she was still just as enthusiastic and loving and hard-working as she always had been.

She still threw her whole self into everything she did.

She was still that beautiful, over-achiever he’d known all those years ago.

And now he was stuck here, forced to admire her in all her Annie-ness, and just pretend like it wasn’t slowly killing him.

Jeanie and Logan practiced their kiss to the delight of the small crowd, who cheered loud enough to bring Mac back to the present moment. As the couples paired off to walk back down the aisle, he was of course paired with Annie. He offered his arm, and she took it begrudgingly.

‘You look beautiful,’ he whispered in her ear as they marched down the aisle.

‘Mac, don’t.’

‘Annie, I just…’

‘I said, don’t,’ she snapped. ‘I’m emotional enough about this wedding, and I really don’t need you messing with my head like you did after Hazel’s thirtieth.’

Mess with her head? Ha! It was his head that was a mess. He hadn’t stopped thinking about that night in over a year.

‘I wasn’t trying to mess with your head.’

They got to the end of the chairs and everyone else was drifting off to where the food had been set up along the wall. Archer had done the catering, and it smelled fantastic.

Annie turned to face Mac, her familiar glare burning into him.

‘Well, you did.’

The memory of that night was enough to kill him.

They’d been so close. She’d been so close.

Her face just a breath from his, her lips right there.

She’d been warm and willing in his arms, and then she’d looked up at him and it had been as though every reason she hated him came crashing back into her.

She’d run from the pub like Cinderella from the damn ball.

He’d obviously been deluding himself. They’d drunk too much that night and Annie had been emotional because her friends were settling down. Letting him get so close to her had been motivated by some kind of panicked desperation on her part. But still it had been nice while it lasted.

‘I’m sorry. It won’t happen again. But you do look beautiful. That’s just an objective fact,’ he said with a shrug.

Annie softened slightly, her scowl becoming less scowl-y, which was the best he could hope for these days.

‘So, are you bringing a date to the wedding?’ she asked, steering the conversation away from their messy past.

‘Nah, not this time.’

Annie’s eyebrows rose in surprise. ‘Really?’

Mac shrugged. ‘I guess I forgot to find one.’

Annie’s gentle laugh was a reward. ‘Yeah, me too.’

It was Mac’s turn to be surprised. Annie seemed to love parading new guys in front of him, although he supposed he was guilty of bringing a random date or two to things, just so he didn’t have to be alone in front of her.

They’d played a lot of stupid games over the years.

‘Maybe you’ll save me a dance,’ he said.

Annie’s laugh was bigger this time as she patted him on the shoulder. ‘Not a chance, Sullivan.’

She was still laughing as she walked past him to the buffet. Mac shook his head at his own stupidity.

Not a chance was right. It was probably time he got that through his thick skull.