Page 34 of The Gingerbread Bakery (Dream Harbor #5)

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Then

A nnie's second plate of pancakes was already cold. She’d given up looking busy about an hour ago and was now just staring forlornly into space.

She’d imagined being here in this booth with Mac so many times, it was hard to believe it hadn’t already happened.

She pictured them laughing and talking. She wanted to hear all about Mac’s travels, about where he’d gone and what he’d seen, the things he liked best and the things he hated.

She wanted to know if he was happy to be home and if he was going to stay and if he had gotten what he wanted out of the trip.

She was so freaking excited to just see his face again and she really hoped she would get a chance to kiss it again.

All month she’d been nearly jumping out of her skin with anticipation.

Mac had sent postcards over the year like he’d promised, but Annie had kept up her end of the deal, too.

She hadn’t wanted to hold him back. They’d done a little bit of texting and they'd only spoken on the phone once when Mac called to wish her a happy birthday, but she'd wanted him to have his year on the road. She didn’t want to ruin that for him.

But maybe that had been a bad idea. Maybe over the course of this year Mac had turned back into a fantasy.

Maybe Annie had blown their weeks together way out of proportion.

Maybe Mac was as big of an asshole as she had always thought.

Just because he was nice to her for a few weeks last year, and just because he had sent her a few postcards, didn’t mean there was anything serious between them.

Clearly there wasn’t, because he hadn’t even bothered to show up.

She checked her phone one last time. She had two texts from Hazel about meeting up later. One from her mom to grab eggnog on her way home and that was it. No, sorry I got caught in traffic . No, I can’t make it today . Not even a, forget the whole thing. I’m not coming back .

Nothing but radio silence from Mac.

Annie had restrained herself and sent only a single text to him.

A simple, I’m in our usual booth, and now she hated that she had sent it.

Their usual booth, like this was something they had done all the time when it had been just a few weeks.

Here she was acting like they were something when clearly, they were nothing.

Over the course of the afternoon waiting for Mac, she'd pretty rapidly gone through the stages of grief.

Denial: she’d spent the first half hour questioning whether this was the right day and the right time, then thinking that obviously something had gotten in his way of showing up. He wouldn’t stand her up.

Anger: after another hour had passed, Annie was blindingly angry. How could she have been so stupid to believe that this boy had changed? She’d known him forever and she’d never liked him. Why had she let him trick her? And why the hell hadn’t he even bothered to break up with her like a man?

Bargaining: all she wanted was to see him one more time, mostly so she could throw her drink in his face. That always seemed satisfying in the movies. If she could only have that chance, then she would let it all go.

And now she had settled somewhere between depression and acceptance. She figured if she gave it another half hour or so, she could move on and live a fairly normal life.

After all he was just one stupid boy. There would be others.

Hopefully some that were less stupid. Some that would actually come when they said they were going to.

Annie was relatively certain that eventually she would meet someone that didn’t make her feel as devastated as Mac Sullivan had made her feel.

She wiped her cheek with the back of her hand. Maybe she wasn't as close to acceptance as she thought.

‘You almost done here, hun?’ Gladys asked, coming up to her table for the tenth time today. The diner was closing soon. Annie really needed to go.

‘Yeah, I'm sorry, Gladys. I'm just about done,’ Annie said, trying to hide her sniffling. Unfortunately, Gladys didn't buy it.

She slid into the seat across from Annie, wisdom and sympathy on her face.

‘It's a boy, isn't it?’ she said, and Annie hated that, hated that the go-to thought was that a boy had made her cry.

Didn't matter that it was true. She just hated it, like what else would make a girl cry?

She could think of a hundred other things to cry about that were much more worthy than one stupid boy.

She wiped her eyes again. ‘Actually, I’m pretty torn up about the polar ice caps melting,’ she said, rolling her shoulders back.

She would be damned if she ever got caught crying over a boy again.

She certainly would never cry over Macaulay Sullivan again.

Today would be the last day that Annie let Mac have any sway over her emotions. She swore it to herself.

Gladys smiled. ‘Good for you,’ she said, like she knew they weren't talking about polar ice caps at all. She patted Annie's hand on the table. ‘You’re a strong girl. You’ll be all right.’ With that, she got up, leaving the check behind, charging Annie for only one order of pancakes instead of two.

Annie paid the check, leaving the gingerbread cookies as a gift for Gladys, and marched out of the diner.

She was proud of herself when she didn't even glance around the parking lot to see if maybe a certain car was pulling in.

She was determined that this was the last bit of energy she would give to a certain someone.

She was going to move on with her life. She was going to find better people to spend her time thinking about.

She glanced down at her watch.

Five twenty-four p.m. on December 23rd would be the last time she would think about Mac and their perfect month and all the feelings she thought she’d had about it.

Clearly, she’d been wrong. Mac had used her.

He’d lied to her and he’d ditched her. Frankly, she should have seen it from the start that this was exactly how he would behave.

Mac was used to getting what he wanted, and she was just one more person that fell for his charm.

Even as she thought it, it felt like a betrayal, a betrayal of the Mac she had gotten to know. She thought she had seen the truth of him but, apparently, she’d been wrong all along.

* * *

Mac’s hands were sweating despite the fact that it was freezing outside.

He was standing outside of Brandon’s house between an inflatable Santa and an enormous working snow globe, steeling himself to go in.

A few party-goers wandered in and out of the house and there were plenty of cars parked in the quiet cul-de-sac, but so far, the party seemed pretty mellow compared to some he’d been to in high school.

Hopefully, that meant it’d be easy to find Annie inside. Her sister had said she’d be here, and Charlotte seemed to know everything about her older sisters, so Mac trusted her intel.

He knew he’d screwed things up. He knew Annie would be pissed at him, but he was still holding onto a strange sort of hope that she would be happy to see him, that she would forgive him, and they could go back to how things were last year.

Last year, when Annie had warmed up his frozen fingers with her fuzzy mittens, when she’d kissed him, when she’d smiled at him. He wished he could go back.

He wanted to tell her that most of those postcards he’d sent had come from his first two months on the road.

He’d spread them out to send them to her, but most of his traveling was done by March.

He’d spent a lot of the year in a shitty motel not that far from Dream Harbor.

Just waiting out the time, waiting to come back, bartending at bars that weren’t his father's. It had been a waste of time. It was probably why he still felt like he was lost. He’d been too embarrassed to come back sooner even though he probably should have.

It was why he hadn’t gone into the diner.

Why he’d been too embarrassed to see her again, but he had to, even if it was just one more time.

Even if it was just so she could tell him that she didn't want to pick up where they left off.

He needed to hear it. He needed to know if the memories were real, if things between them really had been as magical as he remembered.

He blew out a long breath, watching it cloud the night air. It was now or never. He couldn't start a new year without knowing where he stood with Annie.

He walked into the house, heading to the back, following the sounds of the party.

There were plenty of familiar faces, people that had stuck around in town, and some new ones.

Honestly, he was surprised Annie was at this party.

It didn’t seem like her kind of thing. The thought caused a little seed of doubt to plant itself in his gut.

Maybe he didn't know her that well after all or maybe she had changed in the past year.

He made his way to the kitchen where the drinks were laid out. He helped himself to one of the ubiquitous red cups, scanning the party for the one person he was looking for.

His heart kicked him in the ribs. She was here.

Annie.

The girl he’d been dreaming about for a year was here looking as gorgeous as she did when he left.

She was here and she was real and she was smiling, a rosy blush on her cheeks.

Mac nearly swallowed his tongue at the sight of her tucked into the corner of the couch, her attention on something out of Mac’s line of sight. She looked… happy.

Mac hesitated. Maybe he should leave her alone, maybe he’d been right at the diner, and she was better off without him hanging around. But then her smile grew, her face lighting up, and the Christmas lights lit up her blonde hair just like they had that night…

He had to talk to her.

To apologize, at least.

He took a step in her direction and froze when he noticed the arm draped over her shoulder and the dude it was attached to staring at her like he’d won a prize. Who the hell was that guy and why was Annie looking at him like that?

She laughed at something the guy said, and Mac was unprepared for the immediate flash of rage coursing through his body. Why the hell was she laughing at that guy like that? Why was he touching her?

Mac had been wildly wrong about how this evening was going to go. He’d figured Annie would be mad at him or upset. He had never once considered the fact that she’d be here with someone else.

He needed to talk to her but before he could get two steps away from the kitchen counter it was Logan who he came face to face with.

‘What are you doing here?’ he asked gruffly as if Mac had offended him in some way.

‘I need to talk to Annie.’ Mac tried to move around Logan, but the guy moved to block him. He was bigger than Mac remembered. Apparently lifting hay bales was a great workout.

‘I don’t think you do,’ Logan said.

‘What the hell, man? Get out of my way. I need to talk to her.’

Logan stepped in front of him again, doubling down. ‘She’s clearly busy right now. You can talk to her tomorrow.’

Mac felt frantic at the suggestion. He couldn’t wait another day. He couldn’t start another year without her. ‘I need to talk to her now.’

Logan shook his head.

‘What's your problem?’ Mac asked, straining his neck to see around Logan. It had been a while since he’d been in a fight but tonight seemed like a good time to get back into it.

The guy with Annie had moved even closer and her face tipped up to his.

Mac wanted to scream. He knew what it felt like to be on the other side of that look. He wanted to be back there.

‘I don’t know what's going on with you two,’ Logan said, voice low, ‘but this is what I do know: Annie’s been weird all month.

I’ve known her for a long time, and I know she’s been keeping something from me, and then you get back to town and she gets really sad.

I don’t like it when my best friend is sad. ’

Sad. Why hadn’t he considered that Annie would be sad? ‘What are you talking about? I didn’t do anything.’

Logan shrugged. ‘I didn’t say you did. All I said was you got back, and she got sad, and I don't know why. But I don’t like you being here right now, and I don’t like the way you're acting. You can text Annie tomorrow and she can decide if she wants to talk to you.’

Mac opened his mouth to argue further but stopped when he saw Annie get up.

A small bit of hope sparked and then immediately died when he saw the guy was still with her, their fingers intertwined like she was leading him somewhere.

No, not somewhere. She was leading him upstairs and Mac had been to enough house parties to know what that meant.

‘ Shit ,’ Mac whispered under his breath and Logan turned, too.

Annie had stopped a few stairs up. Smiling, she leaned down and kissed that guy, her hands sliding through his hair, and it was like Mac could feel it on his own head.

Could remember the taste of her tongue on his own and now this guy, this nobody , got to have it and Mac hated it.

His fists curled at his sides, the urge to fight rearing back up again.

‘Looks like she already forgot about whatever was making her sad,’ Logan said as they watched Annie lead that guy up the stairs.

For a split second, Mac considered following her. He imagined pulling that guy away from her and dragging her out of here. He wanted to tell her everything. He wanted to rip his heart out and lay it out at her feet.

But apparently Annie didn’t want that. She’d already forgotten about him. He made one mistake, and she’d moved on. Just like that.

A humorless laugh escaped him. ‘Yeah, I guess so.’

Logan almost looked sympathetic when he turned back around but not like he was about to give in and let Mac charge past him. Not that it mattered. Mac had lost the urge.

‘Going to be back in town long?’ Logan asked.

After all these months away, waiting to come back, Mac knew there was only one answer.

‘No, I’m leaving again tomorrow.’

Logan’s eyebrow rose.

‘There isn't anything here for me,’ Mac said, and Logan answered with a frown like he might disagree, but Mac didn’t want to hear it.

He strode out of the party vowing to himself to not waste another minute thinking about Annabelle Andrews. It was time he did this traveling thing for real, and this time he'd have no one waiting for him back home.

This time he’d have no trouble staying away.