Page 36 of The Gingerbread Bakery (Dream Harbor #5)

Chapter Thirty-One

Now

‘W hat do you mean she’s in New Hampshire?’

Annie huffed, continuing her search for her clothes. Mac wouldn't mind if she stayed in his lacrosse T?shirt for the rest of forever, though, so he wasn’t being particularly helpful. Getting dressed was the last thing he wanted Annie to do.

He wanted her back in his bed.

He wanted to do everything they hadn’t last night.

He wanted to kiss her finally . Again.

They were so damn close.

‘I mean, Estelle and Dot are in New Hampshire, and they need a ride home.’

‘What the hell are they doing in New Hampshire?’

Annie tossed aside his pillows and found the shirt and bra she'd apparently tucked under there last night and held them up triumphantly.

‘Your pants are still downstairs,’ he said with a smirk, and thanks to the fact that Annie had flung on the overhead lights as soon as she finished her phone call, Mac was treated to the sight of a delicious blush working its way up her neck and cheeks at the memory of what they’d done in his kitchen last night.

He knew it was one he’d hold onto for a very long time.

‘Right,’ she said, clearing her throat, tucking her clothes under one arm and marching out of his room like a woman on a mission.

Mac grinned and followed her downstairs.

Sure, he was pissed that their moment had gotten interrupted.

He hadn’t felt that close to Annie in over a decade, but there was something about seeing her in her element that also got him off. So, he’d have to take that for now.

He found her in his kitchen scooping her jeans up off the floor.

‘Can you drive me home?’ she asked, turning to face him. ‘I figure I have time for a quick shower before I drive up there to get them.’

‘Wait, wait, wait. You’re going to drive up to New Hampshire alone today?’

‘Of course I am.’

‘On the day of the wedding you’ve been helping to plan for months?’

‘Someone needs to go get them, and it can’t be Logan or Jeanie, obviously. So, I’ll do it. Estelle called me.’

‘I'll come with you.’

‘That’s unnecessary.’ She didn’t even pause, didn’t take one second to consider that she didn’t have to do this by herself, that she wasn’t single-handedly responsible for her friends’ happiness.

Mac stared her down. ‘You have too much to do today, Annie.

And your car is presumably buried under snow right now with an empty gas tank, so you can let me drive you around to do all the things I'm sure you have on your wedding day to-do list, or you can go attempt to dig your car out of the snow and add a drive to New Hampshire into everything else you have to do.’

‘You can’t leave the kittens.’

‘The kittens will be fine. I’ll put them in the bathroom with their cozy box and some food and water. They won’t even miss us.’

Annie scowled, clearly dying to argue with him but he knew he had her.

There was no way in hell he was letting her out of his sight now, not when they were so close to fixing things between them.

He leaves Annie alone for a few hours, and she’s right back to assuming he’s plotting against her. No freaking way.

‘When do you have to be back here to get your hair done?’

‘Two o’clock,’ she said slowly like she was suspicious of why he wanted to know.

‘Okay, and what else is on your list for today?’

She was still looking at him like he was trying to get state secrets out of her, but she begrudgingly answered.

‘I need to check in at the bakery. George is feeling better and is opening it up this morning and I need to make sure the other wedding desserts are ready to go.’ Mac was sure George was capable of handling that himself or that a quick call would do the trick, but he knew Annie needed to see it for herself.

‘Okay, what else?’

‘I’m supposed to pick up the bouquets and boutonnières.’

‘Hazel can do it.’

Annie paused like she didn’t have a good reason to argue with him on that one. Good, he was making progress.

‘We’ll swing by your place for a change of clothes and then we’ll go check in at the bakery.

We should be able to get to Estelle and back before your hair appointment if we hurry.

Unless you want me to do your hair,’ he said with a wink, clearly joking, but Annie was staring at him like he'd grown another head.

‘Why are you looking at me like that? It was a joke. Hairdressing is one of the few skills I don’t have.’

‘I just…’ she shook her head, still not laughing, ‘I just… I don’t know. Didn’t expect the help, I guess.’

‘Well start expecting it. Tea or coffee?’ he said, leaving her standing there gaping while he went to the coffee maker.

‘Coffee,’ she said and when he turned back to look at her, she looked lost and a little confused like she was reworking who he was again.

But this wasn't anything new for Mac. This was who he was now.

He was a man. A man with a business and a house and a love for the woman standing in front of him that was too strong for him to ignore anymore.

He was done with the childish games he and Annie had been playing for years.

But he figured she’d need a minute to catch up.

He made the coffee and then came over to Annie, taking the clothes from her hands and replacing them with a mug.

‘You might as well stay in my clothes for now,’ he said, not able to resist the smirk on his face. ‘You can grab fresh ones when we stop at your apartment.’

Again, the blush crawled up her cheeks and Mac could think of a million other ways he'd rather spend the day than picking up Logan's missing grandmother, but he knew Annie would never let it go. If she wanted this day to be perfect for her friends, then so did he.

But Logan owed him so much for this. At this point, he was basically the best groomsman ever. What was ice fishing with the bride’s cousins compared with giving up sex with the woman of his dreams to go pick up two old ladies who’d gone rogue?

He was kicking Noah’s ass at this.

Not that Noah knew they were competing.

But Mac was totally winning best groomsman.

‘Do you want to tell me where they are in New Hampshire? And why exactly did Logan's grandmother and Jeanie’s aunt take off to another state the day before their wedding?’

Annie blinked, coming back to the present moment and out of whatever memories of last night she'd been playing in her head.

‘They're not that far, about an hour from here. Apparently, they went up there to visit some distant cousin of Estelle’s or something like that. She said they needed something for the wedding and then they got stuck in the snow.’

Mac glanced out the window. ‘It’s not snowing now,’ he observed, still hoping for a last-minute reprieve from this errand. Annie looked so tempting sitting at his kitchen island, cradling her mug. He wanted her here every morning, just like this, talking over coffee as the sun came up outside.

He wondered how she’d react if he said so.

She’d probably tip right off the stool.

Annie blew out a long sigh and took a sip of her coffee. ‘They left their headlights on last night and now the car battery is dead, and frankly, I don’t trust those two to make it back in time for the wedding, not at this rate. They’ve proven to be entirely unreliable.’

‘Well, that settles it. We're taking a road trip to New Hampshire. Do you want a travel mug for that coffee because we should probably get a move on. We want to make it back in time.’

Annie was staring at him again like she was waiting for the real Mac to come back. Like she was waiting for the irresponsible kid he was to walk through the door. Or maybe she was waiting for the guy she’d painted in her head all these years as the asshole that left her.

But he wasn't either of those guys and he had a new plan. He was determined to show Annie the man he was now, and she could decide for herself if she wanted to be with this Mac.

Because he’d already made up his mind.

He’d loved Annie then and he loved her now.

She was it for him.

* * *

Back at Annie's apartment, she was in the shower and Mac was sprawled out on her bed doing his best not to think about her in the shower. He’d suggested they shower together at his place to save time, but Annie had laughed in his face.

So here he was in Annie’s tiny apartment, forced to listen to the sounds of the water and try not to imagine Annie naked and soaking wet.

So far, he wasn't doing a great job of it.

He put his hands behind his head and closed his eyes.

Maybe he could get a few more minutes of sleep before they embarked on this ridiculous journey.

The shower turned off and a few seconds later the bathroom door opened.

‘Keep your eyes closed.’ Annie’s voice washed over him.

‘Please tell me you’re kidding.’

‘I’m not kidding. I accidentally left my clothes out there. Keep your eyes closed.’

He heard her padding across the floor toward him, and he groaned. Clearly, he was being tested, by Annie or by God he wasn’t sure, but his resolve to be a gentleman was rapidly weakening.

He could hear Annie rifling through her clothes in the dresser right next to his head.

‘How about I open one eye?’ he teased.

‘Don’t you dare.’

‘Or…’ he said, ‘I could keep my eyes closed and just use my hands.’

Annie snorted. ‘Yeah, that’s not happening, either.’

He was going to go on teasing her but something about the fact that she trusted him to keep his eyes closed was more important.

Progress.

If Annie could trust him not to peek, then someday she could trust him with everything else.

Unfortunately, his cock didn’t care as much about gaining Annie’s trust and was pushing painfully against the fly of his jeans. Between tasting Annie last night and now knowing she was just a foot away from him completely naked, Mac wasn't sure he’d survive the day.