Page 47 of The Gingerbread Bakery (Dream Harbor #5)
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Now
‘S o, this is it now?’ Annie asked. ‘We’re together or something?’
They were still in bed, and it was well past midnight, but Annie was starving, so they'd raided his fridge for leftovers from the pub. She was wearing another one of his old T-shirts and a pair of sweats, wrapped up in one of his blankets with a plate of cold fried chicken in front of her. She’d never looked more beautiful.
Mac smiled at her question. ‘I could formally ask you, if you think that would help.’
Annie tipped her head, considering it.
‘It might,’ she said with a teasing grin. ‘It just seems like an abrupt change, like I'm supposed to be nice to you now? It’s weird.’
Mac laughed. ‘You don’t have to be nice to me all of the time, but I'll take some of the time.’
‘I’ll see what I can do,’ she said with a shrug, taking a bite of chicken and then licking her fingers clean.
‘Don’t you think we deserve to be together after all this time?’
‘Well, you still haven’t formally asked me, so I’m not sure if we are together.’ There was that teasing smile again. He wanted to kiss it from her lips. He liked that he was allowed to now.
‘Annabelle Andrews, will you be my girlfriend?’
She tipped her head like she was thinking about it. Mac growled her name again and she threw her head back and laughed.
‘Okay, yes, I will be your girlfriend.’
He liked the sound of that a little too much for a grown man, but he’d waited for a really long time to hear it.
The kittens had apparently smelled the chicken and were mewing from beside the bed. He leaned over and scooped them up by the scruff and deposited them in the blankets. Annie picked off little bits of chicken to feed to them and they tripped over each other to get to them.
‘I think maybe it’s better it worked out this way,’ Mac said, stealing a piece of chicken for himself.
Annie raised an eyebrow. ‘Really? You think it’s better that we wasted all this time hating each other?’
‘I never hated you, Annie.’
She rolled her eyes again, but a blush worked its way up her cheeks.
‘Whatever,’ she said.
‘I think it’s better,’ Mac went on, ‘because what was going to happen between us when we were nineteen? Imean, what are the odds we would have lived happily ever after when we were so young?’
‘It does happen sometimes.’
‘Yeah, but now we have our own shit sorted out.’
Annie gave him a bemused smile. ‘You have all your shit sorted out?’
‘I like to think so,’ he said. ‘Took me a while, but I finally figured out that living here is actually really lucky, that plenty of people would jump at the chance to have my life, that my dad built a great business with loyal customers and I’m happy to have taken it over.
It’s a good life. And you have your baking empire.
You don’t need to worry about me getting in your way while you build it. ’
‘I was never worried about that.’
Maybe she hadn’t been, but he had. He’d never wanted to hold her back.
She shrugged again. ‘But maybe you’re right. Maybe it is better this way, although it does still feel like we wasted a lot of time. I know a lot of that was my fault. I know you tried to apologize.’
‘The way I remember it, I did apologize, and you told me to get the fuck out of your store.’
‘Oh, right. That’s what happened. Sorry about that.’
Mac crawled across the bed toward her. And kissed her lips. Because he could. ‘You're forgiven.’
She smiled. ‘So are you.’
He lay back in the pillows and Annie put the plate aside and joined him. The kittens promptly crawled on top of his chest, curling up together in a fuzzy heap.
‘Okay,’ he said. ‘Current biggest fear?’
Annie rolled to face him. ‘Probably the way the town is going to react to this little development.’
‘Yikes.’ Mac cringed at the thought. He had no desire to be the topic of town gossip, but it was a small price to pay.
‘What about you?’
Mac turned his head to look at her, keeping a hand over the kittens, not wanting to disturb them. ‘That if you’re in my bed, I’ll never want to get out of it again.’
Annie smiled. ‘Good one. We will have to get up eventually but I’m free tomorrow.’
‘You’re free? To stay in bed all day with me tomorrow?’
‘Why is that such a surprise?’
‘You’re never free. I don’t believe that you don't have a to-do list a mile long for tomorrow.’
Annie shrugged, looking relaxed and happy. ‘Maybe I got rid of it.’
‘That’s the sexiest thing you’ve ever said.’
She laughed, her nose crinkling, and he thought he was the luckiest person in the world to get to see that every day. He would never take it for granted.
‘So, what do you think of me now?’ he asked.
Annie was looking at him again, her expression tender. ‘I think you’re my person. I think you're someone I can trust and love. And I think you look really freaking cute with kittens piled on top of you.’
Mac grinned and one of the kittens clamped their little claws into his still bare chest.
‘Oh God! I think this one just cut off a nipple.’
Annie cackled so hard tears ran down her cheeks. Mac removed the cats and deposited them back into the box beside the bed, rubbing his chest as he settled next to Annie. She was still laughing at him.
‘That one really got me.’
‘Poor baby,’ she said, between giggles, kissing the tip of his nose.
He wrapped an arm around her and tugged her close, right where he planned to keep her from now on.
‘So,’ she said, snuggling in tight, her hands over his heart. ‘What do you think of me now?’
That was an easy one.
‘I think you’re the love of my life.’