Page 48 of The Gingerbread Bakery (Dream Harbor #5)

A New Favorite Christmas

A nnie had spent the last week in Mac’s bed.

Well, they’d gotten out of it to do their jobs and all that.

Annie had had plenty of Christmas orders to fill and nieces and nephews to babysit, and Mac was slammed at the pub with everyone wanting to have their end of year office parties there, but every night they’d fallen into bed together and it had been lovely.

They were back in their own little bubble.

Conveniently, their new relationship simply hadn’t come up in the outside world.

But all that ended today. It was Christmas morning, and they were headed to Logan’s farm for Estelle’s annual Christmas open house this afternoon.

And then everyone would finally know Annie’s deep dark secret.

She was in love with Mac Sullivan. She was only a little nervous.

She reached out an arm to Mac’s side of the bed but found it empty. A kitten was draped across her neck and another over her eyes like a little furry blindfold. She gently lifted him up and moved him to the side, blinking in the early morning light.

Where did Mac go? She was always the first one up, having to get to the bakery early, but of course everything was closed today so she’d taken the opportunity to sleep in. She was sure Mac’s warm body had been beside her not that long ago.

That was when she smelled smoke.

What the hell?

She tossed off the blankets and scooped up the kittens, hurrying down the stairs. She skidded into the kitchen in nothing but her cozy socks and another one of Mac's old T-shirts as plumes of smoke escaped the oven.

‘Mac, what are you doing?!’

He yanked a cookie sheet from the smoking oven and dumped it into the sink, turning on the water. Steam hissed up from the mess. He took a dish towel and was waving the smoke out the window when he finally looked up at her.

‘Uh… Merry Christmas?’

‘Merry Christmas?! Is setting the house on fire your big surprise?’

He took her in, barely dressed and with the cats in her arms and let out a laugh.

‘What? I was ready to evacuate,’ she said, putting the cats down. They quickly scampered over to their food dish which luckily was not on fire.

‘What were you doing down here?’ she asked, coming further into the kitchen now that she was reasonably sure it was safe. Laid out on the counter were what looked to be several batches of burnt, deformed, or undercooked Christmas cookies.

Mac sighed. ‘I was trying to make you a Christmas present.’

‘You were making me a Christmas present?’ she said, her voice getting all high-pitched and sappy like when she talked to the kittens.

‘Don’t look at me like that.’ Mac narrowed his eyes at her in mock anger.

‘Like what?’ Annie teased.

‘Like I'm some sort of injured puppy.’

Annie laughed. ‘Sorry, it’s nice of you to try but this is clearly a disaster.’ She gestured to the dozens of inedible cookies. Maybe the birds would eat them?

Mac hung his head in shame, even as his shoulders shook with laughter.

‘It seemed like a good idea at the time,’ he said. ‘I thought about how you’re always making cookies for everyone else, so maybe I should make some for you. But it turns out cooking and baking are two very different skills. One I can do, and one I definitely can’t.’

Annie walked across the kitchen and wrapped her arms around his neck. ‘This was a very sweet effort,’ she said, reaching up to kiss him. He tasted like coffee and sugar-cookie dough. ‘But there’s no way I'm eating these cookies.’

Mac laughed, kissing her back. ‘Oh God, no.’

Annie glanced over his shoulder and caught sight of Mr. Prescott through the kitchen window. ‘The mailman still lives next door?!’ she gasped, scooting out of his line of sight.

‘Yep,’ said Mac, amusement written across his face at her attempts at hiding. ‘You know everyone is finding out today.’

‘I know.’

‘And then there’s no turning back. You’re stuck with me,’ he said, standing in front of her, crowding her against the counter.

‘And you’re stuck with me.’ Her arms were around his neck, playing with the short hair at the back of his head. She couldn’t seem to get enough of touching him. For years, she’d resisted it and now she wanted to have her hands on him all the time. Luckily, Mac seemed to feel the same way.

Mac kissed her slow and deep and not at all appropriately for the mailman to witness. He put his hands on her waist and lifted her up onto the counter, keeping his body between her legs.

‘Stuck with you is exactly where I want to be,’ he said with a grin.

‘I got you a present, too,’ she said, and Mac’s eyebrows rose.

‘Really?’

‘Of course. You thought I wasn’t going to get you a Christmas present?’ she teased.

‘I honestly wasn’t sure.’ And it hit her again how new this all still was.

Sometimes it felt like they were rushing into everything and then other times it felt like they had been slowly inching toward this for so long that she was more than happy to jump right into the middle of a serious relationship.

But they clearly hadn’t worked out all the details yet.

She hopped down from the counter and went to get the gift she'd been hiding upstairs. She brought it into the kitchen hidden behind her back, suddenly nervous to give it to him.

‘It’s not much,’ she said.

‘I got you a bunch of burnt cookies, so I think you’re going to come out ahead on this one,’ Mac said with a laugh.

Annie quickly handed him the gift before she chickened out.

‘A postcard?’

‘I said it wasn’t much. I always felt bad that I didn't write back to you that time. You reached out and I ignored it. I regret it.’

Mac’s expression was tender as he turned over the postcard and read, ‘ Dear Mac, sorry it took so long to write back. I hope you had an amazing journey but I’m so glad it brought you back to me. Love, Annie. ’

He was smiling when he looked up from the postcard, and Annie stepped toward him, needing to be in his arms again, which he quickly wrapped around her. He pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

‘So did I win first Christmas gift-giving?’ she asked.

‘Absolutely,’ he said with a laugh. ‘You win, Annie.’

She held him a minute longer, enjoying the feel of him before pulling back.

‘I think I have time to help you make a fresh batch,’ she said with a smile that Mac promptly kissed.

‘No way, you have today off. You sit over there with your feet up. I can at least make you breakfast.’

‘Sounds good to me. ‘

She scooped up a kitten and made herself comfortable at the table, while Mac got breakfast ready and she tried to enjoy their last morning as a secret.

* * *

‘How do you think everyone’s going to react?

’ Annie asked as they walked up the path to Logan’s big front porch.

There were dozens of cars out front. Clearly the party was in full swing.

They would have been here sooner, but Mac’s biggest fear was coming true.

With Annie in his bed, he couldn’t seem to get out of it.

And she’d been more than happy to stay there with him. It wasn’t a bad problem to have.

But now, thanks to that, they were late, and it looked like half the town was in there. Mac could hear the Christmas music and laughter spilling out into the cold afternoon.

‘I really don't think people are going to be as surprised as you think they are,’ he said.

‘Why would they not be surprised? We’ve been horrible to each other over the past few years.’

‘Annie, please…’

‘Please what?’

‘Everyone saw us leave the wedding together.’

‘Yeah, but before that we hated each other. I still think people will be shocked.’

Mac scoffed. ‘There's always been something between us and I’m pretty sure it's been obvious.’

‘Obvious? No way. Maybe you’ve been obvious but not me.’ She stomped up the stairs to the porch, her ponytail swinging angrily. She still hated to be wrong.

There was no point in knocking today. Everyone just came and went as they pleased. So, Annie opened the door, and Mac grabbed her hand as they walked into the farmhouse.

The place was bursting at the seams. They barely made it through the door before three little girls raced past them followed by a flustered Archer and a laughing Noah.

‘You need your coat if you’re going to go outside,’ Archer called out as he attempted to wrestle one of the little girls, Olive, into her winter coat.

‘Cece’s not wearing a coat,’ she accused, pointing to one of the other girls.

‘She will be,’ Noah said, tossing his niece Cece a winter coat. The third seemed to be already in hers and barreling out the door.

‘Wait for us, Ivy!’ Cece shouted at her cousin.

‘Me too!’ Olive yelled as they all ran out into the yard.

‘Do not leave that front yard!’ Archer called after them.

‘Merry Christmas to you, too,’ Annie yelled as the girls blew past.

‘Hey! Merry Christmas!’ Noah said, noticing them now that his uncle duties were complete.

‘Yeah, Merry Christmas, guys,’ Archer said, straightening from his crouch on the floor where he’d been waging the winter coat battle. Neither man mentioned the fact that Mac was clinging tight to Annie’s hand, but Noah’s smile grew.

‘Come on in,’ he said. ‘I’m sure everyone will be so excited to see you.’

They didn't make it any farther into the house before they were accosted by Jeanie and Hazel.

‘Merry Christmas!’ Jeanie said. ‘So happy you guys made it!’

‘Thanks for having us,’ Mac said, mimicking the way Jeanie had addressed them as a couple. ‘Shouldn’t you be on a honeymoon or something?’

Jeanie waved a hand. ‘No, we put it off till after the holidays. We didn’t want to miss out on all of this.

’ She gestured to the absolute chaos around her, smiling like it was the best thing in the world.

She took their coats and Mac grabbed Annie’s hand again.

She shot him a little glare but didn’t pull away.

Hazel stood quietly, her gaze flicking between the two of them and a Cheshire-cat grin on her face.

‘So’ she said. ‘Did you get what you wanted for Christmas, Mac?’

‘Definitely,’ he said.

‘That’s nice.’

‘It’s really nice, thank you.’

Annie growled another angry little sound.

‘Seriously?!’ she said. ‘None of you are going to comment on this?’ She lifted their linked hands between them.

‘Comment on what?’ Logan said, emerging from the kitchen.

‘On this,’ Annie said, still waving their hands around. ‘On me and Mac and… and us and we’re a thing now and everyone's acting like it's normal.’

‘You’re a thing now?’ Logan said, narrowing his eyes, and for a second Mac thought he might actually be about to give some sort of if you ever hurt her best-friend lecture, but instead, he blew out a long sigh and said, ‘Oh, thank God.’

Hazel burst out laughing and Noah could barely hide his mirth behind his hand.

‘Whatever,’ Annie said. ‘You guys are all jerks.’ She led Mac into the living room wishing various townsfolk a Merry Christmas as they went. Not a single one acted surprised to see them together.

‘Well, aren’t you two cozy?’ Kira said when she found them together next to the Christmas tree. Bennett had his arm wrapped around her like he was some sort of human blanket.

‘We’re very cozy,’ Annie said, ‘but not a damn person seems surprised about it.’

Kira laughed. ‘Well, I’m happy for you, even though no one is surprised.’

‘Me too!’ Iris chimed in from her seat on the sofa. She was wedged in between Isabel and Kaori and they both grinned up at Annie.

‘We’ve been waiting for this for so long,’ Isabel said. ‘What a lovely Christmas present you’ve given us all!’

‘Oh, shut up,’ Annie said with a laugh and Mac tugged her in closer, planting a kiss on her head.

The whole room broke out into oohs and aahs and Annie turned bright red even as her smile grew. It was just as embarrassing as he knew it would be. But after all this time he would take whatever crap Dream Harbor wanted to give him as long as it meant he got to have Annie.

‘Mac!’ Jacob gasped, coming into the room. ‘Did you finally get your happily ever after?!’

A guy goes to one romantic fiction book-club meeting, and he never hears the end of it! But he wasn’t even mad about it. Jacob was right: second-chance romances just hit different.

Mac grinned. ‘I sure did.’

And after eleven years he finally had a new favorite Christmas.