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

Chapter Five

Now

K ira had set four of the wedding-reception tables for the rehearsal dinner.

She’d kept it simple with only candles for the centerpiece and little sprigs of rosemary on each napkin.

The tablecloths were white and the plates mismatched china.

The whole thing felt homey and intimate.

As it turned out, Kira was quite good at this. Annie was impressed.

She was seated between Iris and Bennett for dinner, and luckily Mac was at a different table because she really couldn’t make any more promises about being on her best behavior if she had to sit next to him.

After walking down the aisle, where she had been subjected to memories of the other times she’d let her body get too close to his, she’d been trying to avoid him as much as possible.

Which was tricky to do since it wasn’t exactly a big crowd.

The guest list consisted of the bridal party, Logan’s grandparents, a couple of Jeanie’s cousins, Mayor Kelly who was officiating, and Archer and Iris.

The rest of Jeanie’s family didn’t get into town until the next morning and everyone else had to wait for the big day on Sunday to be part of the fun.

Annie slid into her seat, setting her plate down on the table. She’d filled it with slices of beef tenderloin, mashed potatoes, and haricot verts, which she’d learned this evening were just green beans, but Archer had made them all fancy.

‘This looks heavenly,’ she said, and Archer smiled at her as he placed a full plate in front of Iris and sat down beside her.

‘Enjoy,’ he said.

‘Does he feed you like this all the time?’ Annie asked Iris. ‘If so, it makes complete sense why you agreed to have his baby.’

Iris laughed and the water she'd been drinking nearly sprayed from her mouth. She coughed into her hand and Annie patted her back.

‘Sorry, didn't mean to make a pregnant lady choke.’

Iris shook her head. ‘I'm fine. I'm fine,’ she said, waving away Annie’s ineffective life-saving efforts. ‘And yes, he does feed me like this all the time.’

Annie laughed. ‘Damn, girl.’

‘I know.’

‘ I would carry the man's baby for a meal like this every night,’ Bennett said from Annie’s other side, and Iris burst out laughing again.

Archer winked at Bennett and the girls laughed even harder.

‘What’s so funny over there?’ Mayor Kelly asked from across the table.

‘Oh, we’re just discussing what we would do for Archer in exchange for this food every night,’ Annie said with a smile, and the mayor’s eyebrows rose above his glasses.

‘So, Pete, do you have the ceremony ready for Sunday?’ Estelle asked, changing the subject before the mayor could weigh in. Which was probably for the best.

‘Mostly. I want to get a few more thoughts from the bride and groom, but I think I'm ready to go.’

‘You're going to do great, Dad,’ Hazel said, patting him on the back from her seat beside him.

‘It's going to be lovely, I’m sure,’ Estelle said, and then turned her attention to Jeanie who was seated at the next table. ‘Jeanie!’ she called. ‘Have you given any thought to what you're wearing on the wedding night?’

Annie could see the furious blush on Logan's face from across the room. She and Iris descended into more giggles.

‘Um, not really,’ Jeanie said.

Estelle smiled. ‘Okay, very good. I have just the thing.’

‘Well, that's ominous,’ Annie whispered and Iris agreed.

‘I don’t think I want to know.’

The evening went on with more drinks and food and laughter. Archer had outdone himself and Annie couldn’t imagine how Sunday’s meal would be any better, but she knew it would be.

‘We should probably test out the dance floor,’ Noah said, coming up beside Hazel and putting out a hand to her.

‘We probably should.’ Hazel smiled up at him and Annie couldn't help the small pang she felt anytime she was around her friends lately. She loved them all, and she was so happy that they had each found their person. But, when everyone had their person, it really emphasized the fact that she didn't.

She could feel Mac’s eyes on her from the other table as more and more guests got up to dance. She didn't allow herself to look at him. Instead, she very gratefully accepted an offer from Jeanie’s cousin when he asked her to dance.

The music was slow and romantic, and Annie had had enough wine to feel pleasantly warm. She couldn’t help but think that, if she had been dancing with someone she cared about, the moment would have been quite lovely.

Hazel’s head rested on Noah’s shoulder as they danced, Iris and Archer couldn’t take their eyes off each other, and Kira had taken a break from her hosting duties to dance with Bennett.

Her laughter filled up the room when he dipped her.

And never mind Jeanie and Logan. Annie wasn’t sure their feet even touched the ground as they danced, whispering quietly to each other in their own little world.

They were all so happy, so settled. And in a group of couples, Annie had quickly become the only single left.

Well, and Mac.

She really needed to get more friends.

‘So that’s why I don't feed my geckos crickets.’

Annie blinked.

‘What was that?’ she asked. She’d totally not been listening to whatever her dance partner had been going on about. In fact, she wasn’t even sure she caught his name.

‘Crickets,’ he repeated. ‘They give off a weird smell, so I prefer to feed my gecko pellets only.’

Annie stared at him in horror before she remembered to be polite. ‘Of course, that makes sense,’ she said, forcing a smile on her face. ‘Well, thank you so much for the dance.’ She pulled away, even though the song was not over. She’d had enough cricket talk for one evening.

As she made her way across the dance floor and away from gecko guy, she caught Mac following her with his gaze. He still sat at the table chatting with Henry and Mayor Kelly, but his eyes were on her.

She needed to get out of here. She needed a break from all of it, from Mac, from the happy couples, from the insanely romantic wedding Kira had planned. It was all too much.

She stepped out of the barn and into the cold night air and took a deep breath. She was fine. Everything was fine. She took another deep breath of the pine-scented breeze as she tried to convince herself that everything really was fine. She stared up at a sky filled with stars.

Annie didn’t make a habit of being lovesick and she certainly wasn’t going to start now.

Once this wedding was over, everything would go back to normal.

She could go back to avoiding Mac, and her single-ness wouldn’t be quite so painfully obvious.

She had her friends and her family and her bakery. She didn’t need a dance partner.

Right. Two more days to go.

She could do this.

But by the time the already small crowd had dwindled even further to just Iris, who was waiting for Archer and his crew to finish clearing the food, and Mayor Kelly who was going over his notes for the ceremony with Logan, Annie was looking for any distraction to keep between her and Mac.

Hazel and Noah had left to drive a tipsy Jeanie home and Bennett had gone to escort the Ellis cousins to the inn.

‘What else can I do?’ she asked Kira, to avoid watching Mac spin Iris in a slow circle on the dance floor.

‘I think we’re done for the night.’ Kira plopped down into the nearest chair. ‘We should probably get some sleep. We have more work to do tomorrow.’

‘Right.’ Manicures and pedicures, followed by finishing up the secret, wedding dessert and helping Kira decorate the barn.

She was hoping Mac wouldn’t be a part of any of it.

Maybe she wouldn’t have to see him again until Sunday and then there would be enough other stuff going on, she’d barely have to interact with him.

Except for the whole pesky walking down the aisle business.

‘What happened between you two, anyway?’ Kira asked, following Annie’s gaze to where Mac was now talking with Archer and Iris, the dance over.

Annie sighed. ‘It really doesn’t matter.’

‘It kinda seems like it does.’

Mac looked up and caught her in his gaze.

Sometimes it felt like a million years ago that she had let herself fall for that cocky team captain, and sometimes it felt like she was still that girl letting herself trust that boy.

Mac’s lips tipped into a tentative smile and Annie was right back in that diner booth trying to convince herself that they didn’t make sense together, that he couldn’t possibly like her.

But he had convinced her that he did. And, for that one December, she’d let herself believe him.

And look where it had gotten her. Stuck on a guy who would never be right for her.

She turned away from Mac’s smile.

‘We were young and stupid.’

Kira’s brows rose. This was the most Annie had ever confessed about what happened between her and Mac. For some reason, it felt a little easier to tell Kira, who hadn’t been around Annie and Mac her whole life and had only showed up in town a year ago.

‘You were young and stupid and…’

‘And… it was over before it really started.’

Kira sighed in disappointment. ‘I feel like you’re holding out on me, but I’m exhausted so I’m going to let you get away with it for now.’ She stood up and planted a kiss on Annie’s cheek. ‘I’ll see you in the morning.’

‘Okay, yeah. See you in the morning.’ Annie went to find where she’d stashed her purse and coat and, by the time she turned around to leave, the barn was empty except for one person. Of course.

‘Walk you out?’ Mac asked, heading toward her across the dance floor. Annie’s body went into fight-or-flight mode.

‘I think I can make it down the driveway to my car without your assistance, thank you very much.’ Okay, so fight it was.

Mac blew out a frustrated sigh. ‘Can I walk out with you, Annie, or do I need to give you a five-minute head start so you don’t have to endure being next to me for a second longer?’

She glared at him and was about to tell him he could walk right off a cliff when Kira popped her head back into the big barn doors.

‘Forgot to turn out the lights!’ She hit the switch and the lights in the barn went out save for the strings of twinkle lights crisscrossed over the rafters. And the traitor scurried away before Annie could accuse her of being just as bad as everyone else in this busybody town.

She turned back to Mac with a huff to find him staring at her in the warm glow of the Christmas lights. He wasn’t smirking or winking or doing any of that bullshit that made it easy to hate him. He was just watching her with such fondness in his eyes that Annie thought she might choose flight now.

‘Damn that Kira,’ she whispered, and Mac let out a low laugh.

‘It’s a nice effect.’ He glanced up at the ceiling where the strings of lights hung.

‘Very Christmas-y,’ Annie mumbled back, falling deeper into the trance of staring at Mac in the low lights.

It reminded her too much of another time she’d seen Mac in the glow of Christmas lights.

When she’d seen the way he looked flushed and happy and undone, the twinkle of lights on his bronze skin something she’d seared into her memory.

When he looked at her again, she knew he was remembering the same thing.

‘Annie,’ his voice was rough when he spoke and at some point, he’d moved closer. She could feel herself being pulled toward him. ‘Do you remember that night…’

‘Of course, I remember that night,’ she snapped. The night of Christmas lights and Mac’s bare skin against hers? How could she ever forget it?

Mac smirked a little at the mention of it. ‘Not that night. The night we went on the Christmas-lights tour.’

Now Annie was smiling, too, lost in the memories. ‘Yeah. That was fun.’

Mac was even closer now, his nose practically brushing her cheek, his words gentle and warm against her skin. ‘That was my favorite night.’

Her breath caught. That was his favorite night? The night he held her hand and they laughed and talked until 2a.m., and they didn’t even kiss but the promise of it was there. Thinking about it was like pushing on a bruise. It still hurt. Even all these years later.

‘I wish we could have that back,’ he whispered, and Annie wanted to close her eyes and give in to that thought.

She wanted to have that feeling back, too.

But she remembered all too well what came after that feeling.

All the months she had thought about him, she had waited for him.

It wasn’t only her heart that had been bruised, it was her ego, and somehow that was so much worse.

She swallowed hard. ‘We were so young,’ she said, instead of all the other thoughts racing through her head.

‘I still feel like that when I look at you.’

When had his hands landed on her hips? When had he tugged her close? When had they started to sway to some imaginary song, having the slow dance she’d avoided earlier?

Annie let her head rest against his chest, and she felt the sigh shudder through him.

She gave herself exactly three breaths to remember the good times and forget everything else.

Three inhales of Mac’s familiar spicy scent, three exhales to steel herself before she pulled away.

Mac’s fingers dug into her hips just for a second before letting her go.

‘We should go,’ she said, unable to meet his eye.

He still stood close to her, and she was afraid he would touch her again, afraid of what she would do if he did. But finally, he nodded.

‘Right. We probably should.’

They walked out into the cold air and the dreamy moment in the barn was wiped away.

It didn’t matter if Mac knew how to sweet-talk her these days, it didn’t matter if the memories were tempting, it didn’t matter how damn good his arms felt around her.

Annie had made a promise to the girl she was all those years ago.

The girl who had let herself fall for a guy she knew she had no business falling for.

To the girl who decided to trust and to love against her better judgement.

To the girl who’d waited around for Macaulay Sullivan for a goddamn year only to be left in the dust.

She’d sworn she’d never let him back into her life.

And she wasn’t about to break her promise now.