The Gingerbread Bakery (Dream Harbor, #5)(15)

Sitting in his basement bedroom with Annie, he suddenly wasn’t sure about any of it.

Which was crazy, because he wasn’t in love with Annie. But he’d never stayed up half the night or even like half an afternoon with any of those girls. He’d liked them and they’d come to his games, and he’d taken them on a date or two, but nothing like this had ever happened before.

Annie was currently lying on his bed, snuggling the stuffed polar bear he’d had since birth, and teasing him for admitting that his favorite movie was The Muppet Christmas Carol.

‘I meant like a favorite movie in general, not a Christmas movie,’ she said between giggles.

‘That is my favorite movie!’ he insisted, and Annie started laughing all over again.

He threw a pillow at her from his position draped across the foot of the bed. ‘It’s a good movie.’

‘It’s singing puppets.’ She added the pillow to the stack behind her head. It was after 1 a.m. and he should really take her home, but he was having too much fun.

‘The world’s most beloved singing puppets.’

She shrugged a little like she’d give him that much. ‘Fair.’

‘Thank you.’ He stretched his arms behind his head and stared up at the old drop ceiling above them. He’d moved into the basement a few years ago for more privacy and, as much as his mom tried to make it homey down here, it was still a basement. At least twice a year, the whole damn thing flooded. He really needed to move out.

‘Okay, my turn,’ he said.

‘My favorite movie is Pride and Prejudice, the Colin Firth version, obviously. Although, technically, it was a TV series but I’m going to count it.’

‘I don’t know what any of that means. And that wasn’t my question.’

Annie huffed and he could hear her snuggling down into his pillows. ‘Okay, go ahead with your question.’

‘So, you and Logan never hooked up?’ He wasn’t sure why he wanted to know, but he didn’t really think you could be that close a friend with someone of the opposite gender, assuming you were both straight, and not hook up eventually.

Annie returned the pillow from earlier and it landed on his face.

‘Ew.’

‘It’s not that crazy of a question.’ He slipped the pillow behind his head.

‘He is a brother to me in every way except blood. So no, I didn’t hook up with him nor would I, even if we were the last two people on the planet.’

‘Wow, harsh. Poor Logan.’

‘I assure you he feels the same about me.’

‘If you say so.’

‘What’s that supposed to mean?’

‘I’m just saying, if it was me and I had a hot girl hanging around me all the time, but she only wanted to be friends, that would be tough.’

Annie sat up so she was looking down at him.

‘You think I’m hot?’

Oops. Had he let that slip out?

‘I mean, yeah.’ He tried to say it casually, like he often had girls over, confessed his most embarrassing secrets, showed them his childhood stuffed animals and then told them they were hot. Just a normal evening for ol’ Mac.

Annie’s brow furrowed in a way that said she was skeptical, and Mac wanted to elaborate on exactly why she was hot, starting with that plush bottom lip and ending with the perfect curve of her ass, but he didn’t want to ruin the night.

She flopped back onto the pillows. ‘Okay, moving on. Biggest fear?’

‘Wow, you’re going to go from favorite movie to biggest fear?’

‘Yep, biggest fear, go.’

He could have said bats, because that was true. They were essentially flying mice with fangs which was objectively terrifying. But he had a feeling that wasn’t what Annie was going for.

‘Getting stuck here,’ he said, directing his words to the ceiling. It was easier to confess that way, without Annie’s eyes on him.

‘Define here.’

Mac blew out a long sigh. Damn, this girl was intense. Maybe he should have just complimented her ass and called it a night.

‘Here in town, here in my mom’s basement, here doing nothing with my life.’

‘What do you want to do with your life?’

‘Hold on, it’s my turn and I want you to answer the same question. Biggest fear?’

Annie didn’t skip a beat. ‘Failure.’

‘Failure?’

‘Yep. And don’t try and tell me all that inspirational bullshit about needing to fail before you succeed.’

‘Nah, failing sucks. Getting stuck here would be failing.’

‘Right. And never getting my business off the ground would be failing. And I would hate that.’

Mac sat up so he could look at her. She looked cute, all sleepy with wispy blonde hair escaping her ponytail.

‘Okay, so don’t fail.’

She scoffed. ‘Piece of cake. No pun intended. I just won’t fail. Thank you for that wonderful advice.’

‘No, I mean, it’s only failure if you stop, right? If you keep going, even after a set-back, then you’ll eventually get there.’

Annie considered him for a minute. ‘Yeah, I guess so.’

‘Great. It’s settled. You’ll be running a baking empire in no time.’ He crashed into the pillows next to her, so they were side by side. She rolled over to face him.