The Gingerbread Bakery (Dream Harbor, #5)(16)

‘So, what do you want to do with your life?’ she asked.

‘I hate that question.’

‘It’s okay to say you don’t know yet.’

‘Is it?’ Everyone else seemed to have at least a vague notion and all Mac had was a half-assed plan to drive around the country until he figured it out.

‘Of course it is. We’re only nineteen.’

‘Says the woman with a master business plan.’

She giggled and he liked it. Probably too much. This whole night was messing with his head. But he liked this girl. It was the only feeling he’d had in a long time that he was sure about.

‘It’s too bad we didn’t hang out sooner,’ he said, wishing they hadn’t wasted so many years.

‘What did you really think of me in high school?’ she asked.

‘That you were a stuck-up over-achiever with super shiny hair and a great ass.’

Her eyes widened in surprise. ‘I don’t know if I should be mad or flattered.’

Mac laughed. ‘Same question.’

‘That you were a dumb jock and a sometimes bully with beautiful eyelashes.’

‘Eyelashes?! That’s what you noticed about me? My eyelashes?’

‘Yep.’ Annie grinned and he couldn’t help but laugh.

‘Wow, there I was spending all that time in the weight room, and I could have just batted my lashes.’

‘Truly.’

‘And what do you think of me now?’ he asked, almost afraid to hear the answer. He didn’t even know what he thought of himself lately, who he was or who he wanted to be.

Annie thought for a moment, her lips twisting to the side. ‘Now, I think you’re actually kinda sweet and you’re definitely not dumb. And I’m still jealous of your lashes.’

Mac fluttered them dramatically to cover his absurd relief at her assessment of him, and Annie giggled.

‘Same question,’ she said.

‘You’re still an over-achiever, but I don’t see it as a bad thing when it doesn’t end up in extra economics homework. Hair and ass, still perfect.’

She smacked him on the arm in mock outrage. ‘Stop talking about my ass.’

‘Sorry, I’ll try not to.’

Annie reached out and looped her finger under the gold chain around his neck. She pulled slightly until the cross that hung on the end of it dangled between them.

‘I always wondered what was on this chain.’

Mac resisted the urge to squirm. First his biggest fears and now this. Annie was seeing more of him than anyone had. But he wanted her to. He wanted her to know him, as though that would somehow help him figure himself out. Like, through her eyes, he would start to make sense.

‘Are you very religious?’ she asked, and he liked that she didn’t seem put off by the thought. Mac hadn’t been into organized religion in a while now, but plenty of his favorite people were.

‘Not particularly.’

‘But you wear a gold cross.’

‘It was my grandfather’s. He gave it to me for my confirmation.’

‘So, you’re a little bit religious,’ she said with a small smile.

‘When it suits me.’ Mac broke more Catholic rules than he followed, but when his grandpa got sick, he prayed like hell for him to get better. Not that it did much good in the end, except maybe comfort his mom.

Annie gave a little nod, taking in this piece of information about him. She still had his necklace hooked over her finger. One gentle tug and he’d be close enough to kiss her. She realized it at the same time he did, her eyes widening slightly.

‘Your eyes are very blue.’ Brilliant, Mac. Sheer freaking poetry.

‘Thank you?’

Her smile was quickly becoming his new favorite thing.

‘They’re beautiful.’

The smile grew.

‘Thank you.’

‘You’re welcome.’

‘I should probably go home.’

‘I’ll drive you.’

Neither of them moved. Annie released his necklace and let her hand rest in the space between them on the bed. They were only one of Annie’s hand’s-width apart. Annie had small hands.

‘It’s probably cold out,’ Annie whispered, her eyelids beginning to droop.

‘It definitely is.’

‘I already told my mom I was staying with a friend…’ Her voice trailed off as her eyes closed.

‘A friend?’ Mac whispered.

Annie smiled in her almost-sleep, giving him a contented sigh. ‘Yeah … a friend.’

He stayed like that, taking in all the details of her face, all the things that made her Annie. The little scar on the bridge of her nose, the curve of her cheek, the shorter, fine blonde hairs that surrounded her face. He knew he shouldn’t kiss her. Despite what fairy tales would have you believe, he knew a girl should be conscious for that, but God, was it tempting with her lips right there.

‘Stop staring at me, Mac. It’s creepy.’

Mac rolled onto his back with a laugh. ‘You scared the crap out of me. I thought you were asleep.’

‘No one falls asleep that quickly, and I could sense you looking at me.’

‘Sorry,’ he said, the laughter still in his voice. ‘So, are you staying over?’