The Gingerbread Bakery (Dream Harbor, #5)(33)

‘Hey, what’d I miss? I had to wait for the babysitter.’

‘Logan's going to sleep with Jeanie the night before the wedding and something's very wrong with Mac,’ Noah reported.

Archer raised an eyebrow. ‘Wow.’

‘Nothing’s wrong with me,’ Mac insisted, except he felt like everything was wrong with him at the moment. He’d lived so many years convincing himself that there was nothing between him and Annie. That it had all been some teenage fantasy, blown way out of proportion. And then he'd moved back here and he was screwed, because Annie was exactly as perfect as he'd remembered. But she didn’t want him, and he’d done his best to move on. He’d set up a life here. He’d dated other women, grown his business. He’d made fucking friends. And then he’d spent one morning with her, and she'd destroyed his resolve to stay away.

He couldn't think straight.

And he certainly couldn’t play darts.

‘He spent the morning with Annie,’ Archer reported, and if he didn't have a baby on the way, Mac might have punched him in the face.

‘Really?’ Noah said ‘Interesting…’

‘Who told you that?’

‘Iris. She said you and Annie stormed the Y this morning.’

‘You were also spotted together at the café,’ Ben added, taking a slug of his beer. These grown men, his alleged friends, were worse than the book club with their gossip.

‘Jesus. You can't do anything in this town without everyone knowing about it.’

Archer chuckled. ‘It’s the truth, but what were you guys doing together? I thought she didn't let you near her.’

Mac shook his head, downing more of his beer. That was more true than he wanted to admit.

‘I was at her apartment this morning,’ he glared at Noah before the man could jump in with questions about things that definitely didn’t happen, ‘fetching Logan’s cufflinks. And her car was out of gas. I helped her run a couple of errands. That’s it.’

‘That’s it?’ Bennett asked, skeptically.

‘Yeah, that’s it. Errands.’

Nobody looked like they were buying it, but Mac must have had a threatening enough look on his face that they let it go.

‘Okay, man, whatever you say.’

‘We’re not here to talk about me, anyway,’ Mac said, gesturing to Logan with his bottle of beer. ‘We’re here for our friend on his last night of freedom.’

Logan rolled his eyes. ‘Last night of freedom is a bullshit thing to say,’ he said. ‘We’re here because I wanted a pub burger and a beer and you’re just lucky I let you tag along.’

Mac shook his head with a smile. There was the grumpy bastard they all knew and loved.

‘To Logan and Jeanie,’ Archer said, raising his bottle and the others followed suit.

‘To Logan and Jeanie!’ they all said.

‘Congratulations, man.’ Mac clapped his friend on the back.

‘Thanks,’ Logan said. ‘I am glad you guys are here.’

Noah pretended to wipe his eyes. ‘Don’t get all sappy on us now. You're going to make me cry.’

Bennett laughed and Mac got up to grab some more food for the table. By the time he got back, Iris was perched on Archer’s lap.

His heart rate picked up speed. Were all the girls here?

‘Hey Iris, what are you doing here?’ he asked, sliding a plate of fries in front of her.

‘Perfect,’ she said, with a little sigh. ‘I was having a craving.’

‘I can make you fries,’ Archer grumbled.

Iris pressed a kiss against his temple. ‘I love you and I love your cooking, but you can’t deep fry me fries at home and this is exactly what I wanted,’ she said, popping one of the crispy fries into her mouth.

Archer kissed her shoulder. ‘Okay, sweetheart.’

‘Jeanie wanted me to tell you she’ll meet you at home,’ Iris said, turning to Logan. ‘She was grabbing dinner with her parents first.’

Logan nodded.

‘So, I guess you don't think it’s bad luck, either,’ Iris said. ‘Sleeping together the night before the wedding.’

Logan shook his head. ‘Of course I don’t think it’s bad luck. Jeanie is it for me and I’m not going to spend the night away from her because of some ridiculous superstition.’

Iris smiled. ‘She feels the same way.’

Logan dipped his head in acknowledgement, a happy smile tugging at his lips. And for a minute, Mac couldn’t identify the sensation in his gut, until he realized it was jealousy. He was jealous of his friends. Jealous of Logan for being so sure about Jeanie. Jealous of Archer for having his beautiful and pregnant girlfriend in his lap, and of Noah, who’d already married the girl of his dreams; and then there was Bennett, who spent his days so wrapped up in Kira it seemed like he required nothing else.

On the night before his friend’s wedding, it hit Mac like a ton of fucking bricks. Maybe this was what he wanted, too.

After years of trying to convince himself otherwise.

He wanted what his friends had.

And unfortunately, he knew exactly who he wanted it with.