The Gingerbread Bakery (Dream Harbor, #5)(40)

He’d been losing his mind about it all day and then it had started snowing harder and he saw the bakery light still on and was at Annie’s window before he could stop himself. He couldn't leave her there in the snow, knowing she’d put herself in a dangerous situation to make sure she didn’t let anyone down. So here he was giving her a ride, and she hadn't said a damn word to him since they got in the truck.

‘You know you could thank me,’ he said, glancing over to the passenger seat. He took his eyes off the road just long enough to catch Annie glaring at him.

‘I could,’ she said, ‘but you basically forced me into accepting the ride.’

‘Only because I knew you would do something stupid if I didn't.’

‘Stupid? Excuse me?’

Mac huffed a laugh. ‘Yeah, something stupid. Like try to drive on these snowy roads up to Kira’s farm in that old delivery van that handles horribly and end up in a ditch somewhere instead.’

‘Really, Mac. I don’t know when you became so dramatic.’

‘Stop calling me that.’

‘Then stop acting that way.’

‘I’m not acting any kind of way, Annabelle. I'm trying to keep you alive for some reason that I really can’t remember at the moment.’

She scoffed and sat back in her seat, staring out the window at the snow. It was really coming down now and Mac hoped his snow tires were as good as he said they were, or they would both end up in a ditch.

His plan to have one more night with Annie had made perfect sense when he was alone, but all Annie wanted to do when they were together was fight. He wasn’t sure how he would convince her that what they really needed was to fuck.

The lights from the farmhouse appeared ahead on the dark road and Mac let out a sigh of relief. At least they weren't going to die on the side of the road sexually frustrated. That would be a tragedy. He pulled the Bronco up the driveway to the barn. Annie hissed as they went over each and every bump.

She gasped after they went over a particularly big rut. ‘The gingerbread house!’ she squeaked.

‘I’m going as carefully as I can.’ Mac assured her. ‘It’ll be fine.’

They hit another dip in the road and Annie gripped tight to his forearm.

‘Careful!’ she gasped, her fingers digging into his flesh.

Mac kept the truck at a slow crawl all the way down the road to the barn. Annie didn’t take her fingers off his arm until they pulled up safely in front of the barn doors. It made him wish the road was longer.

She immediately hopped out into the snow and ran around to the back to check on the house. They’d buffered it on all sides to keep it from sliding around and it was at least relatively in the same place they’d left it. Annie let out a sigh of relief.

‘It might have a few cracks,’ she said when he joined her behind the truck. ‘But it looks like it survived.’

‘Good,’ Mac said, relieved that he hadn’t let her down for once.

She looked at him in the dim light from the trunk. ‘Thank you,’ she said.

‘Yeah, no problem.’

‘No, really. Thank you. As much as it pains me to say it, you were probably right about the whole me-ending-up-in-a-ditch thing, so I really appreciate the ride.’

The snow swirled in between them, and Annie’s cheeks were red with the cold. Mac ran a hand down the side of her face.

‘You drive me nuts, but I don’t want you dead in a ditch.’

Annie’s lips tipped into a begrudging smile. ‘That’s the sweetest thing you’ve ever said to me.’

It wasn’t. He’d said plenty of sweet things eleven years ago. Or maybe he’d misremembered that too.

‘I could probably come up with some other things if you want me to.’

There were a million things he could think to say about Annie. He could tell her how much he admired her or how proud he was of what she’d accomplished. He could tell her how gorgeous she was and how over the years he’d compared every other woman to her. He could tell her that she felt like home, even after all this time. Or he could tell her he was dying to know what she tasted like between her thighs and that he regretted not finding out when he’d had the chance. Mac could go on and on if she’d let him.

Annie’s full smile was a lovely and rare thing in the cold night. It reminded Mac of the night he first kissed her, and he wished he could do it again. She’d liked him that night. She still thought he was cute and charming. He’d made her laugh. He hadn’t broken her heart yet.

‘Remember when we made gingerbread cookies together?’ he asked. And he knew he was grasping at straws, looking for any evidence that they’d had the same experience.

‘I do,’ she said. ‘I remember you ate about a dozen in one sitting.’

‘They were small!’

Annie laughed, the sound so bright and beautiful that Mac could hardly believe she was letting him hear it.

‘They weren’t that small and that was after half a bag of sour cream-and-onion chips.’

‘Well, we had worked up an appetite.’

Annie’s cheeks flushed a deeper red and Mac felt vindicated. She did remember. And she felt it, too. The pull of that time, the need to find out if it was still there, that thing between them. If he kissed her right now, what would she do? Would it feel like the first time? Better? God, he wanted to find out.