The Gingerbread Bakery (Dream Harbor, #5)(54)

She was certain about only one thing.

‘Mac,’ she breathed when he opened the door, looking surprised and a little rumpled. His hair was messy like he'd been running his fingers through it. He had on a pair of old sweats and a stained lacrosse T-shirt which should have been good payback for him seeing her in her reindeer onesie, but of course he still looked far too hot and not at all ridiculous.

‘Hey, Annie.’ He winced a little. ‘I wasn’t expecting you.’

‘Yeah, sorry, I probably should have texted you. I just…’ She paused, sucking in a deep breath of cold night air, stealing herself with what little courage she had left. ‘I just really wanted to see you.’

His face softened and he didn’t say a word, just stepped out onto his cold front porch barefoot and messy, and wrapped his arms around her, lifting her off the ground. He nuzzled his face in the crook of her neck, his breath warm on her skin.

‘I really wanted to see you, too,’ he said.

He held her like that for a long time like he needed to be close to her.

‘Is something wrong?’ she asked after a while, not wanting to break the moment but starting to get worried.

Mac sighed, setting her down. ‘Not really. But I finally told my parents I’m leaving.’

‘How did it go?’

He laughed a little, though there was no humor in it. ‘Not great. My mother basically told me I was breaking her heart, and now she’s at church, probably praying for me to change my mind.’

Annie winced. ‘Yikes.’

‘Yeah,’ he said, ‘but I’m really glad you're here.’

‘You’re not mad at me?’

‘Should I be?’

‘I kind of ditched you today.’

Mac shrugged. ‘I guess we’re even. I ditched you at the Christmas market.’

‘True,’ Annie said with a smile. ‘So… Can I come in or are you going to make me stand out in the cold all night?’

Mac grinned ‘You can come in. I've been thinking about your idea.’

‘My idea?’

‘Don't pretend you already forgot, Annabelle. You propositioned me for sex this morning.’

Annie's face got hot. ‘That’s not why I came. I really did just want to see you.’

She followed Mac into the house through the kitchen and down to his basement bedroom.

‘So, the offer is off the table?’ he asked, turning to face her.

‘I didn't say that.’ Her voice lowered to a whisper. ‘I still want to do that with you.’

Mac blew out a sigh of relief. ‘That’s good.’

‘It is?’

‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘I haven't been able to stop thinking about it all day.’ He stepped closer, putting a hand on her cheek, his thumb sweeping across her cheekbone. ‘I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you at all.’

‘That sounds very time-consuming.’

Mac’s lips curved into a smile. ‘It is, but there are worse ways to spend my time.’

‘And better ways,’ Annie said, tipping her face up to his.

‘Much, much better ways,’ Mac agreed, lowering his lips to hers. ‘Are you sure about this, Annie?’ he asked.

She didn't know what would happen after this. She didn’t have a plan for how to handle Mac or her feelings for him or him leaving. She didn’t know about any of that.

But she was sure about this.

‘Yes,’ she whispered, and Mac kissed her again.











Chapter Twenty-Four





Now


Annie knew that Mac had bought his parents’ old house, but somehow pulling up in the driveway still felt disorienting, as though she’d gone back in time.

‘I was half expecting your mom to greet us when we came in,’ she said as they shucked their boots and coats by the door.

Mac huffed a laugh. ‘Yeah, I half expect it sometimes, too.’

‘Do you miss them?’

‘Yeah, of course I do. But it’s my own fault. I guess I made traveling sound too good. Once I bought the pub, they got an RV and never looked back.’

‘Never looked back, huh?’ She knew that couldn’t be true. He and his mom had always been so close.

‘Other than the phone call I get from my mom every other day,’ he said with a self-deprecating smile.

They walked through the entryway into the kitchen where Mac set the box of kittens on the island.

‘Wow!’ Annie said, spinning in a small circle. ‘It looks really good in here.’ The kitchen had been completely redone. It was sleek and clean, white cabinets and granite countertops. It helped her feeling of déjà vu subside. This was a new house and she and Mac were new people. They weren’t kids anymore.

‘We might have kitty litter out in the garage,’ he said, rubbing the back of his head. ‘I think my dad kept some in case we got stuck in the snow.’ He moved around setting up things for the cats while Annie focused on petting them and not thinking about everything else she wanted to do with Mac in this shiny new kitchen. She was fifty-fifty on wanting to bake something and wanting to tear his clothes off with her teeth. Maybe they had time for both?