The Gingerbread Bakery (Dream Harbor, #5)(64)

‘What's your problem?’ Mac asked, straining his neck to see around Logan. It had been a while since he’d been in a fight but tonight seemed like a good time to get back into it. The guy with Annie had moved even closer and her face tipped up to his. Mac wanted to scream. He knew what it felt like to be on the other side of that look. He wanted to be back there.

‘I don’t know what's going on with you two,’ Logan said, voice low, ‘but this is what I do know: Annie’s been weird all month. I’ve known her for a long time, and I know she’s been keeping something from me, and then you get back to town and she gets really sad. I don’t like it when my best friend is sad.’

Sad. Why hadn’t he considered that Annie would be sad? ‘What are you talking about? I didn’t do anything.’

Logan shrugged. ‘I didn’t say you did. All I said was you got back, and she got sad, and I don't know why. But I don’t like you being here right now, and I don’t like the way you're acting. You can text Annie tomorrow and she can decide if she wants to talk to you.’

Mac opened his mouth to argue further but stopped when he saw Annie get up. A small bit of hope sparked and then immediately died when he saw the guy was still with her, their fingers intertwined like she was leading him somewhere. No, not somewhere. She was leading him upstairs and Mac had been to enough house parties to know what that meant.

‘Shit,’ Mac whispered under his breath and Logan turned, too. Annie had stopped a few stairs up. Smiling, she leaned down and kissed that guy, her hands sliding through his hair, and it was like Mac could feel it on his own head. Could remember the taste of her tongue on his own and now this guy, this nobody, got to have it and Mac hated it. His fists curled at his sides, the urge to fight rearing back up again.

‘Looks like she already forgot about whatever was making her sad,’ Logan said as they watched Annie lead that guy up the stairs.

For a split second, Mac considered following her. He imagined pulling that guy away from her and dragging her out of here. He wanted to tell her everything. He wanted to rip his heart out and lay it out at her feet.

But apparently Annie didn’t want that. She’d already forgotten about him. He made one mistake, and she’d moved on. Just like that.

A humorless laugh escaped him. ‘Yeah, I guess so.’

Logan almost looked sympathetic when he turned back around but not like he was about to give in and let Mac charge past him. Not that it mattered. Mac had lost the urge.

‘Going to be back in town long?’ Logan asked.

After all these months away, waiting to come back, Mac knew there was only one answer.

‘No, I’m leaving again tomorrow.’

Logan’s eyebrow rose.

‘There isn't anything here for me,’ Mac said, and Logan answered with a frown like he might disagree, but Mac didn’t want to hear it.

He strode out of the party vowing to himself to not waste another minute thinking about Annabelle Andrews. It was time he did this traveling thing for real, and this time he'd have no one waiting for him back home.

This time he’d have no trouble staying away.











Chapter Thirty





Now


Mac flinched when she said it, like her words physically hurt him, like he couldn’t bear the idea of Annie forgetting him.

‘Did it work?’ he asked, his voice choked. ‘Did fucking that random guy at that party help you forget me?’

Annie’s hand cracked across Mac’s cheek so fast it surprised both of them. They stood there in shocked silence, her hand stinging from the impact, both of them breathless, like they’d just run a marathon.

She’d hit him. She’d never hit another person in her entire life. Yet one more example of Mac making her do things she would never ordinarily do.

‘First of all,’ she said, trying to regain her composure. ‘He wasn’t random. His name was Ryan and we had class together and he was nice to me. And second of all, it is none of your business who I fuck.’ She tossed the blanket she’d wrapped around herself aside, her anger enough to keep her warm now.

How dare he? How dare he try and make her feel bad for that night? He had no right.

Mac stared at her, a hand on his cheek. His eyes were dark, hurt. ‘I shouldn’t have said that,’ he ground out. ‘But it sure didn’t take you long to move on.’

Annie crossed her arms over her chest. ‘Ha! I waited a year for you, Mac! And then you didn’t show. How long exactly should I have waited? Should I have forsaken all other men until you came back? Did you think you had some kinda claim on me because you took my virginity?’

He stepped closer, grabbing her arms in case she might hit him again. ‘Of course I don’t think that. Christ, Annie. I didn’t take anything. But I thought you’d give me more than one chance. It felt like I made one mistake, and you bailed.’

‘You could have called! You could have texted! But you didn’t. I couldn’t wait around for you any longer.’ She pulled out of his grasp. Maybe she would hit him again. Maybe he deserved it.

Mac slumped, the anger seeping out of him. ‘You’re right. I know you’re right. But it still felt shitty seeing you with that guy.’

‘Kinda like how it feels when you bring random women to Christmas at Estelle’s?’