The Gingerbread Bakery (Dream Harbor, #5)(77)

Annie smiled. She couldn't help but remember last year at this time when Kira was doing everything in her power to not get sucked into the Dream Harbor vortex, and now here she was planning events for the town. This place had that effect on people. They came here sad or lost or alone until Dream Harbor worked its magic.

She looked over at Mac again. Had the town worked its magic on him? Of course, he’d live here for the first half of his life, but he’d been gone for so long. Was this place in his heart like it was in hers?

She watched him laughing with Noah and she thought about all the ways he had come back. For three years, she’d tried to pretend it wasn’t true or it wasn’t real or it wouldn’t stick. But here he was, friends with her friends, renovating his parents’ old house, running his dad’s pub. Mac was here in Dream Harbor again. He had set up his life here and he wanted her. All she had to do was say yes.

She turned her attention back to the speeches in time to hear Cliff comparing marriage to fishing and making some sort of obscene, rod jokes. Maybe it was time for her to confiscate the microphone. She was about to when Mac took it.

He cleared his throat looking around the room. His gaze stuck on her only for a moment before flitting away.

‘I wanted to say congratulations and to say thank you to Logan.’

Logan looked up, surprised, his eyebrows raised.

‘Thanks for letting me have a clean slate with you, and for being one of the first people to welcome me back to town. It’s funny how when we’re young we feel like we need to get far away from where we grew up, or at least some of us do, in order to find ourselves. And I did learn a lot about myself while I was gone. I lived in a lot of amazing places, and I met a lot of interesting people but, in the end, I missed home. I missed the people here. I missed this.’

His gaze landed back on Annie. She felt her skin flush. Had he really missed her the whole time he was gone?

Mac cleared his throat.

‘Anyway, I’m really happy for you, man, and thanks for letting me be a part of it. Cheers to the bride and groom and to Dream Harbor.’

‘To Dream Harbor!’ the crowd echoed, raising their glasses one more time.











Chapter Thirty-Six





Now


The Wedding (still)


‘Daisy, that guy is totally checking you out,’ Iris said, as she worked through her second plate of cookies. The gingerbread house had been a big hit, but Annie had also made several platters of cookies and pastries for the guests to eat. Iris seemed to be appreciating them very much.

‘What guy? No, he isn’t. What guy?’ Daisy’s head swiveled from side to side.

Iris laughed. ‘That one over there with the glasses. He’s been looking over here all night.’

Daisy glanced over to where Iris was pointing.

Annie, Daisy, and Iris were the only three left at their table. The chairs from the ceremony had been cleared and a dance floor was carved out between the tables. At the moment, Annie was watching Noah spin Hazel in circles while she giggled. Kira and Bennet had snuck off somewhere about an hour ago and Annie hadn’t seen them since, but she had a pretty darn good idea of what they were doing. Weddings had that effect on people.

‘Who even is that?’ Daisy asked and Annie looked at the man in question.

‘That's Elliot, the new architect. He’s working on the inn,’ she said.

‘Wow, Jeanie really did invite every person in town to this wedding,’ Iris said with a laugh.

‘I know. Apparently, he was standing nearby when she went to the inn to work out the room availability for her visiting family. She felt bad and invited him, too.’

‘Well, whoever he is, he's looking at Daisy like he wants to get to know her better,’ Iris said, waggling her eyebrows. She had a hand over her growing belly and her bare feet propped up on the chair next to her. She looked tired but happy as she watched Archer slow-dance with Olive.

‘That's adorable,’ Daisy said, looking at them spinning in circles, Olive perched on Archer’s feet.

Iris nodded. ‘That's how they get you.’

‘Well, if that didn’t do it, the roast chicken definitely would have. It was so tender I wanted to cry,’ Annie said, making the other women burst out laughing again.

‘The man knows how to cook,’ Iris said, ‘that’s for sure.’

Archer grinned at Iris from his spot on the dance floor and Olive waved. She looked adorable in her velvet Christmas dress, little patent leather Mary Janes on top of Archer’s dress shoes. Something across the room caught her eye and she came running over to Iris.

‘Is that hot chocolate?’ she asked, her face filled with the intensity of a girl who would go to the ends of the earth for chocolate. A girl after Annie’s heart.

‘It’s actually a whole hot-chocolate bar,’ Annie told her. ‘With toppings.’

‘Toppings?!’ Olive squealed.

‘Marshmallows, candy canes, little cookie bits, oh, and whipped cream.’

‘Whipped cream!!’

Olive was practically vibrating now, and Annie ignored the look of horror on Iris’s face. It was all part of the fun of being an honorary auntie.

‘Yep. All the whipped cream you can eat.’