The Gingerbread Bakery (Dream Harbor, #5)(84)

Annie shook her head, her hair brushing along the pillow. What was he telling her? ‘No, no, you moved home so your parents could retire.’

‘No, I convinced my parents to retire once I did move home, but I came back for you. I saw you through that window and I knew I would never find everything I was looking for out there. Annie, I came back on the off chance that I could convince you to give us another try. I never stopped loving you. I still haven’t.’

He came back for her. He loved her. He still did. Hearing those words did exactly what she was afraid they would. They cracked Annie wide open. She took his face in her hands and kissed him with everything she had until he was moving again, thrusting into her. She clung to him as another orgasm tore through her. Crying, she whispered that she loved him too, that she always had.

Mac’s movements became faster, more erratic until he came, groaning her name. He pressed his forehead against her shoulder, his breath cooling the sweat on her chest.

She ran her hands over his shoulders.

‘I love you, Mac Sullivan,’ she said and when he looked at her his smile lit up the room.











Chapter Thirty-Nine





Now


‘So, this is it now?’ Annie asked. ‘We’re together or something?’

They were still in bed, and it was well past midnight, but Annie was starving, so they'd raided his fridge for leftovers from the pub. She was wearing another one of his old T-shirts and a pair of sweats, wrapped up in one of his blankets with a plate of cold fried chicken in front of her. She’d never looked more beautiful.

Mac smiled at her question. ‘I could formally ask you, if you think that would help.’

Annie tipped her head, considering it.

‘It might,’ she said with a teasing grin. ‘It just seems like an abrupt change, like I'm supposed to be nice to you now? It’s weird.’

Mac laughed. ‘You don’t have to be nice to me all of the time, but I'll take some of the time.’

‘I’ll see what I can do,’ she said with a shrug, taking a bite of chicken and then licking her fingers clean.

‘Don’t you think we deserve to be together after all this time?’

‘Well, you still haven’t formally asked me, so I’m not sure if we are together.’ There was that teasing smile again. He wanted to kiss it from her lips. He liked that he was allowed to now.

‘Annabelle Andrews, will you be my girlfriend?’

She tipped her head like she was thinking about it. Mac growled her name again and she threw her head back and laughed.

‘Okay, yes, I will be your girlfriend.’

He liked the sound of that a little too much for a grown man, but he’d waited for a really long time to hear it.

The kittens had apparently smelled the chicken and were mewing from beside the bed. He leaned over and scooped them up by the scruff and deposited them in the blankets. Annie picked off little bits of chicken to feed to them and they tripped over each other to get to them.

‘I think maybe it’s better it worked out this way,’ Mac said, stealing a piece of chicken for himself.

Annie raised an eyebrow. ‘Really? You think it’s better that we wasted all this time hating each other?’

‘I never hated you, Annie.’

She rolled her eyes again, but a blush worked its way up her cheeks.

‘Whatever,’ she said.

‘I think it’s better,’ Mac went on, ‘because what was going to happen between us when we were nineteen? I mean, what are the odds we would have lived happily ever after when we were so young?’

‘It does happen sometimes.’

‘Yeah, but now we have our own shit sorted out.’

Annie gave him a bemused smile. ‘You have all your shit sorted out?’

‘I like to think so,’ he said. ‘Took me a while, but I finally figured out that living here is actually really lucky, that plenty of people would jump at the chance to have my life, that my dad built a great business with loyal customers and I’m happy to have taken it over. It’s a good life. And you have your baking empire. You don’t need to worry about me getting in your way while you build it.’

‘I was never worried about that.’

Maybe she hadn’t been, but he had. He’d never wanted to hold her back.

She shrugged again. ‘But maybe you’re right. Maybe it is better this way, although it does still feel like we wasted a lot of time. I know a lot of that was my fault. I know you tried to apologize.’

‘The way I remember it, I did apologize, and you told me to get the fuck out of your store.’

‘Oh, right. That’s what happened. Sorry about that.’

Mac crawled across the bed toward her. And kissed her lips. Because he could. ‘You're forgiven.’

She smiled. ‘So are you.’

He lay back in the pillows and Annie put the plate aside and joined him. The kittens promptly crawled on top of his chest, curling up together in a fuzzy heap.

‘Okay,’ he said. ‘Current biggest fear?’

Annie rolled to face him. ‘Probably the way the town is going to react to this little development.’

‘Yikes.’ Mac cringed at the thought. He had no desire to be the topic of town gossip, but it was a small price to pay.