The Gingerbread Bakery (Dream Harbor, #5)(87)

‘Wait for us, Ivy!’ Cece shouted at her cousin.

‘Me too!’ Olive yelled as they all ran out into the yard.

‘Do not leave that front yard!’ Archer called after them.

‘Merry Christmas to you, too,’ Annie yelled as the girls blew past.

‘Hey! Merry Christmas!’ Noah said, noticing them now that his uncle duties were complete.

‘Yeah, Merry Christmas, guys,’ Archer said, straightening from his crouch on the floor where he’d been waging the winter coat battle. Neither man mentioned the fact that Mac was clinging tight to Annie’s hand, but Noah’s smile grew.

‘Come on in,’ he said. ‘I’m sure everyone will be so excited to see you.’

They didn't make it any farther into the house before they were accosted by Jeanie and Hazel.

‘Merry Christmas!’ Jeanie said. ‘So happy you guys made it!’

‘Thanks for having us,’ Mac said, mimicking the way Jeanie had addressed them as a couple. ‘Shouldn’t you be on a honeymoon or something?’

Jeanie waved a hand. ‘No, we put it off till after the holidays. We didn’t want to miss out on all of this.’ She gestured to the absolute chaos around her, smiling like it was the best thing in the world. She took their coats and Mac grabbed Annie’s hand again. She shot him a little glare but didn’t pull away.

Hazel stood quietly, her gaze flicking between the two of them and a Cheshire-cat grin on her face.

‘So’ she said. ‘Did you get what you wanted for Christmas, Mac?’

‘Definitely,’ he said.

‘That’s nice.’

‘It’s really nice, thank you.’

Annie growled another angry little sound.

‘Seriously?!’ she said. ‘None of you are going to comment on this?’ She lifted their linked hands between them.

‘Comment on what?’ Logan said, emerging from the kitchen.

‘On this,’ Annie said, still waving their hands around. ‘On me and Mac and … and us and we’re a thing now and everyone's acting like it's normal.’

‘You’re a thing now?’ Logan said, narrowing his eyes, and for a second Mac thought he might actually be about to give some sort of if you ever hurt her best-friend lecture, but instead, he blew out a long sigh and said, ‘Oh, thank God.’

Hazel burst out laughing and Noah could barely hide his mirth behind his hand.

‘Whatever,’ Annie said. ‘You guys are all jerks.’ She led Mac into the living room wishing various townsfolk a Merry Christmas as they went. Not a single one acted surprised to see them together.

‘Well, aren’t you two cozy?’ Kira said when she found them together next to the Christmas tree. Bennett had his arm wrapped around her like he was some sort of human blanket.

‘We’re very cozy,’ Annie said, ‘but not a damn person seems surprised about it.’

Kira laughed. ‘Well, I’m happy for you, even though no one is surprised.’

‘Me too!’ Iris chimed in from her seat on the sofa. She was wedged in between Isabel and Kaori and they both grinned up at Annie.

‘We’ve been waiting for this for so long,’ Isabel said. ‘What a lovely Christmas present you’ve given us all!’

‘Oh, shut up,’ Annie said with a laugh and Mac tugged her in closer, planting a kiss on her head.

The whole room broke out into oohs and aahs and Annie turned bright red even as her smile grew. It was just as embarrassing as he knew it would be. But after all this time he would take whatever crap Dream Harbor wanted to give him as long as it meant he got to have Annie.

‘Mac!’ Jacob gasped, coming into the room. ‘Did you finally get your happily ever after?!’

A guy goes to one romantic fiction book-club meeting, and he never hears the end of it! But he wasn’t even mad about it. Jacob was right: second-chance romances just hit different.

Mac grinned. ‘I sure did.’

And after eleven years he finally had a new favorite Christmas.