The Gingerbread Bakery (Dream Harbor, #5)(9)

‘You were young and stupid and…’

‘And … it was over before it really started.’

Kira sighed in disappointment. ‘I feel like you’re holding out on me, but I’m exhausted so I’m going to let you get away with it for now.’ She stood up and planted a kiss on Annie’s cheek. ‘I’ll see you in the morning.’

‘Okay, yeah. See you in the morning.’ Annie went to find where she’d stashed her purse and coat and, by the time she turned around to leave, the barn was empty except for one person. Of course.

‘Walk you out?’ Mac asked, heading toward her across the dance floor. Annie’s body went into fight-or-flight mode.

‘I think I can make it down the driveway to my car without your assistance, thank you very much.’ Okay, so fight it was.

Mac blew out a frustrated sigh. ‘Can I walk out with you, Annie, or do I need to give you a five-minute head start so you don’t have to endure being next to me for a second longer?’

She glared at him and was about to tell him he could walk right off a cliff when Kira popped her head back into the big barn doors.

‘Forgot to turn out the lights!’ She hit the switch and the lights in the barn went out save for the strings of twinkle lights crisscrossed over the rafters. And the traitor scurried away before Annie could accuse her of being just as bad as everyone else in this busybody town.

She turned back to Mac with a huff to find him staring at her in the warm glow of the Christmas lights. He wasn’t smirking or winking or doing any of that bullshit that made it easy to hate him. He was just watching her with such fondness in his eyes that Annie thought she might choose flight now.

‘Damn that Kira,’ she whispered, and Mac let out a low laugh.

‘It’s a nice effect.’ He glanced up at the ceiling where the strings of lights hung.

‘Very Christmas-y,’ Annie mumbled back, falling deeper into the trance of staring at Mac in the low lights. It reminded her too much of another time she’d seen Mac in the glow of Christmas lights. When she’d seen the way he looked flushed and happy and undone, the twinkle of lights on his bronze skin something she’d seared into her memory.

When he looked at her again, she knew he was remembering the same thing.

‘Annie,’ his voice was rough when he spoke and at some point, he’d moved closer. She could feel herself being pulled toward him. ‘Do you remember that night…’

‘Of course, I remember that night,’ she snapped. The night of Christmas lights and Mac’s bare skin against hers? How could she ever forget it?

Mac smirked a little at the mention of it. ‘Not that night. The night we went on the Christmas-lights tour.’

Now Annie was smiling, too, lost in the memories. ‘Yeah. That was fun.’

Mac was even closer now, his nose practically brushing her cheek, his words gentle and warm against her skin. ‘That was my favorite night.’

Her breath caught. That was his favorite night? The night he held her hand and they laughed and talked until 2 a.m., and they didn’t even kiss but the promise of it was there. Thinking about it was like pushing on a bruise. It still hurt. Even all these years later.

‘I wish we could have that back,’ he whispered, and Annie wanted to close her eyes and give in to that thought. She wanted to have that feeling back, too. But she remembered all too well what came after that feeling. All the months she had thought about him, she had waited for him. It wasn’t only her heart that had been bruised, it was her ego, and somehow that was so much worse.

She swallowed hard. ‘We were so young,’ she said, instead of all the other thoughts racing through her head.

‘I still feel like that when I look at you.’

When had his hands landed on her hips? When had he tugged her close? When had they started to sway to some imaginary song, having the slow dance she’d avoided earlier?

Annie let her head rest against his chest, and she felt the sigh shudder through him. She gave herself exactly three breaths to remember the good times and forget everything else. Three inhales of Mac’s familiar spicy scent, three exhales to steel herself before she pulled away. Mac’s fingers dug into her hips just for a second before letting her go.

‘We should go,’ she said, unable to meet his eye.

He still stood close to her, and she was afraid he would touch her again, afraid of what she would do if he did. But finally, he nodded.

‘Right. We probably should.’

They walked out into the cold air and the dreamy moment in the barn was wiped away. It didn’t matter if Mac knew how to sweet-talk her these days, it didn’t matter if the memories were tempting, it didn’t matter how damn good his arms felt around her. Annie had made a promise to the girl she was all those years ago. The girl who had let herself fall for a guy she knew she had no business falling for. To the girl who decided to trust and to love against her better judgement. To the girl who’d waited around for Macaulay Sullivan for a goddamn year only to be left in the dust.

She’d sworn she’d never let him back into her life.

And she wasn’t about to break her promise now.











Chapter Six





Then


‘How can you possibly be this excited? You know you can just drive past any of these houses on your own.’ Mac breathed into his hands in an unsuccessful attempt to warm his frozen fingers.