Page 20 of The Gingerbread Bakery
She flopped back onto the pillows. ‘Okay, moving on. Biggest fear?’
‘Wow, you’re going to go from favorite movie to biggest fear?’
‘Yep, biggest fear, go.’
He could have said bats, because that was true. They were essentially flying mice with fangs which was objectively terrifying. But he had a feeling that wasn’t what Annie was going for.
‘Getting stuck here,’ he said, directing his words to the ceiling. It was easier to confess that way, without Annie’s eyes on him.
‘Define here.’
Mac blew out a long sigh. Damn, this girl was intense. Maybe he should have just complimented her ass and called it a night.
‘Here in town, here in my mom’s basement, here doing nothing with my life.’
‘What do you want to do with your life?’
‘Hold on, it’s my turn and I want you to answer the same question. Biggest fear?’
Annie didn’t skip a beat. ‘Failure.’
‘Failure?’
‘Yep. And don’t try and tell me all that inspirational bullshit about needing to fail before you succeed.’
‘Nah, failing sucks. Getting stuck here would be failing.’
‘Right. And never getting my business off the ground would be failing. And I would hate that.’
Mac sat up so he could look at her. She looked cute, all sleepy with wispy blonde hair escaping her ponytail.
‘Okay, so don’t fail.’
She scoffed. ‘Piece of cake. No pun intended. I just won’t fail. Thank you for that wonderful advice.’
‘No, I mean, it’s only failure if you stop, right? If you keep going, even after a set-back, then you’ll eventually get there.’
Annie considered him for a minute. ‘Yeah, I guess so.’
‘Great. It’s settled. You’ll be running a baking empire in no time.’ He crashed into the pillows next to her, so they were side by side. She rolled over to face him.
‘So, what do you want to do with your life?’ she asked.
‘I hate that question.’
‘It’s okay to say you don’t know yet.’
‘Is it?’ Everyone else seemed to have at least a vague notion and all Mac had was a half-assed plan to drive around the country until he figured it out.
‘Of course it is. We’re only nineteen.’
‘Says the woman with a master business plan.’
She giggled and he liked it. Probably too much. This whole night was messing with his head. But he liked this girl. It was the only feeling he’d had in a long time that he was sure about.
‘It’s too bad we didn’t hang out sooner,’ he said, wishing they hadn’t wasted so many years.
‘What did you really think of me in high school?’ she asked.
