Page 28 of The Gingerbread Bakery
‘Yep. Crystal says Dot was in earlier and was meeting Estelle to head to the inn.’
‘Oh my gosh, perfect! Let’s go.’
They were making their way to the door when they were intercepted by the book club. Because of course they were.
‘Mac!’ Jacob called, waving at him from his seat. ‘Did you read the book this week?’
Annie froze in her mission to beeline for the door. She turned to stare at him. ‘Macaulay,’ she said, her smile growing. ‘Are you a member of the book club?’
Washe a member of the book club if he’d only come to one meeting? He still felt like he’d been tricked into it. Jacob had left a book behind at the pub once and it happened to be a slow night, so Mac had read it. It wasn’t Mac’s fault that it was sogood. He needed to talk about it with someone. So, he may have gone toonemeeting months ago. The book club hadn’t given up on him since.
‘Not really,’ he said to Annie, even as Jacob was waving wildly for him to come over to the table, yelling about the latest book they were reading.
‘I really think you’ll like this one,’ Jacob was saying, even as Mac was trying to inch his way to the door. ‘It's a second-chance romance. Very angsty. I think it's really your type of story.’
‘Yeah, maybe I’ll get it from you another time,’ Mac said, trying desperately to get out of the situation. ‘I’m right in the middle of my yearly reread ofWar and Peace.’ Jacob shook his head at that, not buying a word of it.
‘Come over here, you two!’ Nancy called in her no-nonsense teacher voice and Mac felt compelled to obey. ‘We have wedding questions.’
Annie shuffled over to the book-club table, looking like she’d rather be headed to a root canal.
‘What are you all doing here on a Saturday?’ she asked, clearly trying to avoid the wedding questions.
‘This was an impromptu meet-up,’ Kaori said. ‘Not an official meeting.’
‘Have you seen the barn?’ Isabel asked. ‘Is it going to be ready in time?’
‘Of course. It looks great. Kira has everything under control.’ Annie nodded confidently but the book club still looked skeptical. The Christmas Tree Farm had been open all month selling trees, but Kira had kept the barn a top-secret project, barricading off the back fifty acres to keep out nosy townsfolk. And the townsfolk hated to be kept out of anything. Kira had caught plenty of people ‘accidentally’ wandering around the barn claiming to be looking for the perfect Christmas tree.
Nancy had been escorted off the property several times.
‘And how’s Logan?’ Linda asked, stealing the last piece of muffin from Nancy's plate. ‘We haven’t seen him in days.’ She said it as though there was some conspiracy to hide the groom. In fact, Logan avoided town as much as possible, so it wasn’t that big of a surprise that no one had seen him.
‘Logan is great! He is very excited to marry the love of his life and everything is fine.’ Annie assured them. The book club did not look appeased. It was like they sensed something else was wrong. Mac found himself biting down on his tongue to avoid blurting out that Nana was missing and they had no idea where she was or when she would be back or how Logan would react when he found out. Apparently, some of Annie’s anxiety about the situation had seeped into him.
‘We should really get going,’ he said, his hand finding its way to the small of Annie's back again. Jacob’s gaze tracked its journey and he smirked at Mac, a perfectly groomed eyebrow raised in question. Mac dropped his hand. They needed to get out of here before the book club knew about more than just the missing-Nana problem.
‘Okay, but I really think you should read next month's book with us, Mac. He’s loved her for years!’ Jacob was clearly prepared to relay the entire premise of the book. Mac took Annie by the elbow and guided her away from the table before Jacob could make any life-to-text comparisons.
‘Bye, everyone!’ he said. ‘Important wedding duties to attend to.’ He steered Annie out the door. The last thing he needed was to read about another poor bastard who had loved the same woman for years. And, while he was sure the book would end up happily, he was not at all confident the same would happen for him.
ChapterEleven
Then
Annie’s face was burrowed against something warm and firm and her arm was draped over something solid and… breathing? Her fingers trailed along bare skin. She froze. Whose bare skin was she touching? And where the hell was she?
Oh, dear God, she was still in Mac’s bed.And so was he. And apparently, before she had woken up, her fingers had been tracing little lines across his abs where his T-shirt had risen up during the night. She carefully moved her hand off his stomach, hoping that if she moved slow enough, she wouldn’t wake him. This was so embarrassing! She was completely curled around him like some kind of deranged monkey clinging to his back. How was she going to get out of this without him noticing? Because obviously the solution to this problem was to run as far away from Mac and his cozy bed as possible. Cookies and light displays and late-night chats were one thing, but snuggling in his bed was an entirely different story. Before Annie could fully develop her escape plan, the body she was still inconveniently pressed against started shaking with laughter.
‘Good morning, Annie,’ Mac said, the amusement clear in his voice.
Annie rolled away from him in horror.
‘Did you sleep well?’ Mac asked, still laughing.
‘Oh God,’ she groaned. ‘I cannot believe I was spooning you.’
‘I’ve never slept better. I like being the little spoon.’
