Page 12 of The Gingerbread Bakery
‘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. ‘Notthatnight. 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.Thatwas his favorite night? The night he held her hand and they laughed and talked until 2a.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 hadwaitedfor 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 goddamnyearonly 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.
ChapterSix
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.
‘How could younotbe excited?’ Annie was standing next to him on the lawn in front of the town hall, bundled up in a puffy coat, knit hat and mittens that he was frankly jealous of. Her cheeks were rosy, and her eyes were lit up in anticipation, and it suddenly seemed like a real oversight that he’d never noticed how cute she was. Although, to be fair, she was much cuter when she wasn’t scowling at him.
Apologizing to her friend had really gone a long way. He knew now that messing with anyone Annie loved was a dealbreaker. And he also knew the girl could hold a grudge.
‘I don’t think I’ve done this since I was ten.’
‘You’ve been missing out. The Dream Harbor Christmas Lights Tour is one of my favorite holiday traditions.’
They were waiting for one of the school-bus-turned-tour-buses to return to pick up the next load of passengers. It would then drive them around the Dream Harbor neighborhoods to admire the light displays. The crowd was almost entirely old folks discussing who they thought would have the best set-up this year and small children running in circles while their parents tried in vain to get them to calm down. The consumption of candy canes and hot chocolate while they waited probably wasn’t helping.
Mac blew into his hands again. Annie watched him with a small smile.
‘You’re cold?’
‘Not too bad.’
