Page 14 of The Gingerbread Bakery
‘Well, if it isn’t two of my favorite students.’
That was certainly a lie. Mac had spent a considerable amount of time in the ‘cozy corner’ taking a ‘break’ when he was in Ms. DeMarco's classroom. His ‘listening ears’ and ‘gentle hands’ never seemed to be working right, and he’d had to spend a lot of time thinking about that. He really had been a little shit back then.
Annie beamed at their former teacher.
‘Have you been good this year, Macaulay?’ Nancy peered at him from under her Santa hat.
‘I… uh…’
‘He’s working on it,’ Annie said before they were forced to move on to allow more people onto the bus. They dropped into a seat in the back of the bus. He breathed out a sigh of relief as he sat and found Annie grinning at him.
‘Worried you were going to have to stay in for recess?’ she asked between giggles.
‘Don’t mock my trauma,’ he said, causing Annie to laugh harder.
‘Are you saying you were unfairly targeted?’
‘Oh no, I definitely deserved it,’ he said with a grin. ‘But I’m trying to turn over a new leaf. I don’t need people reminding you of my dark past.’
‘So dark,’ she said with a giggle. ‘It’s amazing you’ve been able to put it all behind you.’
As long as she had put it behind her, that was all he really cared about.
Annie pulled off her hat, shaking her hair free. While it had been freezing outside, the bus was uncomfortably warm. The windows were already fogged over. She took off her mittens and wriggled out of her coat and then sat back in the seat with a dramatic gasp.
‘Phew! That’s better.’
It was better, because now he could see all that golden hair he used to stare at instead of focusing on word problems and he could see the snug sweater Annie had been wearing under her coat.
Annie washot.
Again, he wondered what the hell he had been doing his whole life not paying attention to this beautiful girl; all because what, she didn’t come to his lacrosse games? Stupid. But he was here now, crammed into a school-bus seat with her, and this time he was not going to hesitate.
He casually slung an arm around Annie’s shoulder, snuggling in closer so he could look out the window with her.
‘All right,’ he said with a smile, his lips dangerously close to Annie’s ear. ‘Let’s see some lights.’
* * *
Annie plucked Mac’s arm from her shoulder and wriggled out of his grasp.
‘You’re kidding, right?’
He grinned. ‘Worth a shot.’
Annie rolled her eyes and turned her attention back out the window even as her cheeks heated at the way Mac was looking at her. What the hell did this guy think he was doing, anyway? Putting his arm around her like they were dating or something, when she knew for a fact he was outta here after the New Year. She’d helped him plan the damn route.
Not to mention, she’d never live it down if Hazel and Logan found out she was hooking up with Mac, of all people. After she’d done nothing but malign his character for the past thirteen years, there was no way her friends would let it go.
She shuddered at the thought.
‘You can’t possibly be cold,’ Mac said, misinterpreting her shiver. ‘It’s like eight hundred degrees on this bus.’ He leaned across her to wipe the condensation from the window, forcing her to be subjected to his arms again. Strong arms. Muscular arms. And his warm, spiced scent washed over her, making her close her eyes and breathe deep.
Okay, so Annie hadn’t exactly made dating a priority in high school. In fact, she may have forgotten to do it at all. But who had the time, really? Between student council and her AP classes, Annie barely had time to see her friends.
But now, with Mac so close and oozing his unique brand of masculinity all over her, she thought that not dating may have been an oversight. She hadn’t had the chance to become immune to things like strong arms and whatever it was that made Mac smell so good.
Unless you counted Logan, which she one hundred percent did not, Annie hadn’t spent much time around teenage boys. Sure, she’d slow-danced with Aiden Smith at the ninth-grade winter formal, and there had been that underwhelming make-out session with Seth Bates after she kicked his butt at mock trial. But, in general, she had never seen the appeal of adolescent males until right now.
