Page 21 of The Gingerbread Bakery
‘That you were a stuck-up over-achiever with super shiny hair and a great ass.’
Her eyes widened in surprise. ‘I don’t know if I should be mad or flattered.’
Mac laughed. ‘Same question.’
‘That you were a dumb jock and a sometimes bully with beautiful eyelashes.’
‘Eyelashes?! That’s what you noticed about me? My eyelashes?’
‘Yep.’ Annie grinned and he couldn’t help but laugh.
‘Wow, there I was spending all that time in the weight room, and I could have just batted my lashes.’
‘Truly.’
‘And what do you think of me now?’ he asked, almost afraid to hear the answer. He didn’t even know what he thought of himself lately, who he was or who he wanted to be.
Annie thought for a moment, her lips twisting to the side. ‘Now, I think you’re actually kinda sweet and you’re definitely not dumb. And I’m still jealous of your lashes.’
Mac fluttered them dramatically to cover his absurd relief at her assessment of him, and Annie giggled.
‘Same question,’ she said.
‘You’re still an over-achiever, but I don’t see it as a bad thing when it doesn’t end up in extra economics homework. Hair and ass, still perfect.’
She smacked him on the arm in mock outrage. ‘Stop talking about my ass.’
‘Sorry, I’ll try not to.’
Annie reached out and looped her finger under the gold chain around his neck. She pulled slightly until the cross that hung on the end of it dangled between them.
‘I always wondered what was on this chain.’
Mac resisted the urge to squirm. First his biggest fears and now this. Annie was seeing more of him than anyone had. But he wanted her to. He wanted her to know him, as though that would somehow help him figure himself out. Like, through her eyes, he would start to make sense.
‘Are you very religious?’ she asked, and he liked that she didn’t seem put off by the thought. Mac hadn’t been into organized religion in a while now, but plenty of his favorite people were.
‘Not particularly.’
‘But you wear a gold cross.’
‘It was my grandfather’s. He gave it to me for my confirmation.’
‘So, you’re a little bit religious,’ she said with a small smile.
‘When it suits me.’ Mac broke more Catholic rules than he followed, but when his grandpa got sick, he prayed like hell for him to get better. Not that it did much good in the end, except maybe comfort his mom.
Annie gave a little nod, taking in this piece of information about him. She still had his necklace hooked over her finger. One gentle tug and he’d be close enough to kiss her. She realized it at the same time he did, her eyes widening slightly.
‘Your eyes are very blue.’Brilliant, Mac. Sheer freaking poetry.
‘Thank you?’
Her smile was quickly becoming his new favorite thing.
‘They’re beautiful.’
The smile grew.
