Page 29 of The Gingerbread Bakery
Annie was still groaning when Mac rolled over to face her. He had a huge grin on his face and, between that and the messy, morning hair falling over his forehead, and the abs she’d just been fondling, Annie felt more confused than ever. Why did he have to be so damn cute?
‘You hungry?’ he asked, still studying her with amusement.
Annie was so relieved to not have to discuss the spooning incident further that she said yes, not considering the implications of her answer.
Mac’s smile grew. ‘Great. You can stay for breakfast.’
‘Stay for breakfast? Isn't this your parents' house?’ Annie assumed he’d want her out of there as quickly as possible.
Mac shrugged. ‘Of course it is. Lucky for you, feeding people is my mother's favorite thing to do.’
‘And that includes feeding random girls that stay overnight in your bedroom?’
‘Well, I don't know. This is the first time it’s ever happened.’
With that interesting tidbit of information, Mac winked, rolled out of bed and left Annie staring at the ceiling wondering what she had gotten herself into with this boy and what the hell she was going to do next. Besides apparently eating breakfast with his mom.
Mac popped his head out of the bathroom, toothbrush dangling from his mouth.
‘I’ve got an extra,’ he said, pointing to the toothbrush. ‘If you want to freshen up before breakfast.’
Annie covered her face, the new horror of what her breath must smell like dawning on her.
Mac laughed, continuing with his brushing. ‘That wasn’t a hint or anything. I just thought you might want to brush your teeth.’
Annie continued with her groaning. She was sure her hair was a mess, she didn’t have a change of clothes or makeup, and she certainly didn’t feel prepared to go meet Mac’s mother or spend any more time with him before she went home and regrouped. She needed a plan. She needed to completely reevaluate her thoughts and feelings about Mac and then determine what the hell to do about them. This whole thing had thrown Annie completely off-kilter. And she did not like to be off-kilter. Annie was an on-kilter kind of girl.
‘Maybe I should go. I could slip out before your mom wakes up.’
Mac popped out of the bathroom again. ‘Nah, it’s past seven. She’s already up.’
Annie let her hands slide away from her face. She took a deep inhale to calm herself down and the smell of bacon filled her nose. Mac was right; she had clearly missed her window to sneak out.
She sat up and attempted to rake her fingers through her hair and get it into some sort of order. She found her bag from last night still slung over the chair in the corner. She probably had at least a ChapStick and a tube of mascara in there. She would never leave home without those. Okay, maybe this was fine. Maybe she would eat some bacon, chat with Mac’s mom and then get out of here and pretend this whole weird night never happened. That was doable, right? Right.
New plan in hand, Annie swung her legs out of bed and went to join Mac in the bathroom. She froze in the doorway watching him splash water on his face. The whole scene was far too intimate. What did she really know about Mac besides that he liked sports, had more muscles than she knew were humanly possible, was sometimes a jerk—and sometimes, she thought, remembering last night, very sweet? And now here she was watching his morning routine, getting a sneak peek at a popular boy in his natural habitat. It was surreal to say the least and the whole thing was freaking her out because, if she was being honest with herself, she liked seeing Mac this way and, if she was beingcompletelyhonest with herself, she wanted to see more of him this way. Sleepy and rumpled with his hair a little bit wet. He looked harmless this way, like he couldn’t hurt her. He lookednice. She didn’t know what to do with that or if there was anything shecoulddo with that, but she definitely needed more than four hours of sleep to sort it all out.
Mac straightened and caught her looking at him in the mirror. He did that ridiculous winking thing again and Annie was once again relieved that no one was here to witness the flush in her cheeks; thankful she was the only one to feel her stomach flipflop every time he looked at her.
This was getting ridiculous.
He scrubbed his face dry with the towel and then handed her his extra toothbrush. Annie was horrified at the thought of him watching her brush her teeth. That was one intimacy too far. She could not allow Mac to watch her brush andspit! He clearly sensed her hesitation, flashed her one more smile and left the bathroom.
‘I’ll give you a minute,’ he said from the bedroom.
Annie closed the door with a sigh of relief. Why was she being so weird about this? None of this had to be a big deal. Nothing physical had happened between them last night. They’d had a chat. That was it. It was something that had happened between her and Hazel and Logan a million times before. Although, to be fair, neither Logan nor Hazel made her feel all hot and confused and twisty inside.
She focused on brushing her teeth, splashing cold water on her face and attempting to look like some semblance of herself instead of on the panic slowly building in her belly. She really needed her friends back before she did something she would regret. Because whatever was happening here, Annie already knew she would regret it.
By the time she was following Mac up the stairs for breakfast, Annie had made up her mind that this morning would be the last part of their bizarre week of friendship. Annie had plenty of friends, she had plans, she had a future here in this town. Mac had, well she didn’t know what Mac had, other than the ability to make her completely flustered, but he was leaving anyway so there was really no point in delving into these insane feelings she'd been having. She’d let herself, for a brief moment, indulge in the idea of living out the fantasy of her silly high-school crush paying attention to her. But that was all it was, a silly fantasy, and Annie didn't go for fantasy.
‘Morning, Mom,’ Mac greeted the petite woman pulling sizzling bacon out of a pan on the stove. She turned to face them, and Annie gave her a polite wave from her spot beside Mac in the doorway of the kitchen.
Annie had seen Mac’s mom before around town, of course, and she’d chaperoned a few field trips over the years, but Annie had never been in his house, and she had the same surreal feeling she’d had watching him brush his teeth. Like she wasn't supposed to be here.
His mother's eyebrows rose as she took in the two of them standing side by side, clearly still wearing last night’s clothes. Annie shifted on her feet. Why did she feel so guilty when nothing had happened? Not to mention they were fully grown adults. She was allowed to do things like sleep at a guy's house, wasn’t she? Although this wasn’t a guy’s house. This was a guy’smom'shouse, which changed the math a bit.
‘I didn’t know you had a guest,’ she said, directing her attention to Mac.
