Page 43 of The Gingerbread Bakery
Then
‘Annie!’ Her sister, Charlotte, burst through the bedroom door breathless with excitement.
Annie looked up from her book with a sigh. ‘Don’t you ever knock?’ The idea was laughable in a house filled with as many siblings as Annie had, but it would be nice if her sister would respect her privacy. Not that she was doing much that required privacy. Ever since being pushed aside by Mac this afternoon at the market, she had retreated to her room for a cozy evening by herself. She was prepared with a stack of books, plenty of Christmas cookies, and a room to herself, thanks to the fact that her older sister had finally moved out.
Charlotte rolled her eyes and tossed her long blonde hair over her shoulder. She was Annie’s youngest sibling, but at thirteen she already thought she was painfully cool.
‘This is too important for knocking!Mac Sullivanis at the door.’ The way Charlotte said his name you would have thought Mac was her latest K-pop obsession. How did her little sister even know who he was? Sometimes this town was far too small for its own good.
But the mention of his name certainly got Annie's attention. ‘He’s at the door right now?Ourdoor?’
‘Yes! He’s at our door. Talking toourdad.’
Annie’s blood went cold. ‘He’s talking to our father right now?’
‘Yes, this is what I am trying to tell you! It was too important for knocking!’
Annie jumped up off her bed where she had been happily reading her latest mystery novel and glanced down at what she was wearing. She was dressed head to toe in a holiday onesie complete with a full-length zipper and front pocket.
‘I can’t see Mac looking like this!’
Her sister crinkled up her nose in disgust, confirming for Annie just how bad the outfit was. But then she shrugged like there was nothing to be done about it. ‘Well, you don’t have time to change unless you want Dad to keep talking to him.’
Annie groaned. That was not what she wanted at all. She loved her dad, she really did, but the man had a tendency to talk anyone’s ear off and, after the week’s multiple embarrassing events, the last thing Annie wanted was for Mac to have to enter a full and awkward conversation with her father.
‘What are they talking about?’ she asked, looking frantically around her room for something, anything to throw on that wasn't reindeer themed.
Charlotte gave a little shrug, plopping down on the end of Annie’s bed. She was already losing interest in this particular drama. ‘I don’t know. When I left them, they were discussing all the possible ways for the Pats to make it to the playoffs.’
‘Okay, that's not too bad.’ Football was safe. Although how long had Mac been here and no one told her?! Sometimes there were so many people in this house that visitors simply got absorbed into the chaos.
Charlotte gave a little smirk like she knew something that Annie didn't.
‘What is it?’
‘Oh,’ Charlotte said, twirling a long blonde lock around her little finger, ‘did I forget to mention that Madison is down there, too?’
‘Oh God!’ Annie groaned. Mac, talking to her sixteen-year-old sister was far worse than Mac talking to her father. She needed to get down there ASAP before Maddie had the chance to tell Mac every embarrassing thing Annie had done for the past decade.
She hurried out of her room with Charlotte tagging along behind her, the tin of cookies she’d swiped from Annie’s room tucked under arm. Annie was going so fast she nearly tripped and fell headfirst down the stairs but luckily caught herself at the last minute. Instead of falling, she skidded down the last two steps and landed abruptly in front of Mac.
‘There she is,’ her dad said, as though they had all been searching for her for hours when really no one had bothered to let her know that she had a guest.
‘Here I am,’ Annie said. ‘But what are you doing here?’ She directed the question at Mac, deciding to ignore his amused perusal of her jammies.
‘Annabelle, don’t be rude. Mac here stopped by to say hello and wish us a merry Christmas!’ her dad said.
She raised an eyebrow at Mac, and he grinned. ‘Yeah, Annabelle, I came by to wish you a merry Christmas.’
‘And I was just telling him the story about the Christmas you tried to climb the tree and the whole thing fell over on you,’ Maddie piped up from her perch on the sofa, wearing the exact same onesie as Annie. They looked like crazy people. Thank God her father wasn't wearing his. Instead, he’d gone with an understated sweater. The one with a giant Christmas tree on the front that, if he turned on the switch in his pocket, would light up with real twinkle lights. If she was right and Mac really had been leaning in to kiss her that afternoon, he certainly wasn’t going to try again. Not after this little visit.
‘You weren't even born that year,’ Annie said.
Maddie shrugged. ‘I’ve heard the story enough times and it’s a funny one.’
‘I have to agree with her on that,’ Mac said, chuckling, and Annie made a mental note to borrow and never return that sweater of Madison’s she’d been eyeing.
‘Okay, well, story time is over. Now that you've wished everyone a merry Christmas, I think you can head on home.’ She took Mac by the hand and dragged him to the front door.
