Chapter 1
Annie Andrews liked most people. She was friendly and outgoing, very involved in Dream Harbor
affairs, never missed a town meeting, supported local business with a fierce loyalty, and ran the Dream Harbor High alumni committee. In high school she was voted most school-spirited and most likely to become president. Her bakery was a beloved, town institution and had won ‘best window display’ three Christmases in a row. She babysat for her nieces and nephews, she dutifully petted every dog she passed on her morning walks, and she’d had the same best friend since kindergarten, which she felt spoke highly of her character. Frankly, she was a freaking delight.
There was one person, however, that her delightfulness simply could not extend to. One human on this planet that she could not be nice to. Mostly because she didn’t want to. Mostly because she hated him.
And for the next three days, she was stuck with him.
‘Annie,’ Hazel hissed, nudging her shoulder. ‘You’re glaring again.’
She was glaring again. Right at the stupid face of Macaulay Sullivan. And she would have kept glaring until his head went up in flames if it weren’t for the fact that they were at Jeanie and Logan’s rehearsal before the rehearsal brunch, which was not even a thing but Jeanie wanted a mini-celebration with just the wedding party before the craziness of the wedding weekend really kicked off this evening with the actual rehearsal dinner. And who would deny the bride her wish? Not Annie. Because Annie was a nice person. Unlike some people.
Mac winked at her like he was reading her thoughts.
‘I object,’ she blurted out, interrupting Logan’s very brief, very gruff thank-you speech to his groomsmen. The group was currently crowded around a table at The Strawberry Patch Pancake House. Unfortunately, it was rather dead at 11 a.m. on this particular Friday in December, so the whole table heard the words she hadn’t actually been meaning to say out loud.
Logan, Jeanie, Hazel, Noah, Kira and Bennett all turned to look at her. Mac smirked. Annie barely restrained herself from reaching across the table and strangling him.
‘I don’t think this is the part you get to object to,’ Noah pointed out with a grin. Hazel elbowed him in the side, and he yelped.
‘You don’t think we should get married?’ Logan asked, brow scrunched like he was working through a puzzle, because why the hell wouldn’t she want her best friend and his lovely fiancée to promise to love each other in front of the whole town?
‘No! Of course, I don’t think that! That’s not … I didn’t … that’s not what I was talking about.’
‘Then what were you talking about, Annabelle?’ Mac asked, his stupid smirk smirking even harder.
‘You! I was talking about you!’ She was nearly shouting now and several patrons from other tables were turning in her direction. ‘I object to you being part of the wedding party,’ she said, lowering her voice and leaning across the table toward him, narrowly avoiding her syrupy plate. ‘I don’t know how you weaseled your way in here. You were never friends with Logan. You bullied him.’
Mac put up his hands in defense. ‘First of all,’ he said. ‘I didn’t bully him. Some good-natured teasing, maybe.’
‘You called him Old MacDonald all through second grade! You ‘e-i, e-i, oed’ at him every time you walked by!’
Mac shook his head. ‘How do you even remember all this shit, Annie? Do you have a little notebook where you write down every offense I ever committed?’
Annie scoffed. ‘Wouldn’t you love it if I cared about what you did that much?’
‘Well, you seem to.’
‘Ha! I couldn’t care less about you, Macaulay. I just don’t understand why you’re even here… Oww! Haze, why are you jabbing me with your pointy elbows… Oh.’ Annie looked up to find Jeanie looking at her with tears in her eyes. Shit. She’d made the bride cry.
‘Is it going to be like this all weekend? I just wanted us all to have a good time.’ Jeanie sniffled and Logan looked like he may actually strangle Annie, if she didn’t fix this immediately.
‘No, no, no. We’ll behave. Right, Mac?’
‘Yep. Best behavior. Promise.’ He crossed his heart, and Annie had to bite back every word she wanted to say about how Mac’s promises were worthless. But her friends still had no idea why she hated Mac so much, and she sure as hell wasn’t about to tell them. And besides, she’d just made
a promise to Jeanie to behave like the grown adult she was. And her promises did mean something.
She could suck it up for a few days. She could resist her urge to throttle the man across from her for a mere seventytwo hours. For her best friends, she could do it. Logan had been like a brother to her since they were five. With Hazel, they were inseparable. And now Annie loved Jeanie just as much. She would not screw up their wedding weekend.
‘Really, Jeanie. I’m sorry. I will keep all Mac-related commentary in my head from now on.’
The entire table, including Mac, looked skeptical.
‘I’m serious! I will put all my personal feelings aside for the weekend.’
Bennett leaned toward Kira and whispered, ‘Do we know why she has such strong personal feelings?’
Kira shrugged. ‘Complicated history?’ she whispered back.
‘Not complicated,’ Annie cut in. ‘We don’t have any history at all.’
Mac flinched at that, something like sadness or regret flickering in his eyes. But Annie didn’t dwell on it. She couldn’t. Not if she wanted to keep her sanity. She pushed a smile onto her face and turned back to Jeanie.
‘Nothing is complicated. In fact, it’s all quite simple. Two of the people we all love most in the world are getting married. And we,’ Annie gestured to the table of friends in front of her. ‘Are going to make sure it’s the best wedding weekend ever.’
‘Good,’ said Logan. ‘Because Mac is here as one of my groomsmen. Some of us have put second grade behind us.’
Annie was getting nauseous from all the words she was swallowing, but she did it. For her friends. For the sake of this wedding, she would not say that it went far beyond second grade for her. ‘Of course,’ she said instead. ‘Mac’s your friend. I get it.’ She raised her glass of orange juice and everyone joined in.
‘To Logan and Jeanie.’
‘Cheers!’
Everyone clinked their plastic, juice glasses together, and Annie was relieved to see the smile back on Jeanie’s face and a slightly less murderous expression on Logan’s. Phew. Wedding-crisis number one averted. Sure, she was the one who started it, but at least she’d fixed it.
No thanks to Mac.
Her gaze flicked back across the table to where he sat, laughing with Bennett and Kira. It didn’t help matters that he was still as infuriatingly handsome as he had been in high school. Not that she would have admitted it at the time.
She’d never been friends with Mac. They’d never made sense together.
It was exactly what she’d told him eleven years ago.
But Mac had never been good at listening.
Chapter 2
Then
Mac wandered aimlessly through the stalls at the Dream Harbor Christmas market. There was just under a month until Christmas and he needed a gift for his mom. A good gift. And this seemed like as good a place to shop as any. They set up the market every year after the tree-lighting festival, but Mac hadn’t been since he was a kid.
He was determined to get his mom a real present this year. At nineteen, he figured he could no longer get away with crappy, homemade gifts. Even though his mom still insisted on hanging that wonky reindeer-ornament he made her in kindergarten and would probably do the same if he made her an equally deformed ornament right now. It was time he leveled up his gift-giving game.
Unfortunately, aimless wandering seemed to be all he was doing lately. Six months out of high school and he was still stuck in this stupid town, still living in his childhood bedroom, still without any plan for his future. Or a plan for next week, even. Mac was adrift.
He stopped at The Pumpkin Spice Café stand and was greeted with a big smile from Dot, the owner.
‘Hello there, Macaulay. Merry Christmas.’
There were very few people who could get away with using his full, objectively terrible, name. And Dot was one of them. Dot had always been kind to him even when he didn’t deserve it.
‘Hey, Dot.’
‘What can I get you?’ she asked, her enormous jingle-bell earrings tinkling merrily with the movement of her head.
‘How about a hot chocolate?’
‘Extra marshmallows?’
‘Please.’
As soon as she handed him the red to-go cup overflowing with marshmallows and a candy cane hooked
on the side, he felt completely absurd. This was a child’s drink. And Mac was trying desperately to figure out how to be a grown-ass man.
Unfortunately, it was very hard to feel grown up when your mother was still the one doing your laundry.
He needed to move out. To move away. He was feeling increasingly suffocated by this town and their preconceived notions about him.
‘Thanks, Dot,’ he muttered, taking his ridiculous drink with him, suddenly grateful that all his friends were away at school and wouldn’t see him carrying this sugary confection around.
He took a sip. It was delicious, though. Hard to feel bad about anything with a mug full of cocoa in your hands.
Mac continued his stroll through the market, pausing every now and then at a crafter’s table in an attempt to find the perfect gift. It wasn’t an entirely selfless act. He was hoping a thoughtful gift would help soften the blow when he told his parents his new plan. Well, it wasn’t so much a plan as a general notion. An idea to wander somewhere other than Dream Harbor. His half-baked thought that he could drive cross-country to help him figure out what the hell to do with his life. He figured several months in a car by himself would help with that.
A familiar face snagged his attention.
Annabelle Andrews sat in front of him in fifth-period Economics. Or she did last year, anyway, before they’d both graduated. He’d spent a lot of the year resisting the urge to tug on her sleek ponytail and he only occasionally poked her in the back with the eraser end of his pencil to ask her what assignment they had due that day. She’d always answered with an exasperated sigh, like he was disappointing her in every way.
He’d gone to school with Annie since they were five and she had never liked him, so in fairness, he had never liked her, either. She was a classic over-achiever, the type who practically begged the teacher for extra credit, whereas he preferred to achieve just enough to pass. Unless it was on the lacrosse field. That was where he was more than happy to give it all he had. Not that Annabelle Andrews gave a shit about sports. Or the people that played them.
Not that he cared what she cared about.
And here she was, still in town, just like him. Interesting.
She was set up at a table with a sign on the front reading Annie’s Baked Goods. An assortment of Christmas cookies wrapped in holiday cellophane were displayed on the table. Mac waited while an older couple picked out some cookies and paid a smiling Annie. The smile dropped when she saw him standing there.
‘Annabelle,’ he said, dipping his head in acknowledgment.
‘It’s Annie, and you know it. What are you even doing here?’
He shrugged, wishing he’d tossed his stupid marshmallow-topped drink before this encounter.
‘Shopping. What are you doing here? I figured you’d be off at Harvard or something like that.’
Annie scowled. ‘This isn’t some teen movie where everyone goes to an Ivy League school at the end. My
family has six kids. Do you really think they can afford for me to go to Harvard?’ She rolled her eyes like he was an idiot—one of the many habits that unsurprisingly made him not like her very much.
‘My mistake,’ he ground out. ‘I just wasn’t expecting to see you running a bake sale after all that extra homework you did in Econ.’
Annie slapped her hands onto the table and leaned forward. A slight flush had worked its way up her pale cheeks in a way Mac chose not to find appealing.
‘This bake sale is the start of my new business venture. I’m taking business classes at the community college and selling cookies from an online shop for now. But give it a few years and you’ll see. I’ll be a very successful small-business owner.’
He didn’t doubt that for a second, but he wasn’t about to admit it.
‘Wow, I guess you have it all figured out.’
‘I do, actually,’ she said with a smug smile. ‘And what about you? Just hanging around Dream Harbor letting your mom cook and clean for you?’
He scoffed as if that was absurd, even though it was one hundred percent true.
‘Actually, I’m outta here after the holidays.’
‘Really?’
‘Yep. Heading cross-country.’ The half-assed plan he’d been brewing in his head was cemented as soon as he spoke the words out loud.
‘Heading to what?’
‘It’s about the journey not the destination,’ he said, and instantly regretted how douchey that sounded.
Annie raised her eyebrows, but surprisingly didn’t call him out on that bullshit answer.
‘So, are you going to buy some cookies, or what?’
‘Uh … yeah. I’ll take some of the gingerbread ones.’
Annie gave him a genuine smile and, for a second, he felt like he couldn’t breathe.
‘Those are my specialty,’ she said, handing him the small bag. ‘Try one.’
She waited while he opened the package and took out a small gingerbread man with icing features and buttons. Mac bit his head off.
It was quite possibly the best cookie he’d ever had. Spicy and sweet with just the right amount of crunch.
‘Damn, Annie. This is delicious.’
She beamed and he nearly choked on his cookie. For thirteen years, she’d looked at him like he was at best an inconvenience and at worst an enemy, and now she was smiling at him. It was disorienting, to say the least. Which was probably why he said what he said next.
‘We should hang out later.’
Annie’s smile dropped and her brow furrowed in confusion. ‘We’ve never hung out.’
He shrugged, trying to feign casualness, even though now his heart was thumping at an alarming rate as though he cared if Annie wanted to hang out with him.
‘I know, but no one’s home for the holiday break yet. We might as well keep each other company, right?’ God, he hoped that didn’t sound as desperate as he suddenly felt.
Annie’s lips twisted to the side as she considered his offer. ‘Well, Logan is on that cruise with his grandparents and Hazel’s not back from her semester studying abroad yet … so I guess we could … do something…’ She seemed as confused by his suggestion as he was, but he couldn’t turn back now.
‘Great, let’s meet at the diner at eight.’
A small frown played on Annie’s lips even as she agreed. ‘Okay, yeah. The diner at eight.’
‘Perfect. See you then, Annabelle.’
‘Don’t call me that!’ she yelled after him as he walked away. He waved over his shoulder and strode off before she could take back her agreement to see him later.
Because, suddenly, he was very eager to hang out with the girl he’d always thought he didn’t really like.
Chapter 3
Now
The rehearsal was a bigger deal than Mac was expecting. He’d left the pub in Amber’s capable hands for the night and had shown up to The Christmas Tree Farm right on time to find a nervous-looking Logan getting ready to walk down the aisle they’d set up through the center of the newly renovated barn.
‘Hey, here he is,’ Noah said, giving Mac a hearty pat on the back when he joined the group of groomsmen.
‘Sorry, I’m late.’ Mac tossed his coat over the closest chair.
‘You’re fine,’ Logan said. ‘They’re still figuring things out over there.’ He gestured to where Jeanie was
surrounded by her bridesmaids, all animatedly talking about timing and music and procession order.
Annie caught him looking and narrowed her eyes.
Christ, that woman was never going to let it go. How long did he have to repent for sins committed when
he was nineteen?
He winked at her just to see her cheeks redden in anger before she tore her attention away from him and redirected it to Kira who was explaining how things would look on the big day. He had to hand it to Kira; it already looked amazing in the old barn. The fact that it had a roof was a big improvement, but she’d really transformed the whole space. It was large enough to have rows of white chairs leading up to the makeshift altar on one half, and then tables and chairs for the reception on the other.
There was still a lot to be done before Sunday, but it looked good. Of course, if Mac ever got married, he’d much rather just go to the courthouse. Judging by the slightly ill look on Logan’s face, he felt the same way.
‘Excited?’ Mac asked him.
‘To be married to Jeanie? Yes. To stand up in front of everyone? No.’
Mac laughed. ‘Just don’t say the wrong name and you’ll be fine.’
Logan looked at him in horror. ‘Why would you even say that?’
‘I was joking! It’s going to be fine!’
‘You’re going to do great,’ Noah chimed in. ‘It’s just a few words to recite.’
‘Says the man who eloped,’ Logan grumbled.
Noah grinned. ‘I couldn’t wait to make Hazel my wife,’ he said with a shrug. ‘What can I say?’
It was at this point that Mac seriously regretted not finding a date to this wedding. Apparently, while he was slinging drinks every night, everyone in his life had paired up.
‘Looks like the girls are ready to start,’ Bennett said as Kira came to stand at the end of the aisle. Not only was she the owner of the barn, she was also the wedding planner. Word at the last town-hall meeting was that she was throwing herself fully into this new event-planning venture. And selling Christmas trees one month a year, of course.
‘Okay, this is how it’s going to go…’
Mac didn’t pay too much attention to the directions. How hard could it be? Walk up the aisle, stand next to other groomsmen, don’t stare at Annie, walk back down the aisle. It wasn’t some elaborate dance sequence or something. Logan looked like he wanted to run away as it was; if they tried to get the man to do some fancy steps down the aisle they might lose him completely.
Mac made his way between the mostly empty chairs and stood in position between Noah and Bennett. A few family members were seated in the first two rows. Mac said a quiet hello to Logan’s grandparents, Estelle and Henry.
‘Good,’ Kira said, still in half bridesmaid, half wedding- director mode. ‘Now it will be me, Annie, and Hazel. And then, of course, the star of the day, the bride.’ Jeanie beamed at Logan and suddenly the man looked like he would perform a one-man show if she asked him to.
‘Remember not to walk too fast,’ Kira instructed. ‘And hold your flowers down here like this.’
The women all mimicked Kira’s stance with their invisible bouquets, which Mac assumed would be real on Sunday during the actual ceremony.
‘All those years attending her mother’s benefits and fundraisers have really paid off,’ Bennett whispered.
It was true. Kira clearly knew how to wrangle people, set up an event space, handle the logistics of a big occasion, and do it all with a smile.
‘She’s killing it,’ Mac said with a quiet laugh. ‘She did a great job in here.’
‘Yeah, man. She’s been working really hard.’ The pride in Bennett’s voice was obvious. It made Mac think of how he’d talk about Annie’s bakery, if she would let him. How he sometimes did when she wasn’t around. She’d come so far from the little table at the Christmas market eleven years ago.
‘No chitchat during the ceremony,’ Kira chided, flashing Bennett a flirty smile.
‘Sorry, babe.’
‘That’s okay. Now, Jeanie’s dad will be here for the actual ceremony, but for today you can walk down alone.’
Jeanie nodded and the women began their procession.
Kira, Annie, Hazel, and Jeanie, but all he really saw was Annie. Story of his life since he moved back here. Annie was all he ever saw.
Annie frowning at him. Annie scowling at him. Annie huffing and sighing and occasionally, if he was lucky, yelling at him. And because he was some kind of masochist, he still wanted to be around her.
He wasn’t sure what the women would be wearing at the actual wedding, but today Annie was wearing a cream-colored sweater and dark jeans. Her blonde hair was pulled back in her usual ponytail. A light blush graced her cheeks, and her glistening eyes gave away that she was already emotional about her friends’ wedding.
Mac didn’t hear most of the run through of the ceremony. He was too busy thinking about a different Christmas season. The one, and only one, when Annie had let him hold her. When she’d smiled at him like he wasn’t the bane of her existence. His favorite Christmas, if he was being honest. Which was so pathetic he could barely admit it to himself. He’d tried to forget Annie so many times, tried to purge her from his system, to replace her with other women. But it never worked. No one ever lived up to her memory, to the memory of that one perfect Christmas. A memory that he had been hoping had been blown way out of proportion over the years. But then he’d moved back here and found she was just as perfect as he’d remembered.
And it sucked.
It sucked that life hadn’t worn down some of her shine, that she was still just as enthusiastic and loving and hard-working as she always had been. She still threw her whole self into everything she did. She was still that beautiful, over-achiever he’d known all those years ago. And now he was stuck here, forced to admire her in all her Annie-ness, and just pretend like it wasn’t slowly killing him.
Jeanie and Logan practiced their kiss to the delight of the small crowd, who cheered loud enough to bring Mac back to the present moment. As the couples paired off to walk back down the aisle, he was of course paired with Annie. He offered his arm, and she took it begrudgingly.
‘You look beautiful,’ he whispered in her ear as they marched down the aisle.
‘Mac, don’t.’
‘Annie, I just…’
‘I said, don’t,’ she snapped. ‘I’m emotional enough about this wedding, and I really don’t need you messing with my head like you did after Hazel’s thirtieth.’
Mess with her head? Ha! It was his head that was a mess. He hadn’t stopped thinking about that night in over a year.
‘I wasn’t trying to mess with your head.’
They got to the end of the chairs and everyone else was drifting off to where the food had been set up along the wall. Archer had done the catering, and it smelled fantastic.
Annie turned to face Mac, her familiar glare burning into him.
‘Well, you did.’
The memory of that night was enough to kill him. They’d been so close. She’d been so close. Her face just a breath from his, her lips right there. She’d been warm and willing in his arms, and then she’d looked up at him and it had been as though every reason she hated him came crashing back into her. She’d run from the pub like Cinderella from the damn ball. He’d obviously been deluding himself. They’d drunk too much that night and Annie had been emotional because her friends were settling down. Letting him get so close to her had been motivated by some kind of panicked desperation on her part. But still it had been nice while it lasted.
‘I’m sorry. It won’t happen again. But you do look beautiful. That’s just an objective fact,’ he said with a shrug.
Annie softened slightly, her scowl becoming less scowly, which was the best he could hope for these days.
‘So, are you bringing a date to the wedding?’ she asked, steering the conversation away from their messy past.
‘Nah, not this time.’
Annie’s eyebrows rose in surprise. ‘Really?’
Mac shrugged. ‘I guess I forgot to find one.’
Annie’s gentle laugh was a reward. ‘Yeah, me too.’
It was Mac’s turn to be surprised. Annie seemed to love parading new guys in front of him, although he supposed he was guilty of bringing a random date or two to things, just so he didn’t have to be alone in front of her.
They’d played a lot of stupid games over the years.
‘Maybe you’ll save me a dance,’ he said.
Annie’s laugh was bigger this time as she patted him on the shoulder. ‘Not a chance, Sullivan.’
She was still laughing as she walked past him to the buffet. Mac shook his head at his own stupidity.
Not a chance was right. It was probably time he got that through his thick skull.
To find out what happens next in The Gingerbread Bakery, you can purchase the book here, in paperback or eBook format.
The Gingerbread Bakery: ©️ Laurie Gilmore 2025