Absently, she withdrew one of the knives from the butcher block, but her attention was on Trent and Penny across the room.
"I have been traveling a lot more lately," Trent was saying. "It's definitely not fun. All the packing and unpacking is what really gets you. And all the time spent in transit. I've spent more time in cars and on planes lately than I have at home."
"What are you working on now? New clients?" Penny leaned forward in interest. Mara leaned forward too.
"Mara? Mara!"
Startled, Mara pulled back and turned to face her brother. He jumped back and she dropped the knife she'd forgotten she was holding. As it fell, out of sheer instinct she grabbed at it. The pain as it sliced over the soft flesh of her palm was like a lick of fire.
"Ouch!" She yanked her hand back, too late. The knife clattered to the floor at her feet.
Trent and Penny stood at the commotion. Matt put his arms around her shoulders and gently drew her back away from the stove area. Mara still had her hand curled into a fist protectively against her chest. When she unfurled her fingers, the amount of bright red blood on her hand scared her so badly she actually felt lightheaded.
"My hand," she said weakly.
Trent took one look at her hand and paled. He barreled past Penny, and grabbed her by the arm. "What did you do? What the hell did you do?" He pulled her against him and when he did, she could feel that he was trembling.
Stunned at his response, Mara just stared at him, the pain in her hand forgotten. "It was an accident. I didn't mean to…"
“Just hold on. We'll get you to the hospital. It'll be fine. Just hold on.“ He looked around at the others. Matt stared at him, obviously as stunned as Mara felt.
"We need to get pressure on it." Penny took over, with the comfortable assurance only someone with medical training could have in the midst of crisis. She grabbed a dishtowel as she passed the oven and wrapped it gently around Mara's hand.
"She should go to the hospital. We don't know how deep it is," Trent insisted.
"No! I don't want to sit in a hospital waiting room for an hour so they can tell me that I need to keep it clean and dry. I don't think it's that bad,” Mara said.
Penny gave her a look. "If it looks deep, then I'm going to browbeat you until you go."
"Fair enough."
She slowly opened her hand. Now that the bleeding was under control, it didn't look so scary. Penny must have thought so too because she no longer looked as worried. She tugged Mara over to the sink and gently used a damp paper towel to clean some of the blood off her hand. Just the soft press of the towel on her palm made her wince but Mara got her face under control before Penny noticed. Or Trent.
She glanced over at him. He stood back a few feet but watched them intently. When their eyes met, he moved forward and put his arm around her, his eyes searching her face as if he wasn't convinced she was really okay.
"Well, it doesn't appear to be that deep," Penny announced. "It appears to be just a surface slice but I still think you should see someone, okay? Make an appointment with your general physician to make sure this doesn't get infected."
"Yes, mother. I will," she teased.
"I just found these bandages in the hall bathroom. There are still some of the extra-large ones left." Matt held out the box to Penny along with some antibacterial spray.
Penny shook the container. "This is probably going to hurt worse than the slice."
Mara turned her head and buried her face in Trent's shirt. "Go ahead," she said, her voice muffled.
As Penny sprayed the cut, she gritted her teeth against the burn. The pain was the least she deserved since the whole thing had happened because she was letting her imagination get away from her. All because she was turning into a typical jealous shrew and thinking that her man was cheating just because he wasn’t home with her every second of his spare time.
Pathetic.
At her shiver, Trent held her closer. She glanced up at him and when he noticed her looking, he kissed her forehead. Mara was glad that the cut wasn't very deep not just for her own sake but also because she didn't think Trent was up to a visit to the emergency room. He looked like he was on the verge of falling apart as it was. Although it scared her to see him so emotional, at the same time she was truly moved by his concern for her. Any doubts she'd ever had about his feelings vanished. No one could fake that kind of reaction.
He loved her.
In that moment, she made a decision to stop worrying so much and just live in the moment. She had a man who adored her and was actually excited about their wedding. Yes, he had some weird family issues and spent a little too much time at work but for once, she wasn’t going to overanalyze and nitpick things to death. It was time to let it go and just be thankful.
Her life was as close to perfect as it could get.
* * * * *