Page 18 of Give Me a Reason

“I know,” he said flatly, his expression settling into indifference. But his hand still gripped her thumb tightly, staunching the flow of blood.

“Let me see how bad it is.” Bethany rushed toward her as the rest of the group circled around them.

As her cousin reached for her hand, Anne felt Frederick tense at her side, angling his body protectively around her. Her breath caught in her throat, and she instinctively shifted closer to him. With his head bent low toward her, only Anne saw him shut his eyes and exhale sharply through his nose, as though bracing himself. Then he relinquished her hand to Bethany in a slow, jerky movement. If Anne didn’t know better, she would’ve thought he had to force himself to let her go. And even though she did know better, her heart fluttered in her chest.

“It’s fine. I barely skimmed it…” Anne trailed off when Frederick growled and shouldered past the crowd. “I… I’m sorry I ruined that pie.”

“It isnotfine,” Bethany screeched in outrage when she lifted the towel away from the injured thumb. “The towel’s soaked through with blood, for God’s sake. I think you might need stitches.”

“May I take a look, Anne?” Joe squeezed past Bethany and a distraught Katie. At Anne’s nod, he took a gentle hold of her hand and studied her cut with calm efficiency. She’d forgotten that she was surrounded by EMTs. “It’s a nasty cut, but you won’t need stitches.”

“Lieutenant, here’s some hemostatic gauze,” Michelle said, handing it to Joe.

“Thanks, Michelle.” Joe opened the package of gauze and wrapped it around Anne’s thumb. “Just keep putting pressure on it. The bleeding should stop soon. Then we’ll get it cleaned and dressed. You feeling okay, Anne?”

“I’m fine.” She plastered a smile on her face, even though her thumb throbbed painfully, and she couldn’t stop thinking aboutthe warmth of Frederick’s body curved protectively around her. “Sorry for alarming everyone.”

“Joe and I’ll take care of serving dessert.” Coraline nudged Anne toward the dining table. “Go sit down for a bit. You’re as white as a sheet.”

Anne dug her heels in, seeing the blood splattered on the island and the floor. “Let me clean up this mess first.”

Out of nowhere, Frederick reappeared at her side and ushered her to the dining table with a firm grip on her elbow, his touch sending bolts of heat through her body. He pulled a chair out with a rough yank, and Anne had the sense to park her bottom on it without protest.

She glanced up at the tautness of his jaw and the stern set of his lips. Even though he wouldn’t meet her eyes, she could tell he was worried about her. Her throat tightened as a jumble of emotions clamored inside her.

When she settled in her seat, he promptly dropped her arm and spun away from her. In that moment, she would’ve given anything to catch his hand and keep him by her side.

“Who wants blueberry cheesecake pie…” Pete’s smile melted off his face as he scanned the scene in the kitchen. “What’s going on?”

Frederick stomped out of the kitchen, clipping his friend on the shoulder. Pete barely managed to hang on to the pie his wife had sent him to retrieve. His eyes sought and found Katie, who stood against the far wall with her arms wrapped tightly around her midriff, pressing her trembling lips together. A frown drew his brows low over his eyes. Then his gaze shot toward Anne and dropped to the bloody gauze wrapped around her thumb.

Pete hurried to Anne’s side with concern crinkling his forehead. “Anne, are you all right?”

“Just embarrassed for being so clumsy.” She hoped she wouldn’t cause any trouble between Pete and Katie. He seemed to intuit thatsomething had happened between her and his wife, and he was not happy about it. “It’s just a cut. Joe said it’ll be fine.”

With a somber nod and a gentle squeeze on Anne’s shoulder, Pete made his way to his wife. Anne tried not to stare as the couple seemed to have a heated argument with their eyes. When Katie dropped her head, her bottom lip quivering, Pete sighed and gathered his wife in his arms. A burst of envy worked its way through Anne at the obvious love between them, and she had to look away.

Bethany and Joe wiped off the blood and disinfected the kitchen island and the floor. Coraline and Michelle picked up the pie-cutting mantle. And Tanner, Sandy, and Nick joked and roughhoused while they loaded the dishwasher. Everything seemed to be returning to normal in the kitchen, except Frederick was still missing.

Anne glanced back at Katie, who nodded at something her husband said, then pointed her chin toward the door. With a heavy sigh, Pete walked away from his wife and out the kitchen, probably to hunt down Frederick.Where did he go?

She was trembling despite her assurances to everyone that she was fine. She took deep breaths to calm herself before anyone noticed she was more shaken than she’d let on. She wasn’t so much unsettled by the cut, which beat like a second heart under the gauze, but by what happened after she’d sliced her thumb.

Frederick had rushed to her side before anyone else could even react. He couldn’t stand by and watch her hurt even though he’d treated her with cold disdain. Anne blinked away her tears as she remembered his gruff concern and gentle touch.

The calming breaths weren’t doing their job, and her heart beat frantically. He was a kind man who would’ve done the same for anybody. It didn’t mean anything, but her foolish heart didn’t seem to care. She couldn’t stop herself from hoping that even after everything, maybe he hadn’t stopped caring. Not completely.

Composed but subdued, Katie sat down next to her andplaced a first aid kit on the table with a softclack. Even though the other woman didn’t say a word, Anne stiffened in her chair, heat infusing her cheeks. Her past choices tormented her, but they werehers. She was furious anyone other than Frederick would dare judge her for them.

Without meeting her eyes, Katie held out her palm in a wordless request. After a brief hesitation, Anne placed her injured hand on Katie’s outstretched palm.

Frederick was lucky to have such a loyal friend, but that didn’t mean Anne should lie down and let a stranger shame her for her choices. She paid for her mistake—her mistake?—every day she existed without him by her side.

Neither of them spoke as Katie cleaned the gash in Anne’s thumb with care. She clucked her tongue sympathetically when Anne hissed at the sting of the antiseptic. Only when she finished wrapping up the wound did Katie finally look up at her.

“I’m so sorry I startled you earlier. I feel awful that you got hurt,” she said in a small voice, then raised her chin a notch. “But I meant what I said.”

“You have nothing to worry about because I won’t get another chance to break his heart. He hates me. I can’t say I blame him. He gave me the most precious gift in the world, and I threw it in his face. But that’s betweenhimandme. No one else.” Anne’s chest rose and fell rapidly, and her hands fisted on her lap, even the injured one. She couldn’t remember the last time she went off on somebody. It was both terrifying and exhilarating to say what she really thought. “And if by some miracle he entrusts me with his heart again, I’m holding on to it with everything in me. I will guard it with my verylife. Nothing you or anybody else says will ever make me let him go. So with all due respect,back off.”

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