“Oh, no. I—”Maggie began, but Nina had already plucked the long shard of glass out of her finger. The minute she did, a droplet of blood welled up. Nina had a napkin all ready to wrap around the wounded digit, but the minute Maggie saw the blood, her eyes rolled up in her head and she began to faint.
“Oh, catch her!” Kat gasped.
Moving fast, Lissa fell to her knees and managed to cushion the other girl’s head before it hit the ground. “Got her!”
“Sorry,” Maggie moaned as Nina hurriedly wrapped her finger with the napkin. “I don’t like…blood. My own blood, I mean.” She sat up woozily, and Lissa helped her. “I don’t mind…anybody else’s. But when I see my own…”
“That’s okay,” Kat said quickly. “I’m not a big fan of blood myself.” She sighed and put a hand to her head. “You know, Lissa, I think I will lay down a minute. Do you girls have everything under control here?”
“Absolutely,” Lissa promised. She made a face at Nina who shrugged and smiled at Kat.
“We’ll get everything just right for your big day. Don’t worry about it—go get some rest.”
“Thanks, girls.” Kat gave them a strained smile and hurried off.
“Well, I think I’m going to go find something to sweep all this up,” Lissa said, standing and helping Maggie to her feet. “Nina, why don’t you make a few more of the sugared almond favors while I’m gone? And Maggie, I’ll see if I can find something to bandage your finger—just sit tight and put pressure on it.”
“In other words, keep my hands in my lap.” Maggie nodded unhappily. “I understand.”
“We’ve got it.” Nina nodded at Lissa and pulled out a chair for Maggie, making sure it was on the opposite side of the table from the tiny fragile picture frames.
“Oh, dear. I think I stressed Kat out,” Maggie said sadly. She sat down carefully, making sure not to bump the table. “I’m sorry about the mess—I only wanted to help. I just get so clumsy when I’m nervous.”
“It’s all right,” Nina said consolingly. “And Kat’s just stressed about the wedding—that’s all.”
“Thanks for being so nice about it. I know I’m a pain to be around sometimes.” Maggie smiled and pushed up her glasses, which were slipping down her nose. Nina reflected that she really was very pretty. Her tousled blonde curls and big brown eyes gave her an air of absentminded innocence that was both charming and unusual.
“You’re not a pain,” she protested as she grabbed a tiny piece of lace and some ribbon and began making favors again. “In fact, Kat was just telling us how smart you are. She said you have a PhD in xeno…”
“Xenobiology and xenobotany—the study of alien animals and plants. Up until now we’ve only been able to study the specimens the Kindred have been willing to share with us. But soon—” Maggie leaned forward eagerly, jostling the table. “Oops, sorry.”
“It’s okay.” Nina put down her favor and quickly began turning the miniature picture frames face down. As long as she was talking with Maggie, it seemed best to secure anything delicate and fragile. “Tell me more,” she went on, as she worked. “I’ve, uh, recently been to two alien worlds myself, and I wished the whole time I was there that I knew more about the culture and the people…”
She choked to a stop, thinking of Reddix. Maybe if she’d known more about the Touch Kindred, more about what he wanted and needed, they wouldn’t be apart right now.
Stop it, she told herself fiercely. Now isn’t the time for a breakdown! You’re over him. Completely over him so stop getting emotional.
“Hey, are you all right?” Maggie was peering at her anxiously through her thick glasses. “You seem…upset.”
“It’s nothing.” Nina sniffed and tried to smile at her. If only she didn’t still feel so shattered inside. So broken and used. “I’m fine,” she said, trying to reassure herself as well as the other girl. “Tell me…tell me about your mission—Kat said you were going with a group of Kindred to explore a new planet they found?”
“Oh, yes!” Maggie’s face glowed with excitement. “Gaia is what they’re calling it. It’s classified as a Super Earth world—meaning is has the same atmospheric composition and is the same distance from its sun as our planet is from ours, but it’s about three times larger than Earth. Of course, the gravity will be commensurately higher, but the Kindred tell me they have ways of compensating for that.”