Page 16 of Beneath the Sapphire Sky

He blinked, awareness flooding his face.

She didn’t know what to do or where to look. How could she pretend that hadn’t affected her? Her reaction was obvious to anyone in the room.

Dante looked back at his brother. “Satisfied?”

Ria swooped from across the room and shoved herself between Dante and Belle. She shuffled Belle over and grabbed the offending bowl of popcorn. Belle could hear the amusement in Leo’s voice.

“Very.”

Ria pushed the bowl into Dante’s hands. “Eat up. It’s all yours.” She pulled the remote from under Dante’s thigh and pressed play. The movie flashed to life on the large screen.

Holy heck.

The real Dante kissed even better than Dream Dante, and that was saying something. She touched her bottom lip, unsureif the last few minutes had really happened, or if she was having a Walter Mitty moment. She glanced over to see Ria looking at her, a slight, smug smile teasing the edges of her mouth.

It had happened, all right. In front of his damned family.

Heat rushed up her neck and Belle focused on the screen in front of them. She wasn’t sure if she should thank Ria for saving her from complete and utter embarrassment, or flatten her for egging Leo on.

She didn’t dare look at Dante. She breathed deep and looked down.

“Hey! Where’s my popcorn?”

Chapter Seven

Soft guitar anda rumbling, low voice drifted on the light afternoon breeze. Dante noticed Raph look over toward Sapphire Sky.

“They have a food and music afternoon every Sunday,” Dante said without looking up. “Drives Pop mad.” He grinned. “Mainly because he can’t quite hear what the music is.” He pointed at the vines to their left. “These were planted just after you left.”

They walked along the rows, Dante pointing out innovations he’d managed to convince their father into letting him do. Wide hardware store straw hats kept the worst of the heat from their heads and shoulders.

Nods and murmurs of approval from Raph had him smiling to himself. He shouldn’t give a damn what his brother thought, but the fact that he approved of the changes buoyed his spirits.

“You’ve done an incredible job getting Pop to even consider some of these things, let alone go along with them. He’s more immovable than a mountain.”

“Thanks, Raph. That means a lot.”

There. He’d said it. Let him think he was hero-worshipping if he wanted. It was the truth.

Raph contemplated him. “You’re one hell of a winemaker, Dante. You undersell yourself all the time. I tasted some of your own blends yesterday, and I have to say—I’m impressed. Your Naked Friulano particularly; it’s fabulous.”

Dante couldn’t control his grin. “Do you have any idea how difficult it was to convince the old man to let me do that? Particularly considering I wanted to use his precious Friulanovines. You’d think I’d asked to make fertiliser out of them, or something.”

Raph laughed and shook his head. “I can imagine. He hasn’t done anything with those in twenty years.”

“We’ve stopped using over ninety per cent of the sprays we used to, as well. Not quite organic, but damned close.” Dante rubbed at the base of his neck and touched a budding leaf on the vine in front of him. “Did Dad tell you we’re entering the International Awards this year?”

He looked over when Raph didn’t say anything.

“Yes. I don’t want to blow smoke up your ass, but I think you have a good chance in medalling, or at the very least, a highly commended.”

Pride and relief suffused him. Dante nodded to himself. He’d hoped the same thing, but put it down to wishful thinking.

“Thanks, Raph,” he said again, quietly.

He glanced up to see Raphael looking toward Sapphire Sky. “Do you think Jack and Callum will enter this year?”

“Yeah, they have one they’ve been working on. Jack’s pretty excited about it.”

---