Page 59 of Beneath the Sapphire Sky

She could admit it. She was hurting that he hadn’t reached out to her. Sure, she was in the wrong. She’d been awful. But deep down she’d hoped he would contact her, try to talk to her. Particularly after her message.

Something.

But … silence.

The last few days of loneliness, coming on the back of such a wonderful time in Sydney, ate at her soul. She’d been so happy being away with him. A couple of times she’d even thought she’d seen something in his expression that might mean…more.

Had she imagined it? Seen what she wanted to see, not what was actually there, because of Jack’s suggestion? Had it clouded her thinking? It had confused her so much, considering what she’s heard Dante say about relationships.

But he’d touched her so gently. Stroked her skin as if she were the most important person in the world.

Important to him.

Then she’d gone and said that it wasn’t real, that what they’d done wouldn’t last. Everything she was feeling now was her own fault. The reason Dante wasn’t there with her, supporting her as she went through seeing her mother in an ICU bed, was because of her selfish actions, because she’d inflicted the painshe’dbeen feeling on the man who meant the most to her.

She shook her head at her own selfish stupidity.

The person who’d been there through every important and devastating part of her life was the one she’d deliberately pushed away.

She looked up at the squeak of the door to her mother’s room.

The doctor smiled sadly at her and nodded in acknowledgement as he went past.

“Make sure you pick up that appointment time tomorrow when you come in. I’ll leave the information with the duty nurse at her station.”

Belle straightened against the wall. The doctor stopped and turned his head to look at her, eyebrow raised.

She nodded. “I will.”

He smiled at her then, and continued on his way down the hall, to disappear around the corner.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Dante’s father walkedinto the wine cellar and came up behind him, watching as he slid the bottles into racks, their home for the next several months.

He stood taller, crossed his arms, and regarded Dante with narrowed, assessing eyes. “This business with Bella. It stops. Now.”

Dante blinked at his words. No preamble, no chitchat.

“I don’t understand what you mean,” he hedged.

His father let out a disbelieving snort. “What rubbish, Dante. First, you mess around with the girl, then you behave like nothing has changed. And now you ignore. A good girl like Bella deserves an honest man, not someone who takes advantage. I expected better.”

Dante’s mouth fell open at the accusations. “I, ah…”

“What? Nothing to say?”

Dante collected himself and frowned. “Actually, yes. I have alotto say, and the first part begins with she’s a grown woman, not a girl. You and Mr Davis have got to stop calling her that. Mum was only twenty when she had Raph. Belle’s thirty-two. She’s a grown-ass woman who knows exactly what she wants to do with her life and is more capable than most people ten years older, not some child who needs patting on the head. Show her the respect she deserves.”

He drew a deep breath, winding up. The frustration of the last few days was finally wearing him down. “Secondly, it’s none of your business. It’s no one’s but mine and Belle’s. So, youcan take your judgement and do with it what you will. What happened between us is personal.”

Sam tilted his head and raised an eyebrow. He looked so much like Angel that Dante paused.

“You cannot run around hurting young gir—women, all because you lost control of yourself. She is yourfriend. That comes first. You love her. Do not lose her because you could not keep your hands to yourself and messed up.”

Dante crossed his arms and gritted his teeth. “You say that as if it’s fact.”

To his surprise, his father laughed. “That is because it is true. Love her as a friend if that is all it is or love her as a wife. Make the choice. But there is nothing to say you cannot love the friendasthe wife and have both.”

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