Page 53 of Beneath the Sapphire Sky

Dante’s warm hand rubbing her back took the edge off the horrendous pain in her aching heart. “It’s going to be okay, B. We’ll—”

“But it’s not, is it?” She rounded on him, unable to contain the agony at the thought she might never see her mother’s face again. He hadn’t been there, hadn’t seen the volunteers come back in, their faces conveying their fading hope. Hadn’t seen the desolation in their eyes. “You can’t say that. Look at Mac’s face.” She flung her hand toward Mac. “Lookat him!”

“Belle …” Mac started.

She couldn’t breathe properly. Why wouldn’t her lungs work?

Utter wretchedness flowed through her veins, poisoning her blood. This was her fault. All of it.

“She’s gonnadie! And for what? I should’ve been here, not running off to be with you. What a mistake that was. Messing around with you took precedence over my own mother. What kind of person does that?”

She wasn’t looking for an answer, not really. But the absolute, complete writhing pain that it was her fault wouldn’t leave her alone. It had eaten at her the entire trip home.

If she’d been here, her mother would never have been able to wander off like that. How had Adelaide lost her?

“Belle, I know you’re hurting. It would’ve happened whether you were here or not.”

“That’s just it. She wouldn’t have wandered off on me.Iwould’ve noticed.”

Dante reached for her. She stepped back. Worry flashed over his face. She shook her head, trying to think clearly. Guilt threatened to swallow her whole. Guilt for her mother and for what she was doing to Dante, but she couldn’t help it. The words gushed from her anyway, refusing to be held back.

“I don’t know what I was thinking. How could I choose a bit of fun over my mum?”

“What are you saying?”

“It was a big mistake. Huge. I don’t know why I thought it could possibly be a good idea.”

Dante’s eyes widened. He straightened.

Mac tried to get her attention. “Belle, come on, I know you’re upset. Jack’s due to come back from break anytime now, and your dad’s crew just pulled up. Come talk to him.”

Mac tried to get her to follow him, his hand firm around her bicep. She couldn’t pull her gaze from Dante’s stunned face.

It wasn’t fair that he wasn’t hurting as much as she. Why wasn’t he hurting, too?

“I should’ve known better than to do what we did. I put myself before my family and look what happened. This thing? You and me? It was dumb. Wasting our friendship on a bit of sex was the stupidest thing I’ve ever done.”

Hurt flashed over his face. He stepped backward. “Why would you say that? Throwing stones at me won’t make your mum come back any faster.”

Out of nowhere, images of him and Valerie Foster, tangled in his bedsheets, flashed through her head. Belle had walked in on them stark naked a couple of years back. She’d never left a room so fast in her life. It only reinforced what she’d overheard him say to Valerie a few days before that.

Nothing permanent. No marriage. No kids. Just fun.

“I say it because it’s true! None of you Casellati guys hang around longer than it takes to learn a woman’s name, then it’s hey, let’s move on. Name any one of you who’s been with a woman longer than a month or two. Oh, that’s right. You can’t. Because none of you ever stick around. It’s not like what we did was real, something to last.”

I don’t want to be tied down. I don’t want that kind of thing. Ever.

She could still hear his voice, hear the words. Words that while she was glad he’d said them to Valerie, had wormed deep inside her andhurt.

Dante blanched, his tanned skin leeching all colour.

Mac yanked on her arm and dragged her behind him, away from the tent, toward the truck. “You’re coming with me.”

“It was real to me.” Dante’s soft voice hit her dead centre in the heart as she was hauled after Mac.

Tears spilled over. She blinked, trying to fight them. She sucked in a desperate breath.

She didn’t want to acknowledge that she’d deliberately hurt the one person she shouldn’t have, hadn’t been able to shut her damned mouth and stop the spew of awful words. Didn’t want to face the fact that she’d just irreparably damaged the best friendship she’d ever known.

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