Page 51 of Thin Lines (Donati Bloodlines 2)

“Being sad is expected, Emmy. I’d be more worried ifyou felt nothing.”

“Sometimes I do. But mostly, I feel like a failure.For him, I failed.”

Calisto assumed she meant Affonso. “You have to knowyou’re worth more than your ability to give that man a child. You do know that,don’t you?”

“Not him. The baby.”

“Oh.” Calisto swallowed back the thickness in histhroat. “It wasn’t your fault.”

“Technically, it was. I didn’t push the doctor the daybefore, when I told him I was having pain. I kept ignoring it all morning.Maybe if I had—”

“Don’t do that, Emmy. How were you to know? That’s notfair.”

“Well, it’s true.”

“You didn’t fail, dolcezza.”

Emma let out a shaky sigh. “How else am I supposed tofeel? The one thing that all women do, the thing they should be able to do, Ican’t. Not without killing the baby in the process.”

Calisto didn’t know how to respond to that. He noticedthat her eyes were still dry, too. If he had to guess, he would say that was apart of her grieving process. She’d cried a lot during the birth, and shortlyafter. Maybe she just wasn’t ready to cry again.

“Here,” Calisto said quietly.

“Hmm?”

He grabbed her hand in his. For a moment, he reveledin the feeling of her smooth skin against his and the warmth of her palm.Calisto slipped the black rosary into her hand. Without considering much of hisactions or who might see, he interwove their fingers.

Nobody else was there to hold her.

Nobody else was being strong for her.

Nobody else seemed to care.

Calisto wanted Emma to know that he did.

Emma glanced down at their connected hands, stayingsilent. But her bottom lip trembled, and a wetness coated her bottom lashes asshe sniffed away the tears. She put her head on his shoulder, and Calistodidn’t try to move her away.

Whatever Emma needed, he would give.

Or try to.

“I’m so sorry,” he told her.

“Me, too.”

Calisto put his arm around Emma’s shaking shoulders,and drew her closer into his side. She could hide there for as long as sheneeded, he didn’t mind. Turning his head to the side, he brushed his lips overher temple, kissing her skin quickly and repeating his apology.

No one would see, surely. Affonso was probably stilloutside in his own world.

Calisto kissed Emma’s skin again. Out of the corner ofhis eye, he noticed a shadowed form standing in the back hallway of the church.He recognized the quiet priest who stayed right where he was, mostly hidden,and watched the two in the pew.

He knew what the man was seeing.

Calisto holding someone who wasn’t his, offeringcomfort to a woman who was taken and not free to share her affections withsomeone else. It probably looked like the two were close, likely closer thanwhat would be acceptable.

He still held her.

He let her cry.