Love in All the Right Places (Chick Lit bundle) Read Free Page B

be in a rickety van somewhere in the mountains, jolted awake by a particularly sharp turn. But today, the photo shoot had set him back a day’s work and he wanted to at least get the boxes in order before he went home.
    Thankfully, their house was only a short walk from the corner where the van often stopped to unload passengers. Already, the streets of Kalibo had a quiet sleepiness to them, dulled from the days’ activities. The deeper down the street he went, the less people he saw.
    There was an order to his routine that he liked, a predictable pattern that comforted him. There was part of him that yearned for the frenzied activity of the city, he admitted, but he had already come to terms with his life here. He no longer strained against the what-ifs and could-have-beens that bothered him so much before. Now everything felt steady and familiar. Dependable, just the way he liked it.
    “Goodness, hijo , do you know what time it is?” his grandmother scolded him when he entered the house.
    Gio bent down and took his grandmother’s hand, soft and heavily wrinkled. Then he pressed his forehead down to the back of her hand. “It’s barely eight-thirty, Lola Lising,” he replied, trying not to grin. They had this conversation every time he arrived after dinner.
    “Eight-thirty? You should be sleeping at this hour!” Lola Lising sounded horrified. “Have you eaten? Lourdes! Do we still have food?”
    “Yes, Nanay,” Gio’s mother replied. Gio released his grandmother’s hand so he could buss his mother’s cheek. She patted his shoulder. “There’s adobong pusit . I got some fresh squid earlier.”
    “Don’t worry, Lola Lising,” Gio told his grandmother. “I already had dinner. Someone at work treated me to pizza.” Sometimes a little white lie was better than the truth. If it made his grandmother sleep a little better, then he didn’t mind making things up for her benefit.
    “Ah, I know,” she said. “It’s a girl, isn’t it? It’s about time a good-looking guy like you had someone special. You’ve been coming home late all the time. Don’t think I haven’t noticed.” Her smile turned conspiratorial. “So tell me. I won’t be mad if it was a girl. Will we meet her? Are you getting married? Did you use your Lolo Turo’s pomade? Don’t use that, hijo ! Especially if you’re not marrying her. There’s a love spell on it and you’ll end up fending off her unwanted advances.”
    He laughed. He had no intention of smelling like something from his grandfather’s closet. “Lola, there is no girl. If there were, I’d tell you right away. Besides, you married Lolo Turo. You didn’t think it was because of some love spell, did you?”
    Lola Lising rose to her feet. “I’m still wondering about that up to this day,” she grumbled good-naturedly. “Well, then, it’s off to bed for me. Today’s my third day of the novena. Make sure the doors are locked and the lights are turned off.” Gio offered his grandmother his arm, but she shrugged him off.
    His mother waited until Lola Lising had retired to her room before speaking. “Gio, you know it’s not good for Nanay to stay up,” Mama admonished him. “She may act like she’s fine but she worries about you every night.”
    He knew it was quite useless to protest but he tried anyway. “It’s only eight-thirty, Ma. I’m not a child anymore. Besides, nothing ever happens out here enough that she should be worried.”
    “You know how it is. She doesn’t have to say it,” Mama replied. “We all said we’d come back to make sure she was all right, not keep her up later than she’s used to. Besides, have you really eaten?”
    “No,” he replied. He tried to shake the tiredness and resentment that was creeping back in, and stick to playing the role of the dutiful son and grandson. “Has the electricity bill come in yet?”
    Over dinner, they discussed expenses. It was easier for Gio to talk about things that he could manage to solve: