“You have said that for the last three days, and so far nobody has questioned the guilt breads you leave at the dining table every morning,” Santi said dryly, locking the door of his house behind him as he and Kira started to walk towards the Luzes’, taking the long route around the park.
“The best way to distract a Luz is to dangle Spanish bread in their face,” Kira explained. “But I don’t know. I just have this...feeling. They’re going to know the second I walk through the door.”
“Is that a bad thing?” Santi asked curiously beside her. He had assumed that keeping their new relationship under wraps was a pipe dream, given they were walking from his house to the Luzes’ in broad daylight. He was pretty sure that was Mikaela’s mother watching them with her jaw hanging open in shock. Santi waved at her, and Mrs. Aguilar immediately turned away.
“We didn’t do this right,” Kira sighed, wincing a little and clearly lost in her own thoughts. “I can’t just show up at the house with Spanish bread and say oops, I’m sleeping with Santi!”
“Do they not like Spanish bread?” Santi asked, looking at the paper bag full of bread they’d gone out for minutes earlier.
“And it’s not that I’m ashamed of myself, or of us,” Kira continued as if not hearing him. “But I couldn’t stand it if they disapproved, not that their approval matters, but I still want them to like you, because you’re wonderful, and this is exactly what I meant when I said that I—”
They stopped, and the house was only about ten feet away. Santi was frowning when he turned to her, trying to think of the right words to express what he was feeling. It was unfamiliar, the rush of warmth he felt, the desire to wrap his arms around her, hold her close and listen to her talk, for as long as she let him.
So he did, the bag of warm bread against her back as he pulled her in close, breathing in her scent—that slightly musky, flowery scent that was so familiar but he couldn’t identify. The feeling in his chest overwhelmed him, the warmth and affection washing over in a wave. He recognized it as satisfaction, at being able to help her a little, to show her that he was there for her.
Kira nuzzled her face in his chest, wrapping her arms around his body and squeezing him like she sorely needed it. Santi kissed her forehead, just where her hairline was, to assure her that he was there, that he was happy.
“I shouldn’t worry,” she said, and he nodded.
“TITA!” a voice shrieked, and Kira absolutely froze in his arms. Even Santi was a little scared now. “WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN!”
Santi slowly turned his head, only to find that the entirety of the Luz household was staring at them both with equal parts shock and surprise. Kira’s parents were standing together in the front garden, wearing hats and holding garden tools. Kira’s older sister and her husband were staring at them from the doorway among a collection of luggage, presumably to load into the car. Cassie was looking out from the right window, and Kiko was wide-eyed over on the left. Jake was standing beside him and clearly trying not to laugh.
“Um,” Santi said, smiling awkwardly as he loosened his grip on Kira. “I think your family just found out about us.”
“You don’t say,” Kira said sarcastically, smiling at them and giving them a little wave. “Howdy, everyone.”
Santi had always wondered how it was that Raymond and Alice Luz managed to keep their family so close together. Both Kira and Kiko studied in Manila but came back to Lipa, and while Kamilla lived abroad, it was obvious that physical distance did little to change the family’s affection for each other. And it was while he watched the entirety of the Luz family watching him that he realized that he was actually very, very jealous of that closeness.
They were tangled together too, but here, it was okay to pull away when you wanted to, to come back when you had do. They were just...happy. That was perhaps the biggest difference.
“Uh-huh.” Kamilla looked like she was struggling between laughing and shaking her head. “And where have you been, Kiki?”
Raymond Luz (who was holding a pair of garden shears, oh god) narrowed his eyes at Santi. “Hm. Good morning, hijo.”
“Uh, good morning...po,” Santi said awkwardly. Was he supposed to bow? He wasn’t. But he really wanted to.
“I knew it!” Alice exclaimed beside him, practically leaping over the marigold bush in front of her to drag her daughter and the man holding her hand up the small set of steps that led to the front garden and toward the Luzes’ two-story house. “Ray, look, they’retogether! The village titas owe mesomuchmoney!Come inside, we can eat that before we have breakfast. Is it Spanish bread? The panaderia outside the village really does Spanish bread well. Kamilla, can you start the barako? We need a lot. Jake!”
“Yes, Mom?” Jake piped up from the second-floor window.
“Can you give Kiko the address to that bibingka place we found the other day, so he and Harry can pick up a few boxes? Cassie and I will make champorado. I still have dilis from Bataan, buti na lang. Ray, if you are just going to glare you might as well eat, too!”
“But I haven’t—” Raymond started, lifting his plant cuttings and garden shears.
“You can wash your hands and do your gardening later, hay naku!” Alice exclaimed, tutting. “Kiki just brought home a boyfriend! This is monumental!”
“Fine,” Raymond conceded. “As long as I get another grandchild!”
Santi was slightly overwhelmed as they were ushered up to the Luzes’ house. Tita Alice was suddenly talking to him about how lovely it was that he and Kira were together, how she’d known since twenty years ago, while Ate Kamilla had wrapped her arm around her sister, asking questions that made Kira laugh nervously.
Eventually Jake and Kiko came downstairs with Cassie, and the Luzes’ house was suddenly...alive. It was like the warm yellow walls, the soft cream and dark wood furniture and all the decor that came with it seemed brighter, and more interesting with the family in the house, their shouting and laughing over each other as they set up breakfast. Kira and Cassie were singing with matching dance moves while waiting for the Spanish bread to finish toasting, and Harry was waving around a spatula like he was at a concert. Jake ushered him to the dining table, an impressive thing of yakal and molave that was surely an antique.
“This is your seat,” he said, pulling out an extra dining chair from the corner of the dining room that matched the table, woven cane on the base and back. He placed it near the end of the table.
“I have a seat?” Santi asked, looking at Jake with surprise.
“The Luzes are very particular about who sits where,” Jake explained, and clearly the man was amused by this whole thing, judging by that smile. “Dad sits at the kabisera, of course, Mom on his right, then it’s by birth order of the kids, and not their partners, so Kira gets the opposite end of the table. It’s a bit of a squeeze, but you get to sit on Kira’s right.”
