Page 117 of Falling for Mr. October

After I turn on the camera so Giovanni can get footage, I leave them to work so I can harass the RN on duty about her lack of needle skills. I give her a talking-to that she obviously doesn't appreciate but will hopefully remember and then make my way back to the kitchen.

On the way, I pause to greet Luanne, who’s working on a thousand-piece puzzle in the rec room.

“I can tell our boy’s working his magic,” she says, tapping her nose.

The air smells unusually decadent, of buttery piecrust and the rich, earthy broth of the soup. Judging from the smiles in the room, I’m not the only one who’s enjoying it.

We don’t stay for dinner, however, since Giovanni wants to go home and edit the videos so they can be posted in the morning. Nico, who’s helped him since the beginning, has volunteered to assist him remotely.

I know Giovanni is eager to put his plan into motion, now that he has one.

Here’s something else I’m certain of: these videos are going to be even bigger than his old ones, because Giovanni is more mesmerizing to watch now that he has become one with the Shirtless Chef.

In my heart, there’s an uglier, harder truth I’ve been trying to ignore…

This is the first step toward him leaving me forever.

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

GIOVANNI

It’s Thursday afternoon, and I’m playing bingo with the Biceps Boys, as they call themselves, after our workout. Now that we’ve sweated together, Mr. O’Connor has invited me to call him “O’Connor” as if it’s his first name.

Theo, who came to the session with me, seems bemused by the whole thing.

“I never knew O’Connor had moves like that,” he murmurs in an undertone.

Turns out he had Mr. O’Connor for fifth grade as well. For all I know, there’s only one fifth-grade teacher at the elementary school, and everyone had Mr. O’Connor.

“I’m not sure what conga dancing has to do with biceps,” I agree. “But apparently they start every session like that for team building. I guess they have a point. I do feel closer to O’Connor after he grabbed my hips and told me to sway.”

Theo tries not to laugh. He mostly fails and shifts it into a cough that makes me cough-laugh. I glance fondly toward the table directly in front of the bingo MC, where O’Connor is staring up dreamily at the MC, a soft smile on his face.

The MC is Judy, the receptionist from the nursing home, and she’s apparently something of a hot ticket for the Biceps Boys.

O’Connor isn’t the only one who wanted to sit up close and personal. The two other single guys from the group are also seated at the front table, so close they can probably feel as well as hear every announcement she makes. Honestly, they could probably sit at the rear of the rec center and still hear her, considering the way her voice echoes in the cavernous room.

The rec center itself is old and worn and probably hasn’t seen any updates since my trips to Apple Ridge as a kid. The floor’s scratched-up, yellowing linoleum, and the walls are lined with fake wood that’s detached in places. The only part that sparkles is the view from the windows to our right—a rounded blue mountain peak peeping through the fall foliage. Not that the Biceps Boys seem to notice. Their attention is fully on the game and on Judy.

She calls out another letter-number combo, but before I can scan my card for a match, Theo catches my eye. “I know you’ve been sneaking around with my sister.”

I laugh for real this time, because hell, he went to a lot of trouble to confront me, given he could have just pulled me aside at his grandmother’s house at any point.

His eyebrows hike up a little higher.

So maybe laughing wasn’t the best move.

My laughter dries up, and I tell him the unvarnished truth. “Look, it’s not much of a fake relationship. The first time we got caught kissing, it wasn’t posed the way we said. I wanted to kiss her. But she asked me to play the whole thing up, so I did. I like her, though, a lot.”

Those eyebrows edge up a little higher.

“Look, I know she’ll never leave, and I’d never ask her to.” My stomach burns at the thought. “But I’ve been trying to think of solutions.”

Had I ever.

I spent all last night sleepless over it after Nico and I finished editing the videos. I now know exactly how many hours would separate us by plane, train, car, and even fucking walking.

The thing is, my grandmother will want to go home eventually. My brothers are both there, more or less, although Enzo and Lucy have a house halfway between our harbor town and Bangor, where her office is located. All of Nonna Francesca’s surviving friends also live back home, and then there’s Hidden Italy, which she and my grandfather built from the ground up. No way is she going to want to step away from their legacy.