“Shall I give you a demonstration?” Austin asked Kingsley at the dough station.
“Oh, what, you’re a pizza-making expert now?” Kingsley asked, crossing his arms over his chest with his wine glass tucked below.
“I was single and living on my own for a long time in that backwoods town without a lot to do besides tend bar and work on my hobbies.”
“And pizza making was a hobby?”
“Of course. I knew one day you’d get that brick oven you’ve always wanted, but your mate wouldn’t let you get because she was worried you’d burn the house down. You can wear people down like the best of ’em.”
“Bullshit,” Kingsley said as Austin rolled up his sleeves to reveal his muscular forearms.
“Do you need an apron?” I asked as my body tightened up. He’d actually never made pizza for me, and I was incredibly eager to watch the dough-tossing show.
“Oh! I almost forgot.” Earnessa hurried to a little cabinet in the corner I hadn’t noticed. “I had
these made up.”
Her eyes glimmering with excitement, she hurried to us and held out white aprons stenciled with a logo consisting of a half pizza on top of the pack name. To the side and a little behind the logo was a waterfall.
She looped one over Kingsley’s neck before turning to Austin, then held two aprons out to the side for me to grab.
“I’ll let you put it on him.” She lifted her eyebrows at me before taking aprons to the others.
“Mom, no, I’m not wearing a—”
Earnessa swatted Mac’s hands. “Cormac, do as your mother says. Put this on.”
“Aurora doesn’t have to.”
“Aurora is secluded in shame and won’t be joining us.”
“Can’t I just grab a pizza and go seclude myself in shame?”
Earnessa shoved the apron at her son, who was acting more like a spoiled teenage boy than a budding young man.
I reached up and looped the apron over Austin’s neck, getting a kiss for my efforts. I tied it around his waist, leaning in to him to do it, before pulling on mine and securing it.
“Okay, I’m all set for the show, hot stuff,” I told him.
“You guys make me a little uncomfortable,” Kingsley grumbled, taking a step back.
With a grin, Austin grabbed a handful of flour and tossed it onto the cutting board before spreading it around a bit. That done, he worked the dough for a moment with his fingers before dropping it onto the cutting board. He grabbed a rolling pin from the side and flattened it out a bit.
“This is enough dough for a personal-sized pizza, right?” he asked Earnessa.
“Just a little bigger than, yes,” she said, standing beside the toppings table and watching us. The glimmer had faded from her eyes.
He picked up the dough again with both hands, then used his right to pull it in toward his chest before tossing it up. He caught it with the same hand and repeated four more times as I watched his bicep pop and release, pop and release.
On the fifth time, when it came down, he caught it with both hands. Making fists underneath the dough, he shimmied it across his knuckles before throwing the pizza up just above his head, spinning perfectly like I’d seen in a great many pizza restaurants. He caught it with the backs of his hands before throwing it up again, his hands getting a little wider and a little wider with each toss, stretching the crust out.
“They weren’t really intended for all that,” Earnessa muttered. “Just rolling them and sorta…”
She put fists in the air like she was pressing something down onto a table. “Just sorta flattening them out would’ve been fine.”
Austin finished by turning the dough on his hand a little before looking around for where it was supposed to go. Kingsley reached under the table and grabbed what looked like a brand-new, shiny pizza tray and laid it on the cutting board. Austin set down the dough, finishing by ensuring there was a good crust.
“Thanks, bro. Good lookin’ out.” Kingsley stole the pizza-shaped dough and headed to the pizza sauce, leaving Austin back at square one.
Austin smirked, shaking his head, and I laughed, loving seeing them razzing each other.
“Uncle Auzzie, can you show me?” Mac popped a piece of sausage into his mouth and hurried to Austin’s side.
I watched with a swelling heart as Austin painstakingly walked Mac through the steps of prepping
and throwing the dough, having to start over three times before his nephew got the hang of it. He never once tried to hurry things along or lost his patience, his entire focus on helping the young man succeed.