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“My friend at soccer, Hayden, his sister works at the newspaper, too. She said you got flowers from Ollie today.”
Great. Did everyone know?
“I did. They’re the pretty ones on the kitchen table.” I pulled up at the intersection. “He sent me flowers today to thank me for dinner last night. It’s the polite thing to do when someone does something nice for you. His momma raised him with good manners.”
“Oh. Didn’t he say thank you?”
I laughed, making the turn. “He did. The flowers were to give me an extra thank you, which was very nice of him.”
“So if my teacher helps me on something I’m really stuck on, I should buy her flowers?”
“Maybe pick some daisies,” I said slowly. “That’s a lot of money for a math problem, Leo.”
“Can we buy her flowers at the end of the year for being a great teacher?”
“We sure can. If you want to make it special, you can do extra chores to earn that money and buy them yourself.” I turned onto the road that would lead us home. “It would be good for you, and she’d like that a lot.”
“Okay. But is Ollie your friends?”
“Yes, baby, he’s my friend.”
“Do you kiss? Like Dad and his girlfriend do?”
“We do not,” I said firmly. “When did you see your dad and Carrie kiss?”
I caught him wrinkling his face up in the mirror. “When he called me before he came. She kissed him on camera before he told her to go away.”
Ah. Before the breakup. Did Leo know they weren’t together?
Hmm. It wasn’t my place.
“I see.” I pulled into the driveway and stopped the car. “Have you decided what you want to eat yet?”
“Can we have burgers?”
I started the engine. “Pit stop at the store! Let’s go.”
CHAPTER TEN – LONDON
RULE TEN: IF YOU THINK IT’S TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE…
KISS IT. THE FROG COULD BE A PRINCE, AFTER ALL.
“Momma! You’re so bad at this!”
I laughed and buried my face in my hands. “I’m not a soccer player, Leo!”
“And thank God for that,” Ollie retorted, looking me up and down. “Did you even kick the ball this time?”
“Look here, mister!” I jabbed my finger in his arm. “I touched it with the side of my foot.”
“It moved,” Leo confirmed.
“Hmm.” Ollie looked between us skeptically. “I’m not sure your mum’s cut out for this, Leo.”
Leo shook his head. “She’s bad.”
“Great. In that case, does anyone mind if I go inside and start getting the pizza bases rolled out?” I held out my hands. “Because I’m going to put my back out if I keep trying this.”
“I’m hungry,” Leo said to me. “Are we doing the cheese and stuff?”
I nodded. “I’ll call you in when they’re done.”
“Do you need any help?” Ollie asked. “We’re done here. He can run drills by himself.”
“Thank you, but it’s fine. I’ve done this a thousand times.”
“I haven’t. Leo, are you good here? Keep practicing those runs with the cones, okay?”
“I got it!” Leo threw the soccer ball and caught it again. “You bought pepperoni, Momma, right?”
“Like I’d forget.” I winked at him then turned to Ollie. “Come on, then. If you insist. You know the dough is made, right?”
“Yeah, but I’ve never done that whole hand thing where they spin it.” He waved in hands in what I thought was supposed to be a pizza base tossing motion but just looked like he was conjuring some kind of demon. “Do you do that?”
“Yes. I’ll teach you.” I nodded for him to follow me into the kitchen. I’d set everything up on the kitchen table because it gave me more room to roll than the counter did. “Can you get the mixing bowl out of the fridge, please? It’s got the dough in.”
Ollie did as I asked as I spread flour over the table. He set the bowl down on the table and I took the dough out, splitting it into three, and took the first, smaller lump for Leo.
“You’re doing yours,” I warned him. “So watch me do Leo’s.”
“That looks smaller than the other dough balls.”
“It is.” I grinned, coating the ball with flour before I grabbed my rolling pin and started rolling it out. I talked Ollie through the whole process, showing him every bit of it, then set Leo’s base on one of the pizza trays.
“How do you know how to do this?” Ollie asked, taking one of the dough balls.
“My roommate in college was half-Italian,” I answered. “Leo! Come and wash your hands and do your pizza!” I called, then turned back to Ollie. “Sorry. Her mom grew up in Italy before she moved here, so she knew how to do it. We moved off-campus in our third year into a small apartment and she taught me then.”
“All right. So I roll it now?”
“Yes, until it’s about twelve inches in diameter.” I took my ball of dough and did the same thing he was, but I had to wait for the rolling pin. As I did, Leo left his shoes and gloves by the back door and went to wash his hands.
