Page 55 of Painting Together a Family
He laughed and grabbed a knife and a handful of flour. He spread the flour on the counter.
“Uh… you just put flour all over the counter.”
“I did. It’s so the dough doesn’t stick.” He put the dough down onto the counter and lifted it again, demonstrating its unstickness. “See?”
“But…” Dev waved his good hand at the floured countertop.
He chuckled. “The counters are marble-top, and they’re super easy to clean. When we’re done with the pizzas, I’ll just take a damp cloth and wipe them down.”
“I would never have been so brave,” Dev told him.
Bryan snorted. He was not brave for messing up Dev’s countertops.
He put his hands on the counter to get some flour on them too, then shaped the hunk of dough to make it roundish so he could cut it evenly. Grabbing a knife, he cut the dough like a pie, splitting it into six. “We’ll do a personal pizza each. Hence the five pieces.”
“There’s six pieces, my dear accountant. Six.”
He looked down at the separated dough and chuckled. “Did I actually say five? There’s six of us so I cut six pieces.” He shook his head. “You’ve got me all aflutter.”
“That’s not bad.” Dev leaned in and took a hard kiss, making his head spin.
He groaned and swayed toward Dev, suddenly way more than just aflutter. “Oh…” he said softly as the kiss ended. He blinked at Dev a time or two, then brought their lips back together again for another kiss.
“Mmm… you taste good.” Dev’s eyes were intense this close up.
“Yeah?” Bryan felt suddenly shy for some reason. Maybe because he liked Dev so much. He didn’t want to screw anything up.
“Yes. I won’t push, that’s not nice, but I want you. Maybe… after pizza?”
“You mean once the kids are in bed?” He wasn’t going to say no to that offer.
“I do mean that. Very much.”
“Well okay, then. Can we send them to bed as soon as we pick them up from school?”
Dev started chuckling. “Can you imagine? Besides, today is piano and robotics for the girls, swimming for the boys.”
“Right.” He sighed, but there was no heat in it. Anticipation wouldn’t kill him. He hoped. Still, he leaned in and took another kiss. “It’s a date.”
“Meet you in my bed at nine, then. I’ll be the one with the erection.”
His cheeks heated at that. “Dev!” He didn’t know why he was shocked, but he was.
“What? It’s true.” Dev winked at him.
“Yeah, but I have to go get the kids in a bit and I don’t want to have an erection when I do that.” He had a hunch he’d have at the very least a warm tingly feeling in his belly when he went out. Hell, he guessed he was going to have that feeling until tonight. Especially if Dev kept looking at him like that.
“I understand completely. What do we do with the pizza crusts?” Dev’s words were at odds with that look, but Bryan appreciated the distraction.
“So I’ll have to do it this time because you’ve got one wing clipped and stretching out the dough is definitely a two-handed job.”
“I’ll be a supervisor then. Pizza management are me.” Dev plopped on a barstool and watched.
He chuckled. “That works. Next time, I’ll supervise, and you can make them.” He grabbed the first of six crusts. “So this is the part where you see them tossing the crust in the air in the movies. And the guys who do this for a living can do that. Hell, they can do all sorts. I saw this cooking competition show once where there were like a dozen people all working on their dough and it was like those cocktail bartenders who do the tricks, only with pizza dough. It was pretty cool. I’m not going to do any tossing, though, because I don’t want it landing on the floor. So, the easiest way to stretch it out is to hold it by the edges and turn it between your fingers. Like so.” He demonstrated, the dough slowly stretching out as he worked it.
“Look at you! Are you going to put the toppings on them and then cook them when the kids are home?”
“That’s what I was thinking. You can be topping master. Why don’t you pull out everything we’ll need from the fridge while I get the rest of these stretched out?”
