Hana gave him a teasing swat. “Very funny. I’ll just call you Adam.”

Kai’s eyes bulged out, but he glanced back and forth at his mom and dad and grinned. His apron was the body of a goat, which caused him to erupt into giggles. Frannie received a naked Venus with roses covering the private areas, and Allegra and I got two more matching Eves.

One look at Allegra and her flaming cheeks told me she was upset. She was spending more time with Ian and seemed to have formed a connection. I was glad. He was a nice boy, and his parents were fun to speak with. Sure, he was a bit older, but in this case it was a good thing. Even though she denied they were anything more than casual friends, I caught the look in her eye when she stared at him. An undeniable affection and spark of more. It hadn’t been there before.

It was there now.

Ian seemed just as interested. He snuck glances at her constantly, seeming to try to come up with excuses to talk to her. A summer romance in Italy was exactly what Allegra needed.

So did Fran.

Unfortunately, I didn’t see anything happening on that front. There were no single men on the tour, and Enzo rushed around with little time to give her one-on-one attention.

I decided to pull the focus to me and help out my cringing granddaughter. I made a show of looking down at the naked body pasted on the apron. “Wow, I haven’t looked this good in years! Hello, seventy-five!” I announced loudly.

Our group applauded and whistled, and I took a bow. Allegra smiled and some of the tension dissolved from her face. Maria soon whisked us into the production of making pizza crust, teaching us how to knead and stretch the dough and even showing off a few expert flips. We stood in a line and practiced as Maria made her way to each of us with funny comments and encouragement. She took one peek at Frannie’s stretched, broken dough and made a tsking sound, gently removing the shredded crust from her hands. “Mamma mia, your enthusiasm is wonderful, but maybe a bit gentler with the kneading?”

I leaned over to my daughter. “All those years I tried to teach you to cook have led up to this moment,” I said teasingly. The moment the words popped out of my mouth, I cringed, realizing she might take my comment as an insult. Sure, as a mom, I wanted to teach her to be a good cook like me, but I was proud of her accomplishments and didn’t care what she chose not to do. With the tension between us lately, especially after my lecture two nights ago, I braced myself for the chilled look she’d cut me with.