Toni felt Mason looking at her and looked back at him. Mason smiled at her and turned his attention back to Jamie and the pizza bread.
"So what does your mom like on her pizza?" Mason asked.
"Pineapple and pepperoni and ham and cheese." Jamie replied.
"No peppers?" Mason asked.
"No peppers, she says that they're yucky." Jamie replied.
"Onions?"
"She likes onions but she doesn't like those fish things." Jamie replied.
"Those fish things are called anchovies and I happen to agree with her on that." Mason said, "what do you like on your pizza?"
"Cheese."
"That's all?" Mason asked.
"Yup. That other stuff is yucky." Jamie said as he sprinkled cheese over the sauce that Mason had already put on the bread.
Mason laughed and then wondered if it would be cheating if he pumped Jamie for information regarding Toni's likes and dislikes. It would be cheating he decided and didn't ask any questions, he left Jamie in charge of calling them when the oven timer went off so he could start unloading the truck while the pizza bread baked. Jamie perched himself on a chair quite pleased to be given such an important duty.
Toni and her parents had already begun to unload the smaller items while he and Jamie were putting the pizzas together. Ben and Mason carried in the heavier pieces with Mason making the appropriate comments about how much things weighed when to him they weighed nothing. After carrying in the second heavy item, Mason noticed that Ben was breathing quite heavily and called a time out.
"We can get one more thing in can't we?" Ben asked.
"I think that the pizza is about done, so it's a good time for a break." Mason said.
Jamie was on his way out to get them when they walked in; the condo was filled with the smell of fresh baked pizza bread making everyone comment about how hungry they were.
"This is way better than mom's pizza!" Jamie quipped as he took another bite of his pizza bread.
"That's because my pizza bread isn't home made." Toni replied, "but I do agree that this is delicious." she added.
"It sure is." Ben agreed. "Thank you for dinner and for volunteering to help us unload the truck."
"Anytime, I wasn't doing anything tonight anyway." Mason replied. "Toni, when are you moving in?" Mason asked.
"Next week, I took next week off so that we could get settled in." Toni replied.
"I'd be glad to help." Mason offered.
"Thanks but unlike my parents, I'm having the movers unload the truck for me."
"We saved money by unloading the truck ourselves." Ben said in response.
"True, but now you have to take the truck back whereas if you had let them do it, they could have taken the truck back with them." Toni replied.
Mason saw an opportunity.
"Why don't I take the truck back for you? Toni can follow me in my car or her car if she isn't comfortable with driving mine." Mason suggested.
"We can't ask you to do that!" Barbara said, "You've already gone far above and beyond the call of duty."
"I really don't mind, all I was going to do this evening was play scrabble against the computer and read. Mason replied. "What do you think Toni?" he asked.
"Sure, we can take the truck back but I drive my own car." Toni replied.
"Can I go too?" Jamie asked.
"No baby, it's already going to be late by the time we get home." Toni said, "But you could help gramma and grampa start to unpack until we get back." Toni said when she saw the disappointed look on Jamie's face.
"That's a good idea." Barbara said, "and you can start decorating your room too." she added.
Jamie was somewhat appeased but not entirely, he hated missing out on things and he really liked Dr. Mason.
The truck was unloaded two hours later with Mason doing most of the heavy lifting.
"You lift weights or something?" Ben asked as he watched Mason move a dresser from the truck.
"I lift a little." Mason replied dismissively.
As the truck was being unloaded, Toni and Barbara cleaned up the kitchen. Barbara hadn't missed the way that Mason paid attention to Toni and Jamie both. She couldn't help herself, she had to say something.
"He's a very nice man."
"Yes, he is." Toni agreed and hoped that her mother would end the conversation there.
"Reminds me of James in some ways." Barbara said and then clamped her mouth shut. She realized that she shouldn't have said anything.
"What time do you want to go shopping for Jamie's bed and dresser?" Toni asked completely changing the subject.
"Is ten too early for you? I wanted to look at some material for drapes while we were out." Barbara replied grateful for the change in subject and that Toni didn't seem to be upset about her comment.
"Ten is good; I wanted to make a few stops myself. James' parents are coming into town tomorrow night; maybe we could go out for dinner or something." Toni said.