Too absorbed in each other to mind the throng of people or sweltering humidity, they wandered to the gourmet pavilion to watch cooking demonstrations by some of Chicago’s best chefs and sommeliers.
Afterward they met up with Roderick and Lena at the Petrillo Music Shell, where they all stretched out on a huge blanket to enjoy a concert. As the band performed, Zandra lay between Remy’s long legs while Lena lay between her husband’s. Lena wore a soft, blissful smile as Roderick gently rubbed her stomach, marveling at their unborn child growing inside her.
As Remy ran his fingers through Zandra’s hair and massaged her scalp, a delicious languor spread through her veins and melted her bones.
It was one of those perfect summer days that made it impossible to have a care in the world.
When the band took a break, Zandra smiled at Roderick and Lena. “Have you guys decided on any baby names yet?”
A warm look passed between them.
“We’re still tossing around ideas for a girl,” Roderick answered.
“But if it’s a boy,” Lena said, “he’ll be named after his daddy.”
“Roderick Junior.” Remy nodded approvingly. “Has a nice ring to it.”
“It does,” Zandra agreed.
Lena smiled. “Of course, if we have a boy, we already know he’s going to come out looking just like Roderick and Remy and the rest of them. The Brand men have the strongest genes I’ve ever seen.”
“Don’t they?” Zandra chuckled. “It’s crazy.”
“I think it’s good.” Roderick grinned, turning his head this way and that to show off his handsome profile. “Why should all this go to waste?”
“Oh, please,” Zandra snorted, and they all laughed.
“Oh, my God.” An excited feminine squeal cut through the crowd. “Is that Roderick and Remy Brand?”
The foursome glanced around to see a honey-toned, heavyset woman bearing down on them. If it hadn’t been for the gratingly perky voice, Zandra wouldn’t have recognized the approaching newcomer. But as she peered closer, she realized, with a surprised jolt, that she was about to come face-to-face with her former high school nemesis.
Tawny “The Tiara” Forrester, so dubbed because she’d been crowned homecoming royalty four years in a row. By the time she was named homecoming queen during senior year, it had been so anticlimactic that the crowd had only reacted with halfhearted applause. Though many students had privately bemoaned the unfairness of Tawny’s long reign, no one had been bold enough to publicly vent their displeasure for fear of antagonizing her. Not only was she one of the most popular students, cheerleading captain and president of the drama club, she’d also been the most vicious.
She and Zandra had been bitter rivals, but not because they’d wanted the same things. Zandra was an honors student, the first female president of the math club and a student ambassador. She was a brainiac who’d had the misfortune of being just pretty enough to make Tawny feel threatened. Her jealousy had been cemented when Zandra began tutoring her boyfriend, Kevin, in math. When the couple broke up a month before prom and he asked Zandra to be his date, Tawny had been livid. She’d glared at them the whole night, and threw a hissy fit when Kevin and Zandra were crowned prom king and queen.
But she’d gotten her revenge. After the prom, Kevin had dropped Zandra off at home and headed straight to Tawny’s house to spend the night. Two days later at school, she’d taken great satisfaction in bragging to everyone that Kevin had come crawling back to her after ditching lame Zandra on prom night.
As Zandra watched her old nemesis approach, she realized that she hadn’t seen Tawny since graduation, when she’d sneered her way through Zandra’s valedictorian speech.
“Help me out here,” Remy murmured in Zandra’s ear. “Who is that?”
Zandra smiled thinly. “Tawny Forrester.”