Recognizing the name—but not the woman coming toward them—Remy chuckled under his breath. “Damn. This ought to be interesting.”
By the time Tawny reached them, she was slightly out of breath from her trek across the crowded concert grounds. “The twins. Oh, my goodness, I can’t believe it. It really is—” As her gaze belatedly landed on Zandra nestled between Remy’s legs, her eyes widened in surprised recognition.
“Zandra?”
Zandra sat up slowly, but made no move to stand and greet Tawny. They’d hated each other in high school, so she saw no reason to be phony. “Hello, Tawny.”
She watched, quietly amused, as the other woman’s mouth flapped open and closed like a guppy out of water.
Taking pity on her, Zandra said smoothly, “It’s nice to see you again. You obviously remember Roderick and Remy.”
“Hey, Tawny,” they greeted her. “How’s it going?”
Recovering from her shock, Tawny beamed at them. “Hey, fellas. This is such a crazy coincidence. I was just asking one of my neighbors about you guys. She went to our high school and was in your grade, but you two were so popular you might not remember her. Anyway, you both look great. But that’s nothing new.” Spying the diamond wedding and engagement rings twinkling on Lena’s hand, Tawny tacked on a smile that was just as bright, but not an ounce genuine. “Lisa told me that you’d gotten married, Roderick. She said your wedding was splashed all over the papers. Aren’t you going to introduce me?”
Roderick smiled indulgently. “Tawny, I’d like you to meet my wife, Lena.”
As the two women smiled politely and shook hands, Tawny openly assessed Lena, always sizing up the competition—even when they weren’t.
“Congratulations on snagging one of the twins,” she told Lena. “Every girl at school had a crush on these two. Roderick was voted Most Likely to Succeed, and Remy was voted Most Likely to Save the World.”
Lena chuckled. “I can believe that.”
As Tawny’s eyes returned to Zandra and looked her over, her lips tightened with envious displeasure. Though she’d gained a lot of weight since high school, Zandra thought she was still very pretty. She might even have told her so if there hadn’t been such bad blood between them.
Tawny eyed Zandra and Remy speculatively. “You two look pretty cozy. Are you...?”
Before Zandra could respond, Remy drawled, “I’m working on it.”
Tawny’s eyes narrowed before she stretched her lips into another one of those fake smiles. “Oh, how nice for both of you. I must say I’m a little surprised though. You two were always more like brother and sister. It’d seem almost, well, incestuous if you wound up together.”
Remy chuckled, nuzzling behind Zandra’s ear. “Nothing incestuous about this good thing right here.”
“Mmm.” Purring contentedly as his lips caressed her sweet spot, Zandra smiled at Tawny, whose face looked pinched. “So how have you been?”
Tawny’s expression brightened. “Oh, I’ve been wonderful,” she preened with a toss of her long dark hair. “Kevin and I stayed together after high school and went away to the same college. After he was drafted by the Browns, we got married—” she paused deliberately, letting Zandra absorb this news “—and moved to Cleveland. We had a huge, beautiful house with a swimming pool.”
“Hey, I didn’t know Kevin played for the Browns,” Roderick interjected. “That’s great. What was his number?”
Tawny faltered. “Oh, goodness, can you believe I’m actually drawing a blank? Unfortunately he, um, got injured and had to retire a few years early. But we liked Cleveland so much that we decided to stay there. We just moved back to Chicago this summer, so I’ve been trying to get caught up on everyone’s lives.”
“Welcome home,” Zandra murmured. “And congratulations to you and Kevin.”