"Hi, welcome," she said, greeting the girlfriend.
Greg came in, bringing a rather plain-looking woman with him. She was petite, wore glasses, had red hair and freckles. She looked about forty with laugh lines at the corners of her eyes.
"Hi, everyone," Greg said, shaking Steve's hand.
Steve Brockner had been taking everything in stride so far, watching as the scene had played out around him. Now that his former brother-in-law had arrived, Steve stood in the middle of the group. "Hey, Greg."
Greg Goodwin's palms were sweating because he wiped them down the sides of his jeans. Natalie watched, the gesture familiar and slightly annoying. 'This is Renee O'Neil," he introduced.
Natalie, still feeling shell-shocked over Iris being Tony's mother, was helpless to do anything but give Renee a quick, "Hi."
Sydney and BreeAnn came bounding down the stairs just as Natalie was wondering if anyone would notice if she left right now and didn't come back.
"Miss O'Neil?" Sydney said. "What are you doing here?"
"You know her?" Greg's puzzled tone hovered in the air.
BreeAnn supplied, "Oh, this is so weird. She's our new history teacher at the middle school."
Miss O'Neil looked like a history teacher now that Natalie took a closer look.
"Hi, girls," she said, her voice sounding very bookish. "Isn't this fun? What a coincidence."
Natalie couldn't take another coincidence.
She excused herself and grabbed the tray of rolls, shoved them in the oven and set the timer. The sooner everyone ate, the sooner they could all leave.
"We were just talking about coincidences," Iris said. "My son lives across the street and he's dating Natalie."
Greg shot Natalie a look—as if it were okay for him to have a postdivorce girlfriend, but not okay for her to have a boyfriend.
And Tony wasn't even her boyfriend!
"Can I pour anyone a glass of wine?" Natalie asked, and a chorus of adult yesses filled the kitchen.
As glasses were filled and the adults relaxed, the conversation began. They briefly covered the territory of Tony being newly divorced, Greg and Renee's last trip to McCall, Miss O'Neil's class project due after spring break, the sunroof on Fred Miller's Elantra acting up, Iris announcing a big Easter sale at Target, Steve mentioning that Micron stock had taken another header in the market and Sarah talking about getting food poisoning once from an undercooked ham.
Not bad for fifteen minutes and two bottles of wine.
Just as everyone was getting comfortable with one another the doorbell ran again.
Natalie's head shot up as Sarah said, "Gee, who could that be? You want me to get the door, Natalie?"
"No, no, I'll get it, thanks."
With a mixture of dread, excitement, confusion and just plain terror, Natalie opened the door, knowing it was Tony.
The expression on her face caused Tony to ask, "Nat, are you okay? You look kinda stressed."
"Oh, I' in stressed all right. You better prepare yourself. When I told you this might be awkward I had no idea."
As they walked into the kitchen even the calm, cool and collected Tony Cruz paused for a moment as he met the quizzical gazes of eight pairs of eyes. As he looked from one to the other, his eyes suddenly did a double take.
"Mom?"
"Hi, honey, imagine seeing you here," Iris squeaked. "Tony I'd like you to meet Fred Miller, Natalie's dad. Fred and I are dating."
The confused expression on Tony's face turned to incredulity. "Natalie?"
At that moment Natalie's composure was at the breaking point, so she asked Sarah to make the introductions while she murmured something about needing to check the oven.
The rolls were browning, but not quite ready. Natalie turned toward them all, put her hands on her hips and announced to the crowd, "Dinner should be ready in just a few more minutes. Now, if you'll excuse me for a moment I need to…need to do something."
The temperature in the room had grown suddenly stifling. She needed air.
Natalie walked through the living room, past the downstairs bath, and went into the cold garage. She took in deep gulps of air that smelled like automobile oil, and tried to regain a semblance of composure. She walked back and forth over the concrete, hands on her hips as she pulled herself together.
Her dad and Tony's mom? How did that happen?
She was still trying to digest the news when Tony appeared in the garage and leaned against the fender of her car.
Folding his arms over his chest, he asked, "What are you doing?"
She all but barked, 'Trying to figure out this mess."
"So let me get this straight—that silver-haired guy in there is your dad, and he and my mom are dating?"
"You win the prize," she said, instantly regretting her sarcasm. But honestly, this was just too strange for words. "So what are we going to do about this? Your mom and my dad are a couple!"
Calmly, Tony responded, "There's nothing to do."
"It's not normal for my dad to date your mom after you and I have, you know—been together. My God, it's almost like incest or something."
Tony's eyebrows shot into a frown. "It is not."
"It's still weird." Natalie felt the cool bite of the air in the garage, and rubbed her hands up her arms.
"It's not weird. It's no big deal."
"It is a big deal. She expected me to be younger than you and have fake boobs."
"My mom said that?" he asked, his voice rising an octave.
"No…no. She didn't have to. I filled in the blanks."
"Jesus, Natalie, you're coming unglued for no good reason." Tony's ability to take everything in stride rattled her. "Was that your ex-husband in there with the redhead?"
"Yes. She's a schoolteacher."
"I never envisioned your ex would look like that."
Natalie's chin rose. "How did you picture him?" .
"I'm not sure. Not like him. He's sort of short and he looks so much older than you."
Not sure if that was a compliment or not, Natalie let it go.
Maybe she needed to let Tony go, and this was a rude awakening.
"I have to check on
