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People hurried back and forth, some with props and some talking in groups.
She shut her trailer door behind her and sagged against it with a sigh. The unpleasant sensation dimmed, but wasn’t gone. With a grunt at her foolishness, she whipped off her sunglasses and hat and threw them onto the small kitchen table. Shaking her head, she fluffed her sweat-soaked hair. After grabbing a water bottle out of the small refrigerator, she dropped onto the plush seat at the small dining table and took a swig of cool water. Pulling her cell phone from the front pocket of her pants, she hit the number to call Jordyn’s phone.
“Jeez, you’re such a party pooper.” Jordyn laughed in greeting. “How am I going to get any better with this telepathy stuff unless I practice on other people? Michael can do it in his sleep, and I want to get as good as he is.”
“You’re good enough and you know it. I’ve told you this reading-the-mind stuff annoys the crap out of me, so quit being a brat and call me instead.” She settled back and took another swig. Time to change the subject. “How’s Thea?” Thea, short for Thaddea, was Jordyn and Michael’s infant daughter. The child was a few months old and the light of Amata’s life. If she hadn’t been stuck in this ironclad contract to write one last movie for the studio, she’d be in Napa Valley to help her adopted daughter raise the child. Thank the Goddess her part in this circus of a movie was over. She could leave Georgia with a clear conscience. If the studio needed anything from her, all they had to do was call her agent.
“She’s scary smart and strong as hell,” Jordyn responded. “I swear she’s about ready to walk. You’d think she was closer to being a year old instead of less than six months. Her eyes are starting to change color, too. I think she’s going to have dual-colored irises like mine, but in orange and brown instead of gold and turquoise.” She chuckled. “But there’s no missing her full head of shockingly red-blonde hair. Michael shows her off to his family every chance he gets.”
“I can’t imagine the family reunions you have with your sisters and Michael’s brothers.”
The five couples all had newborn daughters to contend with.
She rubbed her chest as a pang of resentment made her catch her breath. Living a lonely life was getting old. She longed to be part of a family once more. Again, an image of Claude crossed her mind.
“Oh, Auntie. Why don’t you give him a chance and see where it leads?”
Amata glanced out of the trailer’s front window and watched the busy movie set and the employees as they rushed back and forth. See, this was the problem with having a relative who had psychic powers. It was hard to keep anything from them. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” But nobody said she couldn’t try.
“You know I’m talking about that CIA guy. Jeez, I don’t have to be a psychic to know how you feel about him. Anytime he walked into a room, you lit up like a firecracker. Even when you tried to be coy about it, the man never made a move without your eyes following him.”
Jordyn’s boisterous, hearty chortle made Amata smile. Her niece always had the most-infectious laughter. Even though it irritated her when Jordyn brought up the subject of Claude, she might as well talk about it now. That way, she’d avoid the whole thing when they were face-to-face.
“Look, it doesn’t matter if I find him attractive or not. There can’t be anything between us. He’s human and I’m not.” If she was lucky, the firm tone of her voice would tell Jordyn the subject was closed.
“Auntie.” Jordyn sighed. “How will you know if you don’t give it a chance?”
“Listen, I never told you about my husband, Gannon.” She put the water bottle on the table. There were so many things she hadn’t shared with Jordyn about her previous life. And Gannon was one of the more-painful ones she hated to talk about.
“You had a husband named Gannon? When was this?”
Amata closed her eyes and put the side of the cool bottle of water against her heated temple. “He was a human I met by accident about two hundred years ago. I was in England negotiating for some supplies for Azadi when I met him at one of the local gentry’s dinner parties. You know, all Pride and Prejudice stuff.” She’d been an avid fan of Jane Austen back then and even met the woman briefly at a tea party before the writer’s unexpected death at forty-one. She had carried that love of Austen since then and exposed her works to a very young Jordyn.
“As the saying goes, it was love at first sight. Even when I told him the truth of who and what I was, we remained devoted to each other until the day he died.” She opened her eyes and took in a shuddering breath. The memory of watching her once-vibrant love wither into a doddering old man was hard enough. But when he took his last painful breath, she’d longed to die with him.
Gannon. While the pain of watching her husband die of old age wasn’t as sharp now, it remained a part of her. She swore at his graveside she’d never go through that again. Humans had such a short lifespan compared to hers. They seemed to live and die in the blink of an eye. Maybe it was time to go back to Akurn. With Sub Prince Murduk gone, she was sure she’d be of use on her home planet to help during the chaos of switching leadership. Going from an iron-fisted monarchy to a budding democracy wouldn’t happen without tons of effort from a lot of people.
But then she’d never be a part of baby Thea’s life.
“After his death, I swore I’d never put myself in that position again. I have no desire to fall in love with Claude and watch him die in twenty or thirty years.” She cleared her throat. “I just can’t.”
“I had no idea, Auntie. I can’t imagine losing Michael like that. I’m so sorry.” Jordyn’s sigh was heartfelt. “Hey, listen. Aren’t you done with that movie now? Why don’t you come out and visit us for a while? It’ll give you a chance to get to know Thea better. And it’s absolutely breathtaking here in the spring.”
“I’m surprised you and Michael haven’t moved somewhere else. Didn’t the rest of his family disappear to start over?”
“Are you kidding? No one could budge Michael from this vineyard.” She chuckled. “Besides, having a husband who can do computer magic with his eyes closed makes it easy for us to stay wherever we want. All he did was give us new identities and transferred the deed to those alternative names. He did the same thing for the rest of the family. They took on aliases for safety but haven’t left.”
Amata frowned. “Have there been problems?”
“Nah. But Michael and his family can’t shake the habit of being overly paranoid. So, when are you coming?”
Amata did some quick calculations. “Well, I just have a couple of things to wrap up here before I can leave. You know, taking a vacation isn’t a bad idea. Maybe I’ll drive across the country before stopping in Napa. It’ll give me a chance to figure out what I want to do next.”
“That’d be great! I can’t wait to see you. Call and let me know when you head out, okay?”
Amata smiled. “I promise to do that if you stay out of my head. Use the damn phone.”
Crouched in the shadows, Amata’s watcher bided their time, struggling to control the malice churning inside them. Taking a drag from the sorely needed cigarette, they closed their eyes and counted to regain calm. The nicotine hit helped some, at least enough to open their eyes so they could watch through the haze of blue smoke what was going on at the RV window.
