The light was on in the Hoskinses’ RV, which meant that Madge, as usual, had left Bob to handle any last-minute issues that might crop up at closing and had returned to their RV to put on a pot of coffee and make a light snack for them to enjoy while they unwound. It was their usual routine. Madge opened and started the day and Bob closed at the end of the night. Teamwork at its best. At least, it seemed to work for them. The couple had been married thirty years and were still happy and affectionate with each other, which wasn’t unheard of, but rare enough among mortals to be mentioned.
Of course, while it was unusual for mortals, that was the norm with immortals. Once they met their life mate they were set. Ten, a hundred, even a thousand years later that couple would still be solid and happy together. It was what every adult immortal looked forward to. Divine used to dream of it herself, but that was when she was much younger. She had soon come to realize that the way she lived, having to hide and avoid other immortals, made it pretty much impossible to meet her life mate. She would be alone always, and that was a very long time unless she either got lucky and had a fatal accident where she was decapitated or burned alive, or she went really rogue and got herself executed. Some days, when her Gypsy lifestyle and lack of home and family got to her, engineering such an accident actually seemed almost attractive. So far, though, those moods passed before she did anything stupid. So far.
Pushing the thought away as she reached the door to the Hoskinses’ RV, Divine knocked briefly, waited for the “Come on in,” that Madge called out, and then pulled the door open and stepped inside. But the smile that had started to lift the corners of her mouth and the greeting she’d been about to offer died as she nearly walked into the greenie, Marco.
“Oh, there you are, Divine, love,” Madge said cheerfully. “I was just telling Marco all about you. I thought it would be nice if he joined us tonight you two could get to know each other. You have a lot in common. He’s allergic to the sun too.”
“You don’t say,” Divine murmured, peering solemnly at the man. So much for avoiding the greenie.
Marcus almost grinned at Divine’s expression. She obviously wasn’t happy to see him, but was trying hard to hide it rather than have Madge notice and have to explain why. He suspected what she wanted most in that moment was to turn and flee, but apparently she couldn’t find a good excuse to do so because she was still standing there, sort of wavering in the doorway.
“Hi . . . Marco, is it?” Divine said finally. She offered an obviously forced smile before switching her gaze to Madge, where her smile became more natural as she said, “It would have been nice to visit, but Hal stopped me on my way here. His gout is much better and he asked me to join him and Carl in town to celebrate. I would hate to see the old guy lose his last tooth. I just stopped in to say I’m going to bypass our usual coffee klatch to go with them.”
Correction, she’d come up with an excuse after all, Marcus thought. He didn’t know how much of what she said was a lie. But he was pretty sure she hadn’t planned to join this Hal and Carl in town when she’d first entered the RV. In fact, he was quite sure it was his presence that had decided her to go . . . Well . . . two could play at that game. Putting on an expression of feigned concern, he murmured, “Oh, I don’t think you should accompany those two alone. I suspect once they get drinking, those two old codgers might be a bit hard to manage. Maybe I should go with the three of you.”
“Oh, that’s a wonderful idea,” Madge interjected as Divine started to shake her head. “I’d worry about you otherwise, Divine, but with Marco there to look out for you, I’d feel a lot better.”
For one moment, Marcus was sure Divine was going to refuse, but after a moment her shoulders sagged with defeat. Her expression wasn’t defeated, however, but stiff with anger as she said, “Fine. Let’s go.”
“Stop in when you get back if the lights are still on,” Madge called cheerfully, apparently completely unaware of the waves of anger and resentment rolling off of Divine as she muttered in the affirmative and turned to open the RV door again.