Page 88 of Nobody's Girl

Though the music was quietly playing a sad song meant to pull the tears out of those who had congregated, Griffin tried to ignore the song and extended his right hand to the man he sat next to.

“Hello. Griffin Houser, Montana Matrix.”

The man shook his hand. “Phoenix Nelson, Texas oil. How’re you doing today?”

“Sad, I suppose, is the right thing to say to that,” Griffin said, then chuckled a bit. His action had people shushing him and giving him terrible looks. “Sorry. Inappropriate.”

When he was met with a grin from the man sitting on the other side of Phoenix, he was not only surprised but glad to see another human in the room who wasn’t so distraught. When he held his hand out, Griffin took it. “Ethan Southern,” came the man’s words, which were heavily laced with a Scottish accent.

“Griffin …”

“Yeah, I heard ya,” Ethan interrupted as his attention turned to Phoenix. “How’d you know Julia?”

Phoenix cleared his throat as he looked down and a grin had found him too. “In the Biblical sense,” came his answer.

“Aye, me too,” Ethan said, then looked at Griffin.

Griffin nodded and looked down as a man in the front, wearing black, asked them to pray. A long prayer that had nothing to do with Julia was said by the preacher, then the rest of the funeral proceeded.

The three men fidgeted a bit as the service went on and on. Many people got up and told stories about the woman they had known as quite the she-wolf. The only thing was, none of the stories they told were anything any of those men knew about the woman who lay in the coffin.

Tales of how generous she was had the three men smiling with their secret thoughts. Griffin could attest to that. Julia had been generous, all right. He didn’t know if she’d been generous with her money, but with her body … oh yes, she had been incredibly generous with that!

When the last speaker spoke about how Julia had given to charities all the time, the service ended, and it was time to file past the coffin and the lifeless body. Griffin stood in line, followed by Phoenix, then Ethan. One by one, the people looked down at Julia as they waited for their turn to lay eyes on her one last time.

The three stopped and took their turns at the same time. “Lifelike, huh?” Griffin asked the other two men.

“Her hair was red when I was with her,” Ethan muttered.

“It was pink when I saw her,” Phoenix recalled. “And she’d worn purple contacts. She was something else.”

Griffin ran his hand over her cheek, lightly. “Bye, Julia. Thanks for the education. You will be missed.”

“That she will,” Ethan agreed.

Phoenix nodded, then the sound of a man clearing his throat had them shuffling along. A man in a cheap blue suit was near the door where everyone was exiting; he held out a box of tissues to the three. Each took one.

“I don’t need this for anything more than to remind me of her,” Griffin said.

“I have a napkin from a bar we’d meet at,” Phoenix said as they walked outside.

They all looked up at the brilliant blue, cloudless sky. “It stopped rainin’. Can you imagine that?” Ethan said in wonder.

“She doesn’t want anyone to feel blue. She never did,” Griffin said. “And on that note, how about the three of us go get some lunch? We can talk about her and what she meant to each one of us.”

“Count me in,” Phoenix agreed quickly. “I don’t know another soul here anyway. The company would be much appreciated.”

“Me too,” Ethan chimed in. “I could use a stiff drink.”

Griffin led them to his waiting private car, and they all piled inside. “How about seafood?” When Griffin got two nods, he called out to the driver, “Neptune Oyster, please, driver.”

The men all were feeling exceptionally comfortable with one another. A certain comradery was felt between them all as they chatted lightly about this thing and another.

Ethan Southern was also a billionaire, the heir to Redhead Scotch. The thirty-two-year-old did little more than party his life away. Phoenix Nelson had stumbled into his fortune. He was the illegitimate son of a candy billionaire who had left him a few hundred acres in a tiny place called Karnes County in Texas. He had struck it rich when oil was found on the property not once, but 27 times. It seemed the men were all billionaires, and Julia had been the one to come on to them all.

As they got into the restaurant and were seated, the three laughed as they ordered the same drink, a Rob Roy. It had been the first step in how Julia had introduced herself to each of the men. She’d send one over, and a bit later she’d have them come to her table where she always sat alone.

Griffin mimicked the way Julie had wiggled her finger to get him to come to her. The others laughed as they too had been wrangled in by a mere drink, a corny pick-up line, and the wiggle of a single finger in their direction.