I stood outside the double doors, the service already started. Either the funeral home had started early, or I was late. I glanced at my watch. I was a few minutes late, fuck. I brushed down the front of my suit before walking in. I hesitated. On the other side of the doors was a room full of people to pay respects to my mentor, my surrogate father.
I pulled one of the doors open. No one noticed, all attention was on the officiant at the head of the long room. I glanced side to side and recognized business associates, members of the board, a few members of the household staff.
I made my way to the front, the spaces reserved for family. Tina played the role of bereaved widow with all the drama I expected of her. Harleigh looked young and lost with her golden hair back in a simple braid. She turned as I placed my hand on the back of the pew. She scooted over and made room for me. I would have been fine sitting behind her with Sanderson. The old man wasn’t my father after all.
She patted the space next to her, and I wasn’t going to deny her, especially today of all days.
I unfastened the button on my jacket as I sat. Harleigh slid imperceptibly closer, wrapping her arms around my arm, and leaned her head on my shoulder. I patted her hands and turned my attention to the service.
When she sniffled, I reached into my pocket and handed her my handkerchief. I let out half a chuckle. It was the old man who taught me to always carry two handkerchiefs, one for me, one for a lady in need. Harleigh was definitely a damsel in distress. It hurt to see her in pain.
She took my offering and let go of me. I wrapped my arm around her shoulder and understood her need to cry, only I didn’t. I wouldn’t, if for no other reason than to do the old man proud and not appear weak.
Tina made a loud sniffle and I reached over to her, extending my hand to pat her on the shoulder. It was rude to assume she wouldn’t be truly sad, he was, after all, her husband. Tina squeezed my hand and turned her head toward me. I couldn’t see the details of her face through the black lace veil she wore.
“We will now have a few words from friends of the deceased.”
I perked up at the announcement. I would be the second one to eulogize the old man after Sanderson. I listened as he waxed poetic about the business practices of a maverick who won every gamble. When he was finished, I wasn’t ready to stand. I gave the officiant a nod when he made eye contact. Standing would mean letting go of Harleigh, and I felt like holding her was the important task of the day. I was the closest thing to family she had left.
I’m not sure why, but I kissed her head and released my hold of her.
I fished my notes from my jacket pocket as I approached the podium.
I cleared my throat and looked out at all the faces. All those people here for the old man.
“We’ve come to bury Caesar,” I started. “At least that’s what it feels like. How can we put a measure on someone as remarkable as the old man?”
I glanced at my notes one last time, and then folded them and put them back into my inner pocket.
“I’m not going to use my notes. I realize in those notes I said nothing personal, nothing that made the old man great to me. And now is the time to be personal, to let people know who he was, and what he meant. We are here to bury the man who was more like a father to me than my own ever had a chance to be.”
I paused and looked around the room. Harleigh was staring at her hands. Her eyes downcast. My handkerchief twisted in her delicate fingers.
“When I was nine my father died tragically. At the time, my mother was the old man’s cook. She had worked there for a few years, and I had tailed along with her to work whenever I wasn’t in school. After my father passed, I was with her all the time. The old man never seemed to mind, and he would coax me from my mother’s side with little things that were fascinating to younger me. Not that many people knew that he was a proficient collector of oddities, and beauty.”
“I remember this one time, he took me to a taxidermist. He was an avid fan of the weird stuff. This particular taxidermist was an artist, creating mythical creatures, antlers on rabbits. But there were never any pieces in the house. When I asked why, the old man said they would upset my mother and the other women that were in his house. He showed a rare kindness to the people around him.”
“It wasn’t for years that I learned he had arranged with my mother, that he would become my guardian should anything happen to her. I was to become his son for business purposes.”
“He didn’t have children until his daughter Harleigh was born. By then, I had been a part of his family for a good while. I never once was made to feel any less than I had, I never once thought I would be cast aside. He made me family. And when my mother did die, far too young, the old man took me in full time. He saw to my education, and mentored me in business and life.”
Had I followed my notes, I would have talked about the old man’s influence over my education, how he introduced me to business, and not how he taught me to take care of those around me. I left off some of his nastier habits. His string of pretty, young wives, who would never replace the one woman whose loss he never recovered from.
“He taught me much and expected even more from me. But he only asked one thing of me. He asked me to take care of his daughter.”
I kept my eyes on Harleigh for dramatic effect. She didn’t look up so I didn’t think she was paying too much attention to anything I said.
“It’s a promise that is both an honor and pleasure to carry out.”
She looked up and our gazes locked. We held each other’s glance for a long moment. She dropped her gaze first, and then I dropped mine and stepped away from the podium.
She didn’t lean back into me when I returned to my seat. Maybe it was too much of a pretense to put on her at her father’s funeral. I hadn’t lied, he had asked me to watch over her, I just wasn’t sure why I had said it would be a pleasure. The girl was a thorn in my side.
The reception was full of low murmuring as people divided into small conversation groups. An impromptu receiving line with Tina and Harleigh in the center worked its way around the reception hall. Tina’s veil was flipped over the hat she wore, dark sunglasses covered half of her face. With every other handshake, she would slip her fingers behind the lenses of the glasses as if she were patting her eyes. Harleigh stood there and nodded as people spoke to her. Her eyes rimmed in dark pink, but she no longer cried.
I made my rounds, shook hands, and thanked people for attending. There were cakes and cookies and I stood there with something in a napkin in my hand and a small plastic cup with some kind of fruit punch for what felt like hours. I jumped when a hand caressed up my back. Not the kind of touch I expected from anyone attending the old man’s funeral.
The drink spilled.
“You nearly jumped out of your skin.” Tina drawled.
I glared over at her, and tried to wipe liquid from my trousers and picked up the crumbs of the sweet I hadn’t felt like eating. Her face was still hidden behind dark glasses.
“Tina, I didn’t expect you.” I cut my attention from her and looked for Harleigh. “Is there something you need?”
Tina was pretty. The old man had only ever married pretty women. Every single last one of them, young, buxom, and blonde. He definitely had a type.
“Let’s get out of here, Devin.” Tina slithered in close. She tipped her glasses down letting me see that her eyes were perfectly made up. From the lack of smudging or bloodshot edges that came from crying, it was clear that Tina hadn’t shed a single tear this afternoon.
“Funerals always make me so horny.”
She pressed her hand against my hip and ran it toward the front of my groin.
I grabbed her wrist and removed her hand before she was able to feel me up. “No, Tina.”
“Why not? He’s dead now. It’s not like I can cheat on a dead man.”
I sighed. Any other red-blooded man would have been open to Tina’s advances. She had a figure like a bombshell, all breasts and hips, and a tiny waist. Her hair was like pale sunshine, and even today, she painted her lips a bright red. It wasn’t that she was unattractive, she was vapid. Not only did I not care for her, she was the old man’s wife. Always would be. I didn’t dip into his hand-me-downs, ever. And unlike her, funerals did nothing for my libido.
“I hate being so close to death. I need to feel that I’m alive. Come on Devin, I was with that old man for so many years. I need to feel a strong young body,” Tina whined.
“I’m older than you are,” I said, trying to keep my voice low. “This isn’t appropriate. Not today.”
Tina sighed, lifting her cleavage in a very noticeable way. “Fine, be that way.”
She pressed her sunglasses back up on her nose and turned away from me with a flourish. There were plenty of other men here who would take her up on her proposition.
I watched her sashay away, swaying her hips a little too much for what seemed appropriate. This was her husband’s funeral after all.
As I watched Tina draw attention to herself, my gaze stopped on a scene that set my blood to boil. Harleigh stood her arms around herself, a slight blush on her cheeks. I didn’t recognize the man who was leaning into her space. She leaned away, retreating from his presence as much as she could, cornered as she was.
It was the old man’s funeral, I would not make a scene. I headed directly to where the two of them stood. Harleigh didn’t see me. I stood behind the man, who I finally remembered from the legal team the old man had dealt with for his estate planning. This shark was hitting on Harleigh, knowing that she came with a hefty dollar sign around her pretty neck.
Harleigh looked up and saw me. Her eyes went wide. I saw a flicker of need cross her face. I didn’t think twice before my hand clamped down on the lawyer’s shoulder. I squeezed a little more than what was necessary as I dragged him several steps away from her personal space.
“I’m here to take you home,” I said as I held my hand out to her.
The flicker of a grin crossed over her sad face. She slid her hand into mine.
“Goodbye,” she said to the predator who had been leering at her.
“You don’t have to be so nice to everyone,” I growled, still angry that anyone would take advantage of her today. “Especially when they are hitting on you.”
“He wasn’t hitting on me. But he wouldn’t stop talking. I didn’t know what to do,” she said.
“Harleigh,” I stopped and turned to her. “He was hitting on you. He knows you are about to inherit a hefty sum. You need to watch out for men like him. Men who are after your money.”
