Barb looked at the both of them without responding, then began introducing them to her family.

“Daddy, this is Don and Retta Durrett. They were friends from the club. Niles golfed with Don.”

Retta immediately caught the “were friends.” It was the only warning she was going to get that this might not go as smoothly as planned.

Jake stared them down without comment.

Don offered his hand. “Nice to meet you, but unfortunate it’s under these circumstances.”

Jake didn’t move and left it up to his sister to cut them down. Belle didn’t disappoint.

“There are many unfortunate things in life, one of which is the betrayal of people you thought were your friends,” Belle drawled.

Retta blinked. Had Barb told them about the words they’d traded? That comment sure felt like it, but she wasn’t the kind to let a catty woman scare her off.

“I’m sure that’s true,” Retta said, and then pointed to Belle’s necklace. “That is a beautiful necklace.”

“Thank you,” Belle said. “I got it on the Riviera.”

“Oh, the Mexican Riviera! Don and I love it there,” Retta said.

“The French Riviera,” Belle said. “Bless your heart.”

Retta’s face turned red. She was Southern to the core, so she knew exactly what that meant, and that she could take it either of two ways. That diamond-studded bitch had either called her stupid or told her to go to hell. And all the while, Barb kept introducing her family as if that old biddy hadn’t just insulted her.

Retta’s chin went up, and her eyes were blazing. She just couldn’t figure out who to be mad at, because they were standing beside a coffin with Niles’s dead body in it, and his widow and family were looking holes through her and Don, and Barb just kept introducing family.

“This is my aunt Belle Austin, my brother Bobby Austin, and his wife, Wynona. And these are cousins from the Houston side of the family, Frank, Eddie, and Waylon.”

“So, you live in Houston,” Don said.

“No,” Waylon said. “We’re direct descendants of Sam Houston, the man for whom Houston is named. Our cousin Barb comes from the Austin side of the family…Stephen A. Austin, for whom the city of Austin was named. Where might you be from?”

“I, uh, I’m a native of Blessings.”

Don knew when he said it that he’d just lowered himself to the status of hick, and the only semifamous people in the history of his family had been hanged for horse thieving. He knew when he’d been bested and put his hand under Retta’s elbow.

“Barb, we’ll be going now. I see more people are coming in, and we just wanted to pay our respects.”

Barb lowered her voice, for the first time speaking directly to them.

“Don’t pretend with me, Don Durrett. I know what you and all of Niles’s friends were saying about him at the club…and on the day he died. Please feel free to leave.”

When her brother Bobby shifted his stance, Don squeezed Retta’s arm, and out the door they went.