He was here to do a job. That’s it.
Chapter
Seven
Ben followedKelly through the back door of Andi's condo, the silence between them heavy. He'd expected some reaction after that disaster at her parents' house, maybe anger, tears, or even laughter at how comically awful it had been, but Kelly had remained perfectly quiet during the ten-minute drive across town, her knuckles white on the steering wheel.
He didn't push. From what he'd just witnessed, she'd had a lifetime of people pushing her where she didn't want to go. He didn’t want to be one of them.
"Two bedrooms are down the hall on the left," she said, the first words she'd spoken since they'd left her childhood home. "You can have either room. I don't care."
Ben set the bags down in the entryway, taking a moment to survey their temporary home. The condo was modern but welcoming, with clean lines and contemporary furniture softened by colorful throw pillows and framed photographs. Nothing like the sterile perfection of the Bateman house, with its museum-like quality where nothing seemed meant to be touched.
Kind of like my home.
He didn’t like the comparison one bit.
He carried their bags down the hall to the bedrooms. The primary was on the right with an ensuite bathroom. The second bedroom was almost as spacious, but the bathroom entrance was in the hall.
He quickly chose the latter for himself, placing her bags in the primary. In his experience, women loved having a bathroom to themselves where they could spread out their things.
She wasn’t ready to talk yet, and that was fine. He'd thought she was exaggerating about her family. Now he knew better. The least he could do was get out of her space while she processed what had happened.
Ben was an optimist, but even he couldn’t put a positive spin on that meeting. It had been a disaster, and not a cute one that she’d laugh about sometime in the distant future. Personally, he wasn’t all that bothered by her intrusive parents, but he also wasn’t a fan of how they treated her.
That did bug him. A whole lot.
"I'm sorry."
Kelly's voice was so quiet he almost missed it. She stood in the middle of his room, her arms wrapped tightly around herself as if she were physically holding herself together. When she finally looked up at him, her eyes were bright with unshed tears.
Damn her family.
"I shouldn't have brought you into this mess. I shouldn't have dragged you across the country to meet my awful family and witness... that." She gestured vaguely in the direction of her parents' house. "I'm weak. A coward. I couldn't face them alone, so I used you as a shield. None of this is fair to you."
Ben crossed the room in three long strides, closing the distance between them. He didn't touch her; his instinct told him she needed some personal space and distance. But hewanted her to see his face, to understand that he meant what he was about to say.
"Kelly, stop. You're not weak or a coward. Trust me, I've seen weak. I've seen cowardly. You're neither."
Her bitter laugh cut through the air between them.
"You don't have to be nice about it, and now you're stuck playing boyfriend to a woman whose family thinks she's a complete failure."
"You are not a failure," Ben said firmly.
"You're just being polite."
"I'm really not." Ben smiled, trying to lighten the mood. "Ask anyone who knows me. Polite isn't usually the first word they'd use to describe me. Blunt, yes. Straightforward, absolutely. But polite? Only when necessary."
That earned him a whisper of a smile. It was progress.
"Look, I came here knowing exactly what I was signing up for. You were clear about your family. You said they’d be challenging."
“Challenging." Kelly snorted. "That's one way to put it."
"I've sat through board meetings with hostile takeover artists that were more welcoming than your parents' living room," Ben said dryly. "And at least those sharks were honest about wanting to devour me."
This time her laugh seemed genuine. It was a pleasant sound, one he wouldn't mind hearing more often.
