"These are good. Have you tried them?"
Rob blinked, momentarily thrown off his rhythm.
"I, well, no. As I was saying, in my field, precision is everything. One wrong number and the IRS comes knocking."
"Makes sense," Ben replied mildly. "Accuracy matters in most professions."
Kelly watched, fascinated, as Rob grew increasingly frustrated by Ben's refusal to either challenge him or submit to his expertise. It was like watching someone trying to punch fog.
"What exactly do you do again?" Rob asked, his tone suggesting that whatever it was couldn't possibly compare to the intellectual rigor of accounting.
"I was in business development," Ben answered simply.
"Was?" Rob pounced on the past tense.
"Currently between ventures," Ben said, still maddeningly calm.
"Ah," Rob nodded knowingly. "Tough market these days for those without specialized skills."
Kelly felt her face grow hot with embarrassment and anger. Rob wasn't even trying to hide his smugness, his absolute certainty that he was the smartest person in the room. She started forward, intent on rescuing Ben, when something in his posture made her pause.
Ben wasn't bristling or retreating. He was absolutely unruffled, as if Rob's attempts to belittle him were so insignificant they didn't even register.
"Very tough," Ben agreed pleasantly. "How long have you been with your firm?"
And just like that, he’d redirected the conversation, letting Rob launch into a detailed history of his career achievements. Kelly watched, amazed, as Ben listened with apparent interest, occasionally asking a question that sent Rob into another self-congratulatory monologue.
Her brother was preening now, chest puffed out, voice carrying across the room. And Ben just stood there, nodding, maintaining eye contact, showing neither boredom nor irritation.
Kelly realized she was witnessing a kind of mastery. Ben wasn't engaging in Rob's dominance game. He wasn'tcompeting. He simply refused to play at all. It was a confidence so complete it didn't need external validation.
She'd dated men who would have tried to match Rob's expertise with their own, turning the conversation into a knowledge contest. Others would have grown defensive or dismissive. Ben did neither, and somehow that made him seem infinitely more mature than her brother.
This man, who had come into her life so unexpectedly, who had supported her investigation without question, who had held her through the night without making demands, was now handling her difficult family with the same quiet strength he brought to everything else.
Her irritation at Rob transformed into something warmer as she watched Ben finally extract himself with a polite nod and make his way back to her, two drinks in hand.
"Your whiskey," he said, handing her the glass. "Sorry it took so long, but I didn’t want to be rude to your brother. He’s very proud of his promotion last year."
"I'm sorry about him," Kelly said, taking a fortifying sip. "He's always like that."
"It's fine," Ben shrugged. "I’ve seen his type before."
“At your job?”
“My previous job, and even before that. On Wall Street, there’s always someone who thinks they’re smarter than you or anybody else, for that matter.”
“But they aren’t,” she said, thinking of her brother.
“Sometimes they are, sometimes they’re not, but you’d better know the difference.”
“And who are you in business? The smart one? The risk taker?”
"I'm the responsible one."
"The boring one, you mean?" she teased.
Ben's smile was slow and warm. "Until recently, maybe. Things have gotten a lot more interesting lately."
