Page 22 of New Girl in Town
I inclined my head in thanks and cleared my throat. “Thank you...what’s your name?”
“Ben. Ben Worthington.” He extended his hand and I reached for it, but instead of finding myself in a handshake, he raised my hand to his lips and pressed a kiss to back of my hand.
I flushed at the gesture. “Nice to meet you.”
One corner of his lips lifted in a smile as he lowered my hand. I didn’t miss how his touch lingered.
Ben touched my hand like I was delicate, something meant to be handled with care, something...special. And then Grant’s words were in my head, and Grant was all I could see.
Grant’s eyes were bluer than Ben’s, his shoulders a touch broader...even his hands were warmer...and—
I gave myself a mental slap. This was the last thing I needed to be doing while talking to another man. I pulled my hand from Ben’s with a shaky laugh and anchored myself in the present.
I cleared my throat and stepped forward with renewed determination. “You have lovely penmanship,” I said, reaching out to touch the corner of his sticker.
Ben’s eyebrows shot up, and his eyes flew to my fingers, resting against the material of his suit. “Now that is a compliment that I couldn’t ever imagine sounding so...sexy.”
I winked at him and enjoyed the look of interest. “There’s a first time for everything.”
“Are you new in Twin Forks, Aurora?” Ben said.
“I am,” I said.
“What brought you this way?”
“Ah, work,” I told him, clasping my hands behind my back. I found I was smiling in spite of myself. “I do curatorial work for the art museum.”
Ben’s eyes lit up. “That’s fascinating! They’ve done some great work there lately. But I have to say, they can’t top hiring you.”
His words brought a flush of pleasure to me. Yes, it was corny, but corny could be good. “Thank you. What do you do in town? Have you been here long?”
“Investment banking,” he said. “I made the move from New York about four years ago.”
I felt my smile go tight at the mention of New York, for the fact that it brought to mind the cherry red apple on Grant’s keychain. I cleared my throat and forged ahead, unwilling to lose my bid to keep this a Grant St. John-free zone.
“Why did you make the move?” I asked.
He shrugged. “Slower change of pace. I like the mountains, and besides, there’s a lot of opportunity here if you get the right connections.”
I raised an eyebrow. “In Twin Forks? Really? I mean...this place doesn’t strike me as lucrative for investment banking.”
“Well, depends on what you’re interested in, or rather, who. We’ve got our very own secret billionaires around, you know? One of the big reasons I made the move.”
“Really?” I glanced around in surprise at the room full of speed-dating hopefuls. I hadn’t pegged this mountain town as the kind of place billionaires would choose, not with Aspen so close by, but Twin Forks did hold a certain charm. It couldn’t be a stretch that someone with a few—okay, a lot—more zeroes to their bank account would also want to take advantage of the peace.
“You must be very dedicated to your work,” I told him. “To make a move like that for it.”
He shrugged. “I didn’t have anything holding me in New York, so I thought why not when my firm put it up as an option when we got news of a big name coming this way.”
“Must be a pretty big name,” I mused.
“The biggest, but I haven’t managed to secure an in. Not yet, anyway, but this is my year. I can feel it,” he said. “But that’s not important right now. What is important is tonight, and getting to talk to you. Is this your first one of these?”
“It is. I came with a girlfriend. She thought it would be, ah, a good way of meeting new people.”
“It can be, but…” Ben’s voice trailed off and I looked at him to see that he was smiling at me.
“But what?”
