If the expression on his face was any indication, those “business dealings” hadn’t worked out particularly well for Ben. Which was unfortunate, but since we were here, there wasn’t much I could do to remedy the situation except hope the two men would be able to stay out of one another’s orbits. I figured that probably shouldn’t be too difficult; it looked as though there were close to a hundred people in attendance at the gala already, and no doubt Mr. Nicolini had plenty to keep him occupied.
“Sorry,” I murmured. “It just never occurred to me that you might be acquainted with the organizer of the event.” Some impulse prompted me to add, “Maybe if you’d told me even a little bit about yourself, I would have known who to avoid.”
Ben’s mouth tightened, but then he gave a shrug that didn’t
