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“Who’s the visitor?” Cass asked as patiently as possible.
The timing was the worst and whoever it was could wait. She wanted to get to the bottom of what was going on with Alex, once and for all.
“Phillip Edgewood,” Melinda blurted out. There might have even been swooning. “The Phillip Edgewood. The senator,” she stage-whispered in case Alex and Cass lived under a rock and might not know the popular United States senator. “He’s even dreamier in person than he is on TV. Oh, and Mr. Branson is with him.”
Cass stood so fast, her chair shot across the low-pile carpet and crashed into the wall. “You could have told me that first. Send him back right away.”
A compact. There was a compact around here somewhere. Pulse thundering, Cass fished blindly through her desk drawer, fingers closing around three lipstick tubes, a bottle of Fyrago perfume and then a foundation brush before she finally located the powder case. She flicked it open and used the mirror to slick on a fresh layer of lipstick, which predictably went on crooked because of how badly her hand was shaking.
Gage was here. In this building. He’d come to apologize, to throw himself at her feet. To declare his undying love...
Now she was the one being ridiculous. Her heart deflated. Gage wouldn’t have shown up after a week of radio silence with a US Senator in tow if he was here to step back into her life. He was here about the formula.
Business. Of course. The man separated business and pleasure like a pro.
“Hot date?” Alex asked wryly and Cass peeked over the compact.
God, she’d forgotten all about Alex and, lucky girl, she was about to witness Cass’s complete breakdown.
“Actually, Gage and I aren’t seeing each other anymore. We—”
He swept into the room and she forgot to breathe. The sharp, dark navy suit he wore would make an Italian tailor weep. His too-long hair was somewhat tamed and smoothed back, leaving his gorgeous face the focal point it should be.
She scarcely noticed the handsome dark-haired man at his elbow. Because next to Gage, Phillip Edgewood might as well have been invisible.
“Ms. Meer.” Gage nodded to Alex as she rose. “This is my cousin, Phillip Edgewood. Phillip, Alexandra Meer, Fyra’s chief financial officer.”
The CFO and the senator shook hands politely, exchanging pleasantries while Cass shot Gage a look and hissed under her breath, “Senator Edgewood is your cousin? Since when?”
“Since I was born?” he suggested mildly. “His mother and my mother have been sisters for almost sixty years.”
“You never mentioned that.”
He shrugged, messing up the lines of his gorgeous suit, which was a shame. “I never mentioned a lot of things. Which, not so coincidentally, is why I’m here.”
With that cryptic comment hanging in the middle of everything, Gage repeated the introductions between Cass and Phillip and swung his attention back to Cass. “Phillip has graciously agreed to help Fyra navigate the FDA process required to get your formula to market. I came by with him today so you could meet him personally and get the ball rolling. Oh, and he’ll also help you grease the wheels at the patent office. The sooner you get going, the sooner the leak will become a nonissue.”
Cass’s mouth fell open. “We’re not—I mean...what?”
“That’s amazing, Gage,” Alex said, with a withering glance at Cass. To the senator, she said simply, “Thank you. We’re honored to have such expert assistance.”
“Yes, of course.” Cass nodded woodenly, her faculties still scattered. “Thank you. We appreciate the assistance.”
And now she sounded like a parrot instead of a savvy executive. Gage still fuzzled her mind.
The senator smiled at Alex, and it took over his entire body, as if he was lit from within. Charisma radiated from him like the corona around the sun. Cass started to get an inkling of what the fuss over him was all about.
“It’s no problem,” Phillip said, but he was looking at Alex as if Cass didn’t exist. “Is there somewhere we can go to talk? And of course, we should include your chief science officer.”
“Dr. Harper Livingston,” Alex interjected, and the two of them were off, their conversation deep in the details.
Looked as if Alex was more than willing to stay in the senator’s orbit, though he was hardly her type. They were a study in contrasts with Alex’s face bare of cosmetics and clad in a gray shirt and jeans. Senator Edgewood wore Armani and power, and not necessarily in that order.
