The elevator doors opened, and Brandon waited for me to walk out toward my sister and Aaron’s office, even though that meant he had to rush to open the office door for me. “Well, good afternoon Cassidy, Brandon,” Mrs. Carminati said with a wide smile. I just love her—she’s always so nice and sweet. “How are you today?”
“Great, thank you,” I said as Brandon nodded the same. “How are you?”
“Good, good. Your sister is expecting you. You two can head right on in.”
“Thanks,” Brandon said as he hurried to get the final door. I would be happy when I could set this mess down.
There were plenty of other papers spread out on the conference room table, though, and I realized my mom and Aaron had something in common. He scooted his into a stack quickly as I brought in my mom’s. “Hey,” I said to both of them. “Mom sent this with me, but if you two don’t mind, I saw something I’d like to look at.”
“Sure,” Aaron said, and I noticed how much clearer his blue eyes looked than the last time I’d seen him. “Let us know what you find.”
I nodded and unstacked Mom’s piles. There was just one piece of paper I needed right now, and I was hoping it was where I expected it to be. I flipped through the communication log, trying to find where Larundel was cleared.
“By the way, Cass,” Aaron said quietly as a few other people filed in, “I need to thank you.”
I glanced up, my eyes wide, not sure what to say. “Oh?” Of course, I knew what he was talking about, but I needed this to not be a big deal for some reason.
“Yeah. Thanks for... finding me. I don’t know what I would’ve done without you.” I could feel my cheeks turning pink, so I looked away. He may be my sister’s fiancé, but Aaron is unbelievably attractive—and he’s sort of my boss. He patted me on the shoulder. “I should’ve told you earlier, but I wanted to say something in person.”
“No, it’s fine,” I assured him, catching his eyes briefly before I looked back at the log. “No problem.”
He turned to welcome Meagan and Aurora, and I was glad to have the focus off of me as I continued to go through the correspondence, certain what I needed was right in front of me.
“What was that all about?” Brandon asked me through his IAC, causing me to lose focus for a second.
I realized I hadn’t even asked him how the unpacking had gone, but the fact that he hadn’t torn Aaron’s head off the second he walked in the door—or tried to anyway—made me think there were things he hadn’t mentioned to me either. “Oh, I uh, blocked Holland last night so Cadence and Jamie could see if they could bring Aaron back around, and it worked.”
“Oh. I guess that’s what he meant when he said he hadn’t been himself lately.”
“What do you mean?” I glanced up from my mom’s notes for a second, meaning to concentrate on Brandon, but over his shoulder, I saw Alex come in and didn’t hear most of what my boyfriend was saying to me. I wondered what in the world Alex was doing at our meeting. He’d never been to one before, at least not one where I was in attendance.
“So we’re good now,” Brandon concluded, and I smiled and nodded, assuming Aaron must’ve come and apologized for the moving truck earlier in the day, though I didn’t know when or by what method. It seemed like the Guardian Leader must not have told Brandon why he wasn’t acting like himself recently, though, since Brandon didn’t know why Aaron was thanking me.
I turned back to my papers for a second as Alex approached us. “Well, if it isn’t the talented teen duo,” he joked, extending his hand to Brandon first as I glanced out of the corner of my eye before swallowing hard and setting the papers down. “How are you, Mr. Keen.”
“Just fine, Mr. Hamilton. How are you?” Brandon was polite and shook the hand offered to him, but I could tell he was as puzzled as I was, and there might’ve been something else there as well.
“Wonderful, although I must admit I’m a bit nervous.” He leaned in closer to Brandon’s ear, and I gave him my full attention. “I haven’t been to a strategic meeting for as long as I can remember—and that’s a very long time.” He chuckled in that robust way that doesn’t quite match his small frame, and Brandon’s fake laughter sprang free as well. Alex leaned around Brandon who reluctantly took a step backward. “Miss Findley, how have you recovered from our outing? You did so well today.”
I slipped my hand into his and his other hand came around mine. A feeling of warmth spread up my arm, and words evaded me. If Brandon hadn’t cleared his throat, I may have stood there for the rest of my life—which could be indefinitely. “I’m good. Nice to see you again. Here. Nice to see you here.”
Alex didn’t pay any attention to my stammering. “It’s good to be here,” he said, but I knew that he was anxious. He pardoned himself and stepped around me to talk to Aaron, and I did my best not to eavesdrop. Aaron said something about thinking Alex could help us with a problem, but if he couldn’t it wasn’t a big deal, and I returned my eyes to my stack of notes.
“What was that?”
“What was what?” I said back to Brandon, pretending I didn’t know what he was talking about when obviously I did.
“Cass, since when do you not know how to formulate a complete sentence?”
“Oh, no, it’s not that.” I glanced up at him for only a second. “He makes me nervous because he always speaks so formally, and I’m not sure what to say.”
“Uhm hmmm.” My boyfriend wasn’t buying it, and I couldn’t blame him because it wasn’t true. The only problem was, I didn’t know what the truth was either. I love Brandon more than anything—more than anyone. But Alex had me confused, and I wasn’t sure how to deal with that or even why it was happening. I’d been pushing it out of my mind for far too long. I needed to face it. But at the moment, I needed to figure out what had happened at Larundel.