Page 33 of Capitally Engaged

“Don’t forget to see if Laurel confirmed about the bagels. See you at 5:30.”

I grabbed my phone and saw confirmation from Laurel she had placed a bagel order weeks ago, along with a quip about men being helpless.

“She’s on it. Night, Jax.”

Sometimes, it wasn’t so bad to have someone in your corner backing you up. I fell asleep smiling.

The smile disappeared as I stood along the banks of the Anacostia River along the Anacostia River Trail as the sun was brightening the sky.

“Here, have a bagel, grumpy Gus,” Jax said, handing me one with plenty of cream cheese, just the way I liked it. “Aren’t you supposed to be the morning person in this relationship?”

“Hmph,” I said, biting into my bagel, the taste of the everything seasoning and creamy filling lifting my spirits a bit.

“There he is,” Jax teased, her eyes focusing on something behind me. “Incoming,” she muttered.

“Well, if it isn’t our love birds.”

I turned around to face my older brother, somehow still looking very much like a CEO in work pants and boots. It must be all in the posture.

“Hi, Duncan, it’s great to meet you.” Jax stuck out her hand, which Duncan accepted, his raised eyebrow indicating he was impressed.

“Likewise, Jax. I’d say I’m sure we would have met sooner, but I was out of the country. Though since none of us knew you existed until that ring was on your finger, I’m not so sure that’s the truth.” Duncan pinned me with a glance. Sometimes he forgot he wasn’t actually our father, even though he had helped out a ton to raise us while Dad worked after Mom died.

“Can we not do this right?—”

“That’s on me.” Jax cut me off with a hand on my arm. “I have some personal things surrounding family, and I asked Preston if we could wait to broaden our circle for a while.”

Both of us looked at her, me in surprise that she would sprinkle some of her personal truth around the lie she weaved to get Duncan off my back. Duncan’s eyes showed respect. He valued someone who took ownership and didn’t shrink in the face of adversity.

“I can appreciate that. We just want to meet who each other is serious about, especially Preston after?—”

“Oh, look at that, it’s Hayden and Charlotte and Hunter,” I exclaimed, cutting Duncan off and shooting him a glare. We werenotgoing to talk about my past relationship on the side of the river.

We all exchanged handshakes and hugs, me holding Hunter for a second longer than necessary. I didn’t get to see him much, and I worried, but he didn’t like to know that. So an extra-long hug was the best I could do to let him know I had his back.

Hunter eventually pushed me away, sticking his hand out to Jax. “So you’re the gal who finally got my brother to thaw his heart again, huh? Great to meet you.”

I groaned as Jax and Hunter shook hands. Jax raised an eyebrow at me, but the organizer of the cleanup yelled for everyone’s attention and saved me from having to respond.

After we broke into groups, each covering a different part of the trail, I held my hand on Jax’s arm to hold her back from our team slightly.

“Hey, about what Hunter said,” I started.

She shook her head. “It’s fine, Preston. I’m not an idiot. You had a ring ready with your mother’s jewelry in it. There’s obviously a story there. If things weredifferent, I hope you’d tell me.” She glanced around making sure none of my family was in earshot. “But since they’re not. It’s okay. I don’t need to know.” She smiled at me and walked away to catch up with Charlotte, the two of them falling into quick conversation about some new romance novel as they stabbed at trash along the ground.

Duncan came up behind me, clapping his hand on my shoulder. “I like her. I think she’s good for you.”

I looked up at him in surprise, because of course the asshole was the tallest in the family, and the richest. “You barely talked to her. You, Mister-background-checks-his-Tinder-dates, like her?”

“It’s not Tinder. It’s a dating app for men of means, and I don’t do background checks on them, the app does. Butanyway, yes, I like her. She stood up for you, and she’s here, facing all of this.” He gestured to our family with his own stick. I considered his words. One of Duncan’s biggest problems with Diana, my ex,had always been that she never showed up. Jax did more than that for a fake relationship.

“And besides,” he said, walking toward the rest of the group. “You can’t keep your eyes off her.”

Chapter

Fourteen

Jax

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