Page 34 of Capitally Engaged

Spending three hours cleaning up trash may not have been how I imagined spending my Saturday off, but I had to admit to feeling refreshed from the fresh air. Preston’s brothers were entertaining, and Charlotte and I could talk about books for hours. Not the worst way to spend a day off, plus we gathered a ton of trash from along the walking path.

I bent over to touch my toes, stretching out my back, waiting for our host to officially dismiss us.

“Dude, ogle your fiancée’s ass in public a little less. There are kids around.”

I stood up and turned around to find Preston’s cheeks flushed pink and Hunter wearing a shit-eating grin. I smiled and walked over to the brothers. I leaned toward Preston’s ear, intentionally choosing the side Hunter stood on and said, “Why look when you can touch?” in a low voice.

To my delight, Preston’s cheeks got darker before he got a determined look in his eye. He slid his arm down my back, resting his hand on my ass. To my surprise, he slid my puffyvest and long-sleeve tee up my back slightly before hooking his thumb into the waistband of my yoga pants.

My shirt moved back down, covering his wandering thumb, which he proceeded to slide back and forth over the sliver of skin he had exposed. My breath caught, surprised to find my lower back, or more accurately, upper ass, to be such an erogenous zone. A pleased smirk crossed Preston’s face before he returned his attention to Hunter.

“So what’s next?” Preston asked, pulling on the hand tucked into my pants so I had no choice but to step back next to him. I kept what I hoped was a normal smile on my face, while most of my attention focused on the two inches of flesh my fake fiancé kept stroking.

“What do you think, Jax?” Laurel, who apparently had joined our group in the past few minutes since my world was centered on a thumb, asked me.

“Oh, yeah, sounds great,” I said, not wanting to give away how distracted I was.

She clapped her hands in glee. “Great, girls’ brunch! We’re meeting my cousin too. I think you guys will get along great.”

I looked up at Preston. “I guess I’m going to girls’ brunch.”

Preston removed his hand and smiled knowingly at me. “I guess so. We’re going to brunch too, it turns out. You would have been invited, but Charlotte can’t come either, so now the brothers have an opportunity to grill me about our engagement. Thanks a lot.” He smiled at me to lessen the sting of his words. I could tell in his eyes he was excited to spend time with his brothers, even if it meant time in the hot seat.

“Well, I guess I’ll see you back at the apartment then.” I found myself looking between Preston’s lips and his eyes. Would his brothers expect us to kiss goodbye? In the early morning fogginess, having this conversation after our library make out last week hadn’t crossed my mind.

“I guess so,” Preston said, his eyes doing their own bouncing, a question in them.

I nodded slightly, and Preston leaned down to place a gentle peck on my lips before pulling away. He walked toward his brothers and Hayden threw his arm around Preston’s neck as they set off toward their next stop.

Laurel came to stand next to me as I watched them walk away. “So, it’s a good thing brunch includes mimosas, right?”

I looked over at her, catching the knowing look in her eye.

“I think I’m going to need a few. Hold the juice.”

“Pretty sure we can make that happen.” Laurel laughed and looped her arm through mine, leading me over to where Caitlin waited by their car.

The temperature finally cracked sixty degrees by the time we reached the restaurant. Between the plentiful sunshine and no breeze, it was a perfect day to sit outside and we were lucky enough to snag the last four top in Shaw’s Tavern’s outdoor dining section.

“Hi, Penny. We’re all going to take bottomless mimosas and some bread for the table, please,” Laurel said, as our waitress came over to greet us.

“Three for bottomless mimosas?” Penny confirmed with a smile. A busboy appeared, as if by magic, dropping off a basket of bread and olive oil for dipping.

“Make that four,” a voice came from behind us, and Laurel stood up to hug a tall, beautiful redhead. The newcomer wore jeans and a blazer, putting us to shame in our river cleanup garb.

“Four it is,” Penny said with a smile, walking away to put in our orders.

“Michelle, this is my new coworker, Jax. Jax, meet Michelle, my cousin, who’s new to DC.”

Michelle waved at me from across the table as she grabbed a slice of bread. “Hi, Jax. My cousin here tells me we should be friends. I’m not sure if she means that or if she’s just sick of being the only person I know in the city outside of work.”

“Hi,” I answered. “Well, she tells me you live by a place with great margaritas, so as long as you like tequila, I think we’ll be fast friends.”

Michelle laughed. “Tequila and tacos, the foundation for any true friendship.”

We made small talk, Michelle answering questions from Caitlin and Laurel about settling in and how her first week of work had gone.

Michelle heaved a heavy sigh. “It’s fine. My boss called me in yesterday to tell me I needed to tone down the technical talk in my forecasts. Apparently, we’ve gotten some complaints.”

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