Page 18 of Capitally Engaged

“I’ll have to keep that in mind.”

“Besides, right now, I’m the only non-Brandt at family dinners other than their stepmom, Margaret. As long as you love each other, I’m not too pressed about how this all came to be. I’ll just be glad to have someone to share incredulous looks with.”

Keeping the same smile on my face suddenly took more effort. Not having any living immediate family meant you didn’t have to deal with familial expectations. It surprised me to find myself susceptible to the ones Charlotte was leveraging at me, all in good faith, since she thought Preston and I were really engaged.

Preston and Hayden came to a dead stop at the end of a corridor around the corner from the ballroom.

“Springing a fucking fiancée on us, Preston? Are you kidding me?”

“Hey now,” Preston said. “Watch yourself.”

Hayden took a deep breath, his eyes turning to me.

“I’m sorry, Jax. I didn’t mean any offense. I’m sure you’re wonderful if my brother loves you. I’m just extremely caught off guard.”

I put my hands up in a conciliatory gesture. “No offense taken here. I understand it being a surprise.”

“How long have you been dating? Have you been lying to us when we asked you if you were seeing anyone? Pardon the phrasing, but seriously, bro, what the fuck?”

“We’ve been in each other’s orbits for a while now with her former job as a reporter and my job with the senator. We finally went out for the first time a few months ago, and I didn’t say anything because I wasn’t sure where things were going. I didn’twant to introduce her to the whole Brandt circus unnecessarily. Then suddenly, earlier this week, things weren’t so casual anymore, and now here we are.”

Hayden took a step closer to Preston and lowered his voice, trying to make sure Charlotte and I couldn’t hear, but he wasn’t nearly far enough away.

“But, are you sure? I mean, this isn’t like?—”

“Enough,” Preston said, his tone so forceful Hayden stepped back. “I understand where you’re coming from, but I’m going to need you to trust me when I say that what Jax and I have is nothing like any relationship I’ve had before. I’d appreciate it if you could keep this news to yourself for a little while, so I can be the one to let everyone else know.”

Hayden nodded, struck silent. Charlotte’s eyes were wide, darting back and forth between all of us, but she kept quiet as well.

“Now, if you’ll excuse us, I promised my fiancée a dance at our first public event together. Maybe we can all get dinner sometime soon?”

Silence hung in the air for a beat more before Charlotte ended it. “We’d love that. Just name the time and place. We’ll be there.”

Preston nodded, putting a hand on his brother’s shoulder briefly before holding that same arm out to me and escorting me back to the ballroom. Preston’s eyes stayed resolutely on the hallway in front of us, but I snuck a peek over my shoulder, where Hayden watched us leave as Charlotte wrapped her arm around his back.

Preston stayed silent as we reentered the ballroom, working our way toward the dance floor. We stopped in the middle of the crowd, blending in with the rest of the couples moving to the slow melody coming from the speakers. Preston put his armon my shoulder and took my hand in his, duplicating our dance posture from earlier today.

We swayed in a slow circle for a bit before I found myself unable to take the silence any longer.

“So, that went well . . .”

Preston bent his head so it was resting on my shoulder, and I felt his shoulders start to shake.

“Hey, it’s okay. It seemed like he started to come around to things...”

I trailed off as Preston brought his head back up, and I saw laughter on his face, not tears.

“I can’t believe the senator outed us like that, so casually. I think maybe he thought we were lying and wanted to see if calling us out in front of my brother would call my bluff. What a mess.”

His shoulders stopped moving, and he let out a huge sigh.

“Well, now Hayden knows, so hopefully the senator’s doubts are assuaged. Will Hayden really not tell the rest of your family? Or can we expect more confused phone calls? Assuming you still want to tell them? That did seem a little rough.”

Preston’s hand started to draw small circles on my back.

“I didn’t like lying to him. But he’ll give me a few days to tell them, even if it kills him to do so. My brothers are terrible gossips. And I’ve ripped the Band-Aid off now. One brother down, three to go. As long as you’re still okay with this. I don’t want you to feel like collateral damage to my family’s dynamics.”

I shook my head.

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