Chapter 13
Chapter
Thirteen
Preston
Jax and I slid into a more comfortable co-existence following our night at the Library of Congress. Did that involve me being more physically aware of her whenever we shared a room? It did. But this familiar, if platonic, version of our relationship was preferable to the strained version from before.
“Preston, I need the speech for the Young Liberal’s fund dinner. And also pass the lo mein.”
“I’ll have it for you in five,” I answered while pushing the white carton across the coffee table.
The primary elections in Rhode Island were in ten days, and we hadn’t left the office before seven all week. Even liaising with the campaign team seemed to take longer than normal. I couldn’t imagine what things would have been like if Jax hadn’t been around.
Her genius wasn’t limited to the office. We currently were trying to cram a Saturday’s worth of work into Friday evening at home so we could have a day off tomorrow. The weather forecast predicted a sixty-degree day and sunshine. The spring thaw had officially arrived in Washington, DC.
“Okay, sent. I think that’s it.”
“Knock on wood right now, Brandt. Open a file or your email, quick,” she responded, not even bothering to look over at me.
I smiled, bringing up my email inbox, not wanting to close my computer until Jax was finished with the speech I just sent her. There were always emails to answer.
She slammed the lid of her laptop moments later and threw it onto the couch next to her, stretching with a groan. “Okay, done. Are you sure we have to go outside tomorrow and enjoy the weather? Staying in bed all day, watching the sun from inside, also sounds pretty great.”
My phone buzzed from the table, distracting me from images of staying in bed with Jax all day. I needed to cool it. Duncan’s name flashed on the screen. I debated ignoring it, but if he was actually calling, he wouldn’t give up until he talked to me.
“Hey, Dunc, Happy Friday. What’s up?”
“Just calling to confirm you and your lovely fiancée you’ve managed to share very few details about will be at the Brandt Investing International cleanup day at the river tomorrow.”
I managed to stifle a groan. I completely forgot I agreed to help with BII’s community service day tomorrow.
“Oh yup, we’ll be there. It’s been on our minds all week.”
Jax’s head whipped in my direction, mouthing, “What?” I shook my head at her, but clicked my phone on speaker so she could hear. “Jax is here now, actually.”
“I’d really think someone with your political aspirations would be better at lying by now, Prez,” Duncan said, pulling out my family nickname. Jax’s eyes lit up with glee and I cringed, sure I’d never live that one down.
“We’ll be there, no doubt. What time again?”
I could almost hear Duncan roll his eyes. “I had my assistant email you the details five minutes ago. Remember, you, Laurel, and now the lovely Jax are on bagel duty.”
This time the groan slipped out as I slumped on the couch, my head lying on the back cushions. Duncan had corralled Laurel and Caitlin into volunteering too, months ago, when he came up to the office with me to pick something up.
“See you both at 7:00 a.m. Don’t be late.” The glee in his voice was just cruel.
I hung up without saying goodbye, though regretted it a second later, and sent a “Night, Dunc” text. He acknowledged with a thumbs up shortly after.
“So, we’re cleaning up a river tomorrow? With your brother?”
I rolled my head so I was looking in her direction. “At least we’ll be outside in the nice weather?”
She laughed at my pain. “I’ll need to find something that looks fiancée-like with my goulashes. I’ll definitely want to be sure to leave the ring behind.”
I scrubbed my hands over my face, picking my phone up to text Laurel and hope she had remembered bagels.
“So, tell me what I need to know for tomorrow. I’m honestly surprised we’ve made it this long without another brother run-in.”
I pushed myself up and grabbed the picture of the five of us from a barbecue at Dad and Margaret’s house two summers ago.
I pointed to the photo. “You met Hayden at the fundraiser.”
She nodded. “And his girlfriend is Charlotte, who works with bookstores. What does he do? Will she be there?”
I smiled at her thoroughness, then I frowned. Maybe we should have been doing this all along—it was a lot to keep track of in one night.
“Right now, Hayden works for Duncan, but he’s leaving soon to form his own consulting firm under the umbrella of Duncan’s company. He works in IT and wants to help start-ups with their technology. And yes, I would bet Charlotte will be there. It’s looking to be a whole family affair. Hunter”—I pointed at the picture again—“Hayden’s twin, is in town this weekend too. Uncertain if that was scheduled before or after Duncan roped us all into this cleanup.”
“And what does Hunter do?”
I paused for a beat. “Hunter is a bit of a wanderer. He’s still searching for his calling, moving from job to job. I may have mentioned he lives in Holly Ridge, where Dad and Margaret live, but he finally got his own place a few years ago. I think that was good for him.”
Jax nodded again, taking a turn to point at the picture. “And so that is Duncan, the oldest and protector of rivers.” I laughed, picturing Duncan’s face if Jax ever called him a tree hugger. “And that,” she continued, “is Spencer, the baby. He’s doing something academic, right?”
I looked over at her. She shrugged. “You talk about them more than you think you do. I had vague pieces of the puzzle, but figured this was the time to bring it all into focus.”
I nodded, trying to hide my shock. My brothers were important to me, but it was rare that I shared them with people right away. They were precious relationships, ones I didn’t expose easily.
“All right. Well, I think that should cover it. I’m pretty good at going with the flow and uncovering connections as they unveil themselves. We should take care of this”—she nodded to the chaos filled coffee table in front of us—“and get to sleep. The river calls and we must go.”
I stood, gathering the remnants of our dinner as Jax grabbed our laptops and put them next to the TV, out of the way. The containers filled up the small kitchen trash can, so after rinsing the dishes, I grabbed the bag to take it to the trash chute by the elevators.
When I returned, Jax was climbing into bed, her face clean and hair piled on top of her head. She settled under the covers.
“Hey,” I said, standing awkwardly in the middle of the room. “Thanks for rolling with it, and being willing to go tomorrow. I’m sure it’s not your ideal Saturday, but it means a lot.”
Jax shrugged, but a small smile turned up her lips. “I know it’s not easy for you to lie to your family about our relationship. Me refusing to go would make you lie even more and probably create a lot of questions. Besides, how a person acts around his family can tell you a lot about them. I’m having fun figuring you out, Brandt.”
With that, she rolled over, pulling the blankets tight up to her neck. Her words bounced in my head as I brushed my teeth and got my couch bed situated before turning off the lights. Just as I tucked myself in, I heard Jax’s voice, muffled into her pillow.
“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.
T he 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 were not going 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 were different , 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. But anyway , 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.”