“Tell you what. Why don’t we go back inside and ask Natalie what she thinks? Maybe you could tell her all about the faculties project we didn’t get to in the meeting.” Harper folded his arms across his chest and waited. He didn’t look amused.

“Oh, uh, that project.” Dylan shrugged. “I agree with you. We’re on the same page, man. Don’t sweat it.”

Harper raised a brow. “That’s odd, because the faculties project doesn’t exist. I just made that up.”

“I knew that. I was messing with you.” Dylan needed to leave. Now. “You going to move or what, Harper?”

“What’s my last name?”

“Dumbass?”

Harper chuckled and stepped closer. They stood practically on top of each other, and Dylan swallowed hard. “Yeah, and there’s that,” Harper murmured with what sounded like satisfaction.

“What?”

Harper licked his lips. “That. In all the time I’ve known Derrick, he’s never looked at my mouth like he wants to fuck it.”

Dylan flushed. He tried to back away and found himself ass-up against the SUV. “I’m not sure what you mean. I, ah—”

“Come on. I know you’re not Derrick.”

Dylan groaned, because damn if he could stop thinking about fucking Harper’s mouth. So not professional, and worlds away from his brother’s personality. “It was that obvious I wasn’t Derrick?”

“Not to anyone who doesn’t really know him. I pay attention to the details. Your brother is a lot more fidgety than you. Too much nervous energy. And he’s never worn a watch. Ever. The guy is not obsessed with time.”

“Hell.” Dylan hadn’t thought anyone would notice. He went nowhere without his watch. Unlike his twin, he’d been born punctual. Two minutes before Derrick, in fact. “You’re not going to mention this to Natalie, are you?”

“Not if you explain it to me.” Harper didn’t move.

“You’re in my personal space.”

“I know.” That smoldering look Dylan couldn’t ignore.

He coughed and hoped Harper wouldn’t notice the erection he didn’t think the jeans masked.

So of course Harper backed up a pace and glanced at his crotch before meeting Dylan’s gaze with a smirk. “So what’s it going to be? I go in and tell Natalie you and Derrick are swapping places? It took Derrick a long time to get in her good graces. If she thinks she’s been played, she won’t like that. She’ll probably pull the deal. Or you can explain it right now.”

“I can’t.”

Harper turned to go, and Dylan grabbed his arm. “Wait! Okay? I lost a bet. I’d explain further, but I literally can’t tell you now, because I have a business appointment I can’t miss in another…” he looked at his watch, “…forty minutes that’s all the way across town. Unlike Derrick, I’m always on time. And I can’t miss this. I promise to tell you all about it later.”

Harper pursed his lips. “Hmm. Later, huh? Over dinner?”

“Sure. Yes. Dinner.” Whatever he wanted. Dylan had to go.

“Give me your number.” Harper pulled out his cell phone.

Dylan rattled off his phone number and Harper punched in the numbers.

“I’ll text you directions to the place,” Harper murmured. “It’s on the Hill, a nice place I think you’ll like…Doctor Warren.”

“Hell. You know who I am.” Great. Dylan could envision his clients, who came to him to help them solve their problems, learning that he’d swapped places with his brother to fool the city planner. What a wonderful note to put on his résumé. Immature? Check. Idiotic? Double check.

“I always look into the people Natalie hires. We’re all about avoiding scandal.”

Dylan suddenly recalled the last mayor’s abrupt exit from office, when several unapproved drains on the city’s budget had come under fire. Rumors of escort services and questionable use of government funds came to mind.

Harper added, “You Warrens are pretty popular in social circles and especially with this administration since you’ve done so much work for the city. Your brothers have a reputation. Gage is almost as bad as the, and I quote, ‘sexy Warren twins’.”

Dylan sighed. “Text me the directions and I’ll be there. Six okay?”

“Fine. See you then, Doc.” Harper left whistling, and Dylan decided that, bet or no bet, he planned on punching his brother as soon as the moron returned from his weekend away.

Conscious of losing valuable time, Dylan hurried into his brother’s SUV, now wondering why they’d bothered to swap their vehicles in the first place. He pulled out of the lot and drove in a hurry to his office. There, he changed into true business casual—khaki slacks, a button-down shirt, dress shoes, and his favorite cologne. He grabbed a sports coat from the coat rack, donned it, and hastened back into the SUV, now confident in his professional armor.

Twenty minutes later, after scrounging for a parking spot, he entered The Green Man, his mother’s favorite restaurant, and allowed the host to escort him to her table, expecting to find her alone.

“Dylan.” James Kincaid, his mother’s partner and the reason for Dylan’s constant headache, smiled up at him.

“You’re right on time.” His mother smiled as well and accepted his kiss on her cheek.

“James. Mom.” He should have known better than to think she’d make the meeting easy on him. Then again, perhaps with James present, she wouldn’t pester Dylan about his lack of a social life. “Although, this is a working lunch. Should I say Doctors Kincaid and Warren?”

“Now, Dylan. This is a friendly lunch.” James shook his head.

Who the hell had asked him to speak? Dylan cocked a brow. “Friendly?” How friendly are you with my mother, asshole? Dylan had been dreading this meeting for weeks, pretty sure the vibe he’d been getting from James and his mother meant more than business.

“Dylan.” His mother shot him a warning frown, then eased her lips into a smile when she looked at James. A man several years her junior. Her partner, for God’s sake. “Well, James? Should we tell him?”

Oh no. Please. Anything but that he’d have to call James “Dad”.

James cleared his throat. It annoyed Dylan that the guy looked closer to Dylan’s age than his mother’s, though he knew James to be in his early fifties. Bright blue eyes, black hair that had only recently begun to gray, and a muscular frame held James in good stead with the ladies, or so his mother’s secretary seemed to think. Diane knew everything about everything, and she loved dishing to Dylan during his visits.

James nodded to Dylan’s mother, and she said, “We’d love for you to join us, Dylan. James and I have been talking. We want to cut back on the work we have. Time to start enjoying retirement.”

Dylan frowned. He hadn’t expected that. The relief he should have felt, that his mother wasn’t going to profess her undying love for James, slid under worry. “Retirement? You’re ready to quit the practice?” He knew his mother had money, but not enough that she’d leave a lucrative job so soon. He thought she enjoyed her work.

“No.” James shook his head. Then, to Dylan’s dismay, the other shoe dropped. James covered Barbara’s hand. In front of Dylan. “Your mother and I are seeing each other. We want to start enjoying ourselves more, and we thought you’d be the perfect man to step in. We’ve been talking about bringing someone in for a while, to free up our hours.”

“You’re stellar with your patients, and there’s no one we’d trust more,” his mother said kindly.

What was all this we nonsense? Dylan didn’t often swear, but between his brother and mother, he felt more than ready to curse a blue streak. He deliberately clamped down on his emotions, conscious of the way his mother and James were watching him.

Considering he’d known this was coming, he should have been better prepared to handle the news. He’d analyzed his growing hostility toward James, knew he had issues concerning his own relationship with his mother that he transferred to James, but he hadn’t yet resolved his feelings. Though his father had been dead for over ten years, he still seemed like such a large presence in Barbara’s life.

Dylan cleared his throat and forced a smile. “I’ll have to take some time to consider joining you. I do appreciate the offer, I hope you know.” He swallowed a large mouthful of water and decided to ignore their being a couple for now. “I have my own patients at the hospital, but I’ve been toying with the idea of branching out on my own.”

He couldn’t look away from their joined hands. Especially when James stroked Barbara’s with his thumb.

Jealousy ate at Dylan like a cancer, shocking in its ferocity. Jealousy? Was that it? He didn’t like another man taking the role he’d assumed when his father had passed? Dylan did his best to keep a calm expression and took another large sip of water.

“Dylan?” his mother asked softly.

Saved by an arriving waiter, he brought himself back under control while everyone ordered. The waiter left, and he spoke before he could reconsider his answer, separating business from personal concerns. “Joining you would be a smart move for my career. You already have an established clientele. Many of whom would view me as an extension of you, Mom, to ease the transfer of cases. I’ll also have several who will follow me into the practice, I’d think. On the surface, it seems like a no-brainer. But I’ll think on it, if you don’t mind.”

“I would expect nothing less.” Barbara’s eyes sparkled with joy.

“Terrific.” James slapped him on the back, and Dylan smiled through gritted teeth.

Swear to God, he calls me “Son” and I’ll lose it.

Thankfully, his mother turned the conversation toward his younger brother’s pending nuptials. Gage and Hailey made a terrific couple, and his heart lightened at the thought of being an uncle someday. At the rate those two went at it, he figured he didn’t have long to wait. The waiter brought their food, and they ate while discussing Derrick as well.