Michael quickly regained his composure though. “Well, that’s fair enough. Because I haven’t heard anything about you either. You must be Adam’s, uh…girlfriend?”

She didn’t even hesitate. “No, we’re just friends.”

Man, that stung. Apparently the woman was on a roll tonight.

“She’s a client,” Adam stated, hoping his brother would get the message that she was off-limits…to the both of them.

Preslee gazed at him with an unreadable expression before turning to his brother and offering a handshake. “I’m Preslee. It’s nice to meet you, Michael.”

“The pleasure is mine, I assure you.” Adam’s brother grasped her hand and brought it up to his lips, gently kissing the back of it. Well, so much for him getting the message.

Adam groaned under his breath and rolled his eyes. Michael had always been more sophisticated than him, but that fake, debonair crap wasn’t going to work on an intelligent, modern woman like Preslee. She would see right through his brother’s chivalrous act and realize what a piece of work he was.

Her blue eyes widened. “Wow! Such a gentleman. I’ve never had a guy kiss my hand before. I thought it was something they only did in old movies.”

Michael winked at her. “Then you’ve clearly been hanging out with the wrong guys.”

She smiled adoringly at him.

Oh, come on! Really? Why did women fall for that kind of stupid crap?

Just because Michael pressed his lips to her hand didn’t make him any more of a gentleman than Adam. In fact, Michael had just kissed her hand without permission.

Adam cut in, his tone gruff. “How long are you staying?”

His brother shrugged. “Depends. I heard there’s a 5K charity mud run coming up on Saturday. I know how much you like stuff like that, and it’s not far away. Thought maybe we could participate in it.”

Adam blinked. “Together?”

Michael chuckled. “Well, that is usually what we means.”

Though he had always run on treadmills to keep in shape, Michael had never before participated in any races that Adam knew about, much less a more-challenging mud run obstacle course. Why was he so interested in doing so now? “What’s your motive?”

“Don’t have one. We haven’t spent much time hanging out the last few years. This is more your thing than mine, but I thought it would be something fun for us to do together. If you’re interested, I mean.”

Adam gazed at his brother, who was apparently trying to fix things between them. He wasn’t sure if that was possible, but if Michael was willing to give it a shot, Adam would too. “All right. I’m in.”