I should have told her right there and then that I wasn’t the center hockey player everyone was waiting on. I should have told her I was his levelheaded twin brother, but I was running on too much adrenaline to think straight at the moment. No one but Ryan knew about Troy’s breakdown and it was too soon to tell anyone else.

Especially someone who hated the man.

Or so I hoped she did.

Nervous tension shot through my veins when I considered that it would mean I’d have to talk to her as August. I was never able to talk to her the way I had these last few days. There was a freedom and safety knowing she thought I was my brother. The confident one.

And what the hell was that back on the sidewalk—was I flirting with her?

That never would have flown well if I was just August. I would have stumbled, tripped probably, but with the confidence of Troy Hartman, well, the Troy he typically was, not the child he was regressing to now, it was easy.

Harper Maxwell made it very clear he was the one she couldn’t get over after all these years. It was the only thing about my brother I envied.

I hit ignore on a call from one of my associates who was working on an important transaction this evening and I knew he’d be calling back.

I always made myself available to my team, and this broke me inside. I couldn’t very well answer that call and start talking about investment strategies with Harper here.

When he called again, I got antsy. “Get off the next exit. I’ll call an Uber.”

“I’m sorry—am I driving too slow?” she shouted, clearly annoyed. Then hit the gas and veered lanes so we could pick up the pace to ninety miles per hour.

I grabbed onto the door handle. “Harper, slow down. You’re going to get us killed.” I looked over, expecting to find her in full on road rage, instead, my chest clenched finding a beautiful, brilliant smile on her face as she swerved the wheel.

“This is so cool; I could never do this upstate. Especially when my parents were in the car.” Her smile fell only slightly, but I noticed.

Slipping my phone away, I put a hand over hers on the shift handle and spoke in a soft voice. “Slow down, Harp. We’ll make it.”

She nodded rapidly, keeping her eyes on the road. “I’m doing you a favor here, Hartman.”

“You’re right. You’re right, I apologize.” I could feel her unshed tears and it broke my heart to just ignore it. Harper didn’t know me well, other than I was the strange twin who was obsessed with robotics and arithmetic.

When in fact, my obsession was surrounding myself with things my brother couldn’t follow. Couldn’t take away from me.