“Blaspheme. Peanut butter cups are one of my favorites, but if you want hard-shelled candies with peanut butter, M&Ms hands down.”

She punched in the number for Peanut Butter M&Ms, and then she hit another number, and he watched the Plain M&Ms fall to the trough. She bent to retrieve both, then handed him the plain. His appetite was in negative numbers, but he took them anyway.

“Let’s sit,” she said, and she led him down one of the aisles of tables to a booth with high backs in semidarkness.

They seemed to have the whole area to themselves, and he couldn’t think of a better place to wait for news. The thought of returning to the circus upstairs made his stomach hurt.

“Your brothers seem friendly,” she said as she slid onto one bench, careful with her dress, and he sat across the table from her. “Well, Gabe was friendly. Mason seemed preoccupied and upset, which is understandable.”

“Gabe’s okay. He gets along with everybody.” He was the one Cole was closest to, though the word close was misleading.

Sierra nodded. “What’s Mason’s story?”

“Uptight oldest-brother overachiever syndrome, I think they call it.”

She smiled as if she knew what he was talking about as she tore off the corner of her candy package.

“He’s the one who always does the right thing. Well, Gabe mostly does too, but Mason thinks he’s better than everyone because he does.”

“Jackson’s an overachiever too,” she said of her brother, who he knew was the oldest Lowell sibling. “You probably have to be one to be the CEO of a large, fast-growing company.”

Cole gave a halfhearted scoff. “You might be on to something. Mason is the CEO of the family business.”

“Family business?” Sierra asked, her brows dipping in confusion as she popped a handful of M&Ms in her mouth.

He took a swallow of hot, over-strong coffee that would surely burn a hole in his gut if he had more than one cup. When he set it back on the table, he said, “North Brothers Sports.”

“What?” Sierra’s eyes doubled in size and she leaned forward. “The North Brothers Sports? On Hopkins Road?”

“Hopkins on the west side, Gateshire on the east, plus stores in Memphis, Knoxville, and Chattanooga,” he recited.

“And those North brothers are yours.”

“Originally, the North brothers were Harrison and Hamilton North, my dad and uncle. Now it’s Mason and Gabe and some cousins.”

“But not you,” she said. “Why not you?”

The answer to that was long and convoluted, but he simply said, “Not interested.”

“So Mason’s the CEO. Sort of explains the suit.” She checked the time on her phone and he could see it upside down—11:42 p.m. “Sort of not. Does he sleep in it?”