That was the closest Cole had come to smiling since Gabe’s first text tonight. “I suspect he might but there’s no proof.”

“And Gabe does what?”

“VP of Human Resources.”

“What about your other two brothers?”

“Drake works part time in the Hopkins store by choice. He’s also a personal trainer and somewhat of a flake. Zane is in the military.”

Sierra crunched on another handful of candy. “I never once put together your last name with the sporting goods chain.”

That was just the way he liked it. “It has nothing to do with me.”

He’d made sure of that when he graduated from high school and made an adamant point of signing away his rights to his financial share of the company.

He didn’t want to talk about it anymore, although the subject was slightly better than thinking about what might be happening upstairs with his mom.

A wave of fear washed through him at the thought. Cold, black, nauseating fear centered in his chest.

He picked up the unopened plain candy package from the table, gripped it hard, shoved it in the pocket of his suit jacket. He fought to get back to the inane chitchat of sixty seconds ago, to put the fear out of his head, but he couldn’t escape it this time. It was as if the numbness defense was wearing off, like some Harry Potter spell.

Suddenly burning up, sweating, he whipped his jacket off, set it aside on the bench. He unbuttoned his shirt sleeves and pushed them up, his heart hammering with anxiety.

“Cole? Are you okay?”

He rotated to the end of his bench, feeling trapped in the small booth. “Yeah,” he lied.

He stood, free of the booth now but finding no relief. He paced deeper into the labyrinth of booths and tables, seeing nothing but the images in his mind of his mom, her warm smile, her love and concern for her sons that shined in her eyes, always.

He tried to think whether she’d looked tired or pale or unwell lately but—fuck—the truth of the matter was that he hadn’t seen her for a few weeks. That was on him. Son of a bitch, that was all on him. Sunday nights were family dinner night, every week, without fail, and Faye North cooked her heart out for her boys every single time, but Cole hadn’t made the effort to show up for at least a month. Not for any reason other than spending time with his family was not something he enjoyed, and he hadn’t felt like dealing with it.

“Is there anything I can do?” Sierra was right behind him, and her closeness startled the shit out of him.

“I just… Give me a minute.”