It was unusual for Pepper to be late for her standing lunch date with her brother, but then again, these were unusual circumstances. Peter seemed to have forgotten entirely that he was living with her, Tony, Ryder and Morgan. Madison Valley had done some weird things to them in the past, but she most assuredly did not like it when those things messed with her family. She knew reasoning with him wouldn't work, that he was determined to believe he'd been abandoned at birth and had only just now returned to Madison Valley in search of his birth mother. As much as she'd wanted to be able to lie to him and say he'd found her, this was his home, she couldn't bring herself to do it so she compiled a list of all the likely suspects and helped him narrow it down. She was fairly certain it was Jane, just based on the history alone, but she was doing her best to let it go and simply be there for Peter once it was all over.
"Phil," she replied as she leaned down to press a kiss against his cheek. As far as siblings went, they had learned from an early age that they got more accomplished working together rather than against one another. That had proven very useful over the years and they both had incredibly successful careers as a result. "I'm sorry I'm late. It seems there's something going on with Peter and I got held up trying to help him with it," she explained as she took her seat.
"And don't think I haven't noticed you've still got your phone out. You know the rules," she chided, though it was entirely playful. The rule had always been no phones, no work, no distractions. Just the two of them catching up with one another on the week past and what was coming up.