Page 146 of Unexpected Hero

Lettie

Gotta let you go. It’s fixin’ to get busy. Thanks for making me feel better, lickety-clit. I love you.

Stella

Love you too.

Chapter 29

Twerking and the Micropenis

TOMER

Klein repeatedly shifts his gaze between me and his screen, his eyes dancing with scantly restrained excitement. “Have we got it, T?”

My fingers rhythmically tap on my desk as I study the results in disbelief. “I think so.”

Shooting his arms toward the ceiling, he bounds from his chair, sending it rolling a few feet behind him. “Hell yes. Tomer, we did it. Hell to the fuck yes!”

I clench my right hand into a fist, pumping it subtly. “We fucking did it.”

On the inside, I’m as excited as my partner. But years of repressing my emotions make it challenging to unleash them.

Moving behind me, Klein clamps his hands onto my shoulders and shakes me vigorously. “You bet your sweet ass we did. It’s time to celebrate. Shut everything off. We’re going out tonight.”

He dances around the office, shaking his bubble butt comically. “Twerk with me, T. Twerk it.” He lowers into a squat and pops his hips rhythmically to the big band music blaring from the speakers. His dancing is atrocious but funny. “Come on, twerk it. Pop it. Mm. Mm. Yeah. Why aren’t you dancing? Just throw it back, buddy.”

Deep swells of laughter rumble from the base of my gut. I’m too tired and happy to tamp down the silliness any longer. “I’ll go for a drink, but I’m eighty-sixing the twerking. That’s a hard limit.”

Still cackling at himself, he ceases his frolicking and pulls out his phone. “I’m texting Kri and the guys to join us. Where should we meet them?”

“I don’t care.”

He lowers his forehead and shoots me a face-splitting grin. “You know where Sawyer will suggest we go.”

“Sassy Parrot,” I answer.

“Sassy Parrot,” he confirms a second later.

Leo’s sister, Sammy, works at that dive bar near the beach. By now, everyone but Leo has picked up on how much Sawyer wants her.

Standing, I press my hands into my lower back and arch my spine in a much-needed stretch. “Sassy Parrot is fine with me.”

Four weeks.

Four fucking weeks of twenty-hour days, often crashing in the bunk room. My shoulders have more knots than all the ropes I’ve ever tied.

It nearly killed us, but we finally completed the last round of testing for the customer-facing security monitor software. All the fucking glitches and bugs were stamped out. The hardware and physical components cleared the testing phase. Klein configured the demo pieces to meet our needs, and all his modifications are up to snuff.

There’s still a lot to do before it’s ready for residential implementation, but the heavy lifting is done.

Thank fuck.

My Redleg phone chimes, so I spare it a glance. It’s Klein messaging the gang. The replies begin chirping a few seconds later.

Klein shuts down his system and turns off the music. “I’m stepping out for a quick call to check on someone. Be right back. We leave in ten minutes. Be ready, or I’ll leave your sorry ass behind.”

Blowing him off, I wave noncommittally over my shoulder. Once he’s out, I retrieve my personal phone to check on Lettie.

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