Page 139 of The Nanny and the Nerd
Phoebe took a step back, then tapped her foot twice.
“Phoebe!” he exclaimed.
“I tappedhel-lo, Uncle Row. Notbutt-hole.” She smiled at Chuck. “You’re the domino guy. I’ve seen you here before.”
“That I am, little miss.”
“I like your beard, Chuck,” Phoebe offered with a sparkle in her eyes.
“Thank you,” he answered with a low chuckle.
Phoebe glanced at the table, then touched the photograph. “Who’s that?” she asked, tapping her little finger above his mother’s head.
He couldn’t speak. He didn’t know what to say to the child.
Chuck met his gaze. “Her name is Phoebe.”
“That’s my name!” Phoebe exclaimed, grinning ear to ear, then went back to studying the image. “She looks nice.”
“She was,” Chuck replied, his eyes shining.
“Does she like hot dogs?” his niece continued.
“She did,” the man answered with a slight shake to the words.
“It must be a Phoebe thing,” the girl chimed.
Rowen smiled at his niece. “It must be.”
“And look, Uncle Row! It’s one of your dominoes!” she exclaimed.
“It sure is,” he answered, sharing a look with Chuck.
She picked up the tile and placed it in the box. “There! It’s back where it belongs,” she said, then scrunched up her face, thinking hard. “What else could we put in the box? I don’t think this domino wants to be alone,” the child mused.
“I don’t think it wants to be alone either,” he answered, swallowing back emotion as Phoebe cocked her head to the side and glanced past him.
“What is it?” he asked.
“Jerome is fast!” Phoebe exclaimed, then pointed toward the Gale Gaming building.
“It’s there! Everything is there!” Jerome called, waving his arms as he barreled toward them. The guy jumped and clicked his heels midway before coming to a stop.
“Slow down, Jerome. What’s there?” he asked, taking in his wild-eyed assistant.
“Penny, laptop, beta,” the man breathed, then sucked in a deep breath.
“You’re not making any sense, Jerome!” he said, wondering what the hell else the universe wanted to throw at him today.
His assistant pressed his hand to his chest. “Penny saved everything to her hard drive.”
“It doesn’t surprise me. She probably wasn’t sure how to save to the server,” he answered, ready to send his assistant home to get some real rest when Phoebe shrieked with delight.
“Wow! I didn’t know Boomer could run fast, too!” she cried, jumping up and down as the developer came lumbering past the lilacs like a hoodie-clad rhino. Breathless, he stopped, then held out a laptop with a pink sticky note attached to the top. “It’s all here, boss!”
Chuck stood. “I’ll see you around, Rowen. Good luck at E3.”
Rowen stared at the man—the man who connected him to his true past. Not sure of what to say, he picked up the photograph. “Your picture,” he said, taking another look at his mother before offering it to the man.
