Page 75 of The Nanny and the Nerd
She startled. It was as if the very nearness of Rowen Gale turned her into a horny sex monster. It had been a while, a long while, since she’d been with anyone. She chewed her lip. “If you’re not comfortable working here, we could find another room.”
“No, I’m very comfortable—very, very comfortable,” he exclaimed—like her earlier statement—with way too much gusto. He blew out an audible breath. “No, I need to amend that statement. I’m the normal amount of comfortable,” he countered, then adjusted his glasses.
“Okay,” she replied. They were back to weird. But weird and super awkward seemed to work for them.
She started toward her room, listening to Rowen’s footfalls as he followed behind her. She left the confines of the hallway, then entered her room. Her body buzzed. Her heart pounded. Walking ten feet had never been such a titillating accomplishment!
“When did you get computer monitors?” he asked, staring at her worktable, now sporting not one but two large monitors and a printer.
“Phoebe said that you didn’t use these. And she showed me how to hook up the laptop, so I could see everything on the larger screens. She’s pretty tech-savvy for her age.”
“She takes after her father,” Rowen replied with the saddest smile—a smile that made her want to wrap her arms around him, stare into those pale green eyes, and comfort the man she knew carried the weight of the world on his shoulders. But there was more. She sensed a deep ache within him—a gut-wrenching sadness he concealed behind a muted mask.
“And her uncle. I hear that he’s pretty tech-savvy, too,” she added, watching as Rowen strode across the room. He opened her laptop, and the sleeping monitors came to life as her Gale Gaming email and some dialogue she’d been working on appeared on the large screens.
“You’re actually using your email!” he remarked, astonishment coating the words.
“I’m not completely tech illiterate, mister,” she answered, coming to his side, then poked him in the chest.
He looked down, and she retracted her hand. What was her deal with poking this man in his hard, muscled chest? Who did that? That was a dumb question. Apparently, she did!
“I’m sorry. I’m not usually a poky type of person,” she mumbled while internally berating herself.
Penny, stop talking!
That hint of a grin returned. At least he didn’t seem bothered about the poking. Still, she had to stop.
“Why is there an email from Boomer regarding E3?” he asked, tapping the unopened email on the screen with “E3 date” in the subject line.
“I asked him about it,” she replied. “I’d seen E3 written on the board a few times, but I wasn’t sure what it meant.”
His posture stiffened. “It stands for Electronic Entertainment Expo. It’s where we’ll debut AI-77. It’s an important event. It can make or break everything.”
She opened the email and immediately saw a familiar date. “E3 is the same day as my contest.”
“What contest?” he asked.
“The Denver Poetry and Short Story Competition,” she answered, then went back to nibbling her lip. It was a nervous habit she’d need to stop before she hit the competition stage. But with the hottest nerd on the planet standing next to her, it was all she could do to keep herself from combusting into thin air.
His expression softened. “You entered? Did you already write a story?”
She cringed. “No, I did it to spite my mother or prove myself to her. I don’t know anymore. She called me. She read a quote about failure. I got frustrated, as per usual, with any interaction with my mom. Then I pulled out your fancy phone and entered online.”
“I see,” he answered with a curious look in his eyes.
“Will you need me at the E3 thing?” she asked. Did she want him to say yes, so she could pull out of the contest? Or was it something else?
Rowen crossed his arms and looked away, reverting to robot mode. “No.”
“Oh,” she breathed.
But what did she think he would say?
Please, Penelope! Never leave me!
Fat chance of that!
She pushed the thought aside, then remembered what happened after she’d entered the contest. “That’s when I met your friend Chuck,” she added.
