Page 138 of The Nanny and the Nerd
“Are you okay?” Chuck asked.
“I didn’t know,” he rasped. “I didn’t think she wanted me.”
“Well, now you know she did,” the man answered evenly.
Rowen swallowed hard, sliding his gaze from his mother to the young man with the kind blue eyes. “You were the one person who was kind to me back then.”
Chuck waved him off. “Don’t give me too much credit, kid. I’d stolen a backpack. I pawned most of what was in it, but I couldn’t get anything for the Game Boy or the dominoes.”
“You still gave them to me. It was more than my father ever did.”
“For all your dad’s faults,” Chuck replied, “he let me crash at your place whenever I didn’t have anywhere to go. I promise you. The man tried. He just couldn’t get over the loss of your mom, and his demons got the best of him.”
Rowen stared at the playground, trying to make sense of it all.
“After I learned your dad died,” Chuck continued, filling the silence. “I tried to find you, but I wasn’t family, so no one would tell me anything. I hated the thought of you on your own. I made a promise to myself—a promise to get clean for you. I could only hope that when our paths crossed again, I’d be in a better position to help you. I entered rehab, then lived in a halfway house. Kids from the university came in to do community service, and one taught me coding. I was good at it—really good at it. It took me a few years to get on my feet, but I started my own company—a video game company. I did everything remotely. I didn’t want anyone to know who I was. I was too scared my checkered past would tear down everything I’d built. I needed to stay anonymous.”
First his birth mother and now…
His jaw dropped as he stared at the man, and another revelation hit him square in the gut. “No way! No damned way! You’re Bones Gaming?”
“I named it bones after the boneyard in dominoes. Another connection to you, Rowen,” he answered.
Rowen sat back—speechless.
“After I got my shit together,” Chuck continued. “I went looking for you. And I found you. No, that’s not right. You found me.”
“When? Where?” Rowen asked, wracking his brain.
Chuck’s beard twitched as the hint of a smile bloomed. “You must have been twelve or thirteen at the time. My company sponsored a video game coding camp. Word got to me that some wonder kid coding genius was knocking it out of the park. I checked the camp roster. Rowen Teagues Gale. I knew it was you.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?” he asked, frustration and amazement coating the words.
Chuck sat back and rested his hands on his belly. “I almost did. But then I saw you with your older brother. The kid thought the world of you. And I watched when your parents picked you up. It was always the two of them, smiling, waving to you boys as if you both meant the world to them.”
“They were teachers. They had the summers off. And you’re not wrong. They gave me a good life,” Rowen answered.
“I could tell they loved you. You were safe and well cared for. Your mother, Phoebe, would have been grateful—your father, too, before the drugs got the best of him,” Chuck said, then paused. “You didn’t need me then, Rowen, but you need me now. You need to know that your mom would want you to be happy. She loved you. Your father did, too. But he lost his way. And you need to be reminded of who you are.”
“Who do you think I am, Chuck?” he asked, on the verge of losing it.
“A good man, Rowen. A good man.”
Years of anguish, layer upon layer of sorrow, cracked open inside his chest. He stared at the old picture laying next to the domino. “Why didn’t you tell me who you were? Why did you keep me in the dark? We’ve been playing dominoes in the park ever since I moved back to Denver. It’s been three years, Chuck.”
The old man released a pained breath. “At first, I wanted to make sure you were okay. And then, I found I liked you,” the man answered with a salty grin, but emotion shined in his eyes. “Remember, you’re the one who kept coming back to play dominoes.”
Rowen ran his hands through his hair as the questions piled up. It didn’t make sense! Why would the mega-wealthy founder of Bones Gaming spend his downtime playing dominoes for five bucks a pop? “You’re rich, Chuck. You’ve got to be. I know everything about your operation. Why spend your time in the park dressed like a hobo?”
The man fixed his tattered cap. “It keeps me grounded—and no fool would turn away five bucks. And I liked getting to know you as a man.”
“But you’re my competition!” Rowen exclaimed.
“You need competition. You always did. Even when you were a little kid, and we used to play dominoes, I could see the wheels turning in your head as you sought out patterns and sequences. It drives you to work hard. I kept an eye on you after you attended my summer camp. Science fairs, robotics competitions, computer programming—you won every contest you entered and excelled every step of the way. That’s what I wanted for you professionally. But now you have a chance at something money can’t buy. You have a chance at real happiness, Rowen. Don’t spend your life holding on to ghosts. Trust the man you’ve become. Uncle or guardian, you’re a father now. You have to have faith in yourself. That’s what your mother would have wanted,” he finished as Phoebe skipped over to the table, red-cheeked from playing.
“Who’s this, Uncle Row?” she asked, leaning her elbows on the table.
“This is my friend, Chuck,” he answered.
