Page 14 of The Nanny and the Nerd
Rowen raked his hand through his hair. The geezer had one domino left to play while he was swimming in tiles.
“I can tell you that I’ll be extremely disappointed if Bones Gaming beats us again,” he answered, tacking the three-one domino onto Chuck’s last play.
“Bones, huh?” the man replied, choosing a tile from the boneyard, then adding the three-two tile to the line of dominoes winding around the table.
Rowen sighed. “Yeah, their founder is an enigma. He’s known as Bones, and he only interacts with his team virtually. Nobody knows who he is.”
“Is that so?” Chuck remarked, gaze trained on the twisting array of dominoes.
Rowen laughed to himself.
“What’s so funny?” Chuck pressed.
“If I could do it all again, I would set up my business like that,” he answered.
Chuck sat back and crossed his arms. “Why do you let Bones Gaming get your goat?”
That wasn’t a hard one to answer.
“In the gaming world, they’re considered the best, and I want to be the best,” he replied, but Chuck didn’t look convinced.
“What are you trying to prove, Rowen?” the man asked, his bushy eyebrows drawing inward.
Rowen stilled as the image of a small sun-bleached backpack with frayed straps flashed through his mind. He tucked the memory away in that dark place reserved for everything he’d tried to forget.
“You know what I’m worth, Chuck. I don’t have to prove anything,” he answered robotically.
“Seems like an odd metric to gauge one’s worth,” the man replied.
“You’re chatty today,” Rowen said, playing the double two tile.
“And you’re careless, my young friend,” Chuck answered with a twist to his lips as he placed his last tile, the two-one.
Rowen shook his head. “Remind me why I play with you?”
The man leaned in. “Because I’m the one who tells you what you need to hear. It’s up to you to decide if it’s a crock of bullshit coming from an old man,” he offered with a bushy grin when a little boy bolted from the swings and made a beeline for their table.
“I’m Teddy! Whatcha doing?” the rosy-cheeked child asked, then picked his nose and flicked his booger into the air. Yes, the booger-boy actually flicked the damned thing into the air!
Rowen cringed. At least Phoebe didn’t do that!
“We’re playing dominoes,” Chuck replied, seemingly unbothered by the tiny heathen.
The little boy peered over his shoulder.
“Are you looking for your booger, kid?” Rowen asked.
The child leaned in and sized him up.Oh, shit!He didn’t see his booger, did he? That snot rock hadn’t landed on him, had it?
“You have green eyes,” the boy announced as if he’d uncovered the secrets of the universe.
Kids! Damned exhausting!
“Yes, I do,” he answered, giving his face a pat-down and coming up booger free—thank freaking Christ! But his patience was wearing thin, and he was ready to end this conversation.
Unfortunately, Teddy wasn’t.
He leaned his elbows on the table. “I have green eyes,” the kid said, then glanced at Chuck. “And Mr. Bushy Beard has bluey eyes.”
