Page 140 of The Nanny and the Nerd
“Keep it, kid.”
“Thank you,” he said, emotion coating the words as he watched the man headed down the path.
He blinked, hardly able to get his bearing before Phoebe shrieked.
“Look!” his niece peeled the pink sticky note from the device and held it up. “It says from Penelope Fennimore.”
Rowen shook his head in disbelief as it sunk in. “The entire beta version is on Penelope’s laptop? Are you sure?”
Boomer bent over, breathing hard. “I gotta lay off the nachos.”
“Boomer!” Rowen cried, his pulse racing.
“Yep, the complete beta version! I went through it twice. All the files are there. No do-over required!” the big man answered with a wide, relieved grin.
“Yes, we’re good to go! Let everyone know that Rowen will be presenting at E3,” his assistant crooned into the phone.
This was freaking incredible!
Elation and relief tore through his body! He pumped his fist in the air like an idiot when something Boomer just said popped into his mind. The big guy turned to leave, but he stopped him. “What did you say, Boomer? You mentioned a do-over?”
“Yeah!” The man nodded. “We don’t have todoa do-over! Penny saved us again! First, she took AI-77 to the next level, and now the exact files of the version we need are on her laptop. Penny used to say the do-over thing all the time. She was big on do-overs. You know, not worrying about what happened in the past but moving forward.”
Rowen sat back as the deluge of information and emotion quieted inside his mind as one image came to the forefront. “Phoebe, you’re right about the do-over,” he said, taking his niece’s hand.
“Is this about being a”—tap-tap—“to Penny?” Phoebe asked.
The kid really didn’t miss a thing.
“Yeah, it is.”
Phoebe squeezed his hand. “You could ask her for a do-over, Uncle Row. I know she’d say yes.”
He wasn’t so sure. But he had to try. He couldn’t allow the false narrative he’d constructed to hold him back any longer. He didn’t need to hide behind a mask.
“I’d like to do something bigger than just ask her for a do-over—so she knows I mean it,” he said, picking up the wooden box and staring down at the lone domino.
Phoebe’s face lit up. “You could write her a story. She’s a writer. I bet she’d like it.”
He stared down at the smartest six-year-old on the planet. “I agree, but I could use your help.”
“Penny says you have to have a beginning, a middle, and an end to a story. Do you have those parts in your head? That’s what we do when we make up stories in my bed.”
He removed the shell from his pocket and set it inside the box next to the old domino. “I know the beginning. I know the middle. But I’m a little shaky on the ending.”
She climbed onto his lap and touched the shell. “I can help you with that.”
“That’s what I’m counting on, kid,” he said, so damned grateful to be her uncle.
“Rowen,” Jerome interrupted, pulling the phone away from his ear. “I’m on with the E3 organizers. Should I finalize your presentation? They want to confirm you’ll be speaking.”
Rowen exhaled a slow breath as the gift of true clarity surged through his veins. He’d spent a lifetime fighting his feelings, stuffing them down in the quest for complete control. He’d walled himself off from love. He’d assumed his birth parents never wanted him. He’d allowed that perception to fester. But he’d gotten it backward. The real freedom came when he listened to his heart. Released from the chains of his past, there was only one way to move forward.
He glanced from Boomer to his assistant, then stared into Phoebe’s eyes—Andy’s eyes. “Hold that thought, Jerome. I’d like for you to look into another contest for us.”
Twenty-Nine
Penny
