“The whole team tried to break your code. They can’t. You’ve done it!”

Luke slowed the truck and stared across at Sarah. She stared straight out the window, a huge smile on her face. The pride in her eyes intensified as the cheers washed over her and filled the truck cab. After all the hard work she’d put in, she deserved to take in this moment.

Sarah grinned, let out an excited giggle, then filled him in on what had been happening. “Marcel found the back door, but he couldn’t crack the encryption. I spent the last couple of weeks verifying all the security levels. All we had to do was run it with the test data from the company.” She paused, that giddy smile on her face growing bigger. “It works.”

“You did it,” he repeated Abby’s exuberant words.

Another cheer went up from her employees.

She picked up her cell from her lap and addressed her staff. “I didn’t do this alone. You guys are the best, and we did this together as a team. I know you guys are excited about what this means for the company, but remember we still have a lot of work to do.”

“‘Team,’ my ass, Sarah. This was all you. We just sat back and watched in wonder. We’ve got to celebrate when you get back.”

“We will. And thank you, Marcel, but you guys did help. I’ll throw a big party for everyone at Gerard’s when I get home.”

Everyone cheered again.

She smiled and shook her head. “I was going to call later and set up the testing and implementation teams, but since you’re all there, I’d like Marcel to head the test team and David to head the implementation team.” A round of congratulations and well wishes went out to Marcel and David. “Right now, I want you all to head over to Joe’s Café and have breakfast on me. I’ll talk to you soon.”

“I’ll call you in a few hours,” Abby shouted over everyone else. “We’ll coordinate the next steps.”

“Sounds good.”

“Luke,” Abby called to him. “You have no idea who the woman with you is. She’s just done the extraordinary. Her name and face are going to be everywhere. Newspapers, magazines, every tech website on the planet. She’ll be on every TV news program. Sarah, you won’t be able to hide behind Evan anymore.”

They arrived at the ranch and Luke cut the truck engine, then stared over at her. She didn’t seek the limelight, but she was about to be in it. He couldn’t be happier or prouder, but he wondered if this would somehow take her away from him.

Sarah shook her head at the phone. “Really, Abby. Get a grip. Luke doesn’t care whether the press or industry goes nuts over my program.”

“He should know what you’ve accomplished. Eight months of you going without sleep and working every possible moment. You’ve achieved something very few can accomplish on their own and in such a short time. You’ve made history.”