Page 140 of The Nanny and the Beefcake
“Are Dougie and Dad racing?”
She stared down the trail and the dust settling behind the burros. “Something like that.”
“Do you think Dad will win?”
Her silly heart wanted to say yes—yes to not only him winning, but yes to a yearning she had to ignore.
And she knew what Raz was doing.
This wasn’t any old race.
The man was testing the waters, or in this case, the burro racecourse, to get some insight into his opponent.
Did he want to win because it was his nature, or was it more? Was it the prospect of her and Doug together, or simply her and anyone else that got him hot and bothered?
“Oh, no!” Sebastian exclaimed before she could reply. His mini beast scowl had changed to a look of surprise.
“What is it?” she asked. Now on the other side of the creek, she led Plum onto the trail, watching the boy closely.
“Dad and Beefcake will be wet. They ran across the creek like they were being chased by a bear, and water went everywhere.”
Thanks to the slight increase in elevation, crossing the creek at this point was akin to trudging through a puddle. But anyone who’s seen an excited child dash into a shallow body of water knew exactly what could happen. She looked ahead as the half-soaked men, side by side, disappeared into the heavy foliage.
“Yep, they’re pretty wet. But they’ll dry out,” she commented.
“But we weren’t supposed to get wet because we’re meeting everyone in town to watch my dad pummel some bloke in the ring.”
Spar with the Beast.
She’d almost forgotten they were expected in the town square—and their friends would be there to greet them.
“Luckily, it’s so dry in Colorado, he’ll probably dry out pretty quick.”
She checked her watch.
They’d purposefully timed their donkey run so they could arrive in town a little before the boxing event. They wanted some time to say hello to everyone before Raz was expected on stage, or in this case, in the mock ring Briggs had constructed. Despite being twenty minutes away from where Penny and Rowen and Charlotte and Mitch were spending the summer with Phoebe and Oscar, the hectic training schedule she and Raz had to keep had kept her from spending time with her girls. A quick text, here and there, was all she could manage over the last few weeks.
“I wonder if Dad’s going to knock the bloke out?” Sebastian mused, dismounting from his bike and pushing it along as he walked beside her.
“It’s not like that, Sebastian. Your dad won’t be knocking out anyone. This is for fun to raise money for Maud and Wobbly Bob’s donkey rescue. Your dad will be in the ring with the person who donated the highest amount to the charity. It’s not a fight but more of a photo op.”
Sebastian patted Plum’s neck, and the sweet Jennie nuzzled the boy with her nose. “We’ll have to give the donkeys back to Maud and Wobbly Bob, won’t we?”
She could hear the sadness in his voice.
“We’ll have them for your birthday party. That will be fun.”
“But then it will end. We don’t get to keep the house or the animals, do we?”
It was as if a stone had dropped in her belly. “I don’t think so. All we can do is be grateful for the time we have,” she replied, trying to infuse optimism into her reply but falling short.
“Can we stop walking, Mibby?”
“Are you tired? Do you need a break?”
“No, I need to put an intention out to the universe. You know, like we do after morning yoga,” the child answered, resting the mountain bike on the ground.
“Okay,” she replied as the boy’s expression grew serious.
