Page 172 of The Nanny and the Beefcake
“Ace couldn’t make Plum happy if his donkey life depended on it,” Raz growled. “There’s one donkey for her, and it’s Beefcake.”
“We’ll see about that,” Doug shot back, batting a butterfly out of the way.
Seriously, where the hell did these insects come from?
Raz peered over his shoulder. Libby and Plum had fallen back and were trailing by a good hundred yards or so.
“What the hell is that?” Zen Dougie called.
Raz whipped his head forward, then blinked. Moving like a giant looming organism, a bevy of butterflies came together. It was like something out of an Armageddon movie. And it was coming their way.
“It’s a butterfly tornado,” he called, sharing a panicked look with Doug.
The tiny-winged creatures moved together like they’d been sent to usher in the end of days. They covered the limbs of trees and rested on the wildflowers populating the grasses along the trail.
There was no way the butterfly-obsessed Plum could miss this.
He’d barely had a second to take it in when the mass of flying insects moved off the trail.
Thank God! Hopefully, they’d stay away from the path and out of Plum’s line of sight.
He started to cluck his tongue, ready to kick it into high gear when Beefcake and Ace hit the brakes. Stumbling forward, the donkeys came to a dead halt in the middle of the trail.
Raz waved away one of the lingering winged insects and stared at his burro. “What are you doing, Beefcake? We’re nearly at the creek. It’s time to blow past these butterflies and button-up this race.”
“Ace,” Doug called. “Hup-hup! Let’s go!”
But the beasts didn’t budge. They stared at the ground at a brown rock.
“What is that?” Raz asked, narrowing his gaze, then jumped when the strange stone hopped.
“It’s a toad!” Doug shrieked.
Raz stared at the warty thing, then tugged on Beefcake’s lead. “Come on, mate. It’s a toad. We’ll go around.”
But the animals were mesmerized. They barely moved a muscle when the toad opened his mouth and captured a butterfly.
Talk about grabbing lunch.
Raz cringed. “Go on and move it, Doug,” he said, delegating.
“No way.” Doug shot back. “If I move the toad off the trail, you’ll take off and pass me.”
Raz stared at the tiny warty roadblock. “Well, I’m not touching it.”
“I don’t want to touch it either,” Doug answered, recoiling at the sight of the creature.
Somebody had to do something.
Raz peered down the trail as a jolt of anxiety tore through his chest. Libby was gaining on them, and four other pack burro teams weren’t far behind her.
Zen Dougie might not be his only real competition.
And what the hell did that mean for their benchmark arrangement?
“We do it together. You hold half, and I’ll get the other half,” Raz suggested as the jolt of anxiety took hold. He had to win. Everything hinged on him earning the blue ribbon.
“Toads are pretty gross. It’s bumpy and bulgy-eyed. You don’t think it’ll give us warts or a rash?” Doug asked.
