Page 179 of The Nanny and the Beefcake
“It just came to me. I know what I need to do.” He glanced around the square and spotted Briggs about to enter the Rocky Mountain oyster tent. “Briggs, are you mad? Get away from those bull testicles! I need your help, mate.”
His agent startled and blushed like a schoolgirl. “I wasn’t going to get any of those bull testicles. But they smell amazing, and Mitch explained how they are a delicacy, and when in Rome, as the saying goes,” the man blathered, but Raz waved him off. He didn’t have time to talk testicles.
He slipped his phone from his pocket and hammered out a message. “Briggsy, I’m texting you exactly what I need you to do. It’ll seem a little insane, but you have to make it happen in the next twenty minutes.”
The agent’s mobile pinged. Briggs stared at the screen and gasped. “Now? You need me to arrange this in twenty minutes?”
“Yeah, fifteen would be better, but it can be done, right? You’re the best sports agent out there. You make things happen. And you’ve got your people here.”
At the compliment, Briggs puffed up, then deflated. “Is this a good idea so close to the fight, champ? Where are Libby and Aug? I can’t imagine they’d be on board with this.”
“I’m doing this for Libby. I care about her, Briggsy.”
“Do you?” Penny asked as she and their entire crew, along with Augie and Luanne, joined them.
He nodded to Penny, then surveyed the group. “I need to talk to all of you about Libby. Landon’s brought it to my attention that you’ll know what I mean when I say that she’s with the benchmark guy.”
“What?” Charlotte exclaimed, sharing a look with Mitch.
“You know about the whole chi and O debacle, right?”
Penny crossed her arms. “Yes, she’s our best friend.”
“There’s more. Something she might not have mentioned.” He took a breath. “I got a little full of myself and told her that if I won the race, it was the universe telling us that we were meant to be together.”
“You pulled the universe into this?” Penny chided, sharing a look of horror with Charlotte.
He flinched. “Yeah, I did.”
“And then you came in second place,” Rowen added, shaking his head.
“And that blond guy with the donkey moved in. He’s the benchmark, isn’t he? Libby didn’t tell us exactly who he was or if she’d picked him,” Penny mused.
“But he was giving her googly eyes when they lined up for the race,” Charlotte replied.
“Yeah, and now she’s with him. I messed up. I shouldn’t have let her go, but I know what I have to do.”
“What do you have to do?” Augie asked. “And what’s a benchmark guy?”
“It’s…” he trailed off, not sure how to break it to Augie. Besides Sebastian and his granny, Aug was the only person here who’d known Mere.
“Can I give him the rundown?” Penny asked.
Raz looked from Rowen to Mitch. “The ladies know everything about each other?”
“Yep, get used to it,” Mitch deadpanned.
“Okay, Penny, tell Augie because my brain feels like it’s gone to mush,” he said.
“Libby lost her ability to have an O, thanks to Raz,” the woman began.
“I was a wanker, and I messed up her energy,” he confessed.
“Yeah, all right,” Aug answered in a tone that was more likewhat the hellthan an actualall right.
“Throughout their time together,” Penny continued, “Raz and Libby have been engaging in activities to find her O. The last step in the process was to make sure she could have an O with someone else. Raz and Libby decided there would be a final benchmark guy to see if she’d gotten her O back completely.”
“But I don’t want that—not anymore,” he added, trying to read his trainer.
