Reconsidering Riley (10 page)

Used to
? Had her despair over her
boneheaded former boyfriend caused her to lose her art department
job, too? Riley became more determined than ever to help her.

But since singling Jayne out for special
attention would only make her feel...well,
singled out
, he
settled for saying, "In that case, yes. That counts."

She smiled. He cheered up further.

The women had had their slumber party. He'd
had a good night's sleep, plus a head-clearing sunrise hike.
Everyone was feeling good, ready to embark on their adventure.
Today, Riley would reassert his authority over the group and get
everything back on track. Only one detail remained to be
settled...

"So." He rubbed his hands together to warm
them, glancing expectantly toward the lodge's front door as he did.
"Where's your esteemed leader, the so-called self-help guru? She
ought to be here for the training."

The women all ducked their heads, glancing
toward one another silently. Then, to his surprise, Jayne stepped
forward.

"She's right here. One so-called self-help
guru, at your service."

Chapter Six

"I thought I might find you here!"

Calling the greeting to her uncle, Alexis
finished the climb to his usual spot atop the mesquite-shaded rock
formation near the lodge. She scrambled over slippery footholds and
sat down beside him.

From here, Nana and Gramp's lodge was still
visible beyond the rise, but the rocks and trees gave the place an
illusion of privacy. The sun-warmed granite would
totally
make her butt go numb if she stayed very long, but for now it would
be nice to hang with Uncle Riley.

He looked up. Angled his chin in welcome.
"Hey."

"Whatcha' doin' out here?" She brushed off
her palms and gazed at him curiously. "I thought you only did the
mountain man
routine when something was bugging you."

Silently, her uncle stared out over the
scenery.

Was he shutting her out? Alexis frowned. She
used to
hate
the way Brendan did that whenever his friends
came around.

So she probed. "You didn't even wait to see
if your group came back from their orienteering test after the
hike."

He shrugged. "I'm sure they did fine."

Alexis kept her mouth shut.

A moment ticked past. Uncle Riley looked at
her. "Did something happen? Did you come out here to tell me
something happened? I
knew
I should have hung back and
trailed them."

He started to get up. A shake of her head
made him lower again, a question in his eyes.

"Nothing happened," Alexis explained with a
wave of her hand. "They're all still in Sedona."

"
Sedona
? They weren't supposed to go
to Sedona. They were supposed to navigate their way to the Red Rock
Loop trail. Then call me on the two-way radio I left at the
trailhead, so I could come pick them up." He nudged the receiver at
his side.

"Yeah. Well. Turns out Jayne's a natural at
using a compass." Alexis shrugged. "She led them straight to
downtown Sedona instead."

"And tourist row." He nodded knowingly.

"Yeah. They're probably working the
Kokopelli key chains and turquoise bracelet displays pretty hard by
now." Tourists
loved
that stuff, Alexis knew. "Jayne called
Nana to invite us to go shopping with them. For a famous author,
she is
so
nice. I mean, she's nice anyway, even without
being an author, but especially considering how
amazing
her
book has done..."

He remained silent. Like the rocks they were
sitting on.

Alexis stopped. She gave him a speculative
look. "I guess you didn't expect Jayne to blow off your plan,
huh?"

Uncle Riley gazed outward again. "Jayne's
full
of surprises today."

Whoa. Robo-uncle was back
. Alexis
wasn't sure what put the ominous note in his voice, but she'd heard
that tone before. Usually from one of her parents, when she missed
her curfew. Sure, it
sounded
okay—on the surface. But
underneath there was a "you're in deep doo-doo" waiting to get
out.

Suddenly, she felt kind of sorry for Jayne.
And curious to know what the woman had done to bug her
usually-easygoing uncle.

Before Alexis had a chance to ask, though,
Uncle Riley changed the subject.

"Why didn't you go with them?" he asked.
"I'm sure your great-grandma would have driven you to town."

Alexis shrugged. "I decided to stick around
here. My mom usually calls after lunch."

He gave her a sharp look. Alexis braced
herself. Typically, a look like that came with a hefty dose of pity
and was followed by a
poor, abandoned, little girl
gesture.
Like a hug. Nobody seemed to realize she was an adult now, and
could handle this stuff. After all, she
was
as tall as her
mom these days. Taller than Nana. Just because her mom's call from
Mexico had lasted all of five breezy minutes, that didn't mean
Alexis needed a pity hug.

But since all Uncle Riley did was give her
an understanding nod and then gaze into the distance again, she
felt emboldened to continue.

"I think she thinks calling me makes her
look good to Gary. That's the guy she's been hooking up with since
the divorce."

Alexis had her suspicions that her mom and
dad had divorced
because
of Gary. Nobody had ever told her
the whole story about things, but she had eyes. She could see her
mom dressing up like a thirty-something Britney Spears to go
"grocery shopping." Alexis watched Jerry Springer after school
sometimes. It hadn't taken a genius to know
something
was
going on.

She hugged her knees to her chest. "My mom
wants us to look like this perfect mother-daughter team. All we
need are some credits and a little mood music, and we'll be the
freakin' 'Gilmore Girls.'"

"You're better than the 'Gilmore Girls,'"
Uncle Riley said loyally. "And don't say 'freakin'.'"

Alexis snorted. Sometimes, her uncle was
pretty old-fashioned. It was sweet.

"Some people are hung up on the family
thing." He spoke gently, frowning as he picked up a pebble and
turned it over in his fingertips. "Maybe your mom is one of them.
Me, I don't buy it. Never have. That cozy, close-knit thing is an
illusion."

"Geez, Uncle Riley! Shatter my innocence,
why don't you?"

She grinned at him. He tousled her hair, and
grinned back.

That was one of the things Alexis liked
about Uncle Riley. She could talk to him about anything, and he
didn't deliver some school-citizenship-style homily about being all
she could be, saying "no" to drugs, and brushing her teeth three
times a day. He treated her like a Cosmo-reading, shop-surfing,
brain-enabled
person
...not a child.

Still, his views on relationships were
majorly depressing.

"I think you need to come out of the
wilderness more often," she said. "You know, try a date once in a
while. Loosen up. Loose the
negative
aura."

He pretended to growl at her. She
laughed.

"Seriously. It's like Jayne says in her
book, if you're surrounded by negative triggers that keep you stuck
in your—"

Uncle Riley held up his hand. "I don't want
to hear about that book."

"It's good!"

"It's a bunch of hooey." Suddenly, he
lowered his eyebrows and pinned her with a
you're busted
look. "And what are
you
doing reading it?"

"Jayne gave me a copy." Alexis shrugged off
her backpack and pulled out the hardbound
Heartbreak 101
. "I
brought it out here to show you the
fabulous
inscription."

She held the book toward her uncle. He shook
his head.

"Go on," she urged. "I want you to see
it."

He looked about as willing to touch Jayne's
book as Brendan had been to hold Alexis' hand when the rest of the
eighth grade basketball team was around. That was all the more
reason, she figured, for her to urge it on him. She held it
closer.

Reluctantly, Uncle Riley dropped his pebble.
He accepted the book.

"The inscription is on the title page."

Paper rustled. A bird called nearby. The
breeze blew Alexis' hair in her eyes, making her nearly miss the
moment when her uncle read what Jayne had written.

To Alexis, a diva-in-training: May you
never know heartbreak of your own...or the heartbreak of missing a
fifty-percent-off shoe sale. If you look good, you feel good! Hugs,
Jayne Murphy
.

"Isn't that the
best
?" Alexis gushed,
grabbing Uncle Riley's arm. "I
love
the 'diva-in-training'
part, don't you? Jayne
so
understands what it's like to be a
woman. She is like, my favorite person in the whole wide world
right now!"

Uncle Riley frowned. He handed back the
book.

His grouchy attitude was
way
beyond
her. Then she realized. "Oh! Except you, Uncle Riley. You're my
standing favorite person.
Unreplaceable
."

"Irreplaceable."

"That too." She put away the book and zipped
her pack shut. "Really. Aside from you, the only other person I've
ever talked to like this was Brendan, and he—"

Too late, Alexis realized she'd opened her
big fat mouth and nearly spilled everything. She shoved her arms
through her pack's straps and slung it onto her back. Maybe if she
pretended she'd never spoken...

"And he...?"

Rats
.
So much for pretending
.
"Nothing."

Uncle Riley raised his eyebrows. "Who's
Brendan?"

She ground the toe of her Skechers in a
rocky crevice, and shook her head.

He tried a leading comment. "If the little
creep did anything besides hold your hand, I'll break his
nose."

She snorted.

Uncle Riley cracked his knuckles. "And then
I'll break whatever he touched you with."

Alexis envisioned that jerk Brendan begging
big, tough Uncle Riley for mercy. A small smile edged onto her
face.

"You don't have to do that." She sighed.
"Brendan wouldn't touch me with a ten-foot pole.
Notanymore
."

He leaned nearer. "What's that?"

Not anymore
. No, she couldn't say
that
again. Then she'd have to spill her guts about the
Cinnabon incident. She might even cry. Alexis couldn't risk crying
in front of Uncle Riley. As understanding as he could be, she had a
feeling crying would be pushing it. A guy like him might not
understand, having never experienced the urge to curl up in a ball
and sob, himself. He never let
anything
get to him.

Heck, he'd even sounded okay while telling
her how he didn't believe in cozy, close-knit relationships. If
that
wasn't diehard macho, she didn't know what was.

"Nothing," she mumbled, and stood. "I'd
better get back. See you around."

He examined her face. Nodded. "Okay. Thanks
for the company."

Alexis gave a little wave. She began
climbing back down the rocky slope. Halfway through her descent,
her backpack slipped. She paused to adjust it, then glanced
upward.

Uncle Riley sat alone on his rock, forearms
resting loosely on his bent thighs. He tilted his head at a
thoughtful angle. A sad angle, even. While she watched, he raised
his face to the breeze, eyes closed. Something about his
expression, when the sunlight hit it, made her hesitate.

He looked almost...lonely. As though he
needed
her. Or needed
someone
, at least. Drawn to
him, but knowing that was stupid—after all, Uncle Riley hacked
through jungles on photography assignments on a regular basis, so
he didn't
need
anyone—Alexis watched for a moment
longer.

Then the sound of car doors slamming reached
her, followed by feminine voices. It had to be Jayne and the other
ladies, back from shopping! Her head filled with thoughts of seeing
whatever they'd bought, Alexis turned again and headed toward the
lodge.

Her Uncle Riley would be fine, she told
herself. He always was and he always would be.

Jayne sat on the floor of the Hideaway
Lodge's common area, dressed in her favorite baby blue pajamas.
Although tomorrow she faced a grueling wilderness test unlike
anything she'd ever experienced, tonight she had all the essentials
to fortify her.

She had newfound friends nearby. A bowl of
microwave popcorn on her lap, for sharing with those friends. And a
veritable film fest of special edition DVD movies starring the
swoony George Clooney. Did it
get
any better than this?

Well, sure
, she thought.
Not
having to face potential survival issues tomorrow without so much
as the solace of a Lean Cuisine nearby would have made things much
better
. But aside from that, she was feeling pretty good.

Of course, Riley's reaction to her "coming
out" as a self-help guru had put a crimp in her day earlier...but
she wouldn't think about that now.

Carla, who'd been manning the hot cocoa
station, nudged her. "Jayne, it's your turn. Truth or dare."

"Ummm, truth."

"Okay." Mitzi, the game's unofficial leader,
leaned nearer. The movement made lamplight dance off the glittery
silver stars hand-painted on her knee-length sleep shirt. "Which
would you rather do...try on bikinis in a communal dressing room,
or ask a man out on a first date?"

"Ooooh." The women huddled nearer, Kelly and
Carla both dressed in flannel men's-style pajamas with fuzzy
slippers. They awaited her answer.

"The date," Jayne said decisively.
"Potential rejection pales compared with public cellulite exposure.
Besides, asking a man out on a date is a fairly low-risk
activity."