Reconsidering Riley by Lisa Plumley Page B

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