Reconsidering Riley Read Online Free

his window all the way. He leaned out and
offered a wolf whistle. "Goin' my way, ladies?"
    They turned. Recognized him. Blushing, his
grandmother shook her head. His thirteen-year-old niece
giggled—then remembered she was in the midst of her latest
adolescent angst, and put on a dramatic face instead.
    "Only if you're going to Phoenix, Uncle
Riley. Then I'm all yours." Alexis cast an accusatory look
at her great-grandmother. " Some people around here don't
understand what life is like for a person who still has a passion for living ."
    Gwen Davis, sixty-six and still plenty
lively despite the challenges of caring for a newly-hatched
teenager for the duration of spring break, rolled her eyes. "What
you have is a passion for trouble, young lady. If I hadn't caught
up with you when I did, you'd have been on the back of that man's
Harley and halfway to God-knows-where by now."
    "Phoenix." Alexis pouted. "That's where I'd
be. Phoenix, where my life is."
    By "life," Riley assumed she meant "the
mall." It couldn't be easy to survive shopping withdrawal without
so much as a cherry-berry smoothie and a gigantic pretzel for
comfort.
    "There's nothing wrong with a little
hitchhiking," Alexis went on. "He was nice . He had a Tweety
Bird tattoo." She issued the ultimate recommendation: "My mom would've let me."
    "Your mother's a nincompoop," Bud offered,
leaning across the Suburban's gearshift. "Best thing she ever did
was divorce your dad."
    Alexis' lower lip pushed forward. She
crossed her skinny arms.
    "Bud." Gwen shook her head. "Not now."
    He subsided and settled for hunting down his
favorite Hank Williams song on the radio. Static crackled and
popped as he spun the SUV's pre-digital-age controls.
    Riley gestured Alexis nearer.
    "I don't have a Tweety Bird tattoo—" The
tattoo he did have was in a place he did not intend to share
with his impressionable niece. "—but what say you and Nana jump in
here and take a ride back to the lodge with me? You can help me
break in that new group that's coming today. I'm taking them
out—"
    "Like hell you are," Bud grumbled.
    "He is!" Gwen insisted.
    "—tomorrow for training. Since we're already
late—" Riley shot a glance at his scratched-up sports watch. "—we'd
better hit it."
    Morosely, Alexis schlumped to the Suburban
and got in. She sat in the back seat beside her great-grandmother,
who got in next, and chewed a lock of her long brown hair.
    Riley glanced in the rear view mirror.
"Doesn't that ever get caught in your braces?"
    His niece yanked her hair from her face. She
snapped her lips closed to hide her recently-installed purple
orthodontia and gave him a look that definitely plugged him into
the "lame old people who don't understand me"
category. Riley made a mental note to never mention her braces'
existence again. Even if he did think they made Alexis look cute,
in a gawky, tender, between-stages sort of way.
    He redeemed himself by selecting a magazine
from the grocery store bag next to Bud's seat. He handed it over
his shoulder. "I got you something in town."
    " Cosmo ! Cool! Thanks." Glossy pages
ruffled as Alexis rapidly flipped through them. "'Fifty ways to
look smokin' hot!' Number one..."
    "Wouldn't Tiger Beat have been more
appropriate?" Gwen asked. "I don't want to be a prude, but—"
    " Tiger Beat is so fifth
grade," Alexis said, waving her half-bitten, glitter-polished
fingernails. "I'm a woman now."
    Bud scoffed. "And I'm one of the Backstreet
Boys."
    "Ha. Good one, Gramps."
    Gwen frowned, her hand hovering over Alexis'
bent head as the girl went back to reading hottie tips. At the last
instant, she halted the caress she'd undoubtedly been about to give
and looked out the window instead. Riley put the Suburban into
motion again, having decided keeping his trap shut was the better
part of valor. After all, he'd been the one who'd handed over the
bone of contention.
    They drove farther down the road. Navigating
the steep switch-backed climb during the final two-tenths