A Measure of Love Read Online Free Page A

what looked like a tattoo of a flower and, on the other, a pink cat. How had she convinced her parents to let her get them?
    She stared at him for a brief moment and nodded at his Batman T-shirt, seeming pleased with what she saw. “So, do you have a name, or do I call you Batman?”
    He coughed gently before speaking. “Riley.”
    She smiled, showing two gaps in her bottom row of teeth. “Hi, Riley. I’m Lexie.”
    For the next two weeks, Riley saw Lexie pretty much every day, shooting aliens and learning all there was to know about the amazing telescope she had on her back porch, all the while assuring his mom that the park really was that awesome and asking if he could please, please spend every minute there because he was eight and he was sensible.
    Standing at the kitchen sink wiping her hands on a striped kitchen cloth as he explained this again, his mother lifted an interested eyebrow.
    “Just what is it you love so much about that park, Riley?” she asked with a small smile.
    “It’s, um, fun,” he offered, kicking his toe against the linoleum floor. “Lots of my friends are there.”
    “And girls.”
    Riley spun to throw a death glare at his brother Tate, who’d appeared out of nowhere. He laughed at Riley’s expression.
    “Are there girls?” his mother asked, her voice attentive rather than teasing.
    Riley’s cheeks heated and he pulled at the hem of the Superman T-shirt he was wearing. “No.”
    “He doesn’t go to the park,” Tate added from behind them, his mouth full of the peanut butter he was eating with a spoon straight from the jar. “I followed him. He hangs out at a tree on Wick Avenue.”
    Riley turned on his big-mouthed brother and shoved him. Hard. “You shut up!”
    “Riley,” his mother chastised, shooing Tate away and holding Riley by the elbow. “You keep your hands to yourself, young man.”
    Riley huffed and shook off his mother’s grip while she took the peanut butter away from Tate. Riley stomped to the kitchen table, where he pulled out a chair and dropped himself into it. This sucked. Now that his secret was out, he knew his mother would either ground him or forbid him from going back to Lexie’s, and that thought made his stomach twist.
    His mother sat down across from him and folded her fingers together on the table. “So,” she said quietly. “You wanna tell me what’s so interesting about Wick Avenue?”
    “No,” Riley mumbled toward his lap.
    “You sure?”
    Riley exhaled heavily. “It’s nothing.”
    “Doesn’t sound like nothing. Sounds pretty interesting to have you there every day.”
    Riley glanced up at his mother to see her green eyes soft and a small smile playing on her lips. She reached into the fruit bowl between them and picked two grapes off the stalk, handing one over to Riley. He took it and threw it into his mouth. Green seedless. His favorite.
    “I . . . have a friend who lives there,” he muttered, his chin touching his chest. He could feel the heat pulsing through his entire face.
    “A friend?” his mother echoed. “What’s his name?”
    Riley fidgeted. “Her name is Lexie.”
    His mother stayed silent before handing him another grape. “That’s a pretty name.”
    Riley looked up, surprised. “Yeah,” he offered. “She is. I mean, it is. Pretty. Her name.”
    She laughed, seemingly amused by his discomfort. She reached over and ruffled the front of his hair. “It’s great that you’ve made a new friend. But I don’t want you going to Wick Avenue on your own. It’s a long way and that street can get busy.”
    Riley swallowed hard. He had a feeling this would happen, but it made him sad all the same. How would he get to see Lexie again?
    “Next time you want to go, I’ll drive you.”
    Riley’s head shot up. “Really?”
    “Really.”
    Riley sprang from his seat, almost stumbling when his feet got tangled with the legs of the chair. “Can we go now?”
    “Now?”
    “Yes. I said I’d see her today. There’s