Reconsidering Riley (18 page)

"Shit, Riley. I thought you were my
friend!"

"I am." He grinned at Bruce's disgruntled
expression. "That's
why
I'm not taking pictures of the women
for you. I'd like you to make it back from this trip alive."

Lance and Mack chuckled. Then they all
picked up the pace toward their chosen spot, ready to workshop
themselves into complete, Riley-led macho-ness.

Chapter Eleven

The sun made Jayne squint and pull her Gap
hat lower as she approached the place she'd seen Riley and the men
disappear to. She'd finished her workshop, and had helped all the
women pack up their gear afterward. All that remained now was
finding their guides.
And
accomplishing one additional solo
task that she wasn't quite looking forward to.

A lizard scurried away as she rounded a tall
boulder. Jayne shrieked and stopped dead, her heart pounding. She
searched her mind for any wildlife shows she might have seen on TV,
shows that explained whether or not lizards were carnivorous,
poisonous, or in any other way danger-ous.

Nothing came to mind. She remembered that
she avoided wildlife shows, because she couldn't stand watching the
big critters munch the little critters while a TV host yammered on
about "the circle of life." That, in Jayne's opinion, was just
plain mean.

Movement to the right, just above her head,
caught her eye.

"You probably gave that poor little gecko a
heart attack," Riley said, looking down from the top of the rocky
overhang beside her. "Come on up, if you can spare the time from
terrorizing innocent lizards."

"Is it gone?" She searched the ground.

"It's gone." His head and torso disappeared
from view, and his voice sounded farther away. "There are some
foot- and hand-holds off to your right."

Jayne frowned. His teasing reminded her of
things. Things she'd rather forget.
Had forgotten
. Like her
widowed father's laughter when ten-year-old Jayne had baited her
hook with gummy worms on the annual family fishing trip. Like her
older brothers' hoots and hollers when she'd failed to dribble,
bat, or catch a ball.

Well, she'd caught Riley's Swiss Army knife
today, that was for sure. And that was what had brought her here.
The sooner she finished what she had to do, the better.

She found the crevices and helper boulders
Riley had mentioned. With a little effort, Jayne made it to the top
of his gigantic rock. There, she clutched the knife she intended to
return to him...and stared.

Bathed in sunlight and completely shirtless,
Riley lay sprawled on the slab-like surface of the rock. He'd
pillowed his head with his discarded shirt and fleece. His attitude
was relaxed, his finely-muscled body amazing, his expression
peaceful—as though he were asleep and dreaming a fabulous
dream.

He cracked open one eye and caught her
gawking. "Nice view, huh?"

It was horribly arrogant of him. She'd be
the first to admit that. But he did have a point. Jayne whisked her
gaze from the intriguing span of nakedness visible between his
rippled abs and the waistband of his low-slung pants.
Wow
.
Would fanning herself with her hat be too obvious?

"Your pants are a little wrinkly," she said,
trying to sound nonchalant. "But otherwise, I guess you look—"

His grin was all too knowing. "I meant the
view of the countryside."

"Oh. That's nice, too."
Too?
Arrgh
!

Riley's grin broadened. His watchful
patience was as much a part of him as his thick dark hair, wicked
hazel eyes, and a body made for mischief. She wished she were
immune to all of those things. Starting now.

But she wasn't. Obviously. She had to save
face.

"So, where are the rest of the guys?" Jayne
put her hands in the back pockets of her wind pants and looked
around for the other guides. "Aren't you supposed to be conducting
some macho guy workshop for them right now?"

"I am."

His body remained relaxed. He closed his
eyes again, seeming to enjoy the whisper of the breeze against his
skin. Probably, he was. Riley had always been a sensualist. She
couldn't help but imagine how the sun felt on his partially-nude
body, how the wind tickled, how the rocks provided a rough
counterpoint against his back. How
she
would feel lowering
herself to straddle him, taking off her shirt to rub her breasts
against his naked chest...kissing him until they both were
breathless.

She blinked. "You are?"

"Yes. This is a distance workshop. Power
Napping. Useful for football game halftimes, waiting on line at the
DMV, and killing time while your girlfriend changes outfits for the
tenth time." He opened his eyes and levered upward on his elbow.
"Impressed?"

"Wildly."

"I don't believe you when your eyes don't
get in on the smile."

"Riley—" She shook her head, helplessly
grinning.

"That's better. You have a beautiful smile,
you know. It makes me think you're smiling just for me. A guy could
melt under a smile like that. It's unforgettable."

"'A guy?' Not you?"

He paused. Shrugged one shoulder. "This
isn't about me. It's about
you
. You, begging me for that
fling we talked about." His gaze held her, his eyes sparkling with
mischief. "Remember?"

"Don't hold your breath." Jayne began to
feel drawn in, bedazzled by his interest. How was it that Riley
could affect her this way, when she didn't even have the power to
keep him interested in a relationship he'd seemed happy with? She
held the army knife toward him. "I just came to return this. Thanks
for the loan."

Their fingers touched. Riley used the
contact to hold her in position, crouched amid lonely rocks and
endless skies. A fierce longing swept through her. Why did things
have to be this way? Why couldn't she get over him? Why hadn't she
thought to comb her hair before coming here?

"I thought this would still be bagged in
Tyvek," he said.

"I cut it out of the bag for you."

He nodded. Looked at her seriously. "Did it
work?"

"Cutting it out of the bag? Of course it
worked. You can see that it's right there—"

"That's not what I mean."

Jayne tilted her head. Their fingers still
touched, and she wished he'd just accept the knife and be done with
it. Looking at it had raised memories of all the times Riley had
used it to help her in some way or another. She didn't want to be
reminded anymore. Not when there was no future in it.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"The Memorabilia Mash Mambo. Did it crush
whatever memories you had of us?"

"'Crush?' Geez, that's putting it kind of
harshly. Don't you think so?"

She looked at him and saw that he did not,
in fact, "think so." His expression was wary, his gaze direct.
Jayne blinked with surprise. A person would almost think....

"My workshop techniques aren't meant to be
therapeutic for
me
," she told him, pushing the folded knife
into his palm at last. She stood, brushing dust from her pants.
"They're meant to help my breakup-ees get over the hurts in their
lives."

"What about your hurts? What about your bozo
ex-boyfriend?"

"Truthfully?" Jayne crossed her arms. "The
more time goes by, the more I wonder if I really knew him at all.
What we had...wasn't what I thought we had."

Riley nodded sagely. She couldn't
believe
he didn't know she was really talking about him.
About their relationship. She decided to change the subject.

"What about you? What are your plans after
this guide job is finished?"

"I'm up for a National Explorer photography
assignment in Antigua. After that, a potential story on swimming
with whales in Patagonia." Idly, he examined a bank of fluffy
clouds scuttling overhead. "I don't think about the future much,
though. When you're dangling from a cliff in Peru, there's not a
lot of time to worry about next week. You take care of right now,
the rest takes care of itself."

For the first time, she understood his
philosophy. It was a revelatory moment, given how opposite they'd
seemed at times.

"You know, I found that out myself," Jayne
said excitedly, "when I was writing my book. It was a huge project.
Impossible to finish all in one day. I just had to take it page by
page."

"And you finished it. To great acclaim."

She nodded. "Imagine that, huh? The woman
who could hardly wait for her manicure to dry, hitting it big by
being patient. Until now, my book was my greatest achievement."

"And now?"

"Well, now I need
another
book. My
breakup workbook."

He make a face. "Sounds grueling. Sure you
don't want to escape to Antigua with me and get away from it
all?"

The friendly atmosphere between them froze.
She'd been humming along, finally relating to Riley's day-by-day
philosophy for the first time, and then...
bam
.

She couldn't look at him. Couldn't look and
see the earnestness in his face—before he remembered he liked to
travel alone.

"Tell you what," Jayne managed to say. "I'll
run off to the tropics with you right
after
I fall for that
fling you keep dreaming about between us. Okay?"

Since she had no intention of doing
that
, it seemed a safe statement to make. And since Riley
was likely to move on to the next adventure before fulfilling his
end of the challenge they'd issued each other, he seemed likely to
agree.

He did. "You're on," he said, then got up
and headed alongside her back to their temporary camp—just as
though he meant to get started on it right away.

Alexis ducked behind a creosote bush as
Uncle Riley and Jayne passed by. Hidden behind its wiry branches
and tiny blossoms, she watched them stride side-by-side back to the
campsite.

So...Uncle Riley wanted to have a fling
with Jayne, huh
? Thoughtfully, Alexis pondered all she'd
overheard. It sounded like her uncle was
crazy
about the
book author. And like the book author was fighting a pretty major
attraction herself. Not that Alexis could blame Jayne. Uncle Riley
was
pretty awesome.

He was tall. Strong enough to go mountain
climbing, scuba diving, and white water rafting. Funny enough to
make even so-serious Nana and Gramps laugh over dinner. Honest
enough not to dish out fake sympathy to Alexis over her mom's
embarrassing second teenager-hood with Gary the Loser. Yeah, all in
all, she figured her uncle was probably a catch.

And Jayne...heck, she looked like a model or
something. Not that she looked
perfect
. But she did have a
way of walking and talking and just
being
that gave her an
extra little glow. Plus, she was totally nice, and had offered to
show Alexis how to tweeze her eyebrows later, too. Also, she seemed
to have lots of friends.

Uncle Riley needed friends. Alexis worried
about him sometimes, worried about the way he spent months on
assignment in the middle of nowhere. He wasn't getting any younger.
She was pretty sure he'd already made the transition from MTV to
VH-1, a sign of impending senior citizen status, for sure.

She had to do something. After checking to
see that the coast was clear, Alexis emerged from behind the
creosote bush. She jogged down the trail, going fast enough to keep
Uncle Riley and Jayne in her sights. As soon as she caught one of
them alone, she'd get started on her plan.

Someone stepped out from behind a boulder
and onto the path. Alexis shrieked, and smacked right into him.

Lance
.

"Ooof!"

He blushed from the collar of his T-shirt
all the way to the hairline of his boy-band-wanna-be gelled
haircut. The redness in his face made a zit turn Day-Glo on his
forehead. She shook her head.

"Haven't you ever been hiking before,
doofus?" she asked, disentangling her feet from his. She put her
hands on her hips. "You're not supposed to just charge out onto the
trail like that. You could, like,
maim
someone."

Her killer glare seemed unable to penetrate
the geek force field around him. "Uh, sorry. I didn't mean—I mean,
are you okay?"

"What do you think, flop feet?"

He ducked his head. "I guess your mouth
survived okay."

"
What
?"

"I mean..."

Lance was staring at her braces. She just
knew
it.

"...your, uh, hair looks interesting."

"You creep! Take that back!"

"Make me!" He ran down the path, his
lumbering body leaping around boulders and clumps of cactus. He
stopped a few yards away and looked over his shoulder.

"This is
so
juvenile," Alexis said,
faking a yawn.

"
Chicken
," he goaded.

"Start smokin', you big weirdo. 'Cause
you're
toast
!"

She sprinted down the path after him, ready
to make him eat dust.

Over the course of the next few hours, the
high desert began to give way to the forested canyon's outermost
edge. Gentle slopes took the place of boulders; tall wild grasses
grew instead of prickly pear and cholla. A cool breeze tossed the
branches of the trailside juniper bushes. The temperature dropped
steadily, a harbinger of the coming night.

Riley squinted up at the sunset's streaks of
orange and pink. They'd stopped to make camp almost an hour ago. So
far, only he, his guides, Lance, and Alexis had managed to pitch
their tents. His niece sat next to him now, watching the new
adventure travelers struggle with nylon taffeta, aluminum poles,
and zip-up rain flies.

"Shouldn't you help them?" Alexis asked.