Page 14 of Rebel Heart
A full-fledged grin spread across my face. “I’d love to.”
He smiled back. “Sounds great. I’ll text you all the details about it later tonight, and you can figure out if it works for your schedule. Unfortunately, I’ll need to get there ahead of time with the team, so I won’t be able to pick you up.”
“That’s okay. I completely understand. As long as you don’t mind me showing up, I don’t have a problem driving myself there.”
“Well, it’s open to the public, so everyone is free to go. But it’d be cool to see. At least I’ll be able to prove to you that age is nothing but a number.”
Still smiling, nodding slowly, I said, “Alright, Beau. I’ll hold off on the old man jokes until after I see what you can do.”
He shook his head and rolled his eyes in return. “That’d be appreciated.”
For the remainder of dinner, Beau told me a bit more about his skate career. Though I had nothing to compare it to, nor did I know most of the tricks he talked aboutdoing, I was surprised to learn just how good Beau was. He’d won many titles over the years, competing at contests I’d heard of, like the X Games. It was safe to say I was fully prepared to be impressed by him next week at the demo.
Of course, that might have also had something to do with the fact that it wasn’t only his skating skills I was interested in.
For whatever reason, despite all the flirting, when Beau took me home after dinner, he’d only offered a simple hug and soft kiss on the cheek. I loved it for what it was, but I could admit I wanted more.
4
JULES
I was not prepared.
Beau had told me about the demo, but I hadn’t anticipated anything like this.
It bordered on insanity.
And considering I was someone who spent her days waking up early, so I could bake before being surrounded by large crowds of people, I thought that was saying something.
There was such a huge crowd at this demo, and the energy was wild.
I loved it.
But nothing compared to the actual skating.
The demo had started just a few minutes ago, and I’d been thoroughly impressed by what I saw, by what Beau could do.
He hadn’t spotted me, and I wasn’t keen to intrude on this. Not yet, anyway. A handful of people had stopped him after he’d taken his turn to do a run that had himdoing a trick down a stair set. Those people had requested to take pictures with him and asked for his autograph.
I watched with a smile while he signed several skateboard decks, working his way through the mess of fans surrounding him.
It was so strange. Any time I ever thought about famous people, my mind automatically drifted to movie stars or the big names in football or basketball, names people knew without having to watch the sport. I’d never known anyone famous, and I found it fascinating that in this world, in the skateboarding industry, Beau seemed just as popular as Keanu Reeves.
I didn’t mind standing back and simply observing while he was in his element. In fact, I enjoyed it.
Beau succeeded in making it back to the upper platform of the park, where all the men, who I presumed were part of the team, were starting their run. I watched as they took their turns, waiting patiently for the guy who’d caught my eye to go again.
I loved seeing him in his element and thought it was great that he got to do something he seemed to love for a living. And if nothing else, I couldn’t miss how much Beau was enjoying himself. The smile that had been plastered on his face throughout was evidence enough of that.
In the mix of it, I’d even recognized a few individuals I’d seen him with at Westwood’s last week. Those guys were mixed in with others I hadn’t seen before, all of them taking turns at making a run.
The crowd went wild and cheered whenever theylanded a trick. Some guys took incredibly hard falls on the concrete without a knee or elbow pad in sight, making me wince. That had been all the proof I needed to know I’d made a smart decision when I chose not to take up skateboarding on my own without anyone to teach me.
Finally, Beau was on his board again, and after he’d done a trick onto a rail, slid his board down that rail, and landed with ease as he did another trick off it, he spotted me.
What he’d done had been amazing. Incredible, even. But for me, it didn’t compare to the way his entire expression changed when he realized I was there. His eyes lit up, a smile spreading across his face, and he quickly changed direction, riding his board over to where I was.
“You made it.” There was such happiness in his tone, like he hadn’t been entirely sure I was going to come and was thrilled that I had.
