Page 56 of Rebel Heart
And when we pulled to a stop at the top of his driveway, I noticed what I’d missed the night I’d come here with him on his motorcycle. Sitting there, behind his house, was a trampoline.
“You weren’t joking.”
He laughed. “Did you think I would scheme just to get you to come back to my place, and I figured tempting you with the promise of a jumping session on a trampoline that didn’t exist was the way I’d go about it?”
It was a silly thought. “Right. That’s ridiculous.”
Beau led me over and helped me on, and the next thing I knew, I was observing him using the bare skateboard deck while he did a couple of tricks.
“I think you should start with the ollie. It’s the easiest trick there is.”
I stood up and tipped my chin high. “Perfect. How do I do it?”
Beau offered a demonstration, and I determined that an ollie seemed a simple enough trick. At least I didn’t have to worry about flipping the board around and being able to land on it again.
I took the board from Beau and moved to the middle as he took a few steps back. He gave me some verbal instructions again, and I went for it.
“Close,” he said. “But that wasn’t a bad first try.”
Excitement rippled through me. “Okay, okay, okay. Hang on. Let me try again.”
I set myself up for it and did it again.
“Better!”
Another time. And another. And another.
“That’s it, Jules. I think you’ve got it down.”
“Yeah?”
“See? I told you this would work. It allows you to practice the trick without worrying about falling and getting hurt in the process.”
I did the ollie several more times just to be sure I understood the concept and wasn’t experiencing some weird beginner’s luck.
“Can you show me something else?” I asked once I was confident in my abilities.
Beau took the board from me and demonstrated another trick. For at least another hour, we continued that pattern of Beau teaching and me learning. The ollie wound up being the only trick I mastered, and my shins definitely took a few hits when I tried to do my first flip trick. It’d be a long time before I could successfully land one of those and even longer before I’d be willing to attempt it anywhere other than the trampoline.
“Oh, I’m exhausted,” I said, sitting down, allowing my head to drop back on the trampoline.
Beau dropped down onto his back beside me. “You worked hard today. I’m honestly impressed by you.”
I rolled my head in his direction, my eyes meeting his. Why did he have to be so handsome? “Me? I’m wondering how you do this all the time. I could never keep up.”
He returned the smile. “You’d get used to it.”
“So, it’s true? This is how you normally spend your days?”
“Laying on a trampoline with a beautiful woman?” He sighed. “Unfortunately, no.”
I couldn’t allow those words to penetrate, because I’d wind up right back where I was a few weeks ago. Instead, I asked, “Well, what exactly do you do as a professionalskateboarder? You said before that you don’t do contests much.”
“I used to compete a lot more than I do now. I’ve shifted most of the work I do to brand promotion through video parts and small tours.”
My brows pulled together. “Video parts?”
“It’s just what they call skate videos. The company will have us go out to different spots in some cities and film a bunch of clips. The videographer will edit multiple clips together in several different shorter videos, and the company will use those to help promote the brand.”
