Kickflip by Lee Christina

Author:Lee, Christina
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Christina Lee
Published: 2019-08-27T16:00:00+00:00

21

For the next few days, I managed to refrain from going to the Hog’s Den, but I couldn’t keep away from the park. I watched Jude and his skate buddies perform in front of a modest audience of mostly wide-eyed kids. One skater was performing a trick I now recognized as the kickflip, where the board rotated 360 degrees midair. Completely mesmerized, I held my breath.

And then suddenly Jude was following behind him with the same trick, his knees rising off the ground. I thought for sure he was headed for a crash landing, but at the last moment the board flipped right side up, and he landed solidly on the wood. As if a twisted ankle wasn’t hanging in the balance.

Holy shit, kickflip indeed. Like a solid jolt to my stomach that created a shockwave through my entire body. Perfect metaphor for how that gorgeous guy made me feel.

When I moved to a bench closer to the bowl, I heard their chatter about the upcoming X Games. Jude was undertaking some maneuvers that might’ve been inspired by his excitement about the event coming to town.

During breaks he’d come visit Chopper and Ace, though I hoped it was also to see me. He’d kneel down and pet my dogs, and we’d make small talk. The tension between us was crazy thick, but we just acted like acquaintances.

I only once attempted to ask him what made him so fearful the other night before he shut me down, so I didn’t want to keep pushing it. I didn’t understand how Jude was linked to the Disciples, and he wasn’t budging on telling me anything. I also noticed, and sometimes only heard, that Smoke seemed to be patrolling Jude’s vicinity on his bike.

Today I had a full day at Raw Ink, and Jude was scheduled for his final tattoo appointment. I was feeling kind of bummed because it had become an enjoyable time for us together. Behind closed doors. Something we hadn’t experienced nearly enough.

We’d shared some heart-stopping intimacy, but that was all it was—brain-melting moments in time. And I wasn’t sure if you could string together moments to create any sort of relationship. No matter how much I desperately wished for that chance.

He was my second-to-last appointment of the day. The tattoo on his back was really shaping up to be something striking. The branches ghosting out in different directions were as forbidding as they were breathtaking—just like Jude.

He lay on my table in the usual position, gazing at me while I worked. There was more of a gentle effortlessness between us now. Depending on the topic, I wasn’t wrenching answers from him any longer.

And there was a winging in my chest upon hearing his voice. Every single time.

“Is this a tree from your childhood?” I asked. “Maybe from the land you mentioned?”

He nodded, his lips quirking into a grin. “I was born in a cottage in the English countryside. A small village called Pickering in North Yorkshire.”

Yorkshire? I felt a niggling deep in my gut that I couldn’t quite shake.

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