Page 36 of Let the Light Shine Through

As it turns out, skateboarding is like riding a bike—as long as you don’t overthink it, your body remembers the movements as soon as you’re back in the saddle. It’s also almost identical to snowboarding, if you remove the snow, ice, trees, and sporadic deadly avies, but increase the noise. Holy shit is it loud here. The conversations, the music, the wipeouts, there’s nonstop noise. That’s one thing about snowboarding I always loved, how the snow would cut out everything except the telltale signs of nature to remind you whose territory you’re really on.

So far I’ve gotten Gia to divulge bits of her childhood along with some details of her dating life. I’m using that term loosely here because Gia seems to date about as much as I do, which means she doesn’t. Ever. She didn’t have a problem listing out some of her one-night stands though, causing me to nosedive and fall straight to the ground. Yeah, that sucked. I got a body count too, but I’m not fucking sharing it. Goddamn.

At least I didn’t have to waste a question asking Gia her type because judging by the names she gave, she doesn’t have one. I haven’t touched on anything that’d explain the scars on her back either even though it’s been on the tip of my tongue. The setting feels all wrong. I’m also not sure what to make of her referring to her mom in the past tense, but not her dad. Every time she lights up like a Christmas tree while sharing a memory from her childhood, I want to ask, but again, now doesn’t seem like the appropriate time to dig too deep. I’ve just been keeping a mental running list of things to ask at a later date instead. When we’re alone.

Gia’s also swimming in a debt of kisses owed—to me. Some of the tricks in skateboarding are similar enough to snowboarding that I’ve been able to stick a few without wiping out. And on the ones I don’t land, Gia’s helped me through them. She’s a great teacher. I can see how the girls at the ORV park are so talented at such young ages. She’s got this way of making you feel like the most successful person from learning just one new thing. It makes you want to try again and again and again.

Don’t get me wrong, the prize of kisses we agreed to doesn’t hurt, but I’d do it anyway, just to have her look at me the way she’s been looking at me and talk to me the way she’s been talking. I’d do anything to stay in this moment with Gia, where the only thing I feel is alive.

“Trippy back tail, bro,” some guy standing beside Gia tells me when I skate over to where she’s been sitting on the ground. Yes, she’s sitting calmly in the middle—literally—of the skate park, completely unafraid of the chaos surrounding her. Every few minutes, someone carves inches away from her, but she insists on watching from down here. With arms draped over her bent knees, she looks just like she did the first time she stopped by my house, except this time, I don’t have to worry about her ass showing.

“It was all right,” I tell him, downplaying it, but Gia’s quick to argue, saying, “It was fucking butter,” peering up at me through her lashes.

I used to compete slopestyle, so tricks aren’t hard for me to master. A quick back tail is nothing compared to the shit I’ve done.

The guy nods his head, agreeing, “Smooth criminal,” then takes off across the pavement, leaving us alone. As alone as we’re gonna get here.

The sun went down hours ago, leaving behind the more serious skaters along with their crews and…girlfriends maybe. I don’t know. All I see is Gia.

“What now?” I ask her, but pulling out a joint from her pocket as she straightens a leg, Gia just shrugs.

I put my hand over hers and shake my head. I don’t know what’s after this, but I know what I want to happen, and I need her fully aware if she plans on settling the serious debt she’s accumulated tonight. Hell, she’ll want to be present for the ways I plan on kissing her.

Her eyes flit between mine until suddenly, she stands, taking the board with her, and says, “My turn.”

All I can do is watch as she tears up the entire fucking park. Others tune in too, scoping out what this beautiful woman is capable of but, unlike when we arrived, I don’t interfere—yet. I’m just too fucking mesmerized to do anything else. No surface goes unclaimed as her own personal playground when Gia skates and the picture I had in my head earlier, the one of her snowboarding next to me, is quickly replaced with a much more realistic version, one where I work to keep up with her. I already knew she was crazy, but it’s so much more than that. Gia’s fucking fearless. Nothing scares her, nothing I’ve seen anyway.

She stops next to someone’s wireless speaker, cranking the volume. The owner, I’m assuming, jerks a lazy nod, his eyes bloodshot even from here. SAYGRACE’s newer remix of “You Don’t Own Me,” featuring G-Eazy, floats across the cement seconds before Gia blows me a kiss, then sucks in a hit from the joint the guy passes her.

My lips twitch with a grin. Point taken.

Gia coasts around a curve and right behind her an older guy swerves dangerously close, mimicking her move. This is the third time he’s done something similar, but I can’t tell if Gia even realizes he’s there because she’s not acting like it. Either that or she just doesn’t give a shit.

But I do.

My attention is cut between Gia and the asshole tailing her, and with my fists already pumping at my sides, I push off the stair rail. The longer I watch him go out of his way to ride her ass, the hotter my chest and the backs of my arms get until not even the night breeze can cool my overheated skin. Nobody else seems to notice what a dickwad this guy’s being but me. Is this a regular thing? There’s been plenty of accidents since we got here. Hell, people on skateboards running into other people on skateboards should be a trick all its own from what I’ve seen, but something about this feels different, almost malicious, like the guy’s got a problem with Gia specifically and is fucking with her on purpose because of it.

I stride closer, careful to keep an eye on him, but, too busy tracking his whereabouts, I fail to notice Gia rolling back down a mini ramp…right into the fucker. I was studying him, but he was studying her.

Gia’s side takes the full impact as she collides with his already prepared shoulder aimed directly at her, then my breath catches in my throat when her body bounces—fucking bounces—off the concrete when she falls to the ground like a limp doll.

Luckily, the rest of my body doesn’t need more than a heart pounding with fired-up blood to run across the park and knock the guy responsible out cold. The satisfaction of seeing his ass bounce off the ground as well never even comes because I’m at Gia’s side the next instant, drifting my hands over her thin frame.

“Are you okay?” Such a stupid question, I know, but it’s all I can choke out with my lungs not functioning properly.

Shallow moans are my only answer before I’m pulling at her clothes. With her still on her side, I go to lift her shirt for a better look at her back but freeze when her arm tightens, blocking access.

My eyes shoot to her face. What the fuck? I need to see if she’s hurt.

Footsteps pound across the pavement until a circle is formed around us, everyone worried about Gia rather than the asshole still passed out next to us.

Gia’s eyes are still closed, but she gives a subtle shake of her head, and I grit my teeth. Fine. Fuck. The back stays hidden.

Gently, I roll her onto her back—praying she’s not ignoring an actual injury for the sake of keeping her scars out of sight—then get to work checking over the rest of her. I keep my touch light but steady as I make my way over her wilted body, looking for any hint of damage. For every wound I find on her, I’ll happily replicate on the person that caused it.

My eyes snag on a spot of blood blooming at the bottom of her shirt and a shiver runs up the length of my spine, spreading out to the rest of my body. As the first time I’ve ever felt truly cold, my internal organs feel like they’re about to buckle from the unusual sensation and I’m immediately brought back to that last day with Salvy. He was there, right fucking there, and then he wasn’t.

Just like Gia?