Brokenly Found

by Nikki Bolvair

  I shrugged again. Oh well. It's nice though that he and Sarah could have time alone together. This was his day off after all.

  I raced out of the house and started to walk across the street, but that's when Kayden opened the McGuire's front door and came out dressed to the tee. He looked so strikingly handsome that I slowed my pace to take him in, because the ever so cheeky and carefree Kayden was wearing a tie. Now I realized what Sarah had been saying before. I was dressed down compared to what he was wearing.

  Decked out in a pair of Dockers shoes and dark-washed jeans, followed up by a nice preppy dress shirt that buttoned at his wrist and a traditional black tie, Kayden looked very handsome. His hair was combed back with only a little bit at the front standing up, giving it a faux hawk look.

  After shutting his door, he glanced up, saw me, and frowned. He pointed to my house behind me as he walked my way.

  "Get back in there," he said sternly, yet playfully as well.

  I was confused as we both met in the middle of our street.

  "Why?"

  "We're going on a date," he said as if that explained everything.

  "I know that."

  "So go back into your house so I can knock on your door like a proper date. We're doing this the traditional way."

  I groaned as Tyler's talk came back to me. "Are you serious?"

  "Yes, Faith, go back inside and wait by the door until I come and knock, like a good girlfriend."

  He turned me around, patted my butt and pointed. "Go." He spoke as if I was an actual child.

  I twisted my lips and made my way back into the house, slamming the door shut. I couldn't believe Kayden was making me do this. I knew what a date was, but it didn't mean we had to do it traditionally, right?

  Sarah looked surprised to see me as she came down the stairs. "What are you doing back?"

  I huffed, "He made me come back inside.

  Sarah's lips twitched. "Really?"

  I glared. "Yeah."

  "And why is that?"

  I pouted. She knew why, but I said it anyways. "Because he wants me to wait until he knocks on the door."

  She giggled. I glared. Then she quickly brought her hand up to cover her mouth, but it didn't matter I still heard it.

  I stomped my foot. "Not funny! I can't believe he wants to knock on the freaking door. He lives right across the street!" I huffed as I gesture to the door behind me.

  "I know," Sarah reasoned. "But if he wants to do it traditional, then you're doing traditional."

  "I know, I know. I got that, but..." I stopped when a knock came at the door, and I threw my hand up in a 'see' kind of gesture. Before I could turn around and open it, Brady came hurriedly down the stairs, dressed in his police uniform.

  Sarah looked at him, as confused as I was. "Honey, I thought you had the day off?"

  He grinned as he made his way towards me or maybe it was towards the door. "I do. Move, Faith."

  I got what he was doing and snorted. "He's not going to be intimidated, Brady. His dad's a police officer too," I told him. I stayed in place as another knock sounded at the door.

  Brady moved me aside to open the door. "But I'm not his dad," he said, and then he shut the door.

  I only had to wait for a few minutes before Brady came back in, seemingly satisfied. I went out to meet Kayden once again with a raised eyebrow. "You ready now?"

  He smiled. "Yep." He wrapped his arm around my shoulders and led me to his car.

  "So are you going to tell me where we're going now?"

  "Nope," he said, as he seated me in the truck and got in himself.

  "Did Brady give you another pollination talk?" I asked as we drove off.

  He laughed and took my hand to kiss the back of it. "Worse."

  ***

  He took me to a fancy restaurant. One where you could make reservations. We walked up the cobblestone walkway past the flourish water fountain that was in the center and towards the large, frosted, high-end glass door with long copper handles. Kayden opened the door and guided me into the low lit restaurant and towards the hostess counter.

  "H! Welcome to the La Douleur Exquise. Do you have a reservation?"

  Kayden gave his signature smile. "Yes. Kayden McGuire."

  I wandered to the side while he figured things out and looked at the art that filled the entrance area. This place seemed to be very unlike Kayden. Somehow I imagined he would take me paintballing, skating or something more adventurous and fun like his personality. I didn't picture us sitting in a stuffy restaurant eating. I was grateful for the effort, but this wasn’t what I expected out of him.

  "You’ve got to be kidding me," I heard Kayden mutter as he walked my way with a little flat black piece of plastic.

  "They overbooked our table. We’ve got to wait." He lifted the plastic thing up as we walked out the door, finding a place to sit across from the fountain. "We have to wait for this thing to vibrate for another table."

  As we sat, Kayden rolled up his sleeves to his elbows for a more casual look. I bet he was uncomfortable. I felt sorry for him wearing that tie.

  As we waited, Kayden talked about school and what has been going on with his classes.

  "It’s funny, you know," he said, taking my hand in his. We looked out at the water fountain situated in the middle of the stone walkway. "If you weren’t so dang smart you'd be in school with me."

  I smiled as I turned to look at him. "Sorry?"

  He bumped my shoulder. "No you’re not. What are you going to college for anyways? You’re in all of those math classes so you must know what you’re going for. I know some of the classes are prerequisites, like the one you share with the twins, but how long are you going for and for what?"

  "Twins?" I asked, confused for a second.

  "Yeah, Kane and Wendy."

  "Wait," I said, turning to him confused. "They’re twins?"

  His eyes went wide, and he chuckled. "Yeah."

  I looked back to the fountain. "I wondered, but I wasn’t sure."

  "Soo—” Kayden hedged.

  I smiled, "I’m not sure yet. I have two ideas of what I want to do. It’s either a forensic analyst or a cryptologist." I bit my lip and looked towards him. "Pretty ambitious of me, huh?”

  Kayden gave me an encouraging smile. "With how far you’ve come, I have no doubt that you could either."

  I smiled. He believed in me. He didn’t think either of those ideas were out of my reach. I leaned over and gave him a kiss on his cheek.

  "Thank you, Kayden," I said as I pulled away. "I’m glad you believe in me. I have until the end of this semester to figure it out."

  His hand tightened on mine as his thumb slowly caressed my wrist. "Will you let me know what you choose, then?"

  "Yes." I turned his question back on him. "What about you? What does the famous Kayden want to be when he grows up?"

  He grinned, drawing me in closer to whisper into my ear, "That's easy; I’m already doing what I want to do."

  I drew back confused, "You work?"

  He feigned hurt. "What? You think I just mooch off my parents?"

  I felt bad. "I-ah-what–trying- argh!"

  He laughed, bringing my hand up for a kiss. "No. It’s ok. I work in the family business, just like my brothers do. Except Tyler’s doing it so he can pay for school to be a CPA and Lincoln’s planning on going to school to be an architectural engineer, but I’m actually going to take it over."

  I was curious. "What is the family business?"

  "Real estate. That’s how you guys got the house." He chuckled. "My dad’s the police officer and my mom’s the realtor."

  "Oh. That’s cool. So you want to take that over." He murmured an agreement. "So, do you have to go to college for it?"

  Kayden grimaced. "I can go to some classes, but get a degree online."

  "Oh." Something was bothering him, and I wanted to make him happy. "So, what is it that you do when you work?"

  "I take pictures of homes." He shrugged
. "The outside, the inside when they go up for sale, and then figure out what the homes in the area are selling for so my mom can come up with a base price and we can go from there."

  "That’s sounds neat. And now I realize why your brothers and you have a lot of free time." I mused.

  Kayden sighed and looked at his watch, then let go of my hand to stand up. "Wait here. I’ll be right back."

  After a few minutes, he came back empty handed, and I stood up. "Table ready?"

  He shook his head with a secret grin, as he took my hand and pulling us back to the parking lot. "What are we doing then?"

  "We’re going to do what we should have done in the first place," he told me, losing the tie before opening the truck door for me.

  I grinned, liking the new idea as I got in. "And what is that?"

  He bent over, giving me a brief kiss, before saying, "Forgetting traditional and going rouge."

  Chapter 14

  Kayden drove east on the freeway, out of Brighton, until I saw the water’s edge on our right side. It gleamed, like liquid silver under the moon. Even though it was not very late, being this close to the ocean with all the lights on the left side made it seem like it was. We took a slight turn onto a little freeway until I saw lights, lots of them off in the distance. When we got closer, I realized where he was taking me. I grew excited as we pulled up to the entrance and I saw the sign for the Seabreeze Amusement. Grinning, I looked towards him, practically bouncing in my seat.

  "This is what I would expect in a Kayden date!" I said excitedly. I could not wait to go in.

  We found a parking spot and quickly went to get our tickets. I could hear the park music, along with the screams of people riding rides. When we got in, Kayden pulled me towards an eating place that was close to the entrance. We ordered and ate at the open picnic tables they had, then we headed to our first ride of the night. The merry-go-round.

  "Really?" Kayden asked, hesitating about going on the childish ride. "You sure you don't want to try something a little bit... faster?"

  I grabbed his hand, hauling him along to stand in line, grinning. Ok, maybe I wasn't 'hauling' him. It wasn't as if I could anyway. It was more like a reluctant dragging of sorts, but never mind that. "Come on. It'll be fun. Plus, we just ate. Let's build up to the faster rides."

  When we both got on the ride, I zeroed in on the stationary bench seat towards the outside. We both sat down, and Kayden wrapped his arm around me, bringing his hand to my head to pull me in for a brief kiss. He was my fun, happy go lucky Kayden, and I loved that we skipped the restaurant to do this.

  "Eww!" a child voiced, not too far away from us. "They're kissing!"

  "Shh. Let them be. They're in love," A woman answered.

  "Like Snow White?"

  I giggled against Kayden's lips, hearing the child's question and resorted to snuggling into his arms until the ride ended. From there we went to the teacups, followed by a more adventurous ride called 'The Spring.' I think if any ride could have made me lose my dinner, it would have been that one. From there we worked our way to a ride that looked like a boat that swung from side to side, then to a roller coaster and finally to a ride called The Bobsleds. Talk about fast! We worked our way around the park to the Bumper Cars and Kayden coaxed me into going on a ride called The Screamers Edge. That was going to be added to the list of never-again-to-ride. I think I left fingernail prints in Kayden's arm. It was at another large roller coaster called the Jack Rabbit that things got to be uncomfortable. Kayden got a brief phone call and stepped to the side. It was someone asking if he had a phone number and Kayden had to look it up on his phone to find it. When he was done, he gave me a tentative smile as he put his phone away. "All Tyler does is bug me." He was just joking, but I could see that the phone called had bothered him.

  I smiled as we head toward the next ride. "What did he need?"

  He waved his hand in the air dismissively, as we walked. "Just a number." He grabbed hold of my hand and started to pull me along, grinning like a fool. "Come on. Forget about Tyler! We have more rides to ride!"

  ***

  We were standing in line for another ride, and I wasn’t sure what time it was. We had already been at the park for a few hours. I knew the park closed at ten, so I knew it wasn't that late yet. A couple of guys playing around in front of us were pushing and shoving each other. There were four of them. The one with red hair pushed the guy with a black jacket while another one of his buddies smoked off to the side of the stretchy black band that held our line. The fourth one that had a lip ring and tattoos shoved the redhead along with the guy in the jacket.

  At first, it looked like they were playing as if they had too many sweets and were burning off extra energy by being guys, but then they got more aggressive. Their friend put his smoke out and stepped over to the redhead, pushing him away from the other two. That's when things escalated.

  Kayden tucked me into his chest with an arm around my waist, keeping me close when they got carried away. Then he spoke up. "Can you guys settle down a bit? We're in line too, you know."

  I heard murmurs of agreements from behind us and in front of our line. Others were upset with them also. Kayden just voiced what the rest of the people in line were thinking. These guys were being rude.

  The four of them stopped, turned towards us after Kayden spoke and my heart froze when the smoker guy stepped forward. I reassured myself that everything would be ok because this guy seemed older and more mature, despite his overall scary attire. Maybe he would be more reasonable about our request.

  I was wrong.

  I stiffened when I heard him say, "Whaddya gonna do about it, pussy boy?" Definitely not mature. Kayden pushed me behind him when he realized things were about to hit the fan.

  "Hey," Kayden said, standing his ground, "We just want to ride. If you guys would—"

  That's when smoker guy swung at Kayden, but Kayden leaned to the right missing it.

  "What the—” he started to say, but smoker guy wasn't stopping for a small chat. Smoker guy went for Kayden's stomach, but he swiftly stepped back pushing into me, making me stumble back. I moved away from him over to the side, not wanting to get in the way, but what I really wanted to do was grab Kayden and just leave. I was afraid that if I stepped in I would cause more damage than good. That guy just kept coming at him.

  "Come on, Brad!" the guy with the jacket called out, as he stood towards the side. "Don't let Pussy Boy get away!"

  "Leave him alone," I defended, as I glared at the remaining three. "We just wanted to ride the ride."

  "Whoa, feisty little thing, aren't you?" the redhead said, coming my way.

  "You leave her alone!" Kayden yelled as he pushed the smoker guy aside, but then the guy actually got a hit in, and I panicked.

  "Kayden!"

  "Hey!" another dude in line joined us. He was huge like a football player would be. "Leave them alone!" he defended us.

  Kayden was bleeding from his nose, but still fighting the smoker guy while his friends egged them on. The football player went in to break it up, and that’s when the guy with the lip ring busted in, hitting the football guy straight on.

  I felt an arm go around my waist and freaked as I twisted to get away. I elbowed whoever it was behind me, and they grunted. I turned my head to catch a glimpse of red hair. "Want to come over and rock my bed—" I lifted my elbow higher jabbing it into his jaw. I felt a small sense of pride when I saw his surprised expression.

  This guy was going down.

  "You jerk!" I yelled, going in for another hit. Someone tried to pull him away as the guy pulled me backwards until we both tumbled to the ground, but I keep hitting him.

  "You need to grow up!" I kicked him as we both struggled on the cement. "Find some manners!" I wasn't letting this guy take me down. I briefly saw what was going on around us before I started swinging again. It seemed like everyone was fighting someone.

  Another set of hands grabbed me as jacket guy swung, smacking me in the
face. I went ballistic. I didn't know when I’d lost reality, but suddenly I was back to that horrible night years ago. All I could see was my dad's fist hitting me once again.

  The hits came and people were screaming. It hurt just like before, but this time, I wasn't backing down. "You won't win this time!" I growled from the ground with two other guys wrestling me. My ribs were on fire, and my face hurt, but I got my hands free and hit anyone I could. "I refuse!"

  By the time Kayden got to me, my voice was raw from screaming. He pulled me away from the guys I was fighting with as others helped to keep them back.

  "Hey, Hey, it’s over. Daniels, Daniels. Faith! Look at me."

  I looked up into Kayden's blue eyes. One was swelling and the sight brought me back to the present. I was a mess and scared. Security was called, but it didn't matter. The fight was over, but my body still hurt.

  "Oh, Kayden, your eye." I put my hand up to touch it as tears gathered, but he pulled back. I wasn't sure who won, but I gave as much to the fight as they delivered. I just hoped that their baby-making machines were permanently damaged.

  Statements were taken, but no one pressed charges. I guess the other guys had a history of violence and the other people in line vouched for us. I didn't want Brady to know, and honestly, I knew I lost it there. I was disappointed in my behavior. I didn't usually resort to violence. When we got back to Kayden's truck with ice packs from one of the restaurants, I was quiet.

  He demanded to look me over in the bathrooms before we left, and I refused, but somehow we ended up in a family bathroom anyways. He made me strip down to my underwear so he could see the damage those pieces of sh—well, you get the idea. Bruises marred my skin as my face tightened with swelling.

  "Jeez, Daniels," he exclaimed, seeing it.

  "I didn't like that guy calling you that, and the guy came after me," I told him as if that made perfect sense. I think I was always waiting for a fight. One that I could sink into. Get some anger out.