Shattered

Chapter 22: Road Trip

Violet's POV:

"I never craved attention until I tasted yours." -Emily Bronte

"Snacks are necessary for a road trip," I said, glancing back at Kaden who was following me through the aisles in the gas station like a fucking puppy. A really fucking cute puppy.

"Well yeah," he said in a tone that implied it couldn't be otherwise. "Other than the obvious," he said, snatching two bags of the chips we both liked, "what other snacks do you like?"

"I was more wondering what four-year-old Kaden would've picked," I said honestly, turning to face him. "If you were given free reign when you were four, to buy absolutely any snack and however many snacks you wanted, what would you have gotten?"

"Honestly?" He asked, looking around the store. "I'd probably go after almost everything sweet. And beef jerky."

"Distinguished taste," I nodded, grabbing a bag of jerky like the kind he bought at the grocery store all those mornings ago. "Well, get it then. Let out the inner kid and get whatever you want."

"Your car isn't big enough," he grinned. "But I'm not saying no to snacks."

I bit back the smile and he wasn't kidding. He grabbed almost every single sweet thing in that whole damn store. The cashier looked at us strangely as we piled it all up on the counter but I ignored him, pulling out my wallet.

"Isn't it my turn?" Kaden asked.

"Nope," I said, giving him a side-glance. "I bought alcohol, you bought food, it's my turn."

"It feels a little unbalanced," he said, raising an eyebrow.

I rolled my eyes, noticing matches off in a small display on the counter. "Tell you what," I said, holding out my keys. "Go fill up my car with gas while I check out and we'll call it even."

"That's not close to being even, but fine, I'll find another way to pay you back," he said with a mischievous smile. As if that wasn't enough, the fucker winked before walking out the door with the keys to my car.

As soon as he wasn't looking, I snatched the matches and added them to the pile. "I don't suppose you have birthday candles here?"

"No, sorry, only that kind of candle," he said, nodding behind me. I looked back at the candles and made a face. Matches were closer to what I wanted than a scented candle, so I stuck with that.

I finished checking out while Kaden was still filling the car. I put the bags in the back then reached back, going through them until I found the little coffee cakes he picked out. Opening them up, I stuck 4 matches through the top then grabbed my lighter from the middle console and waited until he close the gas tank up before lighting them. He slid into the car right as I lit the last one and I held it up. "Happy fourth birthday, Kaden."

Smiles had never been so powerful until him. The smile he gave me was the most beautiful one I'd ever seen and my heart and body could not handle it. They were all going into hyperdrive over one single smile.

"Thanks, Violet," he said, closing his hands around mine and leaning forward, blowing them out. His eyes caught mine and held them captive, blue like the ocean I used to run to on the few chances I had to run away, a safe calming place amongst a crowd of chaos.

There was a serious danger of staying trapped in those eyes forever and never moving from our spot at the gas station, so I mustered what felt like every bit of strength and tore my eyes away. I left the coffee cake in his hands before driving off. I was glad driving would require my eyes on the road, otherwise being so close to him could've undone me.