Before Sunrise Read online

He watched her as she quickly put on her dress and helped by zipping it up. When done, she tied her sweater around her waist. It covered the spot nicely. She asked for her panties but he shook his head no. Kennedy laughed and said he should hold on to them for her.

  “What’s your last name, Kay?”

  “Washington. My name is Kennedy Washington.”

  “My last name is Flanagan.”

  “Kennedy Flanagan.” She smiled.

  He rolled his eyes. “You are one strange girl.”

  She bounced over to him and hugged his waist. “Can we stay out by the beach a little longer? Just you and me.”

  Liam seemed a bit uncomfortable but he returned her hug. “Yeah, it’s cool, we can hang out.”

  “Good.”

  Chapter Seven

  Liam shook his head, smiling at the memories that had filled his dreams, gotten him through till morning, just as they had every night for the past five years. Kennedy had set her eyes on him and he’d been hooked. He was sprung. He remembered how he’d watched her under the moonlight. She looked so delicate, feminine, and the affection she showered on him felt genuinely pure. In the beginning, that could just have been her age, her innocence, but the purity never changed over the years. Amazing to believe, but from that day forth he was convinced that Kennedy Michelle Washington was his soul mate. By the time they parted for the night, he had already contemplated how to see her again. She met him by the beach and let him take her for a ride in his parents’ stolen car. They ate at some swank bistro that cost him damn near a week’s salary. He had to get a loan from Heath to take her there. Both young and smart, Kennedy had chosen him, and it made him feel like Captain America. She kept going on and on about how awesome he was, and asked him to explain all kinds of shit he didn’t know.

  There time together had been intense. Kennedy hung on his every word. He knew her crush was wrong. Didn’t dare make a move on her for more sex. Not that weekend. But he’d never had anybody outside of his baby sister shower him with such affection. He’d been starved for it, for something he had no idea he needed.

  However, the fantasy ended before it started. Kennedy showed up at the beach in tears on the third day and told him she would have to leave. Liam began to panic. He gave her his number. Hell, Connecticut was just a two-hour drive from Newark.

  Kennedy said over and over that her parents were strict. That they’d have to be careful. Sierra had been a good cover for them. He still felt like shit for what happened the months that followed. He seduced Kennedy away from her family, and not just physically. All this heartache he suffered now must be karma. Within six months, he had her running away from her home, school, and friends to marry him. Then he enlisted because they promised him a way to make a good income without breaking the law, and even finished college to get into OCS. He’d taken her away from her family, not giving a fuck how her parents must have suffered, how her cute kid sister must have suffered. He had been selfish. But he’d made her his.

  Now she belonged to another man.

  Fucking karma.

  There came a knock at the door. “Come in.”

  Vasquez pushed the door open, sticking his head in cautiously. “Hey, you okay in here? Angelina is driving me nuts with checking on you. She keeps threatening to call Kennedy, bro.”

  Liam smiled. Nodded. Looking away to the window, he saw the sun beaming through the blinds. “What school does Mackenzie attend?”

  Vasquez stepped in to the room, curious. “She goes to Harriet Tubman Elementary with the twins. She’s in Pre-K.”

  Liam frowned. He had told the twins that Mackenzie’s father was indeed alive. He didn’t need the boys telling her first. “Are they going to school today?”

  “Well, they were.”

  “Can they hang back?”

  “Why?”

  “I need you to take me there.”

  Vasquez frowned. “Wait, bro. You have to see Kennedy first.”

  Liam turned away from the window, his face tight with anxiety. “Oh I plan to. It’s Tuesday, so she has to be at work. But I want to see my baby girl now. I’ll wait until Kennedy comes home to pay her a visit.”

  Liam watched, tight, as Vasquez contemplated options, then scuttled whatever argument he’d been planning to make. “Cool. You can catch her at recess or something. You can’t just walk in to her school and surprise her.”

  “Right,” nodded Liam. “We have to do this carefully.”

  ***

  The class lined up for playtime. The kids, alike but each so different in their uniforms, held hands and waited for Ms. Christopher to tell them to move.

  Mackenzie wore a dark blue plaid pleated skirt with a white button-down shirt. Her white socks were pulled up to her knees, and her patent leather shoes were scuffed over the toes. Her hair, sandy brown with crinkly spiral curls, had been styled into a ponytail that cascaded down to her shoulders.

  Ms. Christopher pushed open the side door and the little kids dropped each other’s hands screaming, “Yay!” All sprinted to the playground at the back corner of the school grounds, rushing to choose the monkey bars, the slide, or the swings.

  Liam sat in the passenger seat of Vasquez’s Ford Taurus, tense, as though he were on a mission, waiting for the order.

  “There she is, man.”

  Vasquez pointed out his daughter. Mackenzie pushed the boy next to her to climb up the slide. Liam smiled at her aggressiveness. He watched as the wind blew her curls from her ponytail into her face as she reached the top. Sitting down, Mackenzie gave an enormous grin. She slid down the shiny metal, squealing.

  That was it for him. He grabbed at the door and stepped out.

  “Hey! Liam, don’t!”

  Vasquez shouted, trying to stop him. Liam ignored him. With the aid of his cane, he walked hurriedly across the street. Angelina had left him some of Vasquez’s clothes, jeans and a perfectly decent polo, but instead, he’d chosen his uniform. In his peripheral vision, he noticed Vasquez get out of the car and sprint across the street.

  Liam approached the fence. His actions immediately drew the attention of the teacher. She walked over.

  “Can I help you?”

  “I need to see Mackenzie Flanagan,” Liam said, watching his daughter as she ran over to the swings. She got behind her friend and gave her a push, then belly-laughed once her friend soared through the air.

  The teacher looked him up and down. “I’m sorry, but—”

  Vasquez came up behind him on the sidewalk. “Hi, Margaret.”

  “Captain Vasquez! I didn’t know you were back.” Ms. Christopher smiled politely.

  “Yeah, home for a few days now. How have you been?”

  “Fine, and you?” she asked.

  Liam glared incredulously at both of them. “Can you bring her to the gate? Please.”

  Ms. Christopher flinched at his abrupt manner. Somewhere underneath, Liam knew it would be a bad idea to do it this way, but he just couldn’t help himself. No one was going to keep him from his kid. No one.

  “It’s okay, Margaret. He’s a friend, “ said Vasquez.

  Ms. Christopher nodded. She stepped away from the chain-link fence and approached the swings. Reaching down, she took hold of little Mackenzie’s hand. Liam watched as his daughter fixed her eyes on him.

  He smiled at her. He clenched his teeth against the pain and leaned down as Mackenzie approached the fence. “Hello, Mac.”

  Mackenzie frowned at first. Then her beautiful eyes stretched wide with surprise. “Daddy?” she gushed. “You came!”

  Liam stunned into silence, froze. All of them were. He swallowed the ball of emotion lodged in his throat. When he spoke, his voice came shaky and hoarse. “What did you call me?”

  “Daddy. Santa Claus bring you?” She stuck her fingers through the holes in the fence.

  Liam, overcome with emotion, stared in disbelief at his own hand, reaching for her little one. The surge of happiness that moved through him proved to be a foreign feelin
g. My baby girl knows me. How was that even possible? Tears welled in his eyes. He knelt the best he could, having to extend his bum leg. He balanced his weight with the cane, and squeezed Mackenzie’s fingers. “Yes, baby girl, I came from heaven just to meet you.”

  “I knew it! Mommy said if you pray, Jesus hears you. And I prayed to him, too. I knew you would come. I knew it!” She giggled. “I want you to come for Christmas. It’s my birthday, too. That’s why you here, huh Daddy? To go to my party?”

  “Is that what your mommy told you? That I’d come for Christmas?”

  “She said you knew it was going to be my birthday.”

  Liam found himself unable to speak. Mackenzie fixed her eyes on him conspiratorially. “Don’t tell nobody but we gonna have a Christmas clown at my party!”

  “That’s wonderful,” Liam said.

  She nodded, making her curls bounce.

  “You can come see him. Mommy don’t know, it’s a secret.” Mackenzie looked over at Vasquez. “Can the twins come, Uncle Tony?”

  Vasquez winked at her. “They wouldn’t miss it, Mac.”

  Liam ran his finger across her tiny knuckles gripping the gate. “Mac…can you do something for me, sweetie?”

  “Yes, daddy.”

  “For now, can this just be our secret?”

  Mackenzie frowned. “What’s a secret?”

  “Something we keep to ourselves. Just until I can come to your house and tell mommy. Okay?”

  Mackenzie nodded. “ Okay…we can keep it secret.”

  Liam studied her face up close. The wind blew her ponytail forward and some of the soft curls came through the links of the gate. He had to touch them, rub them between his fingers. She was shockingly beautiful.

  Vasquez winked at Ms. Christopher. “Margaret, as you can see this is complicated. I’m taking him to see Kennedy and Phil shortly, so if you don’t mind keeping this between us, just for the day?”

  Margaret nodded. “Okay, um, sure. Come on, Mac.”

  Mackenzie then stuck her entire arm through the opening in the gate to touch Liam’s face. “I can’t wait to show you my fishie. Be good, Daddy.”

  Liam kissed the palm of her little hand. “I can’t wait to meet your fishie.”

  Reluctantly, he let her go. He stood with the help of his cane and watched her run off to the other kids. She obviously forgot the meaning of the word ‘secret’ and immediately pointed out her hero father. A few kids stared and waved their hands. Liam had to turn away. It was too much.

  He and Vasquez walked back to the car in silence.

  Before he crossed the front of the vehicle for the passenger door he looked back at Mackenzie and waved goodbye. She waved, grinning, and then dismissed him for the slide once again. Once inside the car he felt the air return to his lungs. He dropped his head back and sat there, utterly depleted.

  Vasquez shook his head in disapproval. “Don’t misunderstand what I’m about to say.”

  “She’s my kid. I can see her anytime I want,” Liam snapped.

  “Of course you can—”

  “She knew me…can you fucking believe that?” he asked. Tears pricked his eyes even as a slow-moving smile spread across his face.

  “Kennedy and Sally kept you very much alive for Mac. She brags about her hero daddy, according to Angelina.”

  Liam frowned. “Why hero?”

  “I had one of the sergeants go to the school for the preschoolers. I told him to mention you being a hero…it’s the way Mac sees you.”

  “I’m nobody’s hero,” he mumbled.

  “To that little girl you are.” Vasquez started the car.

  “She’s the best thing me and Kennedy ever did. The only thing of Kennedy that I have all to myself,” he said under his breath.

  The car pulled away from the curb. Vasquez made a series of right turns and took them onto the expressway. Liam wedged himself against the door to glare at his friend.

  “Where you going?”

  “You don’t want to do this wrong, Liam,” Vasquez began. “Seeing Mac first was not a good idea. She’s only four, bro.”

  Liam frowned. “She’s five.”

  Vasquez shook his head. “Nope. Her birthday is next week.”

  He remembered her talking about a party. A Christmas baby. A sense of relief washed over him at the thought that he would never miss another birthday. He took extreme comfort in that.

  “I know it was a foolish move, Ant. I just had to introduce myself to her without…well, I just don’t know what Kennedy and her family have done or said to my kid.”

  “Do you really think Kennedy would turn her against you?”

  “I don’t know what to think. Can’t you see how fucked up this whole thing is? Try going off for five years and your family belonging to another man. Tell me how you’d deal with that shit?”

  “I understand. I get it, I really do. But I think once you see Kennedy, you will see not much has changed. You just got to see her for yourself. She loves you, man…you have to believe that.”

  “We’ll see,” he said bitterly.

  Liam again noticed they traveled south. He frowned. “Where are we going?”

  “To her office.”

  “What?” Liam snapped. “Kay? No.”

  “You just saw Mac. Do you think Ms. Christopher will keep that a secret? Do you want to take the chance of having anyone tell her? Plans change. We need to get you to her now.”

  “I said no, bro. I won’t go to her office, man. That’s not how we do this. If I screwed up, okay, call her. Let’s just arrange for her to meet us now.”

  Vasquez nodded. He dialed and Liam listened to him ask for her directly. He saw his friend’s brow furrow with concern as he asked a few more questions, then end the call.

  “Well?”

  “Court. The assistant said she won’t be expected back to the office.”

  Liam sighed. “Well, there you have it. We just need to ride it out.”

  Vasquez gave a worried look but nodded in agreement. Liam returned his gaze to the window and his thoughts immediately focused again on the small beauty that had his kid sister’s smile. Her name was Mac, and he was in love.

  ***

  Kennedy walked to the car, holding the hand of Mackenzie, who tried hard not to step on a crack. Nothing today had gone as planned. It started with an early call from Phil that he wouldn’t be able to pick up his stepdaughter, and ended with her rushing out in the middle of a deposition that had gone over the scheduled time, in order to get to her daughter’s school on time. She hoped Mac couldn’t hear the shouting coming through her Bluetooth wireless earpiece. Milton, her boss, was livid. Admittedly, she had been distracted lately with thoughts of Liam, which the approaching holiday always provoked. She needed to get her head together.

  “Mommy?” Mackenzie whined.

  “What do you mean Judge Thomas has denied the motion? I don’t understand what I missed. I’m sorry I left, Milton, but everything was in order.”

  “Mommy?”

  Kennedy looked down at Mackenzie. “In a minute, baby.”

  Mackenzie pouted as Kennedy opened the back door, tossed her book bag inside and helped her daughter into her booster seat. Kennedy did see Ms. Christopher waving at her. For a minute she thought the teacher had done so to stop her. But another parent approached Ms. Christopher and the teacher turned away. Milton’s shrieking in her ear nearly pierced her eardrum. “I can get on it as soon as I get home. Just e-mail what precedents you need. I’ll work through the night. I apologize, Milton. This won’t happen again.” She slammed the car door, then hurried to her side and slipped in behind the wheel.

  The engine turned over and she shriveled a bit with humiliation over the demands of her boss echoing in her ear. She tried to contain her anger. After all, the client’s future was in jeopardy because of her mistake. Maybe she’d talk to Phil and get his help.

  “Mommy!” Mackenzie shouted from the back seat.

  Kennedy looked at her dau
ghter in the rearview mirror. Mackenzie had tears in her eyes. “I have it, sir. Can I call you tonight, once I’m home? Okay, thank you.” She ended the call with a heavy sigh of guilt. “Mommy is so sorry, Mac. What is it, baby?”

  Mackenzie blinked away her tears. She smiled brightly to have her mother’s undivided attention. “I got a secret!”

  Kennedy smiled. She knew this game. “A secret?”

  “Yep, Daddy told me a secret.”

  “Well when we get home I will tell daddy not to tell you secrets that momma can’t know,” she said.

  “Not that daddy. Daddy from heaven told me a secret today at school.”

  Kennedy turned the corner. Her gaze went up to the rearview mirror. “What?”

  “Daddy. He come to school and said don’t tell nobody.”

  “Your daddy from heaven came to your school today?”

  “Yes!”

  Kennedy struggled to separate reality from fantasy. She shook her head. Apparently her daughter was confused. “When was this, Mac?”

  Mackenzie kicked her feet out and reached for her book bag. “At playtime, him and Uncle Tony came to give me a secret.”

  “Uncle Anthony was at your school?” Kennedy foot eased on the brake. A car honked its horn. She accelerated again.

  “Yes,” her daughter answered. She pulled out her drawing. “Look what I drew, Mommy. It’s my fishie.”

  “Wait a minute, darling, momma’s driving,” Kennedy swallowed the lump in her throat and her chest tightened. Mackenzie wasn’t making any sense but her baby never lied to her. Reaching for her wireless phone, she pressed the number three button to call Angelina.

  ***

  Liam rose from the sofa. He listened quietly. He’d been killing time since they’d left Mackenzie’s school, and it drove him crazy. He’d already lost enough of his life. He’d been looking for a target to go off on when the phone had rung, just seconds ago.

  Both Liam and Vasquez fixed intense gazes on Angelina as she answered and instantly went pale. “Hey, girl. Wh-where are you? Been calling you all day.”