Before Sunrise (15 page)

“
Here, put it on. Looks like
you sat in punch now.”

“
Thanks.” She reached for
the dress. He stopped her. He pulled her toward him.

She went up against his chest. He ran his
hand down her spine and cupped her bottom. “I don’t want another
man to ever touch you. You’re mine now. Do you understand?”

Kennedy smiled. “Yes. I understand,
Liam.”

“
Cool, now get dressed.
Let’s take you back.”

“
Okay.”

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 feeling.
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.”