Before Sunrise (6 page)

Kennedy reached behind her for another bow.
“We’re going to take you to Auntie Harper to get this hair braided,
tomorrow,” she said.

“
Nooooo! Please mommy. I’ll
stand still. Please.”

Phil looked at his cell phone and grimaced.
“Something must be going down right now. I got a text from Alexa.
She needs to meet with me. Looks like I will be late tonight.”

Kennedy’s gaze shot up, alarmed. “Is it
Eric? Anthony?”

“
No, sweetheart. It’s just
the war, remember?”

Kennedy smiled sadly. “How could I ever
forget?”

Phil hated moments when he inadvertently
reminded her of Liam. He’d had her pull away from him on some
nights and cry. When would the day come when the bastard was just a
memory for her?

Maybe she noticed. She flashed him a wry
smile. “Well, at least I don’t have to worry about you.”

Damn, she could say the sweetest things. If
Mackenzie weren’t between her legs, he would be. He checked his
watch. Maybe he could get some time in if he they sent her down for
cereal. Truth be told, he had already fallen behind schedule. He
picked up his keys and sighed.

“
Bye, Daddy.”

“
Bye, pumpkin.” Phil leaned
in and kissed her tiny lips. “You be good in school,
okay?”

“
Mmmkay.”

Phil kissed Kennedy. She lifted her head and
he immediately slipped her some tongue. Her eyes widened but her
lashes fluttered and shut once she gave him what he wanted. “Wait
up for me tonight,” he whispered.

“
If I don’t you will just
wake me anyway.” She said.

“
Damn right.”

“
Oooooo! Daddy, you said a
curse word. You owe me a quarter.” Mackenzie stuck out her
hand.

Phil chuckled.

“
What’s this? Money for
curse words?” Kennedy frowned.

“
Daddy said he’s going to
stop cursing because it makes you sad, Mommy.”

“
Did he?” Her brow
lifted.

Phil winked.

“
So he said if he curse, I
get to make him pay me a quarter. Give it up, Daddy. You
lose.”

Phil reached in his pocket and found a
quarter. Mackenzie began to bounce on her feet in anticipation.

“
Okay, let me get out of
here.”

“
Bye.”

“
Love you both,” he yelled
from the stairs, knowing life couldn’t get any better than
this.

Able to get a bow on Mackenzie’s head,
Kennedy turned her daughter around and looked her over. “Perfect.
You’re ready to go.”

“
I sure is.”

“
I sure am,” she
corrected.

“
I sure am,” Mackenzie
mimicked.

“
Go get your book bag and
make sure your crayon box is inside.”

“
Yes, Mommy.”

Kennedy lifted her weary gaze to the mirror.
A woman she barely recognized stared back at her. Life had changed,
she had changed, and sometimes it shocked her how much. She rose
and stepped to her dresser. Her long bangs fell over her left eye.
She did look different. The relaxed hair, the business suit: she
had evolved. Kennedy sighed to herself. God had a sense of humor.
She looked like her mother now. As much as Kennedy wanted to be
different, a woman with her own identity, she’d become the daughter
her mother had always wanted her to be. The comparison made her
uneasy so she lowered her gaze.

She needed earrings. She picked up her
jewelry box and began to sift through the scattered assortment. She
found nothing suitable.

She went to her other collection, a small
jewelry chest with drawers. Liam gave this one to her on their
second wedding anniversary. Kennedy pulled out one drawer, then
another. She had a million different pairs of earrings. She would
need to get them in some kind of order. She found her pearls, but
one was missing its security back. She removed the bottom drawer
and dumped its contents, then started to sort through the scatter.
A ring rolled out and off the dresser onto the floor. Her heart
stopped and she bent to retrieve it.

A white-gold band with a tiny solitaire
half-carat cubic zirconia. She nearly wept at the sight of it. She
remembered how Liam had presented it to her like it was the Hope
diamond, behind her school gym. He’d told her he was leaving town
and he wanted her to come with.

He had drifted into her circle through a
mutual friend. Liam had been only twenty-two then. And Kennedy’s
friendship with Sierra, a girl two years older who had a thing for
bad boys, put her in his path. Kennedy knew of his reputation for
fights and brooding, but she didn’t care. One look at him and she
had fallen in love. She did everything she could to get him to
notice her. One day he finally did.

Months later, under the duress of a
separation forced on them by her parents, Liam proposed they run
off and start a life together. She said yes without a second’s
hesitation, and even when he tried to upgrade the stone, she
refused. This ring became the most precious item she had ever
possessed. She felt a stab of guilt to have it tucked away,
discarded.

Get a grip, Kennedy. Liam
is gone. Don’t even go there again
.

Kennedy rose, swiping at loose tears. Funny
thing, she always thought she would feel his death. They were so
connected; she loved him so much that she would know in her heart
when he was dead. He’d never felt gone to her.

“
Mommy, I ready! Why you
looking funny?” Mackenzie asked, staring up at her
mother.

Kennedy was still holding Liam’s ring, the
words of their vows now surfacing. Would the day ever come where
she didn’t hurt or miss him terribly? She didn’t know how to make a
life without him any more now than she did then.

***

Liam lay there, deep in his thoughts. The
room remained absent of light except for the fluorescent tube above
and behind his bed. If there was a way to turn it off, Liam
couldn’t figure out how. It annoyed him that after so long being
chained to a packed dirt wall in utter darkness, he craved that
same absence of light now.

Vasquez and Eric had both come back, stopped
by for a few awkward minutes. They offered a few noncommittal words
and told him that they’d ship out tomorrow, but would return as
soon as their orders allowed. He tried to ask them questions but he
could barely get his voice to work. All he wanted to know was when
he’d hold his wife and meet his child. Why the fuck wouldn’t anyone
tell him that much?

So he closed his eyes and
conjured Kennedy’s face. It soothed him. Soon he was able to create
an image of little Mackenzie. He saw her clearly. He opened his
mouth and pushed on his vocal chords. After a few tries, two words
formed. He was able to exhale and rush them out in a hoarse
whisper:
before sunrise
.

Chapter Four

Kennedy would be late. Well, not entirely,
but if she was to make it back to court in time for the partners
she had to march to a tight schedule. She stepped through the
French café in search of her best friend, her purse swinging at her
side. Angelina was posted in their usual spot. It was a small table
for two in the back corner of the restaurant, nearest the
picturesque window. Her auburn-brown hair cascaded down her
shoulders. Of Chilean descent, Angelina had the roundest, most
beautiful brown eyes under long, upward-swept lashes. Even now,
Kennedy marveled that she didn’t use a mascara brush. In many ways,
Angelina reminded Kennedy of her girlhood friend Sierra, though
Sierra wasn’t Hispanic. Angelina possessed the kind of beauty most
people noticed. Petite, with a model-like figure even after
carrying twins to full-term, she had the symmetrical mouth and nose
that sweetened her features, and deep olive-tan skin.

Angelina’s gaze drifted in Kennedy’s
direction and she waved. Kennedy noticed she spoke into her cell
phone. That phone was always connected to Angelina’s face, in one
form or another.

Kennedy checked the time. She had forty-five
minutes, already counting down. As a legal assistant for Brahman
and Goldberg, they needed her at their disposal. She remembered
when she once had dreams of being an attorney. Those dreams changed
when Liam’s death blew her world apart. It took all her strength
not to lose the baby; the doctors had put her on bed rest almost
immediately. After their daughter was born, it took more strength
to hold her and not be reminded of all she and Liam would never
share. After Liam died, school had never been an option. She’d
devoted herself full-time to grief.

“
Okay…so be safe, honey, and
call me when you know something definite. I love you!” Angelina
grinned. She winked at Kennedy who sat down, and habitually checked
the time once again.

“
Would you stop looking at
your watch? You said I had an hour, so I get an hour.”

“
I know, girl, but Steven is
a bastard when he’s in middle of a tough case.”

“
Quit. Phil wants you
to.”

Kennedy frowned. “I don’t care what Phil
wants. I’m not quitting my job.”

“
Hey, it’s a joke. Don’t be
so sensitive.”

Kennedy shrugged. “Sorry.” She looked for
the waiter. He arrived pronto and she proceeded to order the Cobb
Salad and a lemon tea. Angelina ordered the pasta dish minus the
Andouille sausage.

“
How you feeling?” Kennedy
peeked over the floral centerpiece at her friend’s
belly.

“
Fat.”

They both laughed.

“
So where’s Anthony?”
Kennedy asked.

“
He was in some desert
somewhere last week, girl. But I got a surprise call from him just
now, from a stateside number. So he’s safe, I suppose. I know he
better have his ass back here full-time before I deliver this
baby.”

“
So Anthony and Eric are
fine? Phil mentioned this morning that something was
up.”

Angelina nodded, sipping her water. “Yeah,
he’s fine. I’m pretty sure I heard Madame Sinclair in the
background, running her mouth. Ugh.” Angelina grimaced.

Kennedy cut her eyes away. The passage of
time hadn’t helped her appreciate Alexa. Actually, that was too
polite. She couldn’t stand her. She knew that woman still had a
thing for Liam. At the memorial, Alexa had been the one crying the
loudest, hollering, practically, until Phil had glared at Eric, and
Eric led her outside and away. He’d kept her far to the back at the
graveside part of the service. Angelina hated her even more than
Kennedy did.

“
Alexa’s still the head
bitch in charge?” Kennedy asked.

“
Or until we get another
president. Got me wanting to register to vote.” Angelina rolled her
eyes.

Kennedy laughed. “You ought to be ashamed of
yourself. Your husband is a captain serving his nation and you
don’t vote?”

“
Please, they keep my man
300 days out of the year; I only get 60. Screw them. They got all
the civic duty they gone get out of me.”

“
Touché.”

The waiter delivered her tea. Kennedy’s
throat felt raw. The cold drink soothed her, inside and out. She
looked up and noticed the way Angelina stared. “What?”

“
Something
wrong?”

“
Why does something have to
be wrong?”

“
Hell, you look like you
just had an orgasm from a glass of sweet tea. Phil not taking care
of business at home?”

Kennedy almost choked. She shook her head
laughing, dabbing at the spill on her chin with a napkin. “No
honey, he’s all over me. Sex almost every night. I swear.”

“
Lucky girl.”

“
Hardly, it’s…well, it’s not
like Liam,” Kennedy confessed. Angelina was the only person she
could talk about Liam with, the only one who understood why she
still needed to talk about him.

“
Hell, that’s because
fucking Liam was like fucking Tarzan. I’m married to a wild one
too, so you know I know.”

Kennedy laughed. “No, silly. It’s the
connection I’m talking about. I care for Phil. And I know he loves
me, it’s just…I—”

“
Kennedy, come on. It’s been
five years, you’ve remarried. You have to let Liam go.”

“
I have, Angelina. I’m just
talking about him. I swear, you all act like I’m going to break
into a million pieces if someone mentions his name,” she
huffed.

“
We were there. We saw what
his death did to you. We were all scared, terrified. That’s
all.”

“
I know. I know.” Kennedy
sighed. “Anyways, that’s not what’s bothering me.”

“
Okay, spill.”

“
Phil wants a baby,” she
blurted out, though she felt a sense of relief to have said the
words aloud. She’d been wound up tight since he’d asked her to go
off the Pill. He told her he wanted a baby, their own child. She’d
promised to think about it. In fact, it was all she’d been able to
think about.

“
You knew this was coming,
Kennedy.”

“
I guess,” she
sighed.

Angelina looked up when their glasses were
refilled. “You know sometimes, sweetie, I think you married Phil
for show.”

“
Why?”

“
Mac and Phil are so close,
and he was always around to play the papa role. It’s like you
decided to prove you were ready to move on to all of us, but more
importantly to yourself.”