Before Sunrise (11 page)

***

Liam was the first out of the truck. The
sight of Kennedy and her new family haunted him. His anger and
disappointment weighed heavily in his gut. He had half a mind to
turn on his cane and put an end to his misery right then and there.
But he didn’t trust himself anymore. The darkness in his head kept
fanning the flames of his anger.

Vasquez skirted around Liam and got to the
door first. He unlocked it and stepped through, with Liam
following. The warm smell of a home-cooked meal filled the air.
Liam inhaled deeply. He came all the way in, dragging his leg
behind him. His coordination always grew worse when he exhausted
himself.

“
Baby!” Angelina shouted
from the kitchen.

“
Daddy!” Vasquez’s sons
bolted down the stairs. Liam observed it all from the door. It felt
good to watch his best friend reunite with his family. The boys
were tall for their age and identical. Liam had to smile to himself
at what little men they’d turned out to be.

Vasquez lifted his sons in his arms as they
pelted him with questions.

“
All right, all right,
boys,” Angelina said, coming out of the kitchen. She wiped her
hands against her apron. “Give Daddy a—”

She stopped, froze, and screamed.

Liam met Angelina’s stare. She hadn’t
changed much. She was as radiant and spicy as he remembered, except
for her huge middle section. Vasquez hadn’t told him he would be a
father again. Or had he? His head was such a fog lately, he barely
held onto facts.

“
Oh, sweet Jesus,” Angelina
gasped. Putting a hand to her belly, she stumbled back and knocked
a fern from the hall table with a loud crash. Vasquez quickly
lowered his sons to the slate floor and went for his wife. He
steadied her on her feet, and then helped her into the nearest
chair.

“
Hi, Angelina,” Liam said
softly. “Good to see you again.”

Liam stepped forward on his cane. The twins
stared up at him, confused.

“
No. You can’t be…oh, sweet
merciful God. Tony? What…who?” she cried.

“
Calm down,
sweetheart.”

Angelina shot her husband an incredulous
look. “Is he real? Is this real?”

“
Afraid so.” Liam
said.

Angelina’s sobs broke from her in a strange
rush of tears and of laughter. Borderline hysterical, she grabbed
her husband for strength and rose from the chair. Her sons were
overwhelmed by their mother’s response. Each went to her, trying to
touch and comfort her.

“
This can’t be happening.
Thank you, God. Thank you,” she moaned. She rose despite her
family’s attempt to hold her back, and stepped straight into Liam’s
arms.

“
Liam…oh my God…Liam, it is
you. It’s you!”

Liam held her. He dropped his cane to hold
her tight. She buried her face into his chest and laughed and
laughed. She couldn’t stop laughing.

“
Angelina, you have to calm
down,” Vasquez said.

She released Liam and hugged her husband.
“You found him. I can’t believe it, but you found him.” She lifted
her head from Vasquez’s shoulder. “We thought you were dead…we all
thought we lost you, Liam…oh my God…oh thank you, God!” She began
to weep in earnest.

Vasquez knelt down to his boys. He ran his
hands back through their curly ’fros. “I need to talk to Mommy for
a minute. Will you go upstairs and play for ten minutes, and then
I’ll come get you for your turn?”

They stared doubtfully at Liam for a long
moment, then nodded solemnly to their father. “Okay,” they said in
unison. The usually boisterous twins were quiet as they walked off
for the stairs.

Angelina looked from Liam to her husband,
her hand to her chest. She was still panting with excitement. “How
long have you known, Tony?”

“
Let me explain,” Vasquez
began.

Angelina’s eyes went wide. “Oh no…Kennedy.”
Her hand went up and covered her mouth. She turned her gaze back to
Liam. “Have you seen her?”

“
From a distance…I didn’t
approach her yet.” Liam didn’t hide the bitterness in his
voice.

“
This can’t be happening.
This will kill her.”

“
I guess my return home
isn’t something Kennedy will be too excited over.”

“
What? No. I didn’t mean it
that way. Liam! Are you kidding? You have to see her, right
now.”

“
She’s with her
husband
. I bet she’s
fine.” With difficulty, he knelt to pick up his cane. He shuffled
around them to the sofa. Angelina began to talk fast in Spanish,
her voice elevated. She marched over in a huff. Then she wheeled on
Liam again.

“
Kennedy is still in
mourning.”

Liam scoffed.

“
It’s true. Some wounds
don’t heal.”

“
She has another man in her
bed, so I’m sure she’s found a way to cope.”

“
Sweet merciful God, this is
a mess. And you, why didn’t you at least tell me?” she demanded of
her husband. Vasquez removed his dress jacket and hung it over the
newel post at the bottom of the stairs. He stared straight ahead at
the wall.

“
You know I
couldn’t.”

“
Huh? This is Liam and
Kennedy! Our closest friends. What do you mean you couldn’t? You
think I would put it on the six o’clock news?”

“
Calm down, Angelina. In
your condition—”

“
How long have you
known?”

Vasquez looked over at Liam. “Almost three
months.”

“
Three months?” Angelina
shouted. “In my condition, you’re lucky I don’t kick both your
asses!”

“
Angelina…I was sick when
they found me. It took some time for me to get well.” Liam tried to
give his friend some bargaining room. This homecoming and his
presence would cause his boy nothing but aggravation. He should
have gotten a hotel room.

Angelina stepped before Liam and glared at
him sideways. He found himself relieved that her big belly kept her
from getting right in his face. She crossed her arms and tried to
speak calmly.

“
Every minute of every day
that my best friend believed you to be dead, a piece her has died.
I’ve watched her mourn you over and over again, to the brink of
insanity. I’ve tried to help her be strong. But nothing did. The
only reason she is able to move on is because of Mackenzie. I don’t
give a damn what you think you saw or what you were told, I know
her. I know how much she loves you. You should have called. Someone
should have called!”

“
I lost her, Angie. She
married Phil, of all people.”

Angelina frowned. “She loves you…trust me on
this.”

“
Then how could she marry
him?” he snapped.

“
Are you kidding
me?”

Vasquez stepped over to his wife, taking her
arm gently. “Angie, please…this is tough on everyone.”

“
Kennedy needs to be told
now! Right now, damn it. You two were wrong to keep this from
her.”

“
NO,” Liam commanded in a
calm tone. “I’ll tell her in my way. Make no mistake, she’s my
wife. I haven’t forgotten that fact, even if she has. I will get my
family back. But I need to do this the right way. You won’t call
her in the middle of the night to tell her that her dead husband is
in your living room. Do you understand me?”

Before Angelina could speak, the doorbell
rang. All three heads jerked up at once. Liam struggled but managed
to scuttle out of view of the sidelight windows. “I don’t want
anyone to know I’m here. Not yet.”

“
I won’t keep this from her.
Not after shouldering the guilt of making her give up on you. I
won’t do it, Liam.”

He started up the stairs. Vasquez quietly
told him there was a spare guest room next to the one the twins
occupied. As he turned the corner into the upstairs hallway, he
heard the door open below.

“
What the hell are you doing
here?” Angelina demanded.

“
Hello, Angelina. Good to
see you again,” came the voice of Alexa Sinclair.

***

Kennedy lay on Phil’s sweaty
chest, listening to his beating heart. Naked, tired, she had done
her very best to make her husband feel secure. Because deep down
inside, she knew the
real
reason for the unexplained trip to the fair and
the bedroom workout. He only let her escape to feed and bathe
Mackenzie. As soon as her little girl was asleep, he had her
cornered in the shower, feasting on her breasts, and making love to
her up against the shower wall.

“
I think tonight is a fresh
start for us,” Phil whispered, running his lips feather-light over
her forehead.

He squeezed her and she resisted the urge to
cry. She smiled and lay wrapped in his arms. After several long
minutes, his hold on her went soft and a light snore escaped from
his mouth. Kennedy lifted gently from him. She moved over and
rolled onto her side. Alone with her thoughts and his seed sticky
between her thighs, she stared at the drapes and the soft moonglow
beyond. In that moment she had to admit to herself the truth. Liam
would always be the love of her life, and no matter what time did
to her heart, that feeling would never change. Kennedy drifted to
sleep on the memory of their first meeting.

July
24
^th
2004

“
Sierra, who is he?”
Kennedy whispered. Both girls leaned back on the railing of the
fire escape. The honking sounds of car horns and screeching tires
of the traffic drifted up.

“
Who’s who?”

“
Him.” Kennedy nodded over
in the direction of the three guys lingering. One was Chauncey
White. He was about nineteen, a tall, thin black guy with lips
Sierra loved to suck on. He’d been recruited to start for the
University of Miami; the party had been thrown in his honor. The
other guy next to him was Heath McBride. Heath was older. Kennedy
thought him to be somewhere in his mid-twenties, a white guy she
knew little about, with freckles that covered his face and a
never-ending supply of marijuana. Kennedy avoided him, mostly.
Heath always arrived at the gatherings she went to, delivering
party favors.

“
Oh, you’re talking about
Liam. He’s Heath’s cousin from Chicago. Heard he’s staying with him
now.”

“
He’s a drug dealer,”
Kennedy said, disappointed.

Sierra laughed. “I don’t think so. Maybe. He
is kind of hot.”

Liam cut his eyes their way. Kennedy
immediately dropped her stare. “He’s looking over here, isn’t he?”
she whispered.

“
Aww. Kennedy, you got a
crush already? Girl, you a mess.”

“
Stop teasing me. Is he
looking over here?”

Sierra sucked her tongue. It was pierced
with a small, shiny silver ball that usually made all the boys stop
in their tracks. “No, he isn’t looking over here, silly.”

Kennedy sighed. “Good.”

“
He’s walking over
here.”

“
Huh? What?”

“
W’sup, ladies?” Liam
stepped between them.

Kennedy wanted to die. She looked up into
the bluest eyes she’d ever seen. She never approached boys, and
despite Sierra’s worldly influence, remained so inexperienced she
didn’t even know what her type was, if she had one. But one look
into Liam’s sparkling eyes and she knew he could definitely be the
one for her.

“
Hey,” said
Sierra.

Kennedy watched as she gave Liam a warm
smile along with her patented back-arching, rack-lifting move.

“
You girls from around
here?”

“
Nah.
Connecticut.”

Liam frowned. “Really. Rich kids.”

“
Not everyone in
Connecticut is rich.” Sierra rolled her eyes.

“
True, but I can tell by
the diamonds in your ears and the way you’re dressed, you from that
scene.”

Kennedy wanted to join the conversation. She
opened her mouth but no words came out. Then, to her horror, Sierra
made her move, the one where she heaved her C cups right up in a
guy’s face and talked with her tongue, exaggeratedly slow, so she
could show off her piercing. Sierra Schoenstein was Jewish with
olive skin, flowing dark brown hair and the body of a runway model.
Both their dads were investment bankers at the same firm. They’d
grown up together. Even though Sierra was two years her senior, she
was by far Kennedy’s best friend.

“
So what you drinking?”
Sierra eased up against Liam so the side of her breasts rubbed
against his bicep.

Liam sipped from his red plastic cup, his
eyes trained on the silver ball in Sierra’s mouth. Kennedy couldn’t
be more crushed. It had been rare to find a guy she liked, and even
more rare she’d given thought to how to make him hers. Now she
stood in her friend’s shadow once again.

Besides, he’s probably not even into black
girls. She’d met a few boys who weren’t and it didn’t bother her.
She didn’t like ignorance or tolerate prejudice in her life. Her
father taught her to see people for who they were, and weren’t.

Not able to stomach the show, she tried to
step around. Liam’s hand shot out and drew her back. Kennedy
blinked up at him, surprised. Later, she’d remember the heat in his
touch.

“
You still haven’t told me
your name.”