Page 6 of Eight Years (The Trident Trilogy 1)

Chapter Four

Outer Banks, North Carolina

1998

“Mack Marsh, you make her wear that hat! The sun is turning her hair as red as an apple!” Camille yelled as Mack and Millie walked down the porch stairs hand-in-hand. She knew he wouldn’t listen to her. He never did anymore.

Camille turned back to Beatrice who was fanning herself vigorously with the magazine she found on the table next to her lawn chair on the front porch. Even in the morning, July was already showing its ugly side.

“I always said if my child had red hair, I’d drown it in a lake,” Camille said, pouring herself another glass of lemonade as she settled back into her chair.

“Well, technically, you don’t have a child with red hair. She’s Mack’s daughter,” Beatrice said, pressing her cold glass against her temple. She wanted to remind Camille that Mack had bright red hair when he was born.

Camille knew what Beatrice was thinking. “Mack’s red hair all but disappeared when he was five.”

“Because you dyed it,” Beatrice said. “You probably burned every brain cell in that poor boy’s head. Putting that dye on a baby.”

“I did not dye his hair, Beatrice Tucker. It just got darker as he got older.” And, she’d been relieved when it did. Camille didn’t want any memory of Mack’s father around.

Beatrice sighed. She’d given up trying to resurrect the Camille she once knew. That carefree spirit had disappeared the day Camille got pregnant.

“Well, Millie’s hair is getting blonder and blonder. Maybe all that strawberry will go away eventually,” said Beatrice.

Mack shook his head as their voices died away. He didn’t know how Beatrice dealt with his mother all these years. She’d been the only one to stick around after Camille got pregnant. Beatrice told Mack everything when he was growing up. Everything. Things he didn’t really want to know about his mom, especially that he was conceived in a one-night stand. But really, as uncomfortable as it was to think about, he always believed it was better to know. It helped explain Camille’s negative outlook on life, at least a little bit.

As they rounded the last corner to the beach, Millie started dancing and spinning like she did every time she saw the ocean. They made this walk at least a hundred times, but she always acted like she was seeing the water for the first time. Millie insisted, as always, that they immediately get in the ocean. Mack had her in the water by the time she was six months old. She took to it immediately, just like he had. He picked her up, took her past the break into waist-deep water, and held her as she bobbed up and down.

“Daddy, I want to swim like you do. Let go of me, please,” Millie said impatiently.

She had already developed the courage and confidence of someone well beyond her three years. Not to mention the language skills. She started talking in full sentences when she was just two.

“Sweetie, we’re in the ocean. It’s dangerous. Daddy has to hang on to you for now. But, when you’re older, you’ll be able to swim like a fish just like me.”

“Daddy, you’re not a fish—you’re a seal!” Millie let out a peal of laughter that echoed off the waves.

The words made Mack jump. “Who told you I was a SEAL, Millie?”

“Camille said that you’re a seal, and you kill people, but that’s silly because seals can’t kill people,” she said definitively.

Mack breathed in sharply. He’d told Camille not to discuss his work with Millie or anyone else, for that matter. But especially Millie. He knew it didn’t mean anything to her at this age, but as she grew up, he didn’t want her to know how dangerous his job was.

“Daddy, throw me, throw me!” Millie was kicking her legs in the surf, ferociously trying to propel her body into the air.

Mack flung Millie up in the air, watching her splash down a few feet from him, quickly surface, and paddle her way back over to him. He caught her just before the wave hit, protecting her from the break with his body. After almost an hour of doing this, he finally convinced her to come out of the water. Mack rolled her up like a burrito in an oversized beach towel, only leaving her head visible, just like she liked it. She laid down in the sand, her head on his lap, and was asleep in minutes.

Mack had just reenlisted in the navy for a couple more years, but he spent every second of downtime in the Outer Banks with Millie. Camille had agreed to keep her as long as he needed, especially after he told her he would get a raise for re-upping, and that she would be getting half of that, too.

Mack knew he should quit and be with Millie full time, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. The teams had such a strong hold on him. Millie was his family, but they were his family, too. He thought he had figured out a way to manage both families. He just hoped it was the right thing for Millie. She seemed happy and well-adjusted. In reality, he saw her almost as much as the other guys saw their kids. Camille’s house was only an hour drive from the base. He drove down there every time he had half a day or more.

Most importantly, he knew Millie was much less visible in the Outer Banks than she would be in Virginia Beach. After more than three years, he started to think they weren’t even looking for her.

Mack wasn’t sure how long he had been lost in his thoughts when he heard Millie’s sleepy voice. “Daddy, I just had a dream about Mommy. She’s in heaven.”

“Yeah, sweetie, she is. She looks down on you every day, and she loves you so much.”

“Allie said I had to have a mommy to be born,” she said, furrowing her eye brows.

Mack knew he wasn’t ready to have that conversation.

---