Well, well, well; it took me 6 whole years (at least it wasn't 10, I suppose), but I have officially returned. Just call me the Prodigal. . . Daughter? In an effort to convince you to give myself and my writing a second chance, I will offer up that I already have chapter 2 of this story completed and yes, it contains the contents of The Letter. I'll be looking forward to hearing your thoughts and feedback. Please enjoy!
"Eli, do me a favor and set the table, please? Olivia and Noah will be here any minute." Elliot asked of his son as he pulled the lasagna out of the oven.
They had planned a family dinner in hopes of restoring some normalcy to their lives and to make a conscious effort to come together and be there for one another in the recent wake of their family tragedy of losing their wife and mother. Kathleen surprised her father when she suggested that he should invite Olivia over for the family gathering. The very thought of having a family night with Olivia made his heart skip. He called her that evening to extend the invitation.
"Need me to do anything, dad?" Asked Kathleen.
"I don't think so. Thank you for cleaning up the place and for . . . hiding my crazy wall. You've been a huge help."
"Of course, dad." She smiled at him. "Just try to enjoy tonight, okay?"
Elliot nods in appreciation before he hears a knock at the door.
"That's her." He breathes. "How do I look?"
"You look great, dad. Relax. It's just Olivia." Kathleen reassures.
Making his way to the door, he lets out a nervous sigh and says under his breath, "Right. Just Olivia. That's the problem."
Every single part of him knows it's her. He can feel her presence through the door, yet he checks the peephole anyway. It's her. Noah too. With a final deep breath, he opens the door.
"Hey!" He greets them with a big smile.
"Hey." She smiles back, taking him in. He's wearing a grey sweater quarter zip and dark jeans. He has the light purple remnants of an old bruise on his cheek, but his shining blue eyes pulls her attention away from that.
"Hey, Noah." He greets her son, and it pulls her out of her reverie.
"Hi, Mr. Stabler." Noah offers his hand.
Elliot accepts the offer of a handshake from the boy, "You can call me Elliot." He smiles at him. "That's a firm handshake you got there."
Noah smiles and Olivia beams with obvious pride.
"Please, come in." He stands aside opening the door more to allow Olivia and Noah to enter.
Elliot closes the door behind them. "Noah, this is my daughter, Kathleen, and my son, Eli. The rest of the crew should be here shortly."
Kathleen and Eli smile and say hello.
"Do you like soccer?" Eli asks.
"I like FIFA." Noah responds.
"I got FIFA 21 on the PS4." Eli says.
Noah looks at Olivia.
"Go ahead." She smiles. "We'll call you when dinner's ready."
Noah smiles and runs off with Eli.
Kathleen greets Olivia with a hug. "It's good to see you again, Olivia."
Hugging her back, "You too. How are you holding up?"
"Just that. Holding up, taking it one day at a time." Kathleen answers honestly and the two women nod and share a look of understanding.
Kathleen looks back at her father, "I'm going to go call Mo and see where her, Dickie, and Lizzie are."
Elliot nods. Once it's just him and Olivia, he takes a moment to really look at her. Just her presence alone is warm and calming. He consciously feels his nerves dissipate. It's them; the most natural thing he feels in this chaotic world.
He takes a step towards her with one hand clasped to his other wrist in front of him. "Thank you for coming tonight." He finally says. "It means a lot to me to have you here."
She looks at him seriously. "I'll always be here for you, El."
His eyes widen in surprise. "You called me 'El'." He lunges forward then and pulls her into a strong embrace.
She's initially caught off guard, but quickly sinks into the embrace and absorbs all of him. She takes a deep breath, reveling in the scent that is uniquely Elliot. "I've always called you 'El'."
"Not since I've returned you haven't. Trust me, I've been waiting." He reveals.
They're still hugging, so Elliot doesn't see the look of shock that she wears now, but she eventually pulls back to look at him. His eyes are tearful, and it knocks the breath right out of her. "Elliot let's talk tonight. After dinner."
He nods then, not quite able to find his voice at the moment. She nods with him in affirmation.
"Okay." She says, as she pulls him back into a hug and soothingly rubs his back. "Okay." She repeats.
He holds her tight and silently prays that tonight he will find the strength to finally tell her all the things he should have so many years ago. It was time, he decided. No matter what it meant for him . . . for them, she deserved to know the truth.
Dinner played out effortlessly with easy dinner conversation and lots of smiles and laughs as all the children shared stories. Eli had introduced Noah to his newfound love of soccer and that's all the two wanted to talk about. Elliot and Olivia smiled at each other recognizing how quickly Noah and Eli had become friends.
Afterwards, the older children hugged everyone, said their goodbyes, and went on their separate ways.
"Dad, do you and Olivia want to watch a movie with us?" Eli asked.
"I'll tell you what. How about you and Noah find a movie to watch while I clean up dinner and catch up with Liv? Then we'll be in and you can fill us in on what we missed." He offered.
The boys were satisfied with the game plan and made their way to the living room to find a movie. Elliot turned to find Olivia gathering dishes and taking them over to the sink.
"And what do you think you're doing?" He asked her playfully.
"You cooked; I'll clean." She smiled as she started rinsing off the dishes.
"I don't hardly think so. You're my guest." He told her. He came up behind her, reached over her, and turned off the water.
She turned around and he was so close it made her a little lightheaded. She quickly found her bearings though and came back at him with, "That's funny. I distinctively recall you telling me on the phone that I was your family and that's why I had to be here tonight." She smirked at him.
He smiled down at her. "You are my family." He confirmed.
The gravity of those four words hit her at full force. They stared at each other for a moment and Elliot caught her briefly stealing a glance at his lips. So briefly that if he wouldn't have been staring at her so intently, if he would have blinked, he would have missed it entirely.
"Liv." He whispered.
"El." She whispered back.
He leaned in a little. Her eyes landed on his lips again and this time, his eyes were on her lips. She reluctantly put a hand on his chest.
"El." He loved hearing her call him that. "The letter." She whispered into the narrow space between them.
He sucked in a breath. "Yeah. You're right." His nerves were back, but he also gained a little confidence in knowing that Olivia had already read his letter and she was here, and she wanted to talk about it. "Let me just toss these into the dishwasher."
After quickly cleaning up, they each had a seat at the kitchen table. They just looked at each other for what seemed like eons. Without breaking eye contact, Olivia reached into the pocket of her cardigan and pulled out a folded piece of paper and sat it on the table.
Elliot's eyebrows rose in surprise. "You brought the letter."
"I, uh, yeah. I carry it with me every day." She admitted as the embarrassment crept up her neck. She kept going. She needed him to know how important this letter was to her. How important it was to her to confront the contents of this letter with him. "I've probably read it over 20 times." That wasn't the whole truth. "No." She shakes her head. "I've read your letter exactly 59 times. I know it by heart now, but no matter how many times I read it, I still need to see the physical letter as proof that it's real. I need to see your signature in your handwriting at the bottom every single time." She finishes in a whisper.
He is visibly shocked. Stunned. He never anticipated that his words would mean so much to her. He was grateful though, and so he reached across the table and grabbed her hand. "Then how about for the 60th time, I read it to you."
There are tears in her eyes then and she can only nod. With her free hand, she pushed the letter towards him.
He shakes his head and squeezes her hand. "I know it by heart too. It came from mine."