Chapter 3: Snow and Realizations
Summary: Noah's fun is dampened by Rafa's absence. Rita pushes Rafa to drop work and go to Liv and Noah.
Notes: Thank you for the wonderful comments so far!
Their first morning in Vermont, Liv and Noah awoke to find fluffy flakes of snow falling from the gray sky. Noah was eager to get outside to play in the snow and finally build his snowman. Liv had to convince him that he couldn't go out there in his pajamas and they needed breakfast was needed first.
"Good morning! You'll find coffee, pastries, and cereal waiting for you in the lounge," Anna greeted them with a broad grin when they came down from their room. "Feel free to enjoy breakfast in front of the fire."
"Good morning, Anna," Liv replied. "Coffee sounds great." Within minutes, Liv and Noah were seated in front of the crackling fire, steaming coffee clutch in her hands and a pastry in Noah's.
"What are you two up to today?" Anna asked, bustling around the room, tidying up nonexistent messes. "It looks like it will be lightly snowing all day."
"We're going to build a snowman like the one out front!" Noah declared.
"That sounds wonderful, Noah! Maybe afterward you should go sledding," Anna suggested. "I can have my friend Jack bring some sleds by and show you the best spot to go, if you'd like. I believe you met Jack yesterday."
"Oh, can we, Momma?" Noah pleaded with Liv, his beautiful blue eyes wide with hope. Liv could not say no to that sweet face.
"I think that sounds like a great idea, sweet boy," she said and placed a kiss to her son's curly head. Turning to Anna, she smiled gratefully. "Thank you, Anna."
"It's no trouble at all. I just want to make sure you have the best time while visiting with us," Anna said with sparkling eyes, already sending a text to Jack about the sleds.
Liv filled a to-go cup with coffee to take outside as she and Noah bundled up in their winter gear, their outfits topped off with matching blue-gray wooly hats, a fuzzy ball of fabric perched at the top.
Bounding into the snow gleefully, Noah dropped onto his back and made a series of snow angels. Once that was finished, the young boy scrambled to his knees and began rolling a ball of snow. Liv snapped pictures the whole time, capturing each moment of happiness her son experienced. Once Noah had the base of the snowman ready, Liv helped him with the rest, working together to build one exactly his height right next to the larger existing one. They topped it off with twig arms, pebbles for the eyes and mouth, a carrot for the nose, and an old scarf of Noah's wrapped around its neck.
"That was so fun!" Noah exclaimed, bending down to pick up a pile of snow. With a mischievous gleam in his eye, he molded the snow into a ball and threw it at Liv, hitting her square in the side.
Turning with a gasp of surprise, Liv laughed merrily much to Noah's delight. "You're in trouble now, Mister." An all-out snowball fight ensued, peals of laughter echoing through they snow-covered yard of the inn.
….
The Bensons were breathless and red-cheeked when Jack arrived with two sleds in the bed of his pickup truck.
Despite Liv's protests, Jack insisted on driving them to the sledding spot on the other side of town. While she was appreciative that Jack wanted to help entertain her son, Liv was irritated that they couldn't just borrow the sleds and drive themselves. That was the downfall of small towns – nice people could be a little much sometimes. Nevertheless, she kept her mouth shut upon seeing the absolute delight on her son's face when Jack told him he loved sledding.
"Here we are – Santa's Slope, best sledding spot in Christmas Village," Jack said, pulling into a spot next to several other vehicles.
"Santa's Slope," Noah breathed, staring wide-eyed at the giant (to him) hill that other children were sliding down. He could not wait to try it himself.
"Come on, sweet boy!" Liv called with a wave as Jack led the way toward the hill, sleds dragging in the snow behind him.
Noah scrambled to catch up as every step sunk a foot into the snow. The climb up the hill was daunting but worth it once they got to the top and gazed around. He felt like he was on top of the world. There was snow and trees in every direction. He never felt closer to Santa than he did right then, even though the jolly bearded man was nowhere in sight.
"Alright, are you ready, Noah?" Jack asked once the sled was placed in front of him. "Want me to go down with you?"
"Yes! We can race!" the little boy exclaimed. Turning to Liv, he added, "You're the judge, Momma. Watch carefully to see who gets to the bottom first."
Chuckling at her son's enthusiasm, and sudden competitive streak (she'd have to tease Rafa about that as it was no doubt his influence that brought it on), Liv nodded earnestly. "I'll watch like a hawk."
Waiting for them to get seated on the sleds, she pulled her phone out to record video then counted down from three below yelling, "Go!" She may have bent down and given Noah a push to ensure his win.
Noah's excited screeches echoing in the air, the sleds sped down the hill. Her son slid to a stop at the bottom first with a cheer from her. Liv continued recording as Noah broke into a celebratory dance when Jack toppled off his sled. She shot off the video and a few pictures from that morning to Rafa as the boys climbed up the hill for another run.
Looks like fun! came his response 5 minutes later.
It would be far more fun if you were here with us, she replied.
Noah and Jack took several more runs down the hill before Jack took a break, claiming his back was hurting. The adults watched as Noah raced down the hill alone.
"He's a great kid," Jack admitted as he watched the happy boy spin in a circle as his sled came to a stop at the bottom of the hill.
"Thank you. He's the best thing that ever happened to me."
An uncomfortable silence reigned while they watched Noah climb the hill again and launch himself into another run down the hill.
"Hey, Olivia, would you want to…" Jack blurted only to be startled by the loud ring of Liv's phone.
"Sorry, I need to take this," Liv said, grateful for the interruption. The name on the screen read Rafa and she stepped away to answer. "Rafa," she breathed. "I miss you."
"Carino, I miss you too. I needed to hear your voice."
They spoke for a few minutes while he had a break and Liv hoped speaking with her, however briefly, helped reduce his stress level. Once she hung up and turned back to Jack, Liv realized that she had no interest in hearing Jack finish whatever he was going to say. In fact, she wanted nothing more than to just hang out with her son without interference from overly friendly strangers. Maybe it was the New Yorker in her, but the novelty of solicitous townspeople was already wearing thin.
"Come on, sweet boy," Liv called as Noah once again trudged up the hill. "This will be your last run. We'll meet you at the bottom of the hill."
Jack remained silent the whole way back to the inn only speaking up to say he had fun when she and Noah thanked him for the sleds and the ride.
She was relieved that Anna was nowhere to be found when they entered the inn and hurried to their room to warm up in front of the fire, which was crackling away.
"I had so much fun today, Momma, but I miss Uncle Rafa," Noah admitted. "Can we just stay in the rest of the day? I don't want to spend time with any more strangers, I just want Uncle Rafa."
Her sweet boy was exhausted from all the fun and on the verge of tears. "Of course, sweetheart! I would love it if we stayed in and ate dinner right here in front of the fire. We'll even call Rafa in a little while so you can hear his voice. For now, though, let's take a nap?"
Liv hoped that the nap and a night in, along with a call to Rafa would help, but Noah seemed morose the following morning. He really, really missed his Uncle Rafa. Liv had to admit that she did too. It just wasn't the same without him.
…..
Life back in New York City went on while Liv and Noah enjoyed themselves in Vermont. Rafa's days started too early and ended far too late as he pushed to work through the roadblocks the green ADA encountered. He was relentless in his focus, his only goal to wrap what he could quickly and get to Vermont to be with Liv and Noah.
The photos Liv texted him were a balm to his soul, their pink cheeks and broad smiles lifting his spirits. But, after a while, they broke his heart. The woman he loved, and her amazing little boy, his amiguito, were having a great time… without him.
It did not help that he started to notice the presence of a handsome, dark-haired stranger in some of the photos she sent over the past couple of days. He wasn't the only stranger to appear in the pictures, he just appeared in more than the others, and often with only Liv and Noah. The spark of jealousy he felt at one particular shot taken at a diner pricked at his heart. The image reminiscent of the family he wanted, and he hated that it wasn't him in the photo.
Rafa didn't say anything to Liv about it, though. The last thing he wanted to do was cause a disagreement when they were physically separated by several states. Instead, he encouraged her to enjoy every moment of the trip and savored the sound of her voice when they spoke on the phone.
By the third day, Rafa needed an outlet and invited Rita Calhoun to meet him for lunch at Forlini's. He was seated at his usual spot at the bar when his long-time friend arrived.
"Day drinking, are we?" Rita greeted, settling onto the barstool next to him.
"It's a liquid lunch kind of day," Rafa replied and sipped from the glass of scotch.
Ordering a martini from the bartender, Rita turned to her friend. The usual banter between them was nowhere to be found. "What's going on?"
"Liv and Noah are enjoying themselves in Vermont while I'm stuck here cleaning up our newest ADA's mess," he replied forlornly. He slid his phone across the bar top toward her, the photo app open to pictures of Liv and Noah's adventures.
Rita scrolled through the shots of the SVU Lieutenant and her son building a snowman, gazing up at a large Christmas tree, sitting at a diner with a handsome man… She knew at once what the issue was, Rafa was jealous. The question was, though, would he do anything about it? Rita decided to push his buttons a bit, to spur him into action.
"Have you ever watched a Hallmark Christmas movie, Rafi?" she asked knowing it was highly unlikely that he had.
"You know that's not really my thing, Rita" he shook his head with a frown, wondering where Rita was going with this line of questioning.
"I didn't think it was, but I'll give you a brief summary of a common plotline. A beautiful woman travels to a small, snowy town around Christmas while her big city boyfriend stays behind due to work. She is charmed by the town and its residents, including some small-town hunk in flannel. Yada, yada. In the end, she dumps the big city boyfriend when she realizes there is more to life than work and money, and she walks off into the snow with flannel guy," Rita explained, nonchalantly tapping a finger next to his phone, where the photo of the flannel-clad stranger sitting with Noah and Liv at the diner stared back at them.
Rafa's countenance darkened the longer he stared at the image. He could not lose Liv to some Vermont lumberjack, not before he had the chance to actually tell her that he loved her. With a frustrated sigh, he turned desperate eyes toward his friend. "What should I do?"
Rita met his deep green eyes with a level gaze. "If it was me, I'd get my ass up to Vermont, stat, and make sure the person I was in love with was left with no doubt about how much I loved them."
Nodding, Rafa's mind whirled in consideration of what he needed to do. He had done nearly everything he could at this point and would have to take a stern stance with the new ADA, and the DA, and let them figure out the rest it themselves. It was sink or swim time. He had more important things to do, like save his relationship.
Downing the rest of his scotch, he stood and placed a dry kiss on Rita's cheek. "Put your lunch on my tab. Thank you for the advice!"
"Good luck!" Rita called as he stalked from the bar to return to the office to let the DA and ADA know he was done.
He was on the road to Vermont by 2 pm.