THE RETURN

Chapter 55

"Daaaaaaaaaad!" Noah exclaimed as he walked out of his and Eli's room.

Olivia had received a phone call right as they were stepping out of the shower and had to rush to get herself to the precinct as soon as possible. After an almost impossible pull away from a very satisfied Elliot, they had agreed that he would pick her up for her appointment and they would go together.

The look of pure pride that shined in Elliot's eyes at that moment was undeniable. Noah had taken to calling him dad so naturally. "Yeah, son?" Elliot responded with a smile on his face. He was currently in the kitchen washing a pan and turned his body so that he could look at the young boy.

"Do you know where my Spider-Man shirt is? I really wanted to wear it today."

"Check the pile of clothes on the couch, I think I just folded it."

"Thanks!" Noah said as he ran to the couch.

Elliot was halfway spun back towards the sink, when he heard the oldest child in the house yell, "Daaaaaaaaaad!" He chuckled lightly as he pivoted his towards the sound, "Yes, son?"

"Do you know where my black Old navy shirt is?" Eli asked.

"Check the pile on the couch, I think I just folded that one also."

Eli blew a breath of relief out of his mouth before making his way towards the couch also, "Thanks Dad."

"You're both welcome."

"So dad, can we sign up for dance this week?" Noah asked as he sat down on a bar stool and grabbed a bowl of oatmeal and fruit, that Elliot had made for breakfast.

Elliot nodded his head, "Definitely. I'm sure your mother would like to go also, so we'll set a day." When Noah nodded his head in agreement, he looked at Eli, who was also making his way to a bar stool. "Anything about tryouts for baseball yet?"

"They announced something over the intercom yesterday about it but my class is so loud, I couldn't hear it. Then I forgot to go to the office to ask, but I'll find out today."

"Okay, make sure you do. We don't want to miss it."

"Okay, dad."

Elliot smiled, "What do you guys want for dinner tonight?"

"Spaghetti!" Noah said.

Eli laughed lightly, "We had lasagna last night."

"Spaghetti is different from lasagna."

"Kind of but they both have the same flavor profile. Pasta with red sauce and hamburger meat."

Noah shrugged his shoulders, "They're both still good."

"Can we go out tonight? Like to a restaurant?" Eli asked.

Elliot nodded his head, "Yeah, we should be able to do that."

"To a place that has spaghetti?"

"Yes Noah, to a place that has spaghetti."

By the time Elliot finished his errands for the morning, which had consisted of dropping the boys off to school, doing a quick grocery shopping run, and dropping his personal trainer application off at the gym, it was only 10:00am. Since he wasn't interested in staying home, he decided to go on a run to pass the remaining time.

His feet padded the sidewalk on the street, passing by stores and weaving through people who were enjoying the nice day in early October. He didn't mean to catch a glimpse at the store that caused his feet to stop and his body to turn towards the window, but he did. Nor did he mean for his feet to walk closer to catch a better look at the diamond that was glistening in the light, but they did. Olivia wasn't a diamond type of woman, he knew that. However, the ring his eyes were glued on at that moment, was perfect. It was a diamond that was noticeable from afar but one that wouldn't overpower the woman behind it. They hadn't discussed marriage, at all. But that didn't mean he didn't think about it all the time. In all technicality they had only been dating for two months. However, their hearts had belonged to one another for 20 years. He had just been to stupid to take action before. The fact that he was finally with the woman he had always been head over heels in love with, was what compelled him to walk into the store.

As soon as his eyes made contact with the sales woman, he walked to her. "Hello Sir, welcome to Popular Jewelry. My name is Jessica, can I help you with looking for anything specific today?"

"Hi. Yeah, I would like to see a ring displayed in the window."

They both walked to the window simultaneously to obtain the ring that Elliot didn't even need a second look at. When the young woman handed him the ring, she said, "It's a size 8, we can send it in to get resized if needed."

"No, I'm pretty sure eight is perfect." It was perfect. A perfect ring for the perfect woman. He took his time spinning it around slowly in his hand. The band was a bare white gold accompanied with a floral circular diamond. The plainness of the band was outweighed by the tiny diamonds that surrounded the main circular one, giving it the floral shape. It was the perfect combination of Olivia. The perfect amount of woman and the perfect amount of badass.

"Would you like to look at any other ones?"

He shook his head and smiled, "No, I'll take this one."

He watched her carefully as she cleaned the ring to make it shine even more than it already did, scanned the tag and placed it in a blue velvet box. The price meant nothing to him, so when $12,000 popped up on the register, he was already pulling his wallet out of the pocket of his jogger pants.

"Were you wanting to pull out a credit with us?" She asked him.

"No thanks, I'll pay for it in full." He didn't know when he would ask her, but when the time came he knew he had the perfect ring for it.