AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"No, you didn't. You were a brave boy. But you need to stop running down the stairs."
"I will. You said we could get an ice cream because I didn't cry. Can we go now?"
"I need to write a little more before dinner. We'll go later."
"Maybe Ellie could take me now."
His dad suddenly looked mad. "No. Ellie is not taking you."
"Why not?"
"Because I said so. Go play," he said, urging Decker off his lap. "If you're good, we'll go in an hour."
Decker's heart raced with the brief memory. His dad had been writing in this book on their trip to Whisper Lake. They'd never been back, so he must have left the journal behind. That seemed strange.Why would his father have left his journal in the rental house?It was his work, his words.
But somehow Ellie had ended up with the book.
His father must have had to rewrite the story from scratch after they left Whisper Lake. He could have just asked Ellie to send him the journal. Maybe he had. Maybe Ellie had refused.
Decker's brain whirled with questions. He dug deeper into the drawer, looking for more information and finding it in the unopened letter addressed to his father at their address in Phoenix. Like the other letters he'd found, this one had been sent back with the wordswrong addressscrawled across the front.
He opened the envelope and pulled out a sheet of paper.
Dear Ryan,
By now, you've realized that you left your journal behind. The journal with your wonderful writing in it. Well, I have it. No. I didn't find it. To be perfectly honest, I took it that last day. I thought if you couldn't find it, you might not leave. Or if you left, you'd realize where it was, and you'd come back to get it. But a month has passed, and I haven't heard from you.
I'm sorry for doing something so petty. I just want you to come back or to at least talk to me. I know the visit didn't go the way you wanted, or the way I wanted. Repairs take time. That's not fair to you, I know. But love and pain often go hand in hand, and this is a situation where both are equally difficult.
Please call me or write to me. I'll send you back the book. I feel so guilty for my part in everything—things that happened long before you even knew us. But I can't change all that now. I just want us to find a way to reconnect in the future.
By the way, I think you're a wonderful writer. You have an amazing gift. I hope you finish the story you left behind, that I haven't prevented you from achieving that.
Regretfully, Ellie
Now he had even more questions.Why hadn't his father gone back for his journal, for his book?He must have known he'd left it behind.And what the hell had Ellie done to feel guilty about? More importantly, what was his father's tie to her?
Frustration ran through him. Ellie never said enough in her letters. It was all just teasing words. He dug through the rest of the drawer but found nothing else that was personal, just bills and letters from friends, none of whom had names he recognized.
He looked up as Chloe returned to the living room.
"Leo is asleep," she said. "You tired him out. He usually wants more stories, but he was asleep before I finished the second one." She paused. "Did you find something, Decker?"
"The beginning of my father's first book. It was in a journal he wrote in when we came here. Ellie stole it, thinking he'd come back to get it or would have to talk to her in order to retrieve it."
Confusion ran through her eyes. "I don't understand. How do you know that?"
"There's a letter from Ellie to my father that she sent after we went home. It wasn’t opened." When Chloe sat down on the couch next to him, he handed her the letter. "You can read it."
As she read the letter, he got to his feet and paced around the living room, pausing by the mantel to look at the family pictures Chloe had on display. There had never been any family photos in any house he'd lived in. When he was older, he'd occasionally frame something of his dad and him and give it to his father as a birthday present, but that was it. The extended family had never been a part of his life. He'd thought it was normal, but it wasn't.
Chloe's mantel display was what you would normally find in a family home: photos of Leo with his father, his mother, and his grandparents on both sides, as well as Chloe's friends and other people he didn't recognize. Leo's world was full of people. His life had been so much smaller.
"This letter talks about apologies and repairs, love and pain," Chloe said, drawing his attention back to her. "Ellie had to be related to your father."
"It feels that way, but I already told you what I know about my father and his side of the family, which is next to nothing."
"She wasn't a grandmother, maybe an aunt." Chloe paused. "Ellie was married. Maybe her husband was the link. His name was Hank."
