Chapter 68

Sarah got comfortable in the living room. She had just put Daniel to bed and was ready for some relaxing on her own. In the kitchen she got a few snacks, in the living room she grabbed a soft blanket and wrapped it around herself as she sat on the couch. Time to catch up on some tv shows. Not much later, a black cat snuggled up to her.

As she fast forwarded through the last commercial of her current episode, the cat jumped up from her lap and ran to the window, staring out of it. His actions made Sarah wonder as she looked out the window as well but didn't see what the feline had seen. What had spooked him?

Then, she heard scuffling outside.

She could hear the front door being unlocked.

Noah was in his room, who would be trying to get into their house?

She pulled her blanket closer around her and picked up her phone. What was happening?

Sarah watched the door being opened from the couch, only to be overwhelmed with relief.

"Richie!" She exclaimed, making him look over at her as she got up. "You almost gave me a heart attack."
"I'm sorry," he said, "I brought you a surprise."
Sarah met him at the door, not waiting for him to move any further before wrapping her arms around him. "What are you doing here?"
"I wanted to be here for Ava's birthday and then I thought I'd bring you a surprise."
"I'm so happy to see you." She kissed him deeply.
"Do you want your surprise?" He asked when they broke apart and he tried to get further into the house.
"I figured you were the surprise."
"Nope." He took her hand and made her take a step back so he could move away from the door.

Sarah smiled when she realized what her surprise was.

"Caleb." She said with a happy sigh as he was finally able to walk inside.
"Hi mom." He hugged her quickly. "When dad told me about his plan, I had to get in on the action." He smiled at her.
"I'm glad you did but don't you have classes tomorrow?"
He shook his head. "I have one class on Fridays so I'll be fine and I called in for work, it's all good."
"Well, I'm glad you're here." Sarah repeated as she hugged him again.

In the living room they sat down on the couch together. She cuddled right up to her husband, happy to have him there.

"What were you doing?" He asked, gesturing at the cluttered coffee table. It was full of papers, stickers, stamps and photographs.
"I decided to make a scrapbook for Daniel." Sarah explained. "With all photos being digital, not a lot of people make scrapbooks anymore but I thought it would be neat for him to have one."
"That's pretty cute. Show me what you made."

Sarah leaned over to pick up the book she was working on and showed him the first page. It started at the beginning, the ultrasound picture. Then continued on to the he was born, she had written little details on the pages for them to remember when he grew older.

"I like it." Richie said when they reached the last page.
"Yeah?"
"It's very cute. I love how you included even the rough parts but you made it look like it wasn't so bad, which will be nice for him later in life. He doesn't need to remember tough times."
"That's what I was thinking. Not that he would remember anyway but even looking at pictures, I don't want him to feel too sad or scared of what he went through."

Richie put the book back onto the coffee table and as soon as he sat back on the couch, Sarah cuddled right up against him again. He changed the TV channel to one of the late shows he liked to watch and held Sarah close.

Soon enough, he could feel she had fallen asleep against him.