Chapter 105

Their weekend was spent mostly together. Ava was excited to have her grandma over and talked almost non stop about everything that had happened since they had last visited. Sometimes he wondered how she was able to continue talking, how she kept finding more and more topics to discuss or how she remembered another story she needed to tell. He was just happy she was so happy.

Joan happily took care of Daniel during the week while Richie and Sarah spent some time together without him. It wasn't much either, mostly preparations for Thanksgiving in a few days. Sarah was excited to prepare a big Thanksgiving dinner for the whole family, he knew that. Abbey would come over to help out during the day as well but he was sure there would be a lot more help from just about everybody else too.

At home, he carried all the groceries into the house for Sarah, placing all the bags on the kitchen island.

"That's a lot of food sweetheart." He said, looking at the amount of bags piled on the island now.
"You're going to love it." Sarah said as she grabbed the first one to start putting items away.
Richie frowned at that, knowing she didn't mean anything with it. "Are you calling me fat?"
She turned around from the cabinet she was trying to reach. "What? No." She said quickly.
"Are you sure?"
Worried, she frowned at him. "Yes. I wasn't think that at all." She said, starting to feel bad that he had thought so.
He chuckled, letting go of his joke. "I was just bugging you. Sorry." He apologized quickly, now feeling bad that it had made her feel bad.
Sarah shook her head and continued with the groceries. "That's mean, you should be helping me."
"I'm helping." He grabbed a bag and started putting everything into the fridge. She was right, he knew that, he was definitely going to love all this food.

Sarah had taken him up on his offer of watching Daniel so she could go out with a friend. Today, she was going to meet Taylor for coffee, it had been much too long since they had some time together and Sarah felt more than ready to catch up with a friend and have some time to herself.

After saying goodbye to Sarah, Richie joined his mom in the living room where she had taken occupancy of his recliner chair. He didn't mind and sat down on the couch instead. Daniel was standing next to the chair as he played with his toys, glad to have someone else to play with.

"You know," Richie started, "he talked last week. He tried to say guitar." He said excitedly disregarding that Daniel hadn't made any effort to repeat it since then.
Joan smiled at him. "I wonder where he learned that from."
"He loves guitars. I can't wait to teach him in a few years."
"No accordion?" She asked curiously.
Richie shrugged, maybe. "They've got these tiny little guitars for kids. 1/4 guitars they call them and they're only about 30 inches so when he's around 4, it'd be the perfect size for him. I'm sure Norm could find him the perfect one." He explained excitedly, waiting for Joan to respond but she continued watching him, knowing there was more to come. "And I want one too."
She smiled. "That's what I thought."
"They're tiny, so easy to carry around." He added on quickly. "I'll probably still teach him accordion when he's a little bigger though, just 'cause dad would have liked that as well. He's still so little now."
That made Joan feel happy.

After the weekend, the house turned quiet during the day. No continuous talking from Ava for most of the day. Daniel was happy to get his grandmother's undivided attention during the day. Richie was enjoying some more family time, still making an effort to make breakfast for everyone and picking Noah up when Ava had extra curricular activities after school and wasn't able to drive him home when school was out

Each time he went to pick Noah up, he tried to struck a conversation with him but Noah's one worded answers kept their conversations on the way home short. It was starting to frustrate him to watch Noah seem so mopey but not being able to get any answers as to why he felt like that. He wanted a happy kid.

Today he was determined to change that.

He unlocked the doors before Noah got to the car this time but still looked up when he sat down in the seat next to him. Today, he was prepared, he had a plan.

"How was school?" Richie asked like he always did, expecting the same answer as he always got.
"Fine."
Richie nodded, not pressing it. "Got any plans?" He asked, not moving just yet.
Noah frowned confused at him. "No?"
"Perfect." Richie said as he shifted the Ferrari from neutral to first gear.
Noah continued looking at him. "Why? Are we going somewhere?" He asked confused. "I'm still in my uniform."
"So take your tie off, unbutton a button, you'll be fine."

The drive wasn't very far or long, 10 minutes, if that. He pulled into the parking lot right next to the freeway, then drove slowly til he found a spot to park in. There were a couple stores and restaurants in the lot leaving it pretty busy but he still managed to find himself a parking spot close to the store.

"Where are we going?" Noah asked once Richie parked the car and turned it off.
Richie looked at him confused, it was pretty obvious. "Barnes & Noble?" He asked. "Where did you think we were going here?" This was the same book store they always went to and there weren't many other interesting stores in this lot.
Noah shrugged.
"Come on," Richie urged, "unless you'd rather go home." Knowing he wouldn't
"No." Noah answered quickly.
Richie gestured at the tie and jacket Noah was still wearing. "Take those off though." He suggested, watching Noah do so. "You've got to unbutton the first two buttons at least."
"Why?" Noah asked first.
"Trust me, a done up shirt without a tie doesn't look good and you're not in school." Richie shrugged, "Besides, you never know when a girl sees you."
"Okay." Noah listened to the fashion advise he was given.

As they walked to the bookstore, Richie told him they were doing this the right way, which meant stopping at the cafe first. Noah reminded him he didn't like coffee all that much but Richie waved it off. He knew Starbucks was Ava's thing but he wasn't going to only get something for himself, that just wasn't right.

He handed Noah an extra caramel and extra whipped cream frappe. "Trust me." He told him again before taking his own cup of coffee. Now they had everything they needed to browse books. It'd be impossible to go through an entire bookstore without a drink in hand. Instead of going to the magazine section like he usually would, he followed Noah around as he browsed books. He pointed out covers he liked or titles he liked, trying to get Noah's opinion on the books which worked fairly well to get a conversation going.

He sipped his coffee as he followed Noah to the Young Adult section, glad to see Noah at ease between the books. He looked at covers, spotting one. "Hey, I've read this one." He pointed it out, making Noah look up from the frappe he was drinking.
"You've read a book?" Noah asked.
Richie rolled his eyes at his joking comment. "Yes, one or two."
Noah walked over and looked at the book. "I would have hoped you've read The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. I don't think you can say you've had a childhood if you hadn't read it."
Richie frowned at that. "What? So it's a must read?"
"Yes, absolutely. It's an absolute must, especially if you like Tolkien's books and knowing him and Lewis were friends and had many arguments about their books, you have to read both to understand that relationship."
"Okay," Richie agreed, "but the Lord of the Rings is like half a billion pages."
Noah chuckled at that and shook his head. "So it takes two or three weeks finish."
"You mean months."
He shook his head again.

They browsed more books, which sparked conversational topics where Richie was finally able to get some actual answers from Noah about school and life but it was almost an hour later, their drink cups had been tossed into a garbage can and so far Noah wasn't carrying any books. Richie was expecting to walk out of the store with at least a few books.

"Aren't you going to pick any books out?" He asked Noah who was still browsing.
Noah looked up, a little distracted. "Oh, I don't know. I have a lot on my e-reader I still need to read."
Richie shook his head. "I definitely haven't read as many books as you have but I do know that one can never have too many books and it's impossible to leave a bookstore without buying a book. That's like if I went to one of those guitar stores and didn't come back with something."
"That is true." Noah agreeing, he did have a good point.
"Alright. So what are we getting?"
Noah shrugged but continued looking at books. "We can get a picture book of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, that way you can reread it with Daniel, refresh your memory, maybe you'll read the rest of the series."
"It's a series?" Richie asked surprised. "That's actually a good idea."
"Yes it's a series. Sometimes I wonder how you've survived so long without book knowledge."
Richie shrugged at that, following Noah to the children's section. "I mostly stick to conversations about guitars instead."

Noah lead the way, being familiar with this store, and easily found the picture book for Daniel. He picked it off of the shelf and passed it on to Richie then continued looking at picture books, finding several fun ones and passing those on to Richie as well.

Not much later he was carrying a small stack of picture books that were essential according to Noah. Even though he had wanted to get Noah something, he thought it was sweet he instead picked books out for his little brother. Richie carried the small stack of books to the register but stopped when he noticed Noah had lingered around the table full of board games, he head back to find out what had caught his eye. Perhaps he could get him a game instead of a book.

"Don't you have that?" Richie asked.
Noah shook his head. "No."
"How do you not have Harry Potter Clue? Get it, it'll be fun to play tomorrow after Thanksgiving dinner." Richie said, actually thinking it would be fun to play a board game with the family.

At the register, Noah pulled out his rewards card before Richie paid and the cashier put everything in a bag for them to carry. They were both quite happy with some books for Daniel, knowing the little boy loved listening to stories.

Outside the store, they made a quick stop next door at See's candy store and Richie picked out some chocolates, never forgetting how he could make Sarah happy. He picked out Sarah's favorites and as well as a box for his mother. He was a good son. Not forgetting everyone else, he got some for them all to share.

"Do you want to go home?" He asked Noah once they were outside again, still holding on to their bags. "Or we can go for dinner." He suggested. They'd spent a long time in the book store which was exactly what he had planned.
"I do have homework." Noah said but wasn't all that interested in having to work on that.
"You'll have plenty of time after. I know you usually finish that in less time than Ava." Richie headed back to the car to put the books and chocolates inside before looking over at Noah again. "There's sushi, seafood, Fresh Brothers or that Italian place over there." He pointed towards it.
"Let's just get pizza."

He easily agreed to that, locked the car and they headed to the small pizzeria. It was fairly small inside but they found a table and looked through the menu to decide what they were getting.

After they ordered their drinks and pizzas, Richie tried to coax Noah into a conversation again. This time trying to get more info about school. Noah didn't have much to say other that classes were fine and he didn't mind most of his teachers. When Richie asked if he minded the kids in his class, as a joke, Noah shrugged.

"What?" Richie tried.
Noah shrugged again. "Most of them are spoiled brats."
"Assholes." Richie agreed, not actually knowing. "What about in your honors classes though? Are there genius jocks too?"
"No, but those classes are mostly girls anyway." Noah explained.

Richie waggled his eyebrows suggestively at that. In return, Noah just shook his head, trying not to be embarrassed in public. If he had his pizza, he could avoid conversation.

"What about those guys you and Caleb used to hang out with?" Richie asked when their pizzas arrived, he picked up a slice, happy with his choice.
Noah frowned slightly at the thought. "Those were Caleb's friends." Noah pointed out, remembering who he meant. "They all graduated last summer."
"Oh." He had not realized that. "But you see Ava in school, right?" At least he hoped so.
"Sometimes we share a lunch period and she insists on sitting with me with some of her friends." Noah said before taking another bite of his pizza.

Richie nodded, getting the idea. At least Ava was trying to be kind and he appreciated that. Ava had more friends than he could count and more were added all the time. The close ones stayed the same but she always met new people. He was glad that family mattered to her too. He steered the conversation away from friends, getting the hint that Noah didn't have any and didn't enjoy talking about that. He changed it to class subjects which Noah gladly talked about until Richie brought up college. It wasn't that far away in time and applications were due soon enough but it halted the conversation nonetheless.

It was almost 7pm when Richie parked his car in the garage, he hadn't meant for them to be gone for almost four hours but he definitely didn't mind it either. He was glad he had had some time with Noah and was excited to tell Sarah about everything he had learned today. It was if today was the first conversation he had with Noah in the last few months. Before heading inside, he grabbed the boxes of chocolate as Noah took the bag of books along with his backpack and school blazer.

They found the rest of the family in the living room. First, he gave his mom the chocolates before sitting down next to his wife on the couch to give her hers as well. Making Sarah smile and reach in for a kiss as a thank you.

Richie surely wasn't the only one surprised to see Noah join Daniel in his play area. He watched as Noah pulled the books out of the bag and started showing them to Daniel, pointing out pictures as he talked about the books.

It made him smile.