Chapter 107

"That was amazing" Richie said when he finished his last bite, feeling thoroughly stuffed at the moment.

Thanksgiving dinner had been absolutely perfect. When he came down with Daniel and Noah, Sarah had been impressed with how well Noah dressed up. So much that she had to get several photos on her phone before they could even start dinner. The table was set lovely for the entire family to have dinner together. With Ava's help small details like napkins were perfected before everyone entered the room.

Richie knew Sarah felt incredibly proud of her Thanksgiving dinner, it took a lot of organizing and work to decorate and prepare. In the end it definitely paid off.

Now, as everyone finished eating, the only remains of the perfectly set table was a large carved turkey in the middle of the table.

"Did you like it?" Sarah asked him for confirmation.
"It was perfect." Richie told her. "I'm so fucking full right now, it was that good baby."
"More pie for us." Joan interjected into their conversation.
He looked up at her in shock. "What? No, I have space for pie."
"But you're full." Sarah agreed with Joan now.
"There's a special space for dessert. There's always space in the dessert stomach." He explained quickly.

Leaving clean up for later, they moved to the living room to recover from dinner before moving on to pie and ice cream for dessert.

In the living room, Richie turned on the TV to find the football game he was missing. No one objected and he happily sat down to watch. Noticing Ava's boyfriend did the same, he struck a conversation with him as Ava kept trying to get his attention back on her. As a dad, he was watchful of any boy Ava brought home but he also had to socialize with them so he kept the conversation on the topic of football.

He looked up when Sarah sat down next to him on the couch during a commercial break. "Could we do a family picture?" She asked. "The three of you look so handsome."
The idea of a photo sounded nice to him, it'd been a while they had had a photo of everyone, almost everyone. "Let's do it." He said, getting up from the couch. "Where?"
Sarah frowned in thought, thinking it over. "By the piano, that would look nice."

For the occasion, they took several photos. A few of the five of them, some with their mothers included. Of course, Ava needed a few with her boyfriend and then wanted one of just the two of them. Which made Richie want in on that, he wouldn't pass up on a nice picture of him and his wife. It didn't take for Daniel to get frustrated with all the fussing about photos and put an end to everyone's photo shoot.

"We still have to play that game I got for Noah." He reminded Sarah on the way back to the living room. "Or have dessert."
"Lets keep dessert for a little later, we could watch a movie or something after the game and have pie then."
He nodded, he wanted pie but he could wait a little longer, for Sarah.

It didn't take long for Noah to set up the game on the coffee table, putting out enough pieces for all the players. Ava had joined him on the floor to play the game. Joan and Abbey would be watching their grandchildren play from the couch. Noah explained the rules, making sure everyone understood the point of the game.

"Who do you think did it?" Richie whispered to Sarah next to him, looking at the cards in his hand, he had no clue.
Sarah gave him a quizzical look. "I don't think we should discuss it."
"I think we should."
She folded the cards into her hand, making sure he couldn't cheat. "I don't think so." She looked at the coffee table, watching as Noah played the next round.
Richie scooted a little closer and whispered again. "I'll share the win with you." He offered.
"How do you share a win to a board game?"
"Shared bragging rights." He clarified quickly, trying to convince her.
"Dad." Ava caught his attention. "It's your turn."

He rolled the dice quickly and played his turn, moving his character a few steps towards the next room he was going to explore. Then watched as Sarah did the same.

He whispered again when it was Noah's turn. "We'll form an alliance."
Sarah couldn't help but chuckle at that one. "You're a goof." She told him plainly.
"Just think of what's at stake here."
"Which is what?" Sarah asked.
"The bragging rights."
Sarah chuckled and shook her head.

After the game ended, with Ava solving the mystery and winning the game, Richie brought up pie again. His dessert stomach was running on empty and needed to be filled before he would have bedtime left overs. He helped Sarah with tidying up the dining room, putting everything away for tomorrow. In the kitchen, Sarah got a stack of plates from the cabinet, along with forks from the drawer.

"Ice cream, right?" Richie asked as he pulled the freezer open.
"If you want it." Sarah agreed.
"I need it." He clarified. How was he supposed to eat pie without ice cream? That made no sense whatsoever.

Carefully, he placed the home made pumpkin pie on the coffee table, then put down the tub of ice cream. He was more than ready to cut up this pie and eat it. His mom always made the best pie, nothing else could even come close to it. Maybe he was biased.

Once he had his plate of pie and ice cream, he leaned back on the couch and looked up at the TV to see what was happening in the football game. So far nobody had complained about it being on and he gladly continued watching, knowing that soon someone would suggest a movie. Not that he minded watching a movie with everyone but football was important too.

As empty plates started to stack on the coffee table, he started dreading the moment football would be turned off. The score was so close and only 8 minutes left in this quarter. He watched as Sarah got all the dishes together again to bring it all to the kitchen. Usually he would help, but the game...

"Can we watch a movie?" Sarah sat down next to him, ready to snuggle against him and watch a movie.
"Definitely." He agreed quickly, even though he wanted to watch the game.
Sarah smiled and reached in for a quick kiss. "Thank you."

She was always worth it. With the TV remote he looked for the movie guide they could rent from. Letting everyone have a say in what they wanted to watch was getting them absolutely nowhere. Noah suggested one of the Harry Potter movies which Ava strongly disagreed with. With every suggested movie, at least one person had an objection. The only one that didn't complain was Daniel.

"You know what." Richie said after almost twenty minutes. "The only one not complaining is Daniel so we're watching one of his movies." He decided, even though it was a little unfair as Daniel never made himself heard.
Ava rolled her eyes. "So we're watching Nemo?"
"What's wrong with Nemo?" He asked her.
Ava shrugged, not really minding the movie.

Richie started inputting the title into the search menu but as soon as he pressed N, another movies popped up on the screen, catching his attention.

"Or we watch Narnia, since he likes his new book."

Making the final decision on the movie, he started it under the pretense that it was for Daniel.

When the movie ended, he carefully got up with Daniel who was asleep in his arms now. He had made it about halfway through the movie until he had dozed off in his dad's arm. Richie happily held him for the rest of the movie but as it had ended now and everyone else was ready to wrap up the day, he took his son up to his bed.

Carefully he checked if he needed a clean diaper before bed after taking his jeans off slowly so he wouldn't wake up again. Gently, he laid him down in his crib, making sure his stuffed animals were set up next to him. On his way out of the room, he turned on the little light they had for him, leaving the door open just a little.

Downstairs, he said goodnight to Ava as she headed up to her room, as did Noah.

Before going back to the living room to join Sarah with their moms, he made a quick detour in the kitchen and made a few cups of tea before taking them over to the living room.

Happily he sat down on the couch next to Sarah, cups of tea in their hands.

"Ready for football high lights?" Sarah asked, looking up at him.
He was a little surprised but gladly took the opportunity. "Yeah."

Sarah changed the channel to the sport's channel her husband wanted to watch, then got comfortable against him again.

He only got to pay half attention to football as Sarah, Joan and Abbey started talking over it. Discussing their day as well as catching up on everything that had happened since the last time they were all together. Sarah proudly told them both about Caleb up in Vancouver, away at university and what a great job he was doing there all on his own. She was very proud of his achievements and didn't mind a little bragging about it, knowing Abbey and Joan would be proud as well. The conversational topic made Richie interject with how he visited Caleb at work and got to hang out with him while he was up there.

Before heading up to bed, Richie walked into the kitchen, heading straight for the fridge. He pulled it open and looked for what would satisfy him at the moment. There were a lot of left overs but he was also heading to bed so perhaps he shouldn't be eating all that much. He peeled back the plastic wrap that was covering the turkey and pried a piece off before popping it into his mouth.

After a few bites, he closed the fridge again and headed up the stairs, surely Sarah would be ready for bed by now.

Sarah looked up at him from the bed where she had gotten comfortable. "Starting on the left overs?" She asked suspiciously.
"I don't know what you're talking about." He closed the door behind him before heading into the room.
"What else would take you so long downstairs?"
"Cleaning up."
Sarah chuckled. "Yeah, cleaning up the left overs."
"Don't make such good turkey then." He headed for the bathroom so he could join her in the bed in a few minutes.

Sarah made sure the baby monitor was turned on before she laid down and got comfortable with the pillows and comforter. It had been a long day and she was ready to snuggle against her personal heater and get a well deserved sleep with him.

Sarah complained when Richie lifted the sheets, letting in the cold air as he got into bed with her. To make up for it quickly, he moved close and held her.

"Thank you." Sarah said once she was comfortable in his arms.
"No problem, I love holding you."
Sarah smiled at that. "I meant for today."
"I didn't do anything." He was confused at what she meant, other than keeping Daniel occupied, he hadn't done anything to help out.
"You did a lot and you got Noah to dress up and look nice." She had been very impressed by that, she knew how much Noah didn't care for his appearance.
He shrugged a little, he just wanted to be a good dad. "Just trying to help him, plus, it gets him talking."
"Does it?" Sarah asked intrigued by that information.
Richie nodded. "Few days ago when we were at the bookstore and went for dinner." He explained quickly. "We've been bonding. He's even talking when I pick him up from school."
"What do you talk about?"

He thought for a moment, wanting to give a specific answer but couldn't remember all the details Noah had talked about during their drives home. Most were about classes and what he was learning but Richie couldn't remember what that was, it was much too academic to him.

"He's so fucking smart, I don't even understand most of what he tells me he learns in school."
Sarah smiled at that again, she knew that but it was always nice to hear how smart her son was. "He really is." She felt proud of him.
"I learned some other things too though."
Sarah looked up at him, wondering why his tone of voice had turned more seriously. "Like what?"
"I don't think he has any friends. He also doesn't like half the people in his classes."
Sarah waved it off quickly. "I'm sure he has a couple people he likes. He's just not as social as Ava and Caleb are."
"Yeah, I guess." Unsure of that, he agreed anyway.
"But thanks for getting him to dress up and fix his hair. He looked so handsome."
He smiled, happy that he had been right that it would make Sarah happy. "He only did it because I said you'd like it."

Holding her close in his arms, he wished her a good night before closing his eyes. Very ready for some sleep. The energy his earlier nap had given him had worn out. Now was the time to catch up on sleep, in a few days he would be hitting the road again. This time he would be alone and with a big time difference between them, he knew he wasn't going to get a lot of sleep while he was gone. He had to make time to talk to Sarah and more time to video chat with Daniel, he was sure that in two weeks his boy would grow a lot and he didn't want to miss it.