Chapter forty-seven

The next morning Richie woke up, remembering Sarah's presents in the living room. He got out of bed, relieved yet again that Sarah didn't wake up. This was definitely something he liked.

In the kitchen he started two cups of coffee and got the presents from the living room to bring back to the bed, then returned to the kitchen to retrieve the cups of coffee.

He sat down on the bed and started waking Sarah up.

When she finally opened her eyes and sat up a bit, Richie held out the cup. "Got you coffee."
"Thanks." Sarah took the cup and tentavily sipped.
"We forgot your presents last night." Richie held out one of the wrapped gifts.
"You got me presents?" Sarah asked exciting, putting the coffee down on the night stand.
"Of course I did. Open this one first." He held out the flattest one of them all.
Sarah carefully opened the gift wrap, so she wouldn't rip it too much.
"A dvd?" She asked when almost all the paper was gone.
"I hope you like it."
Sarah removed the last pieces of paper and looked at the cover. "Pay It Forward." She read the title and remembered. "That's the movie I watched!"
"I thought it was. Do you like it?"
"I do, thanks so much." She opened it and turned it over, getting a look at everything. "Oh my God, that's Jon."
Richie chuckled. "I know."
"And I said I thought he was cute. I didn't think you'd actually know him."
Richie chuckled again. "As long as you still marry me."
"I find you attractive, not Jon."

Richie smiled and kissed her, making sure of it.

Sarah opened the next present, ticker than the first but smaller. She unwrapped it as carefully as thr first one and found Pay It Forward, the book too.

Another present gave her an iPhone, according to Richie she needed a phone, just so it would be easier.
The last and biggest present was a brand new laptop. Another thing Richie thought would make things easier. While thinking Sarah was going back to school, he thought a laptop would be helpful with research and homework.

"Richie, this is so much, I didn't really get you anything last month." Sarah said regretful.
"You did, remember we had phone sex?"
"How is that a present?" Sarah asked confused.
"Because I see it as another step forward and you came over for my birthday and said yes. What more could I have wanted?"
"That's going to make it very hard to get you a Christmas present."

The rest of the day they spend on the beach again. The lake was hot.

Richie had his fun again with covering Sarah in sun screen.

When he finished, he helped Sarah up from the sunbed and walked over to the ocean. He loved seeing her in her bikini but even more in a wet bikini.

Sarah followed him, the water quickly rose as they walked deeper until they were all the way in the water.
Richie held her close to him, his hands cupping her bottom.

"Richie." Sarah said a little hesitant.
"No one can see us this far." He held her a little closer.
"We can't do anything here." She said carefully.
"I can just hold you, can't I?"
"Yeah you can." She hoped it would stay like that, this was a public place, even if nobody could see then.



The next day Richie arranged something for them to enjoy as a family but kept it a surprise until they arrived.

A big balloon with a basket stood in a field, a couple of people around it, walking around and getting things in order.

"We're going on a balloon ride?" Ava asked amazed and excited when they saw the balloon.
"We are." Richie confirmed.
"That's so cool man." Caleb pitched it.
"I know man!" He laughed.

They all got into the basket and before they knew it they were high above in the sky, the whole landscape below them was shrinking the higher they went.

Everyone except Sarah stood by the edges, looking down to the ground, pointing out places.

Finally Richie noticed Sarah standing still in the middle, not making any move to get close to the sides.

"What's wrong?" He asked, walking the short distance to stand in front of her.
Sarah looked up into his eyes. "We're very high."
"Are you scared of heights?" Richie asked, inwardly starting to panic if she was, they couldn't just land right now.
"I don't know, I haven't been this high before. I... I just don't want to look." She said.
"Okay, I'll stay here with you." He said and held her stare as she was still looking into his eyes.



The ride wasn't very long and an hour later they stood back on the ground.

"That was nice." Sarah said as they walked away.
Richie chuckled. "I'm sorry, I didn't know you're scared of heights."
"I didn't know either," said Sarah, "I've never done anything like that. On the plane I don't look out because I don't want to see it either."
"But it was nice."

All the kids agreed to that.



They spent their last few days at Lake Tahoe in the same way, mostly they spent time on the beach. The kids went off to try more water sports.

Closer to the end of their vacation, Richie rented a small boat and took everyone on the water, he had rented fishing equipment too.

A quick boat ride farther off shore and Richie got out the fishing equipment, followed by teenage sighs and "that's no fun"

Eventually he got everyone a rope and today was their lucky day. Almost as soon as Noah had his rope down the water, he already caught a fish. He held it up and looked around confused.

"You have to unhook him." Richie pointed out.
"I'm not touching that." Noah said disgustedly looking at the fish that was trying to get away but couldn't.
"Come here." Richie motioned for him to move his line over so he could grab the fish.

Noah did as asked and Richie unhooked the fish, then threw it back in the water.

"We're not keeping them?"
"You can't eat one of those so just put them back."

When Ava caught a fish it went the same way, another disgusted look and not wanting to touch the fish. At least Caleb tried to unhook it but made it worse until Richie helped him.

Sarah decided to skip on fishing, noticing Richie had enough work unhooking fish, she loved seeing him like this, like a father taking his kids out fishing except these were her kids. She loved how Richie treated them, the boys didn't remember much about their dad and had grown up without a father, maybe this would be beneficial for them too.



On their last day Richie took Sarah to a spa, thinking she hadn't been to one before, he was sure she'd love it.

To start they got massages, the spa offered couple's massages so Richie and Sarah could share a room.

A little uneasy about being naked Sarah got on the massage table and faced Richie.

A few minutes into their massage, Richie looked over at Sarah, her eyes closed and completely relaxed, he was right, he knew she'd love it.



As with all good thing, their vacation came to an end too. They got home late and Richie showed Caleb and Noah to the guest rooms before finding Sarah to take to his own bedroom, very different plans on his mind than sleeping.