Chapter Sixty-five

Valentine's day. He loved Valentine's day. He loved making his wife happy and surprising her with gifts every day of the year but Valentine's made it even more special.

Except, this year he wasn't home. He was over 2000 miles away from home, away from his wife. His entire family.

But he was having fun on tour. Touring was always fun, except for the moments when he missed home, apart from that, he loved every bit about it.

Specially for Valentine's day, the setlist today was a little different. They always played the love ballads but today had an extra one. He liked that Jon had made the decision. The audience would like that too, make it a real Valentine's day special for them. The crowd being happy, was the most important thing in their job after all.

His phone pulled him away from his thoughts, he answered it.

"Why have there been three different delivery guys at the door?" Sarah asked him confused.
"Only three?" Richie asked, just as confused.
"Were there supposed to be more?"
His quick reaction a few seconds ago gave away his surprise and now he didn't know how to save it before Sarah found out.
"Well?"
"I'm not sure. What did they deliver?"
"The first one delivered roses this morning. Then an hour later another guy showed up with a really cute teddy bear, a big one, you know? After him, a guy brought me a box of chocolates." She explained to him how it had happened.
"Oh. How big was the bear?"
"I don't know, like 30 inches. Does it matter?"
"It might." He avoided the question.
"Does it?" Sarah insisted an answer.
"No."
"Then why did you ask?" Sarah asked confused by her husband.
"Cause I'm interested in the bear. Did you like the bear?" He really needed to know, more were on the way. He wouldn't be able to cancel them in time.
"You're a tease. It's a very cute bear. I think I'll keep it in our bed."
Richie nodded, he could already imagine 5 different sized teddy bears in their bed when he got home in a month. "It can stay there 'til I get home."
"Why? I like my teddy bear, I want to sleep with it every day."
"But then I'd be home."
Sarah answered him in a serious tone of voice but was still going along with the teasing. "But you're not a teddy bear, honey."
"Sure I could be, I'm all nice and warm and cuddly. Not stuffed with fluff but still cuddly and all filled out nicely."
Sarah laughed out loud. "You're a perfect teddy bear to cuddle with. Thank you for all the gifts." Her husband couldn't see it but she was smiling brightly at how thoughtful he had been even if he was in a different country. She really did have the best husband in the world, it still amazed her.
"No problem." He wasn't done with gifts yet but Sarah didn't need to know.
"Are there more coming?"
She didn't need to know that. "Who knows."
"Thanks anyway. I love you and I miss you."
Richie smiled softly, thinking about how Sarah would look right now. "I love you too and I miss you very much, especially today. I really wish I could have done something special with you today."
"Other than overload me with gifts?"
"Yes, although that's very good too, I still would have wanted to take you out for a nice dinner. Just us."
She really had the best husband in the world. "I know, we'll do that later. I'm not sure if I would want to leave Daniel with anybody just yet." Even if it was her own mother of her mother in law, Daniel was too young to be without his mother. Even for a few hours.
He understood that, before going on tour he didn't want to leave Daniel either, he just didn't have another choice. "We'll just do it after the tour, two months late." He suggested.
"It's perfectly fine. No reason to put a date on when to show somebody you love them."

He smiled at that, she was exactly right. After the tour he'd take her out for a romantic dinner, just the two of them, all alone. He loved her every day, not only the fourteenth of February. He'd make sure she knew that perfectly well when they'd go on their date. That gave him something to do while being on tour. Plan a date with Sarah and finish arranging their spring break vacation. Of course it would be Hawaii but they needed a place that would have everything that Daniel would need.

During the rest of his phone call, he asked Sarah the usual questions. How everybody was doing, especially how Ava and Daniel were doing. Daniel was still his chipper self, happy wherever he was. Only two weeks ago he had finally stopped crying when his grandma Joan picked him up. A relief for everybody. The baby boy was very sweet but it was starting to worry them. Now that he had stopped, they didn't need to worry anymore.

At least it was one less thing he needed to worry about while he wasn't home. He didn't always mean to worry but being so far from home and not able to see everybody, he couldn't help it. Knowing that everything was alright at home, was very important to him. Anybody away from home would agree with him. He hoped. It wasn't that abnormal to worry about your loved ones, the rest of the band probably worried about their families too.

Sarah hadn't heard from Ava so far and Richie assumed everything was alright for now. He talked to his daughter every other day, more than he usually did on tour but he felt like Ava needed it at the moment.

He finished all his phone calls before he had to get ready to perform. Afterwards it would be too late, except for Sarah. He needed to let her know the show was over and that he was going to bed. He just needed to tell her good night and that he loved her. Maybe he needed to hear that from her too.