Hazel Rain

Chapter 10

He gave the car seat one final tug, making sure it was installed correctly into the back seat of his truck. 

As excited as he was he was just as terrified, he had Hazel for a few hours here and there, never had he spent twelve hours with her. This was going to be interesting, he was finally pleased with the car seat and closed the door and moved to get into the driver's seat.

He was meeting JoBeth at her office and would pick up Hazel from her, he had wanted to meet her foster parents but that had been nixed pretty quickly. JoBeth was pretty much the only person he dealt with aside from a few brief encounters with Hazel's advocate.

JoBeth Mathison wasn't his favorite person, but in the weeks since she'd taken Hazel from him, his dislike for her lessened. He had realized that she really did want what was best for his niece.

"Look, Hazel! It's Uncle Adam!" JoBeth lifted the little girl to her hip and met him outside, "Hey Adam."

Hazel reached out to her uncle, "Hold you Adam!"

Adam was surprised to hear her actually pronounce his name correctly, "Hey pretty girl" he grabbed her, laughing as she wrapped her arms around his neck and squeezed him tightly, "I missed you too."

JoBeth smiled at them both, "She's been talking my ear off for the last half hour, so have fun with that. Here's her bag" she handed the diaper bag to Adam, "She's become quite the little chatterbox, her speech seems to have just exploded overnight" she explained.

Adam grinned, "She's totally a Ruzek, we like to talk a lot. I'll miss her version of my name..Kyle always got a kick out of it, he claimed she was calling me dumb." He felt a ripple of sadness, "Anyway, I'll have her back by eight tonight." He needed to get off the subject of his brother.

"You two have fun. Bye Hazel"

Hazel waved her hand, "Bye-bye!"

"Bacon!" Hazel chanted as the waitress set the plate of pancakes and bacon in front of Hazel.

Adam laughed, "Calm down, Haze."

The waitress smiled, "Your daughter is adorable." She stroked Hazel's hair, "her eyes are beautiful."

Adam nodded his head, "She's my niece."

"Oh, I'm sorry. Well, I bet her mommy and daddy are thankful to have a few hours of respite, huh? I've got three kids at home, I wish my brother would take them out to eat once in awhile" she laughed.

"Yeah.." Adam wasn't sure how to respond, choosing instead to ignore most of what she said, "thanks" he proceeded to cut up Hazel's food.

The park was pretty empty aside from the usual runners and the people walking their dogs before the playground was filled with children.

"Slide, Adam." Hazel pointed to the curvy slide.

He set her on her feet and watched as she scampered off and climbed up the small set of stairs and giggled the entire way down the slide, only to go right back up. She spent a good twenty minutes on the slide, only stopping when the larger slide caught her eye.

"Oh! Big one. Me do it." Hazel tugged on Adam's hand pulling him towards the larger slide.

"I don't know, that's for big kids" Adam kneeled down beside her, "let's do the swings."

"No! Big slide, me do big slide." Hazel pouted folding her arms across her chest, "me do it!"

"Alright, let's go." Adam relented and followed her to the slide, he stood behind her as she maneuvered up the ladder, "I'll wait at the end..ok?"