Hazel Rain

Chapter 42

Quick little note before we get to the next chapter, I have gotten some good ideas and have a few of my own. This chapter will include some flashbacks that will answer some questions relating to the undercover case and the fall out from that.

I'm playing a bit with Hazel and Sam's age they'll be 6 and 4.

This will pick up around August/September... just for an idea of the time frame, though it's not that important.

On to the chapter...

Chapter 42

Adam hunched over on the bench, Sam sat on his knees beside him, "Daddy?"

"Yea?" Adam answered his son, "what is it?"

Sam leaned his elbows on Adam's thighs and planted his chin in his hands, "It's taking too long...I'm hungry and bored."

Adam laughed, "Son, its only the beginning" he knew they many more outings to the mall in their future.

They'd been at the mall for close to three hours and Adam couldn't even find the tunnel let alone see the light at the end of it.

School started in a few weeks and Hazel would a kindergartner, something Adam was still trying to wrap his head around.

The accident that had claimed the lives of his father, brother, and sister in law had been life altering for both him and Hazel. The darkest days of his life had brought Kim back to him and he took solace in that.

The darkest clouds always have a silver lining and for him and Hazel, Kim was their silver lining.

He felt Sam tug on his arm again, "Daddy..I'm hungry!"

Adam rolled his eyes at his son, "You just had a big ass cookie..how are you hungry again?"

Sam held his arms up, "I'm a growing boy." He flexed his 'muscles', "see? My muscles are sooo big, daddy!"

Adam laughed at him, Sam was like a sponge and even when he didn't appear to be listening, he was. The kid was ridiculously observant and he never missed a beat. It was just a few days ago that Kim had fed Adam that same line after Samuel had eaten his fourth slice of pizza and requested a fifth slice.

"Alright" Adam gathered the shopping bags at his feet, "Let's go find mommy and Hazel and see if we have any money left." He had always known Kim loved to shop and her love of shopping grew exponentially when Hazel had come into his life and again with the addition of Samuel; he was surprised that he had any money left.

As soon as he stepped foot in the store, Adam felt his skin begin to crawl. The pop music blaring from the speakers positioned throughout the story made his ears bleed. It seemed they had all of the boy bands on repeat.

The store was a maze of clothing racks, a thousand different shades of pinks, purples, and every other color in the rainbow. It seemed everything was covered in glitter, or adorned with ridiculously gaudy rhinestones or jewels.

He was thankful they had a boy, because he didn't think they could afford to dress two girls. Sam was quite happy with just a Cubs or Hawks t shirt, not Hazel she was a little fashionista. Both Kim and Hazel loved shopping, their last bank statement had proven that, Kim had discovered LulaRoe and she seemed to be getting packages delivered daily, Hazel was more excited to see the mailman than see him most days.

He found Kim at the register, a pile of clothes that rivaled Mount Everest in front of her, a teenaged girl happily ringing it all up.

Hazel was looking through the racks near the registers it was filled from top to bottom with various accessories and nail polishes, she grabbed a lime green bottle, "Aunt Kim, can I get this too?"