Capturing Memories

°•°Chapter 45°•°

"They say a person needs just three things to be truly happy in this world: someone to love, something to do, and something to hope for."

― Tom Bodett.

Zach's POV.

Letting out a shaky breath, I run my fingers through Chloe's hair while she's fast asleep and let my thumb run over her slightly swollen lip. A huge part of me was so proud of the fact that she used her self-defense skills and got out of my office before Ethan took any more advantage of her, but at the same time, the guilt of not anticipating any such thing is eating me up.

Sure, Blake is going to handle things and make sure Ethan never steps foot in Colorado but until I know Ethan is relocated to another prison once his sentence is confirmed, I don't think I can shut an eye. Though Dan and Eli are going to stick around the whole day while I'll have to get to the restaurant, I'm not sure if I can concentrate on work completely with Chloe on my mind.

Out of all this mess, the fact that we can bring Molly home is the only silver lining. This happiness is something neither Chloe nor me can explain but despite this, my mind only ends up focusing on Ethan. That fucking bastard.

Chloe's fists tighten on my t-shirt before she snuggled closer to me with a small smile causing me to forget all the bad and concentrate on the good. Her breathing gets even once again, as I tighten my grasp around her waist. Holding her secure in my embrace.

~•~•~•

"Good morning!" Dan's cheery voice gets me as soon as I walk out of the bedroom like a zombie despite the exercise I just did. Not that I didn't want to sleep, I couldn't. "Good morning, you both,"

I give them a smile before settling down on a barstool before Snowy, jumped onto my lap craving the attention that I failed to give him yesterday. Ruffling his fur I pull him in a hug to annoy the shit out of him, making him bark at me, "Hey stop worrying the poor guy,"

Chloe's sleepy voice interrupts and Snowy's quickly runs her way, "Good morning, Sugar,"

"Good morning!" Dan and Eli's voices resonate in my head as they greet her in unison, oh how I love having them at home right now cause with how worried I am, I can't do much of the cheering up part when it comes to Chloe.

"Good morning," she smiles before kneeling to let Snowy's excited self almost knock her off before laughing and ruffling his fur, "Here you go, coffee for both of you,"

"Thank you so much," I thank Dan who places two mugs in the counter before following Eli into the guest room. Trust me, even people who aren't into relationships would find them amazing together. Acceptance being one of the most important fundamentals their relationship stands on, even though Eli never talked much, he made sure to show the world how proud he is of his boyfriend.

Eli came back from the army about three years ago, with a prosthetic leg. Dan and Eli already knew each other from a trekking trip and things happened but none of us actually knew a lot about Eli until he was back from the army. Dan took him in and despite all the shortcomings; he managed to get Eli to accept the huge change. It took a while, but they only grew stronger.

"Stop thinking too hard," Chloe's small voice breaks my thought as I turn my body over the barstool to face her in her beautiful morning look, "I'm not thinking too hard,"

I shake my head before she steps between both my legs and gives me a contagious smile, "Kiss me already," she rolls her eyes before pulling my face to hers while I wrap an arm around her waist before kissing her back. Her soft hand traces my stubble while I lose myself in the incredible kiss.

Her body presses against mine making me groan in restraint before pulling back, "Not now, Sugar." I sigh before placing a kiss on her forehead, "Did you even sleep?"

She asks me caressing my cheek with concern reflecting in her eyes, "Yeah," I lie not meeting her gaze, "Bad Liar," she shakes her head in disapproval before wrapping her arms around me into a hug. Hugging her back, I kiss her shoulder while rubbing circles on her back.

"I love you," she mumbles into my chest making me smile, "Love you too, Sugar," kissing my chest, she pulls back before sitting on the barstool right next to me. Grabbing her mug of coffee, she sips on it before pointing at mine for me to drink before it goes cold.

"We need to start setting up stuff for Molly," she reminds me with a heart-warming smile, clearly Molly has her mind occupied which is great, "I already placed an order for the crib and a few other necessities last night. Just check the orders list on our amazon account," I say with a grin taking her by surprise.

Molly's adoption process is going at an abnormal speed honestly, normally it takes months but what I recently discovered is that Ms. Bailey was trying to give Molly up for adoption. I didn't tell Chloe about this cause it's not something that she'll appreciate of course. Mr. Stanley, my lawyer pulled a lot of strings right from the start which made things move so much quicker.

"Wow, someone's all prepared and excited," she points out before Snowy decided on deviating her attention. See what I mean when I say he's my competition. I'm not too keen on sharing and clearly, he isn't either.

Shaking my head, I get back to my coffee and check my emails for anything from my lawyer. Finding one, I mentally sigh realizing it's something positive and close my phone before Chloe gets the jest of me working on the case without telling her all the tiny little details. She doesn't need that right now and Ethan isn't affecting her mind much so why not leave it that way as long as possible?

"What time do you have to get to work?" she asks me, breaking my chain of thoughts as Snowy, gets away from us, "In...an hour," I say looking over to the clock on the kitchen counter reading 10:27 am.

"Could I just drop by to spend some time with Molly or do we go in the evening together?"

"We're going together, as I said you're not going out by yourself," I point out making her huff while rolling her eyes like a kid, "But I still do need to go for a photo shoot tomorrow," sighing, I look at her realizing that it's time to reveal my plans.

"I called in a partner to share the responsibilities because now we'll have to give enough time to Molly as well and, it's someone I know from grad school. Mason, if you remember him?" revealing my plans to her, I watch her think dramatically with a finger tapping her chin, "Mason as in Mason Wallace?"

"Yup that's him and he's been looking for a good restaurant to invest in. Also, he wanted to settle down since he's married now and what's better than the good old Colorado?"

"That sounds amazing Zach!" she squeals in excitement before extending her arms over my shoulder before pulling me into another hug making me let out a laugh, "But first, you still need sleep Zach,"

I sigh while resting my head on hers, "Work first, Sugar,"

"Fine then when will you back?"

"Mason's going to be here by three noon so probably after that," did I ever mention, she can be scary, sometimes? And controlling a person by just a look? Or wait, she just has that effect on me but I'm going to say it, she doesn't hold back before hitting me. Her silence says she's going to hit me but it's been beyond five seconds so maybe she won't?

Smack!

"Expected that," I groan rubbing the back of my head, "You deserved that," she rolls her eyes before getting off the barstool and heading toward the cabinet containing cereal. Of course, the best breakfast as long as it's froot loops but again that's literally the one cereal we have stocked up.

She shuffles around, grabbing bowls, spoons, and then milk, "Eat." She huffs while pouring out the cereal into the already filled bowls of milk, "Dan! Eli!" my hands cover my ears at her loud tone making her giggle. Ah, finally!

"Stop being a baby, eat," she nudges me with a smile dancing on her face before we both turned to our bowls of cereal. That's when the realization hits me of something we somehow managed to not think of so far, "Sugar, we need to get used to being called Dad and Mom."

~•~•~•