Capturing Memories

°•°Chapter 50°•°

"But I know, somehow, that only when it is dark enough can you see the stars."

― Martin Luther King, Jr.

Zach's POV.

"Thank you, Mr. Philip," I say before hanging up on the call and turning to face Chloe who's painting stars on the wall for Molly, "Mason seems to have handled things well today," I tell her while walking in her direction and she stops painting before turning around to face me with a bright smile. A smile, good enough to make me forget the crazy things in our lives.

"Told you, it'll all be fine. They've got a good boss," she says patting my chest, "Who will have to get back to some serious work from tomorrow," I sigh thinking about all the piled up things to do from responding to the emails dad forwarded to me.

"You'll do fine and I'm here if you need any help at all," with a smile, I caress her cheek with my left hand and she kisses it, "Just don't stay alone even if I'm at work and you have to run the studio alone if Dan's busy. I could just make arrangements for you to work in my office if necessary and before you complain, this is only until that asshole is relocated somewhere else,"

"Geez, stop worrying so much," she shakes her head, making me sigh before lifting her chin to face me, "Just say yes, Sugar,"

"Okay, yes. I'll come over if I'm working alone at the studio," with that, I pull her into a quick kiss smiling, "Come on now, help me with these stars," she nudges me with a grin and I follow her before grabbing a paintbrush along with a star stencil that my best friend made cause I suck at painting.

Snowy nudges my leg making me grin before grabbing another cookie and giving it to him, "You're spoiling him with desserts," Chloe says with an amused laugh before turning back to complete the last few stars left to paint. She just does it without my help, she's amazing.

The loud ding of the oven gets my attention, "I'll just check on the food," I tell her before walking out of the room while Snowy circles Chloe making her laugh. A smile dances on my face at her laugh while I head to the kitchen in a few long strides before heading directly to sink to wash my hands.

Quickly washing off my hands, I pat them dry with a hand towel before putting on a mitten and opening the oven. The smell of cheese hits me as I look at the now done mac and cheese bake. What's better than mac and cheese? Almost nothing.

"Chloe, dinner's ready," I call out to her who I know is starving right now after all the cleaning we did and now the painting. She's just really excited about Molly and I can't deny the fact that the excitement is contagious. Putting the dish on the counter, I take off the mitten before grabbing two plates and spoons.

"That smells amazing!" Chloe squeals walking into the kitchen with a grin before washing her hands with Snowy, of course, tailing her around, "Want some soda?" she asks me opening the fridge and I nod while serving the food onto our plates.

"Sugar, that's hot!" I frown in horror as she takes a bite of the mac and cheese before waving a hand in front of her mouth. Rolling my eyes, I quickly walk over to the fridge and grab the pint of vanilla ice cream before scooping up some, "Have this,"

She quickly takes it into her mouth before sighing, "Why the hell would do that? I just took it out of the oven remember?" I shake my head before returning the ice cream to the freezer and heading to the sink to drop the spoon for a wash.

"Ugh! Now I can't even taste anything properly!" she whines with a pout, "You always eat stuff without paying heed to how hot they are and there you go, you did it again,"

I shrug making her roll her eyes before grabbing her plate and swaying her way into the living room making me smile. Refilling Snowy's food bowl, I get back to the freezer, grab the pint of ice cream once again, and fill a bowl with it before returning it to the freezer. I grab my serving of mac & cheese along with the can of soda and the bowl of ice cream before heading back to the living room where Chloe is looking for things to watch.

"Have the ice cream first, Sugar. It'll help," I say sitting down next to her before she takes the bowl of ice cream with a grin, "You're the best!" she kisses my cheek making me let out a small laugh.

I scroll through the movies and roll my eyes realizing that we watched almost every good movie there is, "Shazam!" with Chloe's squeal I just select the movie and get to my serving of mac & cheese.

She snuggles close to me making me smile before wrapping my left arm around her shoulders while eating. This is one of those simple nights where we didn't have to say anything to make it work, the silence is still amazing as long as I've got her next to me.

Just about ten days ago when we left Molly with her first foster family, we decided that we'll take things slowly but life isn't letting us do that. Again, I've got no complaints because it's only good things, and sharing it with my best friend makes it feel, just right.

"You think a lot," Chloe's voice interrupts my chain of thoughts while placing the empty bowl on the coffee table, "Come here," I ask her with a smile just by looking at her face, "There's ice cream here,"

I say licking it off the corner of her lips before pecking her lips, "Always looking for a chance to tease me," she huffs, biting down a smile, "Just like you do too,"

My phone buzzes breaking our moment and I quickly grab it to check the message;

From Mr. Williams –

Mr. Russell,

I'm sorry for this but it seems like the adoption process is going get delayed by a week or two. Just giving you guys a heads up, it is not confirmed but there seem to be certain loopholes in the background check which can be looked upon with the help of your lawyer. Giving you an insight on things, we're already working on it so you needn't worry about not adopting Molly, and please do call me tomorrow so that we can discuss things.

"You're not going to like this," I sigh disheartened once I read the message twice before showing it to Chloe. Just when we were preparing for things to take a turn for the best, this had to happen.

~•~•~•