"Well... I know you only smoke when you're stressed or drunk. So, how much have you had to drink?"
"Just a shot."
I wasn't expecting that; on the night before his wedding, Jared would be the guy taking a party bus to a strip club.
Whatever was stressing him out had to do with tomorrow-- the wedding.
I felt my smile slip and I tried to play it off as I nodded at him, a fake smirk pulling at my lips.
"So, what's the matter, then? Don't tell me Lori gave you a job to do for tomorrow that you somehow managed to screw up. You know her type-A head would fucking explode."
What I was hoping would come out sounding playful only sounded bitter but what surprised me was the genuine chuckle that emanated from deep in Jared's gut.
He tilted his head back and laughed, and for a moment, whatever seemed to be bothering him suddenly wasn't on his mind.
"Nah, I've barely been involved with this whole thing. I just know where I'm supposed to be and what time I need to be there."
His reaction was weird; I was expecting him to be excited about the whole thing, but the Jared in front of me seemed to just be going through the motions.
He shifted under my glance nervously for a second before quickly changing the subject.
"Kenna's all good to go for the weekend?"
I nodded and took a deep breath, trying not to think about how much I'd miss my baby girl this weekend.
"Yeah, your parents came to pick her up earlier. She's excited about getting glammed up tomorrow."
A warm smile was on Jared's face and it almost looked like he was in a daze as he stared at me, shaking his head.
"Little diva, just like Mamas."
My breath hitched in my throat and I felt every nerve in my body begin to tingle.
I hadn't heard that name in years and hearing it again after all this time made it feel like my heart was gonna drop outta my ass.
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I opened my eyes and it was still dark out, so I figured it was still pretty early in the morning. As I turned over in bed, I sat up a bit, noticing McKenna wasn't in her crib that was attached to my bed.
I rolled out the other side, hissing a bit from the soreness of childbirth. McKenna was nine days old, but for a new mom, those days were seeming to blur together.
Between the midnight feedings, the two AM feedings, and the four AM feedings, I felt like a milk machine solely here for McKenna's needs.
I didn't care, though; I loved being a mom.
I never thought it would happen this soon, but now that she was here, there was nothing in the world that could compare to the feeling of being that perfect little girl's mom.
After slipping on one of Jared's hoodies, I left my room and headed for the kitchen, stopping when I saw Jared rocking McKenna against his chest.
He was swaying in the dark, rocking her from side to side, and as I heard her tiny cries beginning to simmer, the lyrics Jared was singing finally registered in my head.
"Pretty girl, go to sleep... It's time to go night-night. Please, please don't wake Mommy... And please, please, please don't cry."
Even delirious from a total lack of sleep, he was still the only guy to get my heart to thump the way it did.
"Hey."
My voice was soft as I whispered in the middle of my parents' kitchen, careful not to disturb a finally calm McKenna.
Jared turned and looked at me with a sleepy look on his smiling face. His freshly cut hair, still sticking up in every direction, was a sign of barely any sleep.
"Hi, Mamas. Go back to sleep, babe. I got her."
I smiled sleepily as I shook my head and held my arms out, ready to receive the baby.
"Babe, lemme take her. You have class in..."
I looked over to the clock on the microwave and sighed, not sure if it was too early or too late at this point.
"...less than four hours. I'm taking a semester off to take care of her, remember?"
"But you looked so cute and I didn't wanna wake you up, Mamas."
I bit my lip before standing on the tips of my toes, placing a kiss on Jared's lips.
"You're adorable, babe, but you need to go to sleep."
Jared yawned and smiled a little as I leaned in to kiss McKenna's forehead. She gurgled and shifted a little when her dad handed her over and as Jared dragged his body back to my room, I set McKenna in her countertop baby seat.
After heating up a bottle of breastmilk from the fridge, I began feeding her and after a minute or so, I heard shuffling from someone coming up the hallway.
"Morning, honey."
"Morning, Mom."
Coming around the corner, already dressed in her nurse scrubs, my mom quickly directed her attention to McKenna.
"And how's my grandbaby? You keeping your mom and dad up? Showing them why they should've been using condoms?"
I rolled my eyes and exhaled through my nose, knowing my mom's jabs weren't meant to be vicious; she had me at eighteen and never wanted me to struggle like she did.
After grabbing a breakfast bar from the pantry, she moved over to the fridge to grab a bottle of juice.
"Did Jared stay the night?"
I nodded before setting McKenna's bottle down, unbuckling from her seat so I could pick her up and burp her.
"Yeah, he just went back to sleep; guess he woke up with Kenna earlier."
My mom nodded her head, smiling as she glanced at McKenna on my shoulder.
"Alright, well, I'll be working a double tonight, but if you need anything--"
