Baby Love

Chapter 5

Word Count: 1899

Happy April 29th!! 🤍

Taylor's POV

"You were young, I know that. But why did I have to wait to know until she barged into your bedroom?" I speak freely, trying not to get too worked up and scare his daughter. Her face was nuzzle into her stuffed animal and while it wasn't obvious to Joe, I could definitely see her sucking on her thumb. She is definitively Joe's child with the same blue eyes and stubbornness.

"I-I, I'm not sure. I know I should've told you but I feel like every time I tried something else came up so I brushed it aside. I didn't want to add to your stress or sadness," he confesses, making it sound as if it was my fault. What the fuck?

"Are you insinuating that I was too broken to know you had, have a daughter? That it's my fault you didn't tell me?" I get defensive, ready to walk away even know it'll hurt so much more then trying to make this work.

"No, no, no definitely not. I didn't mean that. I just- I spent so many years not telling anyone outside of my family that it became second nature. Averie sometimes feels like a close cousin or niece instead of my own," he tries to sum up but that also sounded bad. He sighs loudly before muttering, "I've always been bad at explaining."

"Joe, I don't want to play games here. I know what I want and I want to work on us so you're gonna need to tell me a bit more."

"Okay, well I should probably start at the beginning....

Averie was born in April of 2013. She was several weeks early, a premie. I could almost hold her with just one hand. It was really hard being twenty two and a new Dad. I definitely didn't expect to be one that early.

Wow we were completely different people at twenty two. Children were no where in my thoughts while Averie was all he thought about.

Her mom, Clara, and I met at university. We were never really together but after closing down the bars one night together things got a little heated. Clara was an orphan, no family in sight but her chosen one. If she did have any legal or biological family, no one knew. When she told me that she was pregnant, I told her that I'd support whatever she wanted.

She decided to keep Averie and she seemed so excited to meet her and have someone share her blood. We never got together or dated despite pressure from onlookers, I knew that we were better as friends.

When Averie was born early something changed, Clara was distant and seemed to strongly dislike and resent Averie. She'd often refuse to pick up Averie when she cried or help out with anything. I don't know if it was the money or stress of being a new parent so young but Clara wasn't herself anymore.

We were co-parents, not a couple but I still let her move in with me. I wanted to help and be there but Clara always made things so difficult.

It wasn't ideal and the thing that bothered me the most was that Averie would calm down in seconds if Clara tried. Me on the other hand she'd cry and cry for hours on end. I could do everything in the book and she'd still cry but if Clara held her, she'd calm instantly.

Clara returned to work early when Averie was about six months so Averie attended a mix of day care and my mom helped out a couple days a week. Clara moved out not too long afterwards so we split up the weeks to continue coparenting.

For a while it worked, Clara got better and seemed to take more joy in having Averie around. It wasn't until Averie was about two years old that the incident happened.

"Daddy?" Averie interrupted as she pulled off her headphones.

"Yeah, nugget?" Joe speaks so softly, it's a different tone then I've ever heard him use even with Averie.