Baby Love

Chapter 18

Word Count: 2289

Taylor's POV

Today was a good day. I took Averie to school after waking her up with some chocolate milk in her new cup. She ended up in Joe's bed last night which reminded me that I still need to ask about why she has such bad nightmares. According to the trash can, it was bad enough that she peed the bed. I wasn't snooping, that'd be super creepy. I just noticed it as I was tossing a tissue earlier.

For dinner, we had leftover Thai which was again delicious. Dinner was a lot more lively since Averie wasn't half asleep this time. She talked and talked and asked a million questions. Apparently today they learned about zoo animals, which meant she wanted to know how much we knew about zoo animals.

I helped Joe tuck her to bed before giving them some time alone with each other. Stories seem to be the way to this girl's heart. She loves a good book.

When Joe came out and joined me in the living room, I took the moment to ask. "Hey, I don't want to overstep my boundaries here but I was wondering if you would be able to tell me why Averie is such an anxious sleeper?"

"Oh," he breathes out as he sits next to me.

"I'm sorry, I don't mean to pry but I'm also worried I may trigger her inadvertently," I apologize quickly, cautious of my place in their lives.

"It's okay, I'll tell you the story. It's just a lot," he warns me.

"Oh okay," I hum in appreciation as I intertwine my hand in his. I want him to know that I'm here for him, because if it's as traumatic as I've dreamt up then they both are still healing.

"Well, she's never been a great sleeper to start. But last year is when the real nightmares started. It was the end of April and right after we celebrated her third birthday, I jetted off to America for work. I was supposed to be gone for about six weeks. I didn't know anything was wrong until the day after, the 30th. My mom called me and told me that Averie had been found. I guess she must've assumed that my brothers or Dad told me. I wasn't able to physically be there which was extremely hard. I remember being on the phone with her one night and she was crying, begging me to come home, but I couldn't. I was heartbroken and the only thing I could do was call her through the phone. I pleaded with my management team but they couldn't help me. I had no control over my schedule which was bound by contracts and as a small actor, I couldn't easily speak up without the fear of never being hired again.

No one seems to know the whole story because Averie refused to talk for about two months after the accident. She still won't talk about it now, unless she's really upset after a nightmare or something. Once Nugget's birth mom was no longer living with me and we had gotten our lives somewhat together, I began dating again and I never hid that from Averie. Most of the time I waited a few months before I introduced them to Nugget but Julie was different. Julie or JJ as Nugget calls her was a close friend of mine before getting together which meant that Averie already knew her. She loved JJ like a lot, a lot. My mom thinks it has to do with her rocky relationship with her mom, Clara. We only dated for three months but Averie was very attached.

So when we broke up about a month before her third birthday, she was absolutely devastated. She would cry and cry until I called Julie. I felt terrible for Averie but I broke up with Julie because she kept accusing me of cheating on her when she was sleeping with one of our mutual university friends behind my back. A condition of our breakup started to include special Julie and Nugget days, where Julie would take Averie for a sleepover every so often. So I was out of town and Julie had arranged a sleepover with Averie on the twenty-eighth.

With the five-hour time change between here and New York, I wasn't too concerned when I didn't get a call at her bedtime. I figured that they were out and she fell asleep early. It wasn't too out of the ordinary for us to miss a call or two, so I didn't assume anything was wrong.