Raised by Barakat

“You have the cutest cheeks ever.” Casey cooed over Marley when she had come over.

Casey was in the middle of planning a party that could possibly make her career. A few months before Marley was born she had taken everybody’s advice and started her own party planning business and she had loved every moment of it.

“How did she get suck cute cheeks? You didn’t have cheeks like that.”

“Neither did Jack.” I shrugged taking a bite of my granola bar as I remembered Jack’s old baby pictures. “It’s a recessive gene I guess.” I shrugged.

“Most likely.” She shrugged putting Marley back in her swing.

“So what’s going on between you and Troy?” I asked referring to her current boyfriend.

“We broke up.” She said in a somewhat bitter tone.

“What? Why? He was a good guy.” I said kind of disappointed because it was true.

“He was gay.” She said casually as if there was no problem.

“Oh.” I nodded

Casey start to snicker. “You didn’t see it? Wow, you used to be the one who could pick that up quicker than me.” She said starting to laugh.

“I’m sorry my gaydar has been replaced with a baby monitor.”

“To be honest it’s still hard to believe you and Jack have a baby.” She shrugged.

“You say it like it’s a bad thing.” I laughed.

“It’s not but I mean come on it’s Jack Barakat. You know the lead guitarist of All Time Low. You know the band that takes nothing, not even themselves, seriously? It’s a wee bit contradicting Hun.” She said.

Sure everybody had to question that Jack really did have a daughter but to me I didn’t see it as that much of a problem. He could take things seriously when he had to.

“Eh, I don’t see it.” I shrugged.

~#~

I lay in bed asleep next to Jack with his arm around me and of course, Marley’s crib right next to me. I didn’t want to leave her in the nursery by herself so I had the crib right next to our bed. I rolled over to face Jack and to get even more comfortable but as I did I heard a small sob that soon crescendoed into small cries.

Jack and I groaned at the same time. “Your turn.” He muttered.

I looked over Jack, at the alarm clock which showed it was 2 in the morning. I sighed and lifted his arm off of me and got out of the bed to go over to the crib.

“Your pacifier just fell out.” I said sleepy but still laughing a little over how dramatic she was being.

I put the pacifier in her mouth but she spit it out and kept crying softly. I knew that her crying would get worse so I picked her up and we went into the kitchen.

I grabbed a bottle out of the refrigerator and put it in the bottle warmer while I sat and still attempting to rock her to back sleep. The most noise she made was small sobs still wanting her bottle.

I closed my eyes for a second and as I did I felt Jack take Marley. “Go get some sleep.” He urged.

“Are you sure?”

He laughed a little and gave me a kiss. “I’ve got her, and you look beyond tired, I also don’t want you to get sick.” He said knowing that if I didn’t get enough sleep I would get sick.

“Thank you.” I said getting up.

“Go to sleep.” He laughed.

Even though we had Marley, things still hadn’t changed as much as you think they would. I had actually thought that we had gotten closer, which didn’t seem possible to me.

And despite everybody’s thoughts, He was very serious about this.