Chapter 27

Hola ladies! I love my weekend job so much because it allows me to hide behind a computer and write all day :D I personally love this chapter because it deals with the Talbots and hopefully you guys will too.

Also, I started a new story so check it out! I'm going to have a chapter up today. It's called "The Dumbing Down of Love."

Max's POV:

I woke up around dawn and after trying to move around, which was damn difficult in my old bed, I slid out of Lizzy's reach and crept downstairs to get some coffee.

"Bonjour, Ma." I noticed she was already up making breakfast for everyone and listening to the news on the old radio in the corner. She smiled patting my cheek before pointing to the brewing coffee pot on the counter. We sat in silence and I watched her making crepe batter before finally speaking up about what was on my mind.

"So what do you think of her?" I asked wanting to be absolutely sure that they were as crazy about her as I was.

She turned looking at me like she used to when I said or did something stupid. "Maxime, you love her so we love her" she said smiling.

"That simple, huh?" I wondered if I was really that obvious in my feelings for her. Probably.

"I've never seen a woman hold your attention like this and she's good for you. I can see that" she began to neatly ladle the crepe batter out into the pan to cook. "She's very strong" she said still concentrating on the crepes and I wondered if that was a loaded comment or just a statement.

I nodded not saying much because it was true- it didn't need confirmation. "I asked her to move in with me" I told her wanting to see if she had a reaction. She looked up sharply in surprise.
"Move in with you?" I nodded not sure if this was a good reaction or a bad one.

"Oh Maxime, you really are serious aren't you?" she breathed out knowing that this was a big step for me- one that I had never taken considering it was so permanent.

"Do you want to marry her?" I froze not knowing what to say. Marriage? I had never seen myself as married and though my brothers had settled down with wives, I had always known that I probably wouldn't take that step with anyone like they had. I was saved from having to give an answer when Lizzy shuffled into the kitchen.

"Morning" she said to both of us leaning down to give me a kiss on the cheek on her way to the coffee pot. She had a one track mind in the morning when it came to coffee and I knew better than to stand in her way.

"Did you sleep well?" My mom had chosen to brush over our conversation and act casual. I knew the conversation probably wasn't over but maybe I could avoid it for the rest of the weekend until I had some more time to think about it. It wasn't something that we should even be thinking about yet, right? It was always baby steps with her anyway so she probably wouldn't even be thinking about marriage right now. I was positive that if I even mentioned it to her she would freak out for taking things too far. Our relationship was going well as it is, why would we complicate things with marriage when over half of them failed anyway?

Eliza's POV:

Max was distracted when I came down in the morning and looked like he was worried about something. He didn't give me the same greeting he usually did in the morning and I wondered if it had to do with a conversation he and his Mom had obviously been having when I walked into the room. I didn't hear anything that they had been saying but I knew that it was probably about me seeing that conversation stopped completely whenever I entered the kitchen.

The morning passed quickly with more bonding time with his parents and different family members popping up periodically throughout the day. I knew that my family was big compared to most people's but his rivaled mine and I found it amusing that they all came over with random excuses to pop in and check me out while trying to be subtle about it. Earlier, Lucy had warned me that they might come over but as the afternoon wore on and more and more people came over under the pretense of 'being in the neighborhood' or 'just dropping off a ham,' it was clear what was going on- they were trying to come over without making me nervous and I found it cute that they were all so concerned about the woman Max was dating. I also got to meet Will and Frank's wives Laura and Casey and liked them both immediately. Frank's wife Casey was expecting and clearly enjoying every minute of it while Frank constantly worried about her.

"I'm only 6 weeks pregnant and he's acting like I'm going to fall over if I don't sit all of the time. The other day he wouldn't even let me carry a glass of water into the living room" she joked watching him in amusement. It was hilarious to see one of the Talbot brothers acting like such a worried Dad already.

"He's probably more worried than you are" I murmured back watching the guys play frisbee in the yard. The three of them were locked into an intense game with a bunch of other cousins joining in. I lost track of who everyone was after the 2nd ham that was dropped off because they were just 'in the neighborhood.'
Out of everyone, Casey and I had clicked immediately not only because we were both lawyers, but because of her dry sense of humor. Laura was sweet but definitely more reserved than Casey and was busy in the kitchen with Lucy. Lucy had shooed me out after my third attempt to help make something and Casey and I had been sitting on the porch ever since getting to know each other.

"Oh! It kicked!" she said excitedly grabbing my hand and pushing it to her belly. I felt the fluttering inside and was amazed that it was already moving around in there. She yelled to Frank to come over and feel it and both of them grinned at each other obviously so excited.

"Is the next Talbot man moving in there?" Max had joined us and was moving his hand around Casey's belly trying to feel it too.

"What makes you so sure it's a boy?" Casey had told me that she wanted a boy because there was already too much testosterone in the family and secretly I agreed. It would be cuter to see the guys cooing over a girl anyway. Who knows what they would teach a boy anyway. They left again and Casey settled back rubbing over her slightly swollen stomach in circular motions.

"So how are things with Max going? You have no idea how surprised we were to hear that he had found a good girl for once and that he was that serious" she said grinning. She wasn't the first person to tell me that today and I was beginning to wonder just how extensive his bad boy past had been.

"You mean you haven't googled him?" she said practically gawking at me. I shook my head remembering that I had looked him up once out of curiosity when I first started working for the Pens and he was still just a huge pain in the ass, but hadn't searched extensively. Mostly there were just pictures of him scoring in the Stanley Cup finals last year when they won the cup and I had lost interest.

"Oh girl. You have to see. Hey Laura! I need to borrow your laptop" she called into the house leaving me alone on the porch. "Aren't you coming?" Casey asked popping her head back outside and looking at me expectantly. I wasn't sure I wanted to see this but followed anyway as the laptop was set up in the kitchen. Even Lucy and a few of Max's Aunts stood around laughing about his torrid past. If they could laugh at it, it couldn't be that bad, right?

"Okay, now this one is a winner" Casey declared pulling up a picture of Max in a bar with his shirt hanging open. (note: I still cackle at this picture even though it's old.) She pulled up various other photos and articles about his party boy ways while the older women tutted and tried not to laugh at my obviously shocked expression. I knew he was bad but did there really need to be so much photographic evidence on the internet? Not to mention his various flings with playboy bunnies were also out there for anyone to see. How had I been in the dark about this?

"I feel like an idiot" I said feeling slightly sick as I stared at a picture of his tongue down another girl's throat.

"Don't worry about it too much" Laura spoke up swatting Casey's hand away and exiting the web page. "He was just going through a stage. You know he's not exactly shy" she said closing the laptop and patting me on the back in support.

"Who's not shy?" Max asked coming over to where we were all huddled at the kitchen table. Everyone else scattered immediately looking casual and pretending like they hadn't just exposed his previously very active love life.

"You, lover boy. Did you know that Eliza has never google searched you?" Casey said with a wicked smirk on her face.

"Caaase!" he whined looking between her and the computer sitting innocently on the table. "Why would you show her that?" He turned to me pleadingly and grabbed my hands pulling me to him muttering something in french to Casey who kept smiling at him innocently.

"You know that I was young and stupid right?" he kissed one of my hands trying to charm me.

I rolled my eyes at him. "You do know that some of those photos are from last summer, right? Playboy bunnies Max? Really?" Truthfully I wasn't that angry about it because it was kind of funny but I wasn't going to let him get off that easy.

"Maxime, you should know better than to behave that way while cameras are around" Lucy spoke up winking at me from behind Max. He was being ganged up on and didn't even realize that we were partly kidding.

He looked more apologetic and embarrassed than I had ever seen him and I was enjoying his discomfort way too much to let the subject go. The only thing that bothered me was that he had stopped partying a lot since he met me and what if that bored him? What if I bored him just because I didn't like to go clubbing all that much and I sure as hell wasn't a playboy bunny. Which girl was his type? The homebody lawyer or the party girl?

Max's POV:

I could tell that she was trying not to let it show that it bothered her but the more my family joked about it, the more uncomfortable she looked discussing my dating history. Clearly we needed to talk.

"Okay ladies, thanks for helping my case" I said mainly giving Casey a look. She was supposed to be on my side! "Wanna go for a walk?" I asked grabbing her hand and pulling her away from the kitchen and their bad influence. I helped her back into her coat and tossed her a scarf from the coat rack. We began to walk around the neighborhood in silence while I tried to detect if she was actually upset or not. Or worse, angry.

"Are you okay?" I asked tightening my hold on her hand. "I know my track record with women isn't exactly great but I don't want you to worry about what they showed you."

She smiled sliding her arm around my waist and cuddling up to me as we passed a playground. "I'm not mad, I promise. I can't be mad about something you did before you met me." She was telling the truth but still looked bothered by something that she obviously didn't want to admit.

"Am I boring compared to those other girls?" she asked completely throwing me off guard. What?

"What are you talking about? Is this about those girls?" How could she possibly think that she was boring, she was a handful but definitely a lot better than those girls who hardly had anything going on between their eyes.

She pulled us to a stop and stood in front of me. "Well you obviously like to party and now that we're dating, you've stopped doing that almost completely. I just don't want to be someone that holds you back from what you want to do." I hated when she acted insecure like this when it came to our relationship. Hadn't I proved myself time and again that I was really serious about her and meant it when I said 'I love you'? I was starting to wonder where all of this insecurity about love and acceptance was actually coming from. I was going to have to start brow beating the concept into her head if I wanted to get anywhere.

"You're the least boring person I have ever known" I said kissing her forehead. "Don't think about those girls, okay? Before you I didn't have anyone to come home to and it was just easier to have meaningless hookups to distract myself after stressful games. No one else means what you do to me."

A smile bloomed on her face and she leaned up to give me a kiss on the lips. "So can we please talk about the ugly clothing choices you used to make? And the fact that you never seem to have a shirt on in those pictures despite all of the clothes you own?" she joked giving me one last peck.

"Hey! those were fashionable choices at the time!" I defended my sweaters and would stand behind them. She rolled her eyes and sarcastically agreed earning a slap on her butt.

"Yeah right. You have more clothes than me and I don't know how we're going to share a closet eventually."

"We'll make it work somehow" I promised kissing her nose.

"So do you like my family?" I asked while we began to walk back to the house. I didn't know why I was still so nervous when she fit in with my family surprisingly well.

"Yeah, they're great. Not very subtle, but everyone's super friendly. I'm having fun, I promise" she joked picking up on the fact that I was worried.

We walked back into the warm house where she was immediately distracted by my brothers and a few of my cousins to settle an argument.

"Lizzy! Come here! We need you to settle an argument" Will called out using her nickname. I watched as she was pulled onto the already crowded couch between the guys as she laughed and joked with them.

Seriously, how did I get to be so lucky? My Mom called me into the kitchen to help with something and I left her thinking that she would be okay with the guys who obviously adored her.

A few hours later I wasn't feeling the same way anymore. After dinner they had coaxed her into playing a game of poker with them- a game she turned out to be very good at. Combined with a few shots, she was dominating the game and kicking their asses. How did they convince her to drink with them?

"Why do you look so grumpy all of the sudden? Upset because she's ignoring you for the other men in the family?" Casey and Laura had been pumping me for over an hour with more questions about Lizzy and now thought it was hilarious that she was currently taking their husbands and cousins for all of the cash they had in their wallets.

I watched her with her legs tucked up under her and her hair pulled into a messy ponytail while she concentrated on the hand in front of her and took another sip of the drink my Dad had steadily been supplying for the past hour. Our small kitchen was packed with people with the poker game going on in the dining room and more people eating leftovers and doing dishes by the sink.

"I won!" she yelled throwing her hands up in victory while the guys groaned. My Dad walked over and whispered something in her ear making her laugh while he topped off her drink again. She was the most beautiful I had ever seen her and I was happy just to sit back and watch her.

"Uh oh, did I just hear Will say strip poker?" Casey asked looking to Laura.

"Oh god. That's his favorite when he's drinking" Laura groaned getting up to chastise Will who frowned but listened to his wife.

I laughed at the pussy my married brother had become, happy that I wasn't that whipped.

"Eliza's game!" one of my cousins yelled looking at her like she had just made him a King.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Eliza is not game" I got up deciding to intervene before anyone saw more of her than they should. All they needed to see were turtlenecks and frumpy jeans as far as I was concerned.

"Max! Look, I won money!" she said happily showing off the pile in front of her. She looked half drunk and her lipstick was slightly smeared making me wonder just how many kisses she had received tonight.

"Okay guys, I think she's done now" I said trying to pull her up out of her chair.

"No, I'm on a hot streak" she said wiggling her hips excitedly and pushing my hands away from her. I solved the problem by throwing her over my shoulder and making my way out of the kitchen while she protested from her position upside down.

"Maxime, put her down" one of my Aunts commanded from the kitchen where she was loading the stuffed dishwasher.

"We have an early flight" was all that I said trying not to smile as she waved enthusiastically to everyone in the kitchen as I carried her out. Everyone was starting to pack up and get ready to leave anyway so I didn't feel that bad going upstairs.

"That was the rudest thing you have done in a long time" she hiccupped after every other word and I laughed obviously not taking her seriously.

"You're so drunk" I smiled helping her pull her tank top over her head. This reminded me vaguely of one of the first times we had hung out and she had had a little too much to drink at the club.

"No I'm not!" she protested stripping out of her jeans and bra. I tried to focus on what she was saying and not what she was doing but it wasn't working very well. Only alcohol could make her this oblivious to her naked form and I wasn't going to protest but I did need to get her into bed. Damn early flight.


"Come to bed with me" she said winding her arms around my neck and pressing herself flush up against my chest. She was a little drunk and I knew that this was the only reason she was so unaware of what she was doing but my body didn't seem to be following the same logic as my head.

"Here, why don't you put something on. You hate sleeping naked." I tried to get her to put on her flannel sleep top and she finally took it from me and slipped it over her head. Once I was settled in beside her with an alarm set on my phone, I relaxed pulling her against me into our normal sleeping position.

"I had fun" she told me again resting her head on my shoulder. We laid in silence and I was starting to hear her breath even out in sleep.

"We're gonna figure out the whole moving in together thing tomorrow right?" I asked taking advantage of the fact that she was already half asleep. Hey, this tactic had worked once before and it wasn't going to fail me now. This weekend had been better than I had imagined but that didn't mean that we didn't have a lot to figure out in regards to living together. I knew that she was going to put up a fight about some things but the more cooperative she was ahead of time, the better. She hiccupped again and mumbled something into my t-shirt which I took as a 'yes.'

She trusted me now but did she trust me enough to take care of her and understand that I still respected her ability to make her own living?

Eventually I fell asleep feeling secure that everything would work itself out in the end.