Chapter 39

Thank you to everyone who reads and reviews this so frequently. You guys are amazing and I like to remind you of this frequently. So for you guys, a long chapter tonight.

Max's POV:

We finished up our breakfasts and walked back out to the car so that we could finally go home after this crazy day. Her hand was still gripping mine as if she was afraid I was going to run away or something once the knowledge that we were having a baby dawned on me. I knew that was bugging her, the fact that we were only dating and that there was no concrete agreement between us. However, not once had marriage come up between us before this morning or at all during breakfast.

I didn't actually know what to do about this either. Did I propose now that things had sped up between us? Having a baby meant that we were forever going to be bonded over the life of our child and each other and I couldn't imagine my life without her. But did that mean that the next step was marriage? Besides my idiotic driving incident, things were perfect between us. A baby was a big step for us in a permanent direction- which was great. So did we really need to complicate everything with marriage? Why mess with what was already so perfect between us. I loved her and didn't want anyone else. I couldn't love anyone else the way I loved her. She drove me insane sometimes and I still wanted to be near her all of the time. If that wasn't the kind of love my parents had, then I wasn't ever going to understand love.

It wasn't that I didn't want the baby either. I had gotten chills when it finally dawned on me in that hospital room that a baby was growing in her beautiful body. Our baby was growing in there. It was amazing and I was torn between feeling vaguely terrified and absolutely thrilled that we had created this together just from the simple act of loving each other.

"Are you okay? I've been asking you the same question for five minutes."

I looked over from where I had been concentrating on the road and spacing out at the same time. Her hair had gotten longer lately and was whipping in the wind as we drove down the highway.

"Yeah, I'm just thinking about the little guy in there. Are you okay?" This is what we had been asking each other for the past two hours. Are you okay? No, are you okay? It kept going back and forth between us until we were both completely sure that we were both okay with what was happening to us.

"Max" she said running her hand up the skin of my neck and into the hair on my nape, "I love you." She stated this so clearly and with a smile on her face that I wanted to pull over and show her how much I loved her back in the backseat of the car.

"We have a lot to figure out, but we'll be fine. This little Smith-Talbot will be fine." I smiled at the fact that she had given the baby both of our last names. She was such a feminist about things that it figured she would do that.

"Let's sit down and talk at home. Okay?"

She squeezed my hand in response and continued to look at the scenery flying past us.

Eliza's POV:

I felt foolishly in love on the way home sitting next to him in his car with the air pushing past us. Sure, we were unmarried, had only been dating for a few months and had no clue what we were doing, and yet there I was. Completely in love and wildly besotted with the messy, complicated, perfect man next to me. And now a product of that love was sitting in my stomach developing into what would in 9 months be our child.

"I'm gonna run up and shower really quick, okay?" I needed to wash my face because I still felt grimy from sitting in the hospital. He nodded and settled down in front of the TV to hang out while he waited. In the car, we had agreed to talk and try to figure out what exactly we were going to do. More importantly, we needed to talk about what we were going to tell people. I could see his parents being ecstatic and not minding in the least that we had only been dating for a few months. My Mom on the other hand would not be pleased, neither would the rest of my family. A few years ago one of my cousins had gotten pregnant from a guy she was dating and had wound up having the baby all by herself because the guy (who was a scumbag) couldn't handle the pressure. Her story had become a story of caution for the rest of the girls in the family and while my cousin was doing great on her own, it was still a bit of a stigma in a Catholic family such as mine. Would my situation be different from hers because Max and I were living together, had said the 'l' word multiple times?

I pulled on a pair of my stretchy yoga pants and the pink Talbot t-shirt that Max had bought me so many months ago. He had told me once that he thought it was sexy when he saw his name on me and right now, considering I had just found out that I was pregnant, I really needed to feel sexy.

"Okay" I said plopping down to sit on his lap on the couch. "I'm ready to talk."

"Well as far as telling people, I'm leaving that up to you. You won't start to show for another month or so but eventually, it's going to be pretty obvious." He pulled me closer to him and I tucked my head under the crook of his chin while he rubbed my back.

"Well," I said pausing to think about this. Did I want people to know? Would it affect me professionally? How will his fans feel? "I think we have to. I mean, it will be obvious soon. And everyone knows we've been dating for awhile anyway."

He nodded and seemed okay with this. "Will this affect your career negatively?" I was pretty sure my job was secure. Hell, I had bailed some of the guys out of stupid situations and could tell that I was respected within the legal department.

"It shouldn't. It might break a few ladies' hearts in Pittsburgh but other than that, it's not like you're a random one night stand or something so there's no possible way that the media can spin this negatively." I nodded pressing a kiss to the underside of his chin and feeling relieved. He had worked hard for the success he had achieved in the NHL and I couldn't let our relationship affect that- he deserved better than that. Besides, this was a baby, not the end of the world.

"My parents are gonna flip" he said grinning all of the sudden. "You know my Mom's gonna want to practically live down here just to make sure you're okay." I giggled at the thought of his Mom worrying over me. She was just too sweet.

"Well they have two grandchildren on the way now, that's a pretty big deal. We just have to get your Mom to come around to the idea." I nodded along with him and knew that he was right. She was going to be one of our biggest obstacles.

"Well I'm warning you, she won't like the idea that we're not married." I waited a second to see how he responded to the word 'married' and when he didn't say anything, I let it go and continued. "She does really like you now but she's Catholic. My whole family's Catholic, a baby out of wedlock is practically sacreligious." He still didn't respond to the word 'married' and I internally sighed knowing that we still weren't ready to talk about that. It was something that eventually had to be cleared up.

"It's going to be sort of sad for her and I too. I mean, I never pictured having a baby without my Dad there to be a Grandpa to the kid."

"He would have been proud of you" Max stated wrapping his arms tighter around my waist. His hand slipped under the soft cotton of my tee and began to rub in slow circles over my stomach.


I could remember almost every moment my Dad had told me that he was proud of me over the past few years. Everytime he dropped me off at school, random phone calls and sometimes just after he had hugged me. It meant a lot that Max was the one reminding me now though it was still sad to know that he wouldn't be meeting his grandchild.


"Thanks" was the only thing I could think of to say. I felt like I was on the verge of tears just from the emotional rollercoaster today had been.

"So when do you want to tell everyone?" he asked kissing me on the head.

"Let's wait until this series is over and see what happens. I don't want to screw with your concentration so lets just wait until the off-season. I will only start to show in the beginning of the summer anyway so no one will notice. We can tell our parents though, just as long as they're quiet about it." When I said 'they're' I meant his parents because as much as I liked them, Lucy had a big mouth. Like mother, like son.

"Can we call tonight?" Max asked looking so excited all of the sudden that if I hadn't already fallen in love with him a long time ago, I would have in that moment. I laughed and he practically dumped me off of him to get up and grab his phone. He came back over to the couch and pulled me on top of him once again this time in a laying down position.

He put the phone on speaker so that we could both talk to them and tell them the news.

"Bonjour, Maman" he said sliding easily into french. It was weird sometimes to hear him using his native language just because he never did around me.

"So Lizzy and I have some news for you" he said smiling after switching back into English. I had been pinching his rather gorgeous and toned bicep while he spoke in French to torture me.

"Oh, hi Eliza!" Lucy chirped on the phone, obviously confused by the whole speaker phone thing.

She was waiting for us to tell her the news and I heard Serge enter the kitchen in the background with his heavy footsteps and the opening and closing of the refrigerator door.

Max looked at me silently questioning which one of us was going to spill the beans. I pinched him again and he took the hint.

"What's the news, Maxime?" Lucy asked getting impatient with both of our stalling.

"Mom, Dad, Lizzy's pregnant" Max admitted after he finally spit it out. I realized that he must have been nervous too. I mean, these were his parents afterall.

There was silence on the other end of the line and I was worried that she had stopped breathing.

"Oh!" she said sounding both surprised and confused at the same time. "OH!" she said again sounding more excited. "Did you hear that? Eliza's pregnant!" she said to Max's Dad who I assummed was still hanging out in the background. She repeated this several times until Serge had to step in and calm her down. Max was laughing hysterically beneath me, his chuckles causing both of us to shake on the couch.

"I told you that they would be okay with this" he whispered into my ear.

"So, you're both okay with this?" I still had to question this. I mean, weren't they worried that I could end up being some money stealing whore trying to capture their son with my uterus?

"Of course not honey! We're ecstatic! That's two grandchildren on the way thanks to our beautiful daughters!" Did she just call me one of her daughters? Serge gave his customary chuckle and grunt in the background and I assumed that he agreed with her.

"Mom, you're going to make her cry. It's the hormones" Max said watching me tear up over the fact that she had referred to me as a daughter. I couldn't help it. I was so touched.

Max chatted with them for another moment explaining that it was all a secret and that they couldn't tell anyone until the season was over.

"You okay?" He asked watching me still wipe tears from my salty cheeks.

"Yeah, your Mom is just so sweet. I can't believe she thinks of me as a daughter." They really were the most insane bunch of welcoming people that I knew. It was like anyone could be a part of that family as long as you appreciated the ability of fast-growing facial hair.

"Do you want to call your Mom now too? Get them all over with?" I thought about his question weighing the pros and cons. If I waited to tell her, she might get mad that we had waited so long. Plus, if she found out that we told his parents right away, that would make her mad too. I didn't even get to the pros, the cons had already convinced me that I had to tell her right away.

"I'm going to see if she can go out to dinner tomorrow night. I have to tell her in person."

Max agreed that that was probably the best course of action and we laid there in silence for a few more minutes. I leaned down to meet his lips intending to give him a quick peck before I sat up. Instead he deepened the kiss pulling me down deeper and deeper with him. His hands lightly traced the band of my pants and I gasped giving him the opportunity to caress my tongue with his while he rubbed my already sensitive back. I had melted into one big tingly mess and the feeling of his rough hands along my spine. He was busy pulling my shirt off over my body when I saw the little Penguins logo on the shirt reminding me that he was playing tomorrow. In a playoffs series.

"Max, we can't" I said sounding breathless and desperate for more of his touch. "We can't the night before playoffs." His response to that was to bite down on my lip and press my core more tightly against his midsection. The friction building between us was already out of control and my psychotic hormones were traitorously egging me on to finish what he had started.

"I'm serious" I said gasping when I felt one very wicked finger working its way through the heat of my body.

He wasn't listening and continued to push his way past my defenses and my layers of clothing. I decided that it wasn't fair for me to be the only naked one and helped him pull his shirt off and toss it in the corner. His pants were next leaving him only in his boxers and socks while we made out like teenagers on the couch.

"Don't make me stop now" he groaned urging my body on with his oh-so perfect hands. Seriously, had there ever been more perfect feeling hands before this man? I didn't think so. I also knew that stopping was not an option at this point. It would just be cruel to stop now, and besides, he had probably known that all along.

Later, we laughed like idiots as we ran up the stairs to bed picking up clothing as went along. I pulled on pajamas and crawled into bed to watch TV while he packed his bag. It was still early, only around 5pm, but it was one of those lazy days where laying in bed was exactly the right thing to do.

"I've been wanting to do that all day." He said pulling on clothes of his own.

"I better not have screwed up your energy or something this week" I warned him remembering earlier that I had wanted to stop. I'm glad that we didn't.

He laughed saying that he'd be fine. "If anything, you've probably just helped out the team. After this weekend, it would be hard not to have a great game tomorrow night. Now I'll have two people to win for."

I smiled at his corniness but appreciated what he had said. He had been trying so hard all day to convince me that all of this was a good thing and I couldn't have been any luckier than to have this man here beside me through all of it.

"You're just a sweet-talker" I joked rolling my eyes at him. "But you're my sweet-talker." He grinned wider at this and pulled underwear out from his drawer in the bureau.

God, we were both corny saps. It would probably only get worse but somehow, as I watched him sort through both of our underwear resting in the same drawer, I was okay with that.