Chapter 44

I'm sure that I missed mistakes in here but I'm oddly excited about this chapter and all of the free time I have to write right now. Enjoy! Also, you guys are seriously amazing. Thank you so much for all of the comments I received on my other story. They made my day and I sincerely appreciate the ridiculous amount of support that all of you offer just by reading what I write.

Eliza's POV:

"And so I just bake it like this? Without mixing all of it together?" I stared down at the berry concoction Lucy was showing me how to make. Even my Mom looked puzzled as she observed us from her seat at the kitchen island. I wasn't used to just literally dumping different types of berries, sugar, corn syrup and cream into a casserole dish, putting dough on top of it, baking it and then calling it a torte. But apparently this was a Talbot recipe tradition and one of Max's favorite desserts.

Lucy nodded again and took the liberty of popping the torte into the oven before me or my Mom could question this again. "Just trust me, it'll be a hit with the boys" she said winking at me.

"In the very least, I can walk around with the casserole dish in front of my stomach the whole day" I added. Max and I had agreed that today while everyone was here would be the perfect time to tell everyone that there was a Talbot-Smith bun in the oven. Max had woken up that morning ready to go and up a lot earlier than usual to take all of the guys golfing. He of course had no reservations about telling everyone that we knew that I was pregnant. I on the other hand was internally freaking out.

Weren't pregnant women supposed to glow? Weren't we supposed to feel more beautiful than ever before? I felt nervous and I felt like shit. And today of all days was particularly special in the morning sickness department. Thank god my Mom and Lucy had stepped in to help me finish making all of the picnic food for later this afternoon.

"Honey, you look beautiful. Stop worrying. Just coast through everything on Max's charm. He won't let anything bad happen." I looked over at my Mom in surprise and wanted to pinch myself. Did she really just say something so strongly in support of Max? While I appreciated this, it was one of the first times she had said anything like this and I got tingly all over at the idea of us all getting along perfectly. Especially because family was so important to both of us.

"That black dress hides everything so well hun. No one will know until you tell them" Lucy reassured me. Both her and my Mom looked like bobble heads with their nodding as they tried to make me feel better about everything.

"Why don't you go lay down for awhile actually. The boys will be home soon and then it'll just be crazy. We can finish up here." I decided to take my Mom's suggestion and go lay down for awhile before everyone arrived back at the house. The day was supposed to just be a low-key picnic and I knew that I was stressing over nothing. What I needed to do was lay down for awhile and relax. Hopefully when I woke up I would be ready to go and be over whatever was holding me back.

Max's POV:

When I came home with the guys from golfing, I expected to find Lizzy in the kitchen with my Mom and her Mom prepping food. Instead the kitchen was filled with every woman that I knew except for the one I wanted to see.

"She's upstairs laying down." Casey said joining my side before walking away to yell at my brother about something.

If she was upstairs while everyone was down here, that meant something was wrong. She would never just lay down and leave all of our friends and family alone.

"I'll be right back" I called out to anyone that happened to be listening and took the stairs two at a time to our bedroom. She was curled up on my side of the bed with her back facing me as I entered the room.

"Baby, are you awake?" She stirred against me as I kissed the outside of her ear and settled my arms around her slightly swelled stomach. I couldn't help but nuzzle her neck as she sighed in her sleep and turned towards me burrying her face into my chest.
"Do you feel okay?" I asked knowing that she had been having trouble with morning sickness lately.

I felt her nod against me. "Yeah, I just needed to lay down for awhile" she told me planting a kiss on the base of my neck. "I should get up. I've already been a bad hostess" she told me shifting to sit up.

"It's all family and friends. No one's going to be offended if you had to take a nap" I said smiling at her fussing.

"Do I look okay?" she asked brushing her hair out and pushing the front of it back into a headband. She was wearing a black summer dress and you could barely tell that she even had a baby bump. I couldn't wait until it was bigger and she was waddling because of our baby inside of her.
"You look gorgeous Lizzy. Stop worrying so much." I got up to give her a kiss on the lips and pull her out of the room before she could change her miind.
"Are you sure? I still think I look pale and my hair is kind of frizzing."
"Babe, believe me, you look beautiful. If I could, I would kick everyone out and keep you to myself the whole day."

She laughed and walked down into the kitchen with me only swatting me once when I gave her a teasing pat on the ass. "Not with our mothers here."

She went over to where my Mom was talking to her Aunt and I watched as my brothers greeted her excitedly and wrapped her in bear hugs. She laughed as they both pressed her into a sandwich hug refusing to let her go until my Mom rapped them both on the backs of their heads.

I knew that I was lucky to have found a woman that everyone in my family loved. Hell, they probably liked her more than me sometimes and instead of that making me jealous, I was ecstatic. A year ago this scenario would have seemed impossible to me. Afterall, a year ago I was still that guy who went to clubs and picked up women just for the night. And now here I was, watching both of our families and friends interacting in the house that we shared together while we tried to find a good time to let everyone know that we were expecting a baby too. It was crazy but somehow it worked for us.

Eliza's POV:

The afternoon had been great. Everyone had finished arriving around 4pm and the grill had been going ever since with Max  at the helm loving the fact that he was the self-proclaimed "grill king." Right now I was walking around to see who needed refills on drinks on my way to the kitchen to bring out more pasta salad.

"Do you need any help?" I turned to see Sid standing behind me.

"Could you take that bowl out there?" I asked pointing to the enormous bowl of pasta salad. With the whole team here plus their families plus our family, we had made an incredible amount of food and Max still didn't understand why I hadn't had it catered. He didn't understand, women from my side of the family did not have catering done. We always made our own food. It was weird but after growing up with a lot of relatives around, I was used to making food for huge groups of people- stressful as it was.

"Thanks Sid!" I called out watching him leave the kitchen. He really would be the perfect guy for some girl one day. Not as perfect as Max though. He gave me a wave acknowledging my thanks and walked out onto the deck and in downstairs to the pool area where all of the food was situated.

"Hey babe, can you come outside for a second?" Max asked popping his head into the kitchen. He looked innocent enough but almost too innocent and after close to a year of dating Max, I knew better than to trust most of his innocent faces.
"Why?" I asked pulling out another tray of cheese and vegetables.
"Just trust me" he smiled grabbing the tray out of my hands and guiding me by the small of my back out onto the deck and into the backyard.

We walked down to the pool area where a lot of the player's kids were splashing around in the pool with a few of the guys. Who knew that big "tough guys" like Kris and Geno were so good with kids?

Max set the tray down and grabbed my hand, squeezing it tightly. "Hey everybody, listen up!" Max paused us in front of the pool and I got a very bad feeling about what he was about to do.
"Max, what are you doing?" There was no way he would announce the baby news like this to everyone, right? He continued to speak ignoring my elbow pressing into his side.

"Eliza and I just wanted to thank everyone for coming today and celebrating the season in a positive way. We might not have had the results that we wanted in the end but it means a lot to us to see everyone here today and enjoying the time together before everyone splits for the summer." He paused to look over at me and suddenly I knew. He was going to announce it to everyone and he hadn't prepped me at all for it. Probably knowing that I wouldn't have allowed it. "We also had a different reason for inviting everyone here today." He definitely had everyone's attention now and I felt like I was going to vomit I was so nervous. I didn't even know why I felt so skeptical about telling everyone- I knew they would be happy for us. Maybe it was me holding myself back. "We found out a few weeks ago that there will be a new addition to the Talbot family- Lizzy's pregnant!" After he said it, everyone went silent looking at us in shock and then we were surrounded by people as friends and family congratulated us enthusiastically.
"Don't be mad at me about this" Max leaned down to whisper in my ear before his brothers picked me up again in another bear hug. I wanted to be mad at him for not consulting me first about the best way to break the news to everyone but it was already too late. And I was too terrified to do anything while I was dangling in the air thanks to his brothers.

"Frank, put her down!" Casey said coming over to help me out. "Congrats! Can you believe it, we're pregnant together!" Casey said pulling me into a hug once I was safely on the ground. "I knew something was up just by how tired you seemed."

"How could you not tell us?" Vero asked coming over to hug me next. I did feel bad about keeping it from her and Emma but luckily they didn't seem mad, just ecstatic. "We'll have to plan your baby shower soon. Have you started to buy anything? Do you know if it's a boy or a girl?" Everyone was asking me questions all at the same time that I could barely keep up.

"It's too early to tell but we have an appointment in a couple of weeks and we'll know the sex then" I told her trying to answer everyone's questions and see who was hugging and kissing me in the crowd of people. I could see the guys standing around Max congratulating him. Someone had even broken out cigars and he looked so happy and proud that it was hard for me to be even the least bit mad at him.

Maybe that was why we worked so well together. I worried about things a little too much sometimes and Max was always there to push me and make me take the leaps in life that otherwise, I would just skirt around and ignore. It still bothered me that him and I had yet to talk long term but right now this was a moment that I should enjoy. Everyone that we loved was here and they were all as excited as Max and I about the baby. With such a big support system, it was hard to stay worried for long and I wanted to enjoy the rest of the evening knowing that right now, everything was absolutely perfect.