After a good few hours asleep on Max's lap Grace had eventually woken up and gone to put Brinley to bed. It was already hours past her usual bedtime and if it got much later then they would have a grumpy girl to deal with in the morning.
After settling Brinley down, Grace had made her way to Max's room and immediately laid back on his bed, while staring blankly at the ceiling. There was so much running through her mind right now and she didn't know how to deal with any of it. She knew that she needed to talk to Max but she was too scared to do it. She didn't know how he was going to react and with things going so well at the moment, Grace wasn't prepared to ruin that.
'You need to tell him Grace. This is his problem too, not just yours' was the message Grace had received from Francesca in their group chat. Her two best friends had been the support Grace had needed and also the encouragement to convince her to finally have that important conversation with Max.
Grace: I will, I will. I am going to do it now.
Lila: Good luck! xx
Throwing her phone down on the bed beside her, Grace then slowly began to sit up before placing her focus on the door. She counted to three in her head so many times before finally taking the lunge and shouting out for Max.
"Max!" She called and there was silence for a few moments before he responded.
"Yeah?"
"Can you come here for a minute?"
There was no response but Grace's heart began to beat so fast when she heard his footsteps getting closer to the bedroom. When the door was pushed open and she saw him standing there, she suddenly regretted doing this now. If this didn't go down well then they had a group of Max's friends sat in the living room who would hear it all.
"You alright babe?" Max asked as he stepped inside and closed the door behind him. It was obvious that he could see something was up but he wasn't sure what that was.
"Yeah... yeah... um... I just need to talk to you."
"What's up?"
"Can you come here?" Grace asked as she pointed to the space beside her. Having him standing over her at the minute was only putting her more on edge.
"What's wrong babe?" Max asked once again as he took a seat beside Grace and reached out to take her hand in his.
The soft rhythmic motion of his thumb over her skin was momentarily reassuring before the reality of the situation very quickly came flooding back, bringing her anxiety with it.
"Just promise me you won't freak out..." Grace pleaded with a deep sigh.
Max was watching her intently at this point but wasn't saying a word. It was as though he was trying to figure out what she was thinking before she even said it out loud.
"Max please just promise me that."
"Yeah, I promise. What's going on?" He asked with slight panic in his voice this time and his hand dropped to her thigh.
She could tell that he was trying to ease the nerves in her yet he was also incredibly apprehensive with the uncertainty of what was going on here.
"Right... well, um..." Grace stuttered and wanted to slap herself for acting like this. She just had to spit it out but she was really struggling. "... this all could be nothing but it also could be something so I need to act on it and take it seriously."
"Take what seriously? What is it Grace?"
"Well um... I... I've missed a period and have been feeling kind of sick and everything and um, yeah... I don't know if I'm pregnant."
As Grace finally spit out those words her whole body filled with butterflies as Max's froze. He didn't say anything and he didn't give off any kind of cues to what exactly was going through his mind. He was completely unresponsive and something about that made this whole situation ten times worse.
She had been through this once with him and it hadn't gone as she expected. Max had been angry and ended up just leaving her to deal with it completely alone, so now Grace was terrified it could all happen again.
"I..." Grace began to say, as she felt as though she needed to fill the silence however Max cut her off, not with words though, but with the most reassuring gesture she could have asked for.
Opening his arms, Max urged Grace into his warm embrace before laying her back against the bed sheets. Her body was held so tightly to his that even though he wasn't saying a word, he was doing everything right to make her feel better.
He may have been terrified, he may have been angry or upset by what this could be. However, he wasn't showing it and instead he was doing everything in his power to make sure that Grace knew she wasn't alone.
Everything about Max in this moment was reassuring. His embrace was strong but it was warm and comforting at the same time. Even though Grace had been absolutely terrified, she now felt safe and protected from any negativity that could have come from this.
Max Rowen's response to the situation had been a complete 180 to what it had been over Grace's pregnancy with Brinley and that was enough to show her the man that he was growing into.
"Have you done a test?" Max muttered as he pressed a kiss to her head.
"No..." Grace whispered back, wanting nothing more than remain snuggled into his body right now and not do anything to face the truth. "I just... I'm scared..."
"We'll forget about it tonight, we'll get some sleep and I'll go and get you a test in the morning." Max replied and his tone of voice was so soft that Grace's heart melted.
She was suddenly overcome with emotion and for some reason felt like bursting into tears. However, those tears were not just due to the fear or anxiety over what was happening, instead they were also due to the intense love she was feeling for this man right now.
"I love you Max, so so much." Grace said as her voice began to break.
"I love you too, baby." Max replied as his thumb ran under her eye to wipe away the first tear that fell from it.
**
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