Page 76 of Christmas with Brother's Best Friends

Emma gives him a grateful look before her expression turns more serious. “You haven’t really said how you feel about all of this.”

Max takes a deep breath and shakes his head in disbelief. “I think I’m still trying to wrap my head around it. I figured I would have a family of my own one day, but I didn’t expect it so soon.”

Emma frowns, starting to shrink into herself.

“But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to be a part of this,” Max tells her. “Josh is right. There’s no one else I would want to have a child with other than you. I’m all in. Whatever we do.”

Relief washes over Emma’s face as she nods. “I want all of you with me throughout it all. The doctor’s appointments. The nursery planning. The name picking. Everything. If you want that.”

“I want to be involved in everything,” I say without hesitation. If she wants help researching what prenatal vitamins to take or what color to paint the nursery walls, I want in. I want in on it all.

Max nods. “Yeah, me too. There’s a lot of logistics that we need to figure out, though.”

I wave him off, already feeling Emma tense up in my hold. Max is right, but we don’t need to worry about all the details right now. We only just found out the news. “Later. I just want to cherish this right now.”

Emma smiles and rests her head on my chest, no longer clawing at my back. She hugs me instead, letting me support her as she needs. “I don’t know what to do now. I almost feel paralyzed because there’s so much that needs to be done.”

“Me either,” Max whispers, still looking like he’s reeling.

I don’t want anyone to fall apart. Not after hearing this happy news.

“Max, how about you order us some dinner to be delivered here?”

“Yeah, okay,” Max replies before heading off, glad to have a task to focus on.

I turn back to Emma and slide my hands up and down her arms to help her relax. She’s still as tense as can be, and if she’scarrying our baby, she needs to get a handle on her stress. It’s not good for either of them.

“As for you, you need to rest,” I say.

Emma sighs as she rests her hands on my chest. “It’s hard to think about relaxing right now. Ryan still isn’t back. Can you call him and make sure that he’s okay?”

“I’ll have Max reach out to him,” I promise her before taking her hand and leading her to Max’s couch. I motion for her to lay down, hearing Max order nearly everything off the menu. He can be a stress eater.

Emma lays on her side, curling her legs up and nestling her head in the throw pillow that I tuck under her.

“All right, dinner is ordered,” Max says as he crosses over to us, already fidgeting and restless. “Anything else that I can do?”

“Where do you keep your extra pillows and blankets?” I ask him as I pat him on the back of his shoulder, trying to get him to loosen up. He at least needs to do so in front of Emma so that she doesn’t feed off his stress.

We really need to keep an eye on her.

“This way,” Max replies as he motions to another hallway. He takes me to one of the guest bedrooms and opens the walk-in closet.

“You okay, man?” I ask him.

Max doesn’t look at me as he grabs Emma an extra pillow and blanket. “I’m happy. I promise. You know how my mind is. I can’t stop thinking about everything that’s coming next.”

I place my hand on his shoulder, giving it a light squeeze. “I know. I get it, but I need you to put on a strong face for her. There’s more pressure on her than what’s on us combined.”

Max breathes in deeply and nods before turning to me. “Yeah, you’re right. I’ll get it together for her.”

“She can’t be stressed out like she has been. I don’t want anything bad to happen to her or the baby,” I tell him. “We’ll just take things one day at a time. One obstacle at a time.”

Max nods again. “Okay.”

“I’ll take these to her. Try to get ahold of Ryan and check on him,” I say as I take the pillow and blanket from him.

“You know that he won’t answer,” Max sighs as he takes his phone out of his pocket.