Page 55 of Be My Baby

They both stopped speaking and looked at each other, some of the tension seeping from their bodies. Millie held up her hand, palm up.

“You go first.”

Max nodded and rubbed at his jaw. What had him agitated? He only did that when he was bothered by something.

Max stepped backward, noticeably putting distance between them and a small frown deepened the V between his brows.

“I’ve been thinking. Maybe we should take a break from trying to fall pregnant? I know it’s only been a few months, but with everything that’s going on right now, I just need to step back and reassess where I’m at.”

Millie’s gut tumbled. A chill spread over her entire body. Everything she’d thought she wanted to say and the way she wanted to tell him dissipated into the ether. Just fizzled into nothing, along with the happiness she’d allowed herself to revel in.

He didn’t want to try anymore.

He doesn’t want the baby.

Reason screamed at her that wasn’t possible because he didn’tknowabout the baby; but that basic, animal part of her brain, that intrinsic part of her very being told her what she suspected to be the truth behind it.

He didn’t wanther.

“I… ah…” She raised a shaking hand to her mouth and chewed at an immaculate nail. She realised what she was doing just as she damaged it, then kept going, not caring at all.

“So, you don’t want a baby. Is that what you’re saying? What about this? Us.” She motioned between them, that same shaking hand betraying her. “The sex, a-and stuff?”

“I think it’s for the best that nothing happened, right? My life is falling apart, Mil. At an alarming rate.” Max opened his mouth then sighed and shook his head. A strange, pained expression flickered behind his eyes. “I honestly don’t think I can deal with any of it right now. A child is the last thing I need.” He took a breath and shrugged, holding up his hands, not holding her gaze, looking at a point over her shoulder instead. “You wanted to get pregnant. It hasn’t worked, so maybe we should call it a day.”

Millie plastered a fake smile on her mouth and pretended her heart wasn’t shattering into glittering shards before his very eyes.

“Of course that’s all I wanted. What else would it be? That’s fine. I don’t need anything, or anyone.”

But I need you.

She didn’t say it, though. Couldn’t bear to have the words pass her lips. Couldn’t force them from her sandpaper-dry mouth. He didn’t want to hear them. She could see it on his face. In the determined glint in his eyes and the set, hard line of his jaw.

He didn’t want them.

Max crossed his arms over his chest awkwardly and gripped his biceps. She focused on his hands, his knuckles; keeping her eyes away from that beautiful face, those incredible eyes that sent her knees weak.

If she did that, she might just make it through this.

She forced herself to breath in deeply, to try and control the spiralling nausea whirling in her belly, and moved to sit at her desk, crossing a knee over her thigh. She could do distant with the best of them. She could pretend his words meant nothing—thathemeant nothing.

She could.

And she would, even if it killed her.

Glancing up, she racked her brain for something to say. Anything. The tiny squeak of the front door opening caught her attention.

Trey.

Thank God.

The relieved smile that widened her mouth couldn’t have been bigger. “Trey! Max is right on time.”

She straightened in her seat and made herself look busy, avoiding the gaze of both men.

“Max. Come on through.” Trey’s deep voice sent shivers of relief peppering her skin. “What’s going on?”

Trey’s voice faded as he ushered Max into his office. The distinct click of the door latch sounded like a death knell to her heart.

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