Emmeline had always loved winter. She loved how the snow crunched beneath her boots, and how the icicles hung from the barn and the farmhouse. You, however, did not. She saw it through the lens of someone who had never worried about if crops would bring in enough money to sustain them throughout the winter.

You hadn’t been sleeping well lately, too focused on money. You knew how to make a pay check stretch, sure, but that wasn’t the lifestyle she had grown accustomed to. You wouldn’t forgive yourself if there wasn’t enough food on the table.

She didn’t always find you next to her in the mornings. Sometimes, she found you pouring over account books clutching coffee, sometimes you were passed out on the table with account books and financial calculations, glasses on the table and an empty coffee cup on the table next to a bottle of Whiskey she could’ve sworn was fuller the day before- but never with her. You didn’t like her to see you when you’d been drinking. Today, she found you copping wood.

You were out behind the barn, outside your workshop. You brought the axe down repeatedly, chopping up fire wood. Under your breath and between swings you muttered prices and equations. You flinched when she came up and touched your shoulder, swinging around to face her with the axe in hand.

When you saw you had scared her, you dropped the axe. You mumbled a sorrowful apology. You dropped down onto the stump you were using to chop the wood, and put your head in your hands. You were a mess, a fucking mess. She was pregnant! What had you been thinking?

The brunette plopped herself down in your lap. Her arms wrapped around your neck, and they tilted your face up to her. “Look at me, Elliot. You can’t keep doing this. You have animals and a pregnant wife to take care of. We’ll figure out the money, but you need to step it up. Got it?” Her words were firm, grey eyes even more so.

You knew she wouldn’t stand for your drinking, or for you feeling sorry for yourself. You did need to step up. You surely wouldn’t be able to keep food on the table if you spent hard-earned money in Whiskey. You nodded, mumbling a raspy “Yes, Ma’am.”

You would do whatever she told you, so long as it came with a kiss and a smile. You truly couldn’t believe you had married this beautiful woman, and that she was carrying your child. Whatever would you do without her?