Flabbergasted, Joe pulled back so he could see her face and was stunned to find tears rolling down her cheeks. “Of course that matters. Where’s this coming from, Janey?”

“It’s coming from me and the baby.” She rested her hand on her belly. “We didn’t plan to get pregnant yet, but we did, and now… Everything is different. I don’t want what I wanted a year ago. I want different things.”

“What things?”

“I want to be a mom. I want to be here with my family and your mom. I want our baby to be with his or her cousins every day, not just in the summer. I don’t want to miss anything.” A sob hiccupped through her as the floodgates opened. “And if I go back to school, I’ll be gone all day, and I’ll have to study all night. I’ll miss everything.”

Joe wiped the flood of tears from her face as he tried to process what she’d said. How had he missed this? How had he not seen she was this torn up?

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “You’ve given up so much so we could spend the last two years in Ohio—”

“I didn’t give up anything. I got to be with you, which was the only thing I wanted. There was hardly any sacrifice involved in that.”

“Still, you know what I mean. You went to so much trouble, and it might be for nothing.”

“It hasn’t been for nothing, Janey. You’ve got two years of school done now that you didn’t have before. You’re halfway there.”

“But still a long way from the finish line. The baby will be running around and talking back to us by the time I’m done. I can’t spend two years being less than half a mother to this child, Joe. That’s not what I want. That’s not what he or she deserves.”

He ran his fingers through her soft blonde hair, thinking about what he should say and how he should say it. “I’m so sorry I didn’t pick up on this sooner. I hate that you’ve been this upset and I didn’t know.”

“It’s not your fault. I’ve been an emotional disaster area for months now. Victoria says it’s the hormones.”

They were quiet for a long time, each taking comfort from the closeness of the other. Joe’s mind raced with plans and implications and thoughts of the painting class he taught to freshman art students. None of that mattered when stacked up against what his beloved wife wanted and needed.

“What’ll we do, Joe?” she asked in a small voice that made him ache.

“To me, it seems rather simple.”

“It does?”