Caribou Crossing by Susan Fox

was.
    â€œI’m sorry, honey.” He squeezed her hand gently.
    Why hadn’t he recognized the signs that she was more than just tired? Like they said, hindsight was twenty-twenty.
    But damn it, if he could only go back in time. Maybe even one day would have been enough.
    He thought back to last night’s dinner. It was only sixteen, seventeen hours ago, yet it seemed like a lifetime.

    â€œLove this dessert,” Wade told his wife, digging into the rich devil’s food layer cake that followed a spaghetti and meatballs dinner.
    â€œI know you do.” She smiled at him.
    â€œThe cake is stupendous,” Evan enthused. “Everything you make tastes like ambrosia, Mrs. Bly.”
    Miriam met Wade’s gaze for a second. A sparkle of humor brightened her eyes as they shared the thought: Evan’s been using his dictionary again.
    â€œThanks,” she said. “You three are an easy audience to please.”
    She’d given herself only a tiny piece of cake, Wade noticed. Though she was eating for two, lately she hadn’t had much of an appetite. He hoped it was just one of those weird phases of pregnancy.
    He stretched tired muscles. Winter wasn’t as strenuous as summer on the ranch, but his days were still packed. With snow on the ground, he had to take feed to the cattle every day, break up ice on the creek so they could drink, and put out salt. He kept an eye on the animals’ health, checked and mended fences, tended to the outdoor horses and the ones they kept in the barn, and kept the outbuildings and equipment in order. Chopping firewood was another never-ending task. The only break from the daily routine was the couple of times a week that he drove the truck into town for supplies and met up with friends for coffee at the Round-Up.
    Reluctantly, he swallowed the last bite of cake and shoved his chair back from the table. “Got to get back to work. Miriam, I’m going out to the office to tackle Pa’s files again.” They’d both been working in the ranch office out in the barn. She was putting financial information into the computer program, and she needed Wade to locate the papers that corresponded to the notes in his pa’s ledger. The handwriting was hard to read and his father used abbreviations that made no sense to Miriam, and sometimes not even to Wade.
    â€œI’ll look after the horses,” Jessie volunteered. She was happy to do any task involving horses, and Wade was mighty grateful for her assistance.
    â€œHave you finished your homework?” Miriam asked, looking not at her but at Evan for confirmation.
    â€œWe have,” the boy said.
    She turned back to her daughter. “Okay, then. But, Jessica, I want you in bed by the time I get home from class.” Miriam drove into town two nights a week to take a bookkeeping course. She sighed. “Wish I didn’t have to go out. A warm bath and early to bed with a book sounds way better.”
    Her days were as busy as Wade’s. They were both up before dawn on these short winter days. She made breakfast and packed lunches, then drove Jessica to school and went to her job at the vet’s office. She finished midafternoon when the vet’s mom came in for two or three hours, which meant Miriam could pick Jessie up at school—with Evan on the days of her evening classes. She did whatever shopping was needed, then came home to cook dinner and do housework. After dinner, she was either back into town for her classes, or at home doing homework or entering financial data into the computer.
    Even with both of them working flat out, they were barely making ends meet. And there’d be more expenses when the baby came.
    But Wade couldn’t worry about that. Miriam was pregnant, and they both loved kids. They’d manage somehow. Once the long, cold winter was over, things would look brighter.
    â€œPa?” Jessica said impatiently. “Are you