"We won't end up like them. I promise." he reassured her. It was something neither of them wanted - to become like their parents - and they both put in the effort to make sure that they didn't. Jeremy hugged her back with one hand and played with her hair with the hand she'd just released. "You're welcome. Thank you for making me the luckiest man in the world by falling in love with me. There is no other woman I would ever want to spend forever with."

Jeremy was a little shocked with Michaela brought up possibly wanting a surrogate. He knew that it was an option, but he'd still been dealing with the news of his wife not being able to get pregnant, he didn't know when she'd be ready to accept them, so he didn't see the point in putting too much thought into it yet. Clearly, she had though and now he was simply trying to play catch up now. "Oh. Well. Yeah." he stumbled over his words. "Sorry, I'm just a little caught off guard. Surrogacy... I love the idea of our kid being equal parts of us, It's... I don't have much knowledge on the subject. Looks like I have some homework to do."

"We will make it work no matter what though. Whatever it takes." Jeremy didn't know how much it was going to cost but he was going to do whatever it took. Michaela's store was killing it and he had been working on achieving his dream of being an author. Jeremy had the perfect idea for a set of books swirling around in his head but getting it out of his head and onto his computer was another story. He loved being a substitute and doing freelance work from home and it brought in enough money that he didn't feel totally emasculated that his wife was the breadwinner currently.

“Well, I’ll make your homework easy,” Michaela said, fiddling with one of his jacket buttons and looking up at him. “There’s a folder on my laptop at home. It has all the information you need,” she informed him. “I’ve known for a while that I probably wasn’t going to be able to have babies after three miscarriages.” It wasn’t rocket science, and Michaela knew her body. Choosing to go to the doctor was just for confirmation. She needed proof before going forward with other plans. “The truth still hurts, though.”

Michaela believed Jeremy when he said they’d make it work. “I know. You never let me down.” She reached up, touching his face, smiling as she did so. After all these years, she was still utterly in awe of her husband, even on their worst days. He’s always been her person.

She moved away from her husband, taking his hands in hers and pulling him out of the gazebo playfully. “You know what else happens in those cheesy romantic movies?” Michaela let go of his hands before scoping up some snow. After packing it into a well-rounded snowball, Michaela threw it at him, hitting him in the chest. “Snowball fights! Bullseye!” She exclaimed, throwing her arms up in the air. Before her husband could react, she disappeared behind the closest tree laughing. “Be nice! I’m smaller than you!” She shouted, peeking out from the tree.

Jeremy should have known that his wife had already done all the necessary research, she was organized like that. She planned nearly everything because not only was she better at it, she seemed to enjoy it. "First chance I get, I'll check it out." He reassured her. He was determined to make things work out for them; as the old saying goes, 'where there's a will, there's a way' and Jeremy lived by that proverb.

Jeremy gleefully smiled as his wife pulled him out of the gazebo and back into the snow. "What?" he asked, knowing this could go one of two ways once she started forming a snowball. Before he knew it the snow blasted him in the chest and he realized they weren't going to be building a snowman. Playfully pretending to be offended by the attack, he bent down and grabbed some snow of his own.

Packing it into a ball, he caught her as she peeked out from behind a tree. "You're in trouble now!" He smirked and ventured closer to the tree. Once she hid behind it again, he snagged some extra snow in his left hand before chucking the ball in his right hand at the tree. Knowing his wife's jumpscare factor, he hoped the spray of the snow after impact would startle her long enough for him to sneak up around the tree.

Quickly latching onto her waist so she couldn't escape, he sprinkled the snow left in his hand down on her. As much as he didn't want anyone else to know, he was just a big softie. Especially when it came to Michaela. With the little show that they put on at the restaurant though, half the town probably thought he was a dick right about now.