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“What are we going to do with the other two?” he asks, opening another door and stepping into a sun-filled bedroom that features a built-in window seat.
“Um, well,” I say, suddenly nervous. “We haven’t really talked about it and I don’t want to presume anything, but maybe someday, like however far away we want or need it to be, they could be kids’ rooms?”
Bradford grins at me. “I really love that idea. And I don’t know, I think I’d like to have kids sooner rather than later.”
“I think I’d be okay with that,” I smile. “I mean, the idea of being responsible for a kid scares the hell out of me. And I’m pretty sure that changing diapers is one of the most disgusting things in the world. But you’d be a great father.”
“So would you,” Bradford says confidently. “I can’t wait to see you change your first diaper.”
I shudder and he laughs, then walks into the bathroom that’s in between two bedrooms. We step back into the hall and he follows me to the closed doors at the end of the wide hallway.
“This is our room,” I say, opening the doors. Bradford steps inside and gapes at the vaulted ceiling, at the fireplace, at the large expanse of polished wood waiting for our furniture.
He walks into the master bathroom and lets out an impressed whistle. “Shit, Ragnar, I think this bathroom is bigger than my first apartment!”
“I know,” I laugh, enjoying his happiness. “This was one of the things that sold me on the house.”
“This alone would have been enough for me.”
“Well, there is one more floor that I want to show you.”
“Sure, but let me admire our bathroom for one more second. Which is never a sentence I thought I’d say.”
I smile as he looks around again, and then we go back to the hallway. Halfway down the hall, I reach up and pull a short white cord that’s hanging from the ceiling.
“That is so cool,” Bradford says as a short flight of wooden stairs slides down.
“After you,” I say, waving my arm at the steps.
I follow Bradford into the airy, high-ceilinged attic. It runs the entire length and width of the house, and right now it’s just an enormous empty space.
“So I want you to visualize this,” I begin, pacing out a section of floor. “We put up some walls over here, in this corner, with at least one of the dormer windows, and that’s your office. I thought that the light up here would be best for when you’re working on your photography.”
“I can see that,” Bradford says, nodding his head.
“And over here,” I continue, striding to the back of the space. “If you want to ever experiment with film again, we could have a darkroom installed.”
“I love that idea! Man, I haven’t used film since boarding school.”
“I remember,” I say quietly. “You took amazing pictures, even back then.”
“Thank you,” Bradford says softly. He walks over to me and waves his hand at the rest of the room. “But that still gives us, oh, about a football field’s worth of space to fill. What are your plans for that?”
“Who knows?” I grin, and shrug. “We could make it one giant rec room, so our kids’ friends think that we’re the coolest parents around and always want to hang out here. We could turn some of it into another bedroom. We could install a one-lane bowling alley, if we want.”
“Or we could make a wonderful home for an electric eel,” Bradford says, his eyes sparkling with mischief.
“You’re joking, right?” I ask.
“Ragnar, you have made it so that we have this amazing home. Not just for us, but for the family that we’re going to have. I think that the least I can do is figure out how to get a massive tank up here for the first pet that we’re going to have together.”
“I’d love that,” I say, genuinely touched. “Thank you, Bradford.”
“I’m also going to insist that we adopt a dog, though,” he says.
I roll my eyes. “I still don’t get the allure, but I’m not going to argue.”
“Good, because you’d lose.” Bradford smiles and walks over to one of the dormer windows. He looks back at me and shakes his head. “I can’t believe that all of this is ours. Wait,” he says, “I can’t believe I didn’t think of this sooner. What about your company?”
“I’ll keep the condo,” I tell him as I join him at the window. “I’ll probably have to go into the office a few days every month. But otherwise I can work from Green Haven.”
Bradford puts his arm around my waist and pulls me close. “Then we’re really home.”
“Yes,” I say, grinning at my handsome husband. “We really are.”
The En
