“I guess it’s some kind of artist’s studio. Mostly it’s just a bunch of stuff.” All my favorite things, he privately added. The equivalent of your cello.

Kate struggled to get out of bed and began a hunt for her clothes. “I’d like to see it. I’ve always wondered about that locked door. Why do you keep it locked?”

Dave sighed. “Because I was afraid if you saw what I have up there, you’d be even more convinced I was all wrong for you.” He followed her in the clothes search, gathering together underwear and socks.

It seemed silly now, but Kate knew it might have been a real concern two days earlier. She realized that she’d been on a witch-hunt of sorts, looking for reasons to justify her fear of marriage. Fortunately Dave was a patient man. And a wise one. She watched him puzzling over a third sock he’d found and couldn’t resist the urge to tease him. “What on earth have you been hiding, dismembered body parts?”

“Worse than that,” Dave said, zipping his jeans. “Toys.”

Kate’s eyes grew wide. “More toys?”

He took a key from his jeans pocket. “They help me to think. I know that sounds crazy, but they sort of get me in a mood.”

He led the way over to his house and carried Kate up the stairs to the attic door and unlocked it. “Some of my toys are pretty special. Collectors’ items. Most of them are just fun.”

Kate looked inside and blinked in amazement. Not in her wildest, most childish fantasy could she have imagined anything like this. Huge skylights had been cut out of the back half of the roof, splashing sunlight over most of the room. The remainder was lit by recessed lighting. There were games, books, bubble-gum machines, weather vanes, toy trucks, a basketball hoop… It was a seemingly endless collage of colors and textures. She was sure it was the happiest, coziest nest anyone had ever built. And in the middle of this riot of indulgence was a sturdy, no-nonsense drawing board. A small rolling set of shelves sat beside the drawing board. It held pencils, pens, brushes, crayons, Magic Markers, erasers, rulers, and some sort of mechanical device.

“What’s this?” Kate said pointing to the machine.

“Airbrush.”

“What do you do with it?”

“I draw cartoons.” He went to the drawing board and flipped a half-finished page for her to see.

She stared at the figures running across the frames. “This looks familiar.”

Dave smiled. “That’s because you’re finding time to read the funnies in the paper these days.”

“This is a great cartoon,” Kate said. “This guy here is from outer space, and he fell in love with a crossing guard named Patti….” She looked at the drawings in front of her. “Why are you copying these cartoons?”

“I’m not copying them. I’m drawing them.”