Then we were at the house, Bram going inside with me, and I was very much in the present. The then and there was just fine.

He picked up Lai Fa and scratched her head. “You do what you need to do. I’ll warm up the pizza.” But instead of walking away, he touched my neck. “You have a…”

“What?”

“A piece of something stuck here.” He picked a nearly translucent whirl of crystallized sugar off my skin. Instead of heading to the garbage with it, he put it on his tongue. “Sweet.”

And just like that, I couldn’t breathe.

Lai Fa flew off to chase an ant.

“Any more where that came from?” Bram’s tone dipped. “May I check?”

“Make your bid.”

“Everything.”

“Going once. Going twice. You win.”

“I’m going to have to take your clothes off.” He said it like a disclaimer. How very lawyerly.

“In the foyer?”

“I can lick that sugar off you here as easily as anywhere else. Why make the bedroom sticky?”

“Solid argument. I can see you convincing a jury.” I let him unbutton my shirt.

Surprise.

The sex was incredible.

And showering together in Violet’s giant clawfoot tub wasn’t a hardship either. I’d never done that with anyone before. I could see the appeal.

We ate the reheated pizza in the small downstairs kitchenette, me in one of Violet’s Old Hollywood-style robes, Bram in his slacks and shirt. Unbuttoned. No undershirt.

Because we live in a generous universe that keeps on giving.

Lai Fa joined us, pecking at the crumbs at our feet, a luminescent moment. Bram kept looking at me, a smile playing on his lips. “Sergei said there’s interest in the carousel. You could renegotiate with Trey. Pay him off and keep Ludington’s. Both coasts.”

“I don’t want to have to spend half my life going back and forth between New York and LA. I think I’m going to buy this house. If I can assume the mortgage.”

As the words left my mouth, happiness flooded through me.

This is what it feels like when you make the right decision.

Bram leaned across the small table and kissed me. “You look especially beautiful when you’re in the middle of conquering the world.”

His words went straight to my heart. They brought to mind Johanna Bonger, who’d fought her own share of battles. I pushed my empty plate aside and pulled over my laptop.

Bram reached under the table and ran a hand up my thigh. “If you’re going to work, I haven’t done enough to scramble your brain. And that would mean I have to take you straight upstairs to bed.”