When Lance Knight called about 7:30 that night and asked if she could meet him someplace special for dinner, Lila Carpenter jumped at the opportunity to see him again.
Despite her reservations about getting involved with someone connected with the Knight family, because except for Lance and his niece Frieda, the rest were all high class socialite snobs in her opinion; there was something special about the man that made her hope some kind of a relationship might develop between them.
Yet, although her GPS led her faithfully to the address he gave her during their phone conversation, Lila didn't know the one story house. The fact that she parked her motorcycle behind his hybrid car in the driveway was reassuring as she walked up to the front door.
Ringing the bell, Lance opened it in seconds of the first chimes and smiled at her. "Glad you could make it," he said, letting her enter.
The black dress she had on now was less flamboyant than the red one she wore to meet him for lunch earlier that day, but did everything it could to accentuate the fact there was a beautiful woman in the room. Besides, he said to dress casual, and Lance was standing there barefoot in jeans and a collared shirt.
"Where are we?" she asked, looking around the sparsely furnished living room. There was just a couch, a coffee table, a stereo system in the far corner, and a somewhat wide screen TV sitting on a stand next to a cable box and a DVD player.
"My place," he announced, while leading her to the dining room.
A simple table for four was in the room, with two places already set. After escorting her to a seat, Lance said "I hope you're hungry," before disappearing into the kitchen. A moment later he returned with two side salads.
"This is just the appetizer," he said, sitting down to join her. "The steaks still need a little more time."
"I see," replied Lila, before taking a bite. "Good salad," she said with a smile, before digging in.
"I hope you can forgive me all the fuss and secrecy, but I find it hard to make real friends, let alone anything more serious in my position," Lance confided in her between bites.
The comment about anything more serious wasn't lost on her. "Because of your family connections?" asked Lila.
"Afraid so. The people that want to be associated with the Knights all think I'm either a mover and shaker or a high society aristocratic like Benton and Amanda, but seem rather disappointed when they find out otherwise."
"And what are you?" Lila asked him cautiously.
"I'm just me," Lance said with a smile, before a bell went off in the kitchen. "Steaks are ready."
Removing the salad dishes, he came back with two plates. Each had a decent size steak and a baked potato on them.
After her first bite, Lila said, "Cooked to perfection. My compliments to the chef."
"Thank you," replied Lance.
"You cook?" she asked in disbelief.
"You don't think men are capable of cooking?" he asked in return.
"No," she said, while shaking her head negatively. "You never made fun of me when I said I do my own motorcycle maintenance. It's just that—"
"The Knight reputation precedes me," he said with a bit of disappointment, while setting his utensils down. "This is just a small three bedroom house. The small backyard has a covered patio with a hot tub and a high privacy fence in case I ever want to go out furry at night, so there's no justification to hire servants, even if I wanted to. The master bedroom is mine. I maintain a guest room in case Frieda ever stays over and the other is my private office. I like doing what I can for myself. Granted, I wind up eating a lot of take out and frozen food with my work schedule, and I do have a cleaning lady come in twice a week along with a handyman on retainer for things I can't handle myself, and some of my outfits do require dry cleaning; but otherwise you won't find a lazy bone in my entire body."
"I'm sorry," said Lila, truly apologetic. "All this is new to me. There have always been tales about you being the alleged black sleep of the family, but they always concerned you being out and about with a debutante or some starlet on your arm every night."
Lila was surprised when Lance started laughing.
"What?" she said, confused.
"Most nights I'm in bed by 11 with a good book on my e-reader," revealed Lance, once he was able to stop laughing.
"Usually it's whatever I pick up used or at the public library myself," Lila admitted, joining him in the amusement.
With that, they started discussing favorite authors and recent reads, discovering they had a lot in common as they ate.
When the meal was finished, Lance took the dirty plates back to the kitchen then returned to his date.
"Okay, for dessert, we have..."
But Lance never got to recite the possibilities as Lila started kissing him.
"I wasn't that hungry for food anyway," he said with a smile, before taking her hand and leading Lila to the master bedroom.