Lia waved goodnight to Chloe and turned to go into her apartment, but as she crossed into her driveway she saw a shadow and automatically reached for the canister of pepper spray she kept attached to her purse. She was lifting it when she heard Ben's voice.

"Stop, it's only me!" he hissed.

"Only you, then I should definitely use this on you if for no other reason then you just scared me to death!" she hissed back. "Why are we whispering?" she asked.

"Huck's been carrying on for the past half hour, he only stopped a few minutes ago."

"Then why are you in my driveway? If you didn't want to listen to him you could have left," she insisted, walking towards her door as Ben stood up from the bench on which he had been sitting.

"I needed a break from the book I'm writing, and sometimes sitting under the stars helps," he said as he came up behind her.

"That's right, I heard you were a writer and a pretty famous one too, congratulations."

"Well if you had to be told that then I can't be that famous, can I?" he said drily.

"True, when one of your books has been made into a movie then you will have really made it into the big time." She smiled as she pushed through her door.

"Do you have a minute to talk?" he asked as she turned to shut the door on him.

She considered him for a moment, his dark beard and wide shoulders, then nodded, standing aside as she grabbed Huck's collar, so he wouldn't dart out the door. "Would you like some tea?" she asked putting her keys on the counter next to the door.

"I'll have some coffee thanks," he said, taking a kitchen chair and making himself at home. To add insult to injury, Huck padded over to him and placed his head in Ben's lap.

"I didn't offer coffee," Lia said, putting the kettle on the stove.

"Then nothing, thank you," he said passively as if he sensed she was itching for a fight and wasn't going to give it to her.

She pulled out the chair next to him and angled it to face him. "I'm tired, what did you want to talk about?"

"You look very pretty," he said, surprising her.

Lia never got complements. Even when she had been engaged to Chance, she hadn't received them. A look of admiration, but never the words.

"Thank you, is that your way of buttering me up?" she asked, her eyes meeting his.

Time seemed to stand still as her green eyes met his hazel ones and neither one of them moved. The eventual sound of the kettle's whistle broke the spell.

"So, I'm waiting," Lia said as she made her tea.

"What if I offered to let you restore my house, carte blanche, anything you wanted, all the way down to the furniture?" Ben looked down at Huck who was looking adoringly up at him.

"If you did, I would ask why? What's in it for you?"

"Besides the simple fact of not having to fix it up myself?" he asked. "The reason I haven't touched it in the time I've lived there is because I can't be bothered, I don't have the time nor the desire to."

Lia finished making her tea and joined him, her knees brushing his as she sat. "Alright, I'll bite, besides that?"

"Hear me out first, before you say anything?" His eyes met hers over the rim of the cup and she sensed he was very serious, whatever he was about to say.

"Alright," she agreed.

"I don't let the rumors about me or llliana bother me, I never have, but it has come to my attention very recently that they have greatly affected others in my life-"

"Your sister?" Lia guessed, and he shot her a quelling look at her interruption. "Sorry," she said meekly.

"Yes, my sister and my parents. Last night when Trinity was here, she mentioned that if I was to start dating again, it might help ease some of the pressure because she thinks that if someone liked me enough to date me, then I can't be all bad."

Lia snorted in her cup at his words and he shot her another look.

"Sorry, was that out loud?" she asked innocently.

"I thought that if you and I perhaps pretended to be in a relationship, it would appear to be a valid reason for me to let you fix my house and vice versa." He leaned forward rubbing his hands together in a slow, pensive manner as he watched her, disrupting Huck who flopped on to his side with a dramatic groan, but Ben was to focused in on the conversation to notice his theatrics.

"I get the feeling that there's more, but your trying not to spring it all on me at once." Lia set her tea down and leaned forward to meet him, and they were only inches apart. Lia could see the laugh lines around his eyes and a little scar in his hairline.

His eyes traced her face, her hair, her lips. "It would be better if you were my fiancé," he suggested, his voice had turned raspy. "You smell good to, Peaches." He jerked suddenly as if he hadn't meant to say the words aloud.

She smiled and leaned back in her chair. "Thank you." There was a silence as she thought over his offer. He would let her fix up the house and she would get to spend more time with him, on top of which she could rub it in Chance's face

"What's that wicked smile for?" Ben asked with surprise.

"Did you know I was engaged? No, of course, you didn't," she insisted at his blank look. "Well I was, about a year ago, he works at the hospital, and today he pulled me aside and warned me to stay away from you, that it would look bad for the hospital if we were friends."

Ben jumped out of his chair with a curse. "I'm sorry, I didn't think it through well enough, it will only bring you trouble, forget I mentioned it." He headed for the door.

"Stop over reacting Ben! God, you're as dramatic as Huck!" She picked up her tea again and waved him into the chair. "Please, let me finish."

He sat down hesitantly, as if she was going to hit him.

"I had the thought, after I told him he needed to check with HR about how many ways I could sue him, that it would be..." she searched for the word, "gratifying if we were to date, then I could really rub his nose in it."

"Why did the relationship end?" Ben asked, relaxing some as he accepted her idea.

"He left me for another woman, a richer woman," Lia said, her mind back on the problem at hand.

"What is his name, perhaps I know him?"

"Chance Lennox," she supplied, without really thinking. When she heard him make a choking noise, she looked up at him.

"You had a lucky escape; he and I went through school together and we never like each other."

"I don't disagree with you, although being publicly jilted wasn't the most fun way to spend this past year."

"I don't imagine it was," Ben agreed with a sympathetic smile.

"So, if I were to agree to this madcap plan, which if it goes south, I will totally blame you, what would be the parameters, the rules?"

"I don't know, we go on a few dates, get seen around town together, put a notice in the newspaper, and I buy you a ring, all the regular stuff."

Lia nodded as she got a devilish smile. "When I was engaged, we lived together." She knew how much that would irritate Chance.

"You really want to drive that knife into his back, don't you? Remind me to never double cross you," Ben said as he shook his head. "I don't think you would be comfortable in the house, there's not a lot of mod-cons."

"I agree, but I have two rooms here, you could take the spare. I'm at work most days and so tired I go to bed early most nights, so I don't think we would get in each other's way. Plus, it might be nice for you to live in a home that wasn't caving in around your head."

He considered it for a minute.

"If it didn't work out you could always go back to your house, but remember, you gave me carte blanche to restore it, it will be a construction zone during the day, and I don't intend to drag my feet about it." She was going to strike while the iron was hot, before he changed his mind.

First, the roof, then the foundation, porches, siding, there was so much to do!

"You're already planning it out in your head, aren't you?" He sounded resigned.

"Yep, I'm gonna start with the big stuff incase this thing falls though, then at least I won't have to look at the holes in the roof."

Ben stood looking weary. "We'll talk tomorrow, you're tired, remember?"

"Who can sleep, now!" she demanded.

"I can, goodnight." He walked towards the door. "If we both feel the same way about it tomorrow, we'll make a plan."

She nodded absentmindedly. "You know, Huck will love to have you around during the day while I'm at work," she said as she picked up her mug of tea and carried it to the sink.

Ben couldn't help but think that it would be nice if she felt the same way.