After a nice meal and a good evening spent talking and getting to know each other again it was time for Hunter to get Stephanie home so he could get some sleep before he had to leave for the house show in the morning, "as much as I don't want this night to end we'd better get going as I have an early flight in the morning."

Raising her eyebrow she knew he was working this weekend but had no idea what time he would be flying out for the show, "how early is early?"

Raising his hand to signal for the waiter he shrugged, "oh you know, not too early. I have to be up at about half past three to be at the airport for a half past five flight."

Looking at her watch as the waiter approached and Hunter asked for the bill her eyes widened when she saw that it was gone ten o'clock, "that is like five hours away. Why didn't you say you had to be up early and we could have done this last night or something?"

Shrugging his shoulders as he waited for the bill that was an answer he didn't have for her, "honestly? I don't know. Sleep isn't really that important though, I've worked on nothing so a couple of hours will be fine and anyway I don't regret a second of this evening and wouldn't change it for anything."

As the waiter approached with the bill she opened her purse to get some money to pay but Hunter beat her to it and after taking a quick look at the bill to make sure it was correct he handed over his credit card, "charge it to this please."

Stephanie frowned at him, "why did you do that? I'm the one who asked you out so I should pay the bill."

"And? I'm still a gentleman and I still want to pay. If it makes you feel better for our second date, if there is one, then you can pay."

Laughing softly she shut her purse, "okay you have yourself a deal."

The waiter came back and asked for Hunter's signature before he handed over their receipt, "I hope you enjoyed your meal and have a good evening."

Smiling politely Hunter took the credit card off him putting it back in his wallet before he handed over a twenty dollar bill, "thank you, have a good one yourself."

Pulling on her jacket she put her purse over her shoulder before she followed Hunter out of the restaurant.

The drive back to her house was done in relative silence with just the low noise of the radio being heard.

Pulling up outside of her house Hunter turned off the engine, "thank you for tonight, I genuinely had a lovely evening."

Unbuckling her seatbelt she turned in her seat to look at him, "I have had a lovely evening also, thank you."

Getting out of the car he walked around the other side to open the passenger door for her before he held his hand out towards her to help her out but she snubbed his hand and got out by herself, "you didn't have to open the door again for me."

Shrugging his shoulders he wanted to because he wanted to escort her right to the door, "I wanted to make sure you got safely to your front door and it's polite."

Polite was definitely something she wasn't used to from the old Hunter but she quite liked it, "well thank you."

Walking up to her front door she fished the keys from her purse before she slipped the correct one into the lock, "this is me. Thank you again for a lovely evening, I really enjoyed myself."

Pushing his hands nervously into his pockets he smiled gently, "you're welcome, I enjoyed myself also. Maybe we could do it again sometime?"

Without thinking about it she nodded her head, "I'd like that. Maybe give me a call sometime and we can set something up."

That was definitely a positive reaction and one he would follow up on, "I will. Goodnight Stephanie."

Unlocking the door she opened it slowly, "goodnight Hunter."

Stepping inside she turned around and watched him as he walked back to his car. As soon as he was in his car and the engine was started she waved at him before she shut the door firmly behind her making sure it was locked tightly. Walking into the lounge she threw her purse onto the couch shrugging off her jacket and throwing it down on top of it before she collapsed into a seat sighing softly, that had been a lot different to what she had expected but now she was exhausted and would be having an early night.

Once she was safely inside of the house he pulled away and made his way home, he would probably be lucky to get four hours sleep but it was worth it because hopefully it would lead to him having Stephanie back in his life permanently.

Arriving home he went straight up the stairs and barely got undressed before he collapsed into bed making sure his alarm was set for half past three in the morning before he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep with a small smile on his face.

After spending a little bit of time just relaxing in the chair surrounded by nothing but silence Stephanie pushed herself up to a standing position and grabbed her jacket and purse making her way upstairs to get some sleep whilst she could. After undressing she crawled into bed but as she did so she found herself to be quite wide awake without thoughts of Hunter dancing through her head keeping her awake for a while.

It was getting late into the evening and Linda had just checked on Mikey again to make sure he was fast asleep which he was. Making her way back downstairs she took a seat next to Vince on the couch, "so how did Stephanie sound?"

Turning to look at his wife he frowned a little, "oddly enough she sounded really happy but she seemed to be looking for an excuse to get away from Hunter because she said that she kept checking on her phone to make sure that we hadn't called about Mikey. She said it was because she hadn't left him with us to go on a date before but I think there was more to it than that."

Nodding her head she agreed with her husband, "I believe there was also. You know how much I love her but I think she was looking for an excuse to get away and not to be happy."

As much as he would like to tell his wife not to be stupid he had a feeling she was right, "I think so too but I'm not sure if that is fear of getting hurt again or simply fear of being happy."

"Whatever the reason is we just have to make sure to push her in the right direction but not too hard. We need to listen to how the evening went and if it went well we need to push her gently to ask him out again. Now though I think we should go to bed because I have a feeling Mikey will have us up early in the morning."

Laughing softly Vince agreed, "either he or Stephanie will."

Shaking her head she would be unimpressed if it was their daughter, "if it is Stephanie that has us up early I will shake some sense into her."

Not wanting to be in his daughter's position if that happened he pushed himself up from the couch, "fingers crossed she will take advantage of a quiet house and will sleep in in the morning."

Following her husband's lead Linda stood up also, "I hope so."

Turning off the television they made their way upstairs to get some sleep.