He grinned at her. "I know how to use the internet, and there are sites out there that let you put in longitude and latitude to find out exactly when the sun goes below the horizon for any particular date. And my watch automatically resets itself four times a day to the U.S. Atomic Clock in Colorado, so it's pretty close to accurate. I know how long it should take to walk from downstairs to upstairs so I wai..."
She interrupted him. "You know, to be such an adrenaline junkie, you may be even more of a geek. I don't think I've ever seen both in the same package before. Not to the two extremes that you take them to, anyway."
He laughed and turned to step off the porch, offering his hand to her as he did, "Flattery will get you everywhere tonight, Kendra."
She took his hand and went down the steps with him. "I'm not sure that was meant to be flattery, just an observation."
As they walked to his Range Rover she noted there were two bicycles on top, without the front wheels, "What's with the bicycles?"
"Oh, they're just still up there from a ride earlier. Do you know how to ride a bike?"
Hmm, she sensed partial truth, interesting. But she went ahead and answered his question without calling him on it. "In the 1860's or maybe 1870's I was living in England and was friends with a gentleman named William. William and his friend John owned a bicycle company. John actually invented what is now the modern bicycle, with the chain. Or, if he didn't actually come up with the idea, he finally made it work, anyway. Before John's invention, which he called the 'safety bicycle' we had those bicycles with the huge wheels which were anything but safe. Anyway, back then only men rode bicycles, there were these adult sized tricycles that women were expected to ride. I, of course, got my friend William to teach me to ride a bicycle. But I haven't ridden one in, oh, I don't know, maybe eighty or ninety years?"
They were pulling out into the street by this time and Eric said, "You knew the person who invented the modern bicycle? Kendra, that just... I don't know. Blows me away, I guess. You weren't friends with Alexander Graham Bell by chance, were you?"
Kendra laughed. "No, I wasn't. Never met him, in fact."
"Did the bicycle inventor know you were a vampire?"
"No, he did not. Neither did William. He liked to work at night and he would ride outside of town on occasion as he tested his friend's latest inventions. I was curious so I went outside to watch. As far as he knew I was a widow and my husband had left me a house and enough money that I didn't need to work. He knew others lived there and I told him that I had allowed some family members to come live with me as well. Anyway, he never asked too many questions, and he was more than happy to teach me to ride a bicycle as it helped him to test the new designs. He marveled that I dared to wear pants, he thought I was quite daring. I told him they had belonged to my ex-husband and they were much more practical for learning to ride a bicycle. In reality I borrowed them from some of the male vampires who lived in the coterie at the time. I'm tall so it worked out okay as long as I belted them tight enough that they didn't fall off. Anyway, it was night and no one saw me but the vampires and William, so society didn't have a conniption over it. And I had fun."
They talked of inventions for most of the rest of the way into town, the things she'd seen that had made life much easier. And the changes that some of them made that she didn't like. Kendra worried in the back of her mind that this would freak him out again, but she realized if it was going to freak him out it was better to do it sooner than later.
When they arrived at the theater and went in she was surprised to see that he'd managed to get tickets on the third row in almost the center. She had started to ask Abbot if they could use his box tonight, Abbot was a large benefactor of the theater and had a permanent box all to himself, but she had opted to let Eric handle everything since he was supposed to be taking her out. Seeing that he appeared to like the theater, she'd have to ask him out at some point and then they could use Abbot's box. Assuming there would be a next time, of course.
They both enjoyed the play and when it was over Eric commented that his goal in life was that should he ever manage to have a family that it at least be a functional one. Kendra realized she didn't know anything about Eric's childhood. "Where did you grow up, Eric. You don't really have an accent."
"That's because I grew up all over the place. My dad was an Admiral in the Navy, and I was his oldest child and only son. My uncle was in the military too, spec ops. I think I learned my adrenaline habit from my uncle, he is the one who arranged for my first parachute jump. But, my dad and uncle would take me rappelling and mountain climbing together, so I guess I learned it from them both. My uncle is only about ten years older than me, but my dad was pretty old when I was born, he died a few years ago. My mom remarried almost right away and I still haven't really come to terms with that. She's come to visit me a few times, but I haven't been to see her. I've met her new husband once and, well, I'm not dealing well with the idea that she replaced my dad with him so quickly, I guess. But, as for my childhood, I had a great childhood. I lived all over the world and I had two very loving parents. I sometimes went a long time without seeing my dad, and that was hard, but when he was home he spent a lot of time with me."