A/N – I'm still working on the next chapter to Lightning Rod, but at least I had a chapter completed for this story to share. Real life has just been a bit busy lately.

Thanks for all the reviews so far. I really do appreciate them all!

Disclaimer: All original VM characters belong to Rob Thomas.

Chapter 4

When they finally made it back to the house boat, Dinah and Bennett were out on the deck curled up together on a lounge chair. Apparently they had gotten over being angry at each other, at least until the next incident occurred. Veronica was a bit annoyed with Logan at that point, although it was more in jest than too much seriousness. He had claimed that he didn't see that she was signaling to have Jack slow down while they were out on the tube. She didn't fall off, but they were going much faster than she had wanted to and then Jack started weaving the boat side to side, so the tube would also go side to side and not stay in a straight line. Logan claimed that the weaving was all Jack's doing, but she wasn't entirely convinced. Logan had been apologetic, although she could easily tell he thoroughly enjoyed watching her bounce around and feeling completely out of her normal comfort zone.

Casey and Shelly returned a short while after the foursome in the speedboat and they all discussed dinner plans. There were a couple restaurants on the lake that they could go to, or they could grill up some steaks and vegetables that Bianca had picked up that morning. The majority vote was to just stay on the houseboat and to wait to try one of the restaurants the next night. Logan helped man the grill again and spent some time in the kitchen preparing the vegetables for grilling too. Veronica was certainly surprised at how comfortable he was cooking, given he had spent so much time living off of room service when she was last with him. This time she didn't avoid him like she had when he was cooking lunch, and actually asked if she could give him a hand. Having Logan give her instructions on what to do in the kitchen was certainly something she'd never before had happen. Well not instructions on cooking at least. He may have made other inappropriate requests in the small kitchen at her apartment back when they were dating. Some including food, particularly chocolate sauce, and where to put it, which wasn't on ice cream. She tried to focus on the task at hand and not on wondering whether there was any chocolate sauce on the houseboat.

"So, should we start up a game of poker after dinner," Jack asked as they all sat around the inside table eating the mouth watering steaks Logan had grilled.

"I'm totally beat tonight," Bennett whined, causing Jack and Bianca to give him their 'I wonder why' sarcastic look. "Hey, I had to drive while the two blondes slept most of the way here."

"I thought you took a nap while we were out boating?" Veronica asked as seriously as she could.

Bennett gave her an irritated look, knowing he was busted and shrugged. "For some reason I couldn't fall asleep."

"And I'm sure if you'd fallen asleep with Dinah on top of you, we would have had to dredge the lake to find your body," Jack playfully added.

Dinah held up her hand and flipped Jack off, but didn't say anything to the contrary.

"I brought my left-right-center dice," Bianca offered enthusiastically.

Veronica heard Jack groan softly and thought she saw Bennett grimace.

"Why don't you ladies play that, and us gents will go hang out on the top deck and enjoy the Cubans that GQ brought along," Jack suggested with a hopeful grin. During spring break Bianca had made them play the dice game over and over and the guys had clearly lost interest by the end of the trip.

"Fine with me," Bianca replied, not losing her enthusiasm at all. "Ladies?"

"Sure, why not," Dinah replied, though much less enthusiastically than Bianca sounded. Veronica nodded in agreement as she stuffed another grilled mushroom into her mouth and tried not to moan in pleasure from how good they were. No sense in inflating Logan's ego about his exceptional cooking skills.

"Shelly?" Bianca asked next since Shelly hadn't said anything yet.

"Oh... Sure, if you'd like me to. I don't know how to play though," Shelly answered. Veronica thought she sounded genuinely surprised to be included. Veronica had never been a fan of Shelly's since she had been good friends with Madison and she dated Duncan for a short while, but Shelly had never really done anything directly to Veronica. It was still a bit awkward having to spend a little over a week with her though.

"It's super easy... and fun," Bianca replied with an excited grin on her face. When Bianca was enthusiastic about something it was hard for a little of that not to rub off on other people. Unless of course it was Jack and Bennett and the topic was left-right-center.

After they all cleaned up the dinner remains, Casey, Bennett and Jack started heading up to the top deck. "Coming Worm?" Jack called out to Logan who had taken a spot on one of the sofas in the common room.

Logan shook his head. "Nah, I think I'll just watch the ladies play. Last time I got that horrible migraine just smelling the cigar smoke, remember?"

Jack nodded and the three guys continued out the door. Veronica was a little surprised Logan stayed behind, but didn't comment. She was also surprised that cigar smoke had started causing him to have migraines.

Dinah got a sly grin on her face before speaking. "Oh no, there's no watching. If you're staying you have to play too." She turned to look at Bianca. "We are playing for money, right Twiz?"

"Of course," Bianca beamed. "We didn't say how much. 1's, 5's, 10's or 20's." She paused and reached into her pocket. "Oh that reminds me." She pulled out a hundred dollar bill and handed it to Veronica. "This is for you." Bianca winked as she handed it to her.

"Thank you," Veronica replied with a grin. "I'll have to remember to thank Jack for betting against me."

"Twenties then?" Dinah asked with a devious grin. Veronica and Bianca both smiled and nodded in agreement. "Sixty dollar buy-in work for you two?"

Logan gave Dinah a puzzled look. "How'd we get from twenty to sixty or is that some extra tax on the newbies who've never played?"

"You have to buy 3 chips," Bianca explained as she headed over to pull out Jack's box of poker chips. "So you two good with that? Winner gets to keep the full three hundred."

"Sure," Logan said as he stood up from the table. "I'm willing to throw my money away since I don't expect to win at all."

"It's really just a game of luck," Veronica chimed in to help explain. "So even someone like you could win," she added with a smirk.

He gave her an amused smile. "I'll be right back with my donation," he said as he headed into her room to get his money.

Shelly and Dinah also went off to their rooms for cash, while Bianca pulled three twenties from her pocket. "You're prepared," Veronica commented with a smirk. She wondered how many other twenties Bianca had in there, since she was skeptical that she'd stick to one round.

"I'm surprised you trusted me with your wallet," Veronica teased as Logan returned and handed his twenties to Bianca.

"Oh, I made sure to count how much I have, so don't get any ideas, Birdie," Logan replied playfully.

Shelly and Dinah came back out and handed their money to Bianca as well. Veronica handed Bianca her one hundred dollar bill and received two of the twenties in return. Bianca started pulling fifteen chips out of the box. Veronica had taken a seat at the table sort of across from Bianca. Shelly took the chair to the right of Bianca leaving two empty seats around Veronica. Dinah sat between Veronica and Bianca, leaving room for Logan between Veronica and Shelly, on the left side of Veronica.

"We're playing dot-out or double pot right?" Dinah asked looking between Veronica and Bianca.

Both women nodded their heads in reply. "Of course anyone can forfeit if they want," Bianca clarified.

"Hopefully no one will be lame like Bennett and Jack though," Veronica threw out there, causing Dinah to laugh.

"Of course they only quit early because they thought they'd have a better chance of getting laid, but that didn't work out so well for them did it," Dinah replied, looking at Bianca with an evil grin.

Bianca and Veronica both laughed and nodded. Logan and Shelly gave them a curious look, but neither said anything.

"So how does this work?" Logan asked, perhaps to get them back on track before things went where he didn't really want to hear them go.

"Really easy," Bianca explained. "We each start with three chips. There are three dice and on your turn you roll them. There's an L, R, C and three dots on each one of the dice. You pass a chip left, right or into the center pot, depending on what letter you roll unless you get dots. Dots let you keep your chips. Whoever has the last of the chips wins, but you have to roll and get a dot to keep the final one. Even if you lose your chips, you can still get one back at any time. You have to roll a dice for each chip that you have too, up to three, so if you have more than three then the extra ones are safe. Really easy."

Logan and Shelly both nodded. "Who starts?" Logan asked as he looked around at the others.

"We should let the token male go first," Veronica said with a wicked grin.

Logan narrowed his eyes at her. "I'm taking going first is not an advantage?"

Bianca and Veronica both shrugged at the same time. "It doesn't really matter. We're just superstitious, because I don't think any of us who've gone first have ever won," Bianca explained.

"Maybe I'll be the first then," Logan said as he reached out for the dice. No one objected so he rolled first.

Logan's first roll was a dot, an L and an R so he had to give one to Shelly and one to Veronica and kept one.

"Thanks Worm," Veronica said with a mischievous grin as she took it from him.

"Don't get too attached," Logan replied with a wink.

When the dice made it to Veronica she rolled an L-R-R. Logan took his same chip back from her and kissed it before setting it down in front of him. Veronica rolled her eyes and shook her head at him.

Logan got lucky on the next roll and got to keep both of his chips and then Shelly rolled an R and a dot and kept one of the two she had left and gave the other one to Logan. Logan gave Veronica a big grin since he had three and she had one. By the time the dice made it back to Veronica she still only had one and rolled an L, making her the first one to lose all of her chips.

"Thank you," Logan said happily as he took her chip at the same time that Dinah said "Fuck."

"What?" Logan asked looking between Veronica and Dinah in confusion.

"Every time V loses her chips first, she comes back and wins the pot," Bianca explained with a less than pleased expression.

"Not every time," Veronica protested. "Only 4 out of 5."

Logan let out a loud sigh and shook his head as he grabbed the dice. He rolled dot-R-C and was the first to lose one to the center pot.

"Thanks," Veronica said cheerfully as she took a chip from him.

Shelly was the next one to lose all her chips, but she did get one back when Bianca rolled.

"How long do these games typically last?" Logan asked as Dinah took her roll.

"Depends on how frequently we roll the C. This one is actually going slower than some, but it can really vary," Bianca explained. "Then if the final person can't hit the dots to keep their chips and they all go in the middle, then we buy in another round and go for a double pot."

"Or triple," Dinah chimed in and glowered at Veronica.

"Hey, that wasn't my fault. I didn't miss the dots, your boyfriend did on the first and Bianca did on the second. I just got lucky on the third," Veronica replied in defense.

"Yeah and walked away with over one thousand dollars," Dinah grumbled.

"One thousand eighty to be exact," Veronica replied with a smug grin.

Logan must have been doing the math in his head. "So there were six of you playing?"

"Yeah, over spring break," Bianca clarified.

"Right... I heard about that trip from Dallas," Logan replied as he quirked his eyebrow at Veronica.

Veronica pretended not to notice, but internally cringed wondering what sort of stories Jack may have told Logan about her and whether he was now connecting those dots. That spring break trip had not gone terribly well. Veronica had been dating a guy for about a month and they convinced her she should bring him along when they went to Jack's family's vacation home on the San Juan Islands in Washington for the week. That had turned out to be a major mistake and the nail in the coffin for their short lived relationship. She had gotten more than a little annoyed at some chauvinistic thing he said and made him sleep on the couch for the last half of the week.

They continued playing the game with several of them losing their chips completely for a bit before things would shift and they'd get them back. Logan had gone about four rounds with no chips at all before Veronica had finally rolled an L and had to give him her only chip. On the preceding rounds when he was chipless, she had given him a devious smile each time she rolled and didn't hit an L. He would give the dice a forlorn look as Veronica would hand them to Shelly and had whispered sadly, 'maybe next time' to them once, causing Veronica to chuckle softly at him.

The speed at which the chips were moving to the middle had picked up speed somewhat and over half were finally in the center pot. Jack had come below deck to see how the game was going because the three of them on the upper deck were talking about using the hot tub and was hoping the rest of them would join them too. He watched them play a round before he returned to the top deck with an armful of cold drinks for the three of them up there. After another half hour or so, they were finally down to only three chips which were split between Dinah having two and Logan having one. Dinah rolled an L-C and then they were down to two as Veronica took the chip and one of the dice. She took a deep breath and kissed the dice for luck before she rolled it. She let out a defeated sigh as it landed on a C, leaving Logan with the last chip.

"Roll one of the three dots and the pot is yours," Bianca said with a smile as Logan reached for one of the dice that Veronica hadn't just used.

Logan copied Veronica and kissed the dice before rolling it, drawing an eye roll from her. Veronica let out a squeal of delight as an R came up on the dice. Bianca and Dinah both groaned, having witnessed this same setup several times before. Veronica took her time shaking the dice in her hand before she finally tossed it on the table.

"No..." she cried out in defeat as the L appeared. Dinah and Bianca seemed thrilled with the outcome, so Veronica glared at both of them. "Thanks for the support," she grumbled under her breath. They both shrugged and gave her innocent looks.

Logan took the chip back and picked up the dice. "Come on dot," he said softly as he shook it and released. The women all let out loud cheers as it landed C side up. Logan grumbled slightly and shook his head. "No wonder Dallas and Bennett bolted when you suggested this game."

"You don't have to buy back in, if you'd like to go join your buddies in the hot tub," Veronica quipped back quickly. "You can leave your sixty dollar donation and flee."

"While that's probably the smart decision, I'm not going to give up my money that easily," Logan replied, causing Veronica to laugh at him. "You know me, not one to ever make the smart decision."

Veronica gave him a teasing grin before she replied. "You said it, not me."

Logan nodded and smiled in response.

Veronica stood up and stretched for a minute. "I've got to grab another twenty from my room."

Shelly and Dinah had brought their purses out so they were in the process of taking more money out as Veronica stepped away from the table. Logan said he needed to grab more cash too and started to stand up from the table.

"I can grab it for you... If you trust me," Veronica offered with a sly grin. She wondered how trusting of her he actually was after everything she'd done in the past. She wasn't quite sure how serious he was earlier when he'd teased her about going through his stuff.

"Thanks. My wallet's in the outer small zipped pocket," he said as he gave her a faint smile. "Can I get a fresh drink for anyone?" he asked the others as he made his way toward the kitchen. Veronica could hear the others calling out various requests as she turned into her room.

Her purse was in one of the bags she'd brought along, so she dug it out to get her money first and stuck it in her pocket. She then went to the closet and knelt down to find Logan's wallet. She was actually a little surprised that he didn't make some snarky comment about not trusting her and get it himself. She unzipped the pocket that she thought was the right one and pulled out his wallet. She ran her fingers over the smooth leather before unfolding it. She doubted it was the same wallet that he had before, but it looked very similar. She took a deep breath and opened it, not exactly sure why she was anxious about it. She grabbed three twenty dollar bills but before she closed it, noticed the edge of a picture in one of the inner slots. Her fingers lightly traced the edge of the photo, wanting more than anything to see what was on it. The edge was worn from how it was not entirely pushed into the slot and likely the fold from the wallet was rubbing it.

"Did you want another piña colada?" Logan asked from the door way, causing her to jolt in surprise and drop his wallet on the floor. "Sorry," he said as he must have realized he startled her.

"It's okay," she said as she quickly picked up the wallet and stuck it back in his bag and zipped the pocket closed.

"Did I have enough twenties?" he asked as she started to stand up.

"Yep," she answered and waved them in the air.

"Great, did you want another drink?" he asked as she handed him the three bills.

"Yeah, thanks," she said with a smile, hoping he couldn't tell how fast her pulse was still beating from nearly being caught snooping through his wallet. I'm definitely out of practice on being stealthy.

"How strong?"

"Medium is fine," she answered as she moved to set her purse next to her other bag again.

"Need a loan?" he teased with a smirk.

She shook her head and smiled back. "I'm sure I couldn't afford the interest you'd likely charge."

His smirk turned a bit lecherous as he shrugged. "I'm sure we could work out something amicable."

She shook her head at him again, but couldn't help the sly smile that crept across her lips.

"I'd better go make you that drink," he said with an amused grin as he glanced down at the ground almost nervously before he turned and disappeared down the hallway.

She took a deep breath and glanced back at his bag one last time before following him down the hall. Well that's certainly going to drive me crazy with temptation later.

Veronica handed her money to Bianca and then took her seat again. Logan finished up the drinks and sat back down with a bottle of water for himself.

"I promise we won't take advantage of you, if you wanted something a little stronger," Veronica teased as she gestured toward his bottle. "It's not like we're playing that complicated of a game. It's pretty much impossible to cheat at this."

He chuckled and shook his head. "Thanks for the assurance. I'm fine with water though."

Veronica cocked her eyebrow in a questioning glance but didn't say anything as she took a drink of her colada. She was surprised that his version tasted even better than Jack's. "This is really good..." She commented after taking a second drink. "What did you do differently from Jack?"

Logan gave her a devious grin. "What makes you think I'll give away my trade secret that easily?"

Veronica shook her head at him. "Fine, but now you're going to be designated as the official colada maker all week."

Logan smiled back and shrugged. "It will give me something to do at least."

Veronica wasn't sure if that was a subtle complaint about not having better things to do or not. Bianca had started handing out the chips again and Logan turned his attention back to the game.

"Who starts this time?" Logan asked as he started fidgeting with his chips.

"Shelly would since you were the last one to go," Bianca explained as she handed Shelly the dice that she had collected in front of her again.

The rounds went a bit quicker the second time, with the pot in the middle growing faster than the first time. Jack and Bennett had both popped back down to see if they were almost done because they still wanted to use the hot tub with their respective girlfriends. They ended up pulling up stools to watch and a few minutes later Casey joined them as well.

They were finally down to only four chips, which were spread thin and mostly rotating among Bianca, Veronica and Logan, although they'd occasionally make it to Shelly and Dinah as they passed among the other three. Bianca had passed her only chip to Dinah who then rolled a C and took them down to three. Veronica had two and Logan had only one at that point. Veronica took a deep breath and kissed the dice again, losing one with a C and the other to Logan. He gave her a devious grin as he shook the two dice in his hand and then closed his eyes before he rolled.

Veronica let out a small excited squeal as the dice settled on C and R. Logan shook his head and tossed one into the pot and made an exaggerated gesture as he handed the other to Veronica. "Good luck," he said with a sly smile.

"Thanks," Veronica replied as she took the chip from him and then stood up so she could reach for the third dice that Logan hadn't just used which was closer to Bianca.

"A little superstitious?" Logan asked with an amused smile.

She nodded and then kissed the new dice, shook it in her hand and tossed it out on the table.

The room erupted with various outbursts as the dice landed with a dot facing up. It was hard to identify who said what with everyone yelling at once. Veronica thought she heard Dinah say 'damn it' although it could have been Bianca. She definitely made out Logan's voice saying 'good job'. Even after all these years I'd never not recognize that voice even in a room full of other shouting voices..

"At least you can't complain about not having money for poker now, Birdie," Jack said as the rest of the group was quieting down.

Bianca pulled out the 600 dollars from where she'd put it during the game and handed it all to Veronica. "Thank you," Veronica said as Bianca gave her a mischievous glare.

"Five out of six now," Bianca commented as Veronica took the cash and nodded in reply.

"Finally… hot tub time," Jack said enthusiastically as he stood up from the stool he was sitting on and pushed it back under the counter.

The others started dispersing from the table and heading back to their rooms to change into swimsuits again. Veronica debated about just skipping it and doing a little reading in bed instead. "You're coming too right?" Logan asked as he stood up to head back toward her room. She shrugged and gave him an uncertain look.

"Please don't make me be the odd one out," he asked with a pleading expression.

She let out a defeated sigh and nodded. "Fine, I'll join you all too."

"Thanks," he said with a grateful smile. "I'm hoping it keeps me from getting too sore from all the wakeboarding today. It's a bit more exertion than I'm used to. Tons of fun though. You really should try it tomorrow."

"Maybe…" she said as she squished up her face causing him to laugh and shake his head slightly. She was a little surprised about his getting sore comment, since he seemed to be in much better shape than freshman year, so while whatever he was doing for that may not have been as exerting, it was certainly working.

He let her lead the way to the bedroom. There were small attached bathrooms for each of the bedrooms since the houseboat was a top of the line model. "I'll just pop into the bathroom quickly to change into my shorts and then get out of your way so you can change too," Logan said as he started searching through his bag. "I hung the pair I had on earlier out on the deck to dry and forgot to grab them, so I'm just going to put on a different pair."

"My bikini's hanging in the shower, I'll just change in there and you can change out here," Veronica suggested instead.

"Sure… If I'm going to be in your way at all… just tell me… and I'll figure something out…" he replied with a concerned look on his face.

She shook her head. "Don't be silly… it's technically your room… I really do appreciate you letting me use it though."

"Okay… I just didn't want you to feel awkward about it."

"I don't," she answered quickly with a determined look on her face. If anyone suddenly seemed to be awkward with these arrangements, it's definitely you and not me.

"Good," he said as he nodded.

She turned and headed into the bathroom, wondering why all of a sudden he seemed to be acting weird about their current situation. The only thing she could think of that may have caused a change in his behavior was figuring out that she was the one that Jack had told stories about. Other than that she wasn't really sure why he'd act any differently. It did make her wonder again what sort of stories Jack may have told Logan. She tried thinking back to some of the more embarrassing or awkward things that had happened during the last two years and which ones Jack may have known about. Of course the spring break trip definitely stood out in her mind, but there had been a few other failed relationships that Jack had witnessed as well. She suddenly felt a bit at a disadvantage if Logan actually now had a better idea of what she'd been up to in the last two years and she still hadn't really figured out much about his recent past at all.

She slipped back into the same bikini she'd been wearing earlier, with a little smirk forming on her face as she thought about how Logan had crashed when she took her tank top off. She twisted her hair up into a tighter bun so it wouldn't get wet in the hot tub, grabbed a towel off the shelf and cracked the door open a little to check whether Logan was still changing? "Logan?" she said in a quiet questioning voice through the small opening. She waited a second and didn't hear anything, so opened the bathroom door the rest of the way. He had already left and the room was empty. She glanced at the closet again, her mind returning to curiosity over the picture in his wallet. Probably not a good time to go digging for that right now. She let out a deep sigh and headed out of the room.