Disclaimer: Only borrowing these wonderful characters from Rob Thomas. I sadly own nothing, but wish I did.

Chapter 4– Gentleman's Choice

After leaving the dance floor, Dick stopped by the bar to get a drink before he joined the two ladies at their table. He was still clearly thrown off with Veronica being there and cautiously sat in the chair closest to Mac and farthest from her. Veronica was also unsettled by whatever might be going on between Dick and Mac, so to avoid any unpleasant topics, the three of them just sat quietly and sipped on their drinks.

Veronica was relieved when the awkwardness was broken for a few minutes as Wallace came by the table to say hi to them all. He shook Dick's hand and then shot a slightly concerned look at Veronica when he noticed her troubled expression. He complimented both ladies on their beautiful dresses before excusing himself to get a drink and find Cora. Veronica could sense his apprehension about the situation and vowed to herself to get after him later for keeping things from her in addition to leaving her alone with them.

Logan seemed to suddenly appear from no where all of a sudden, carrying two new martinis which he placed in front of the ladies. After setting the drinks down, he sat in the empty seat next to Veronica and smiled at the obvious tension on the faces of the three of them. "Having fun?" he asked, directed more toward Veronica, than the other two at the table. She gave him a slight nod and small smile before taking a drink. He laughed, getting a questioning look from Veronica. Even with masks on, he could still tell by her high arched brow that she was questioning whatever it was that he found to be so funny. "I'm still not quite convinced you could be Veronica Mars, since I've never known her to go so long without saying a word. I'm not even sure her silent treatment was ever quite this pleasantly silent." She rolled her eyes at him and took another drink. Mac and Dick watched the scene play out, but neither were brave enough to interject anything into the conversation.

"Although there are lots of benefits of you not talking as well," He continued on thoughtfully with a playful smirk forming on his lips. She started to glare at him before he continued, "such as not being able to protest or complain."

At that moment another announcement came over the PA. "We've been asked to add a new dance to tonight's event. The next dance will be a Gentleman's choice, where our gracious volunteers get to pick the partner they would like to dance with and for each lady who agrees, an anonymous donor will be donating an extra $400 to the funds for the night."

Logan stood and reached his hand out to Veronica. "Will you please do me the honor of dancing with me?" She hesitated for a moment and he leaned in and added, "don't forget it's for a good cause." She reluctantly took his hand and let him lead her back to the dance floor.

This time as he held his right hand out for her to hold, once she placed her hand into his he clasped his hand gently around it and brought both their hands back up to his chest in a much more intimate way than before. He smiled down as they start to dance.

"I hope you'll actually talk to me this time, or this is going to turn out to be a very expensive form of silent therapy." She smiled a little bit more at him, her tense posture starting to relax. "Not to mention it's really hard to play charades while we dance," he added seeing that she might be warming up a bit more to him.

"Let's start with an easy question then shall we?" He asked playfully. "When did you get back into town?"

"Friday morning," she answered, finally breaking the silence for him. His smile grew even larger, thankful to finally hear her voice.

"See that's not so hard right?" He teased her as he thought back for a moment. "Well that explains some things at least." She raised her eyebrow in question again, so he continued to explain, "Well Wallace was acting rather strange at the poker game on Thursday night and then yesterday when Mac stopped in to do some work, she also seemed like something was up but I couldn't get either of them to tell me what was going on with them."

"I didn't expect you to steal my friends when I moved away." She added in a bit of an annoyed tone.

"Well I didn't see 'property of Veronica Mars' stamped on their foreheads after you left, so I didn't realize it would be an issue," he replied with mock seriousness. "I forgot that you were never very good at sharing your toys though," he added with a bit of a smirk. He thought for another moment then continued on a bit more mischievously, "oh, and I did leave Piz for you, so I didn't steal them all."

He noticed that she clenched her jaw at his last comment, and he momentarily regretted bringing up Piz. He decided it might be safer to quickly change the topic. "How long are you back in town for?"

She hesitated before answering, "I'm not really sure yet."

He stayed silent for a moment contemplating her answer. "Did something happen at the DA's office Veronica?" he finally asked with a look of concern on his face.

She was a little surprised that he knew where she was working. She sighed and didn't give him an answer to his question. He could immediately tell by the change in her posture that she didn't want to talk about it so he decided not to push her and moved on after a few moments of silence.

"Did Dillon come with you to Neptune as well? I know Keith's birthday is coming up, so I guess I'm not surprised that you would come back for a big birthday bash. It's his 50th this year right?"

The fact that he knew about Dillon, as well as her Dad's 50th birthday, surprised her even more than his question about the DA's Office. "How do you know all of that?" she blurted out a bit more abruptly than she intended, then she shook her head, realizing that it didn't actually take much detective work to figure out how he would know.

"Just because you may not have cared to keep in touch with what was going on with me, doesn't mean that I didn't care about what was going on with you Veronica." He said softly.

Immediately after her comment, she realized she shouldn't have been surprised given how close he seemed to be to Mac, and maybe even Wallace. She had never told them that they couldn't share information about her life with him, so while she may not have wanted to know what was going on with him to make it easier for her when she left, she had just assumed that he would do the same.

"And you know, I don't think you can really hold stealing Mac entirely against me, what with her and Dick being engaged now and him being my best friend, it was only inevitable that we would become good friends too."

Veronica's mouth fell open and a look of utter shock spread across her face.

"Shit, they didn't tell you that yet did they?" Logan's expression quickly changed to one of guilt and he took a deep breath and looked at the ceiling for a moment. "Technically, they've only been engaged for a couple weeks now, and I guess they were sort of keeping it quiet until after the fundraiser was over due to the single status unofficial rule. I'd told them it wasn't really a big deal though for the fundraiser and it's all in fun anyway to raise money for the kids. No one would actually care if Dick was engaged since it's just dancing. It's not like he would have been the first engaged guy volunteering either. I'm really sorry Veronica, I thought she would have told you already." He seemed to be babbling, not quite sure how to recover from letting that little secret out of the bag before Mac was ready to share it with her.

"I didn't notice a ring though?" Veronica finally said obviously in disbelief. She was grasping at straws to try to convince herself that it couldn't be true. She hadn't even let herself believe they were actually dating, preferring to think of them as just really good friends at this point. That illusion was completely shattered now.

"Yeah, I think she wore the ring for the first two weeks, then decided it was too loose and she was worried she was going to lose it, so they took it back in to get it resized and it must still be at the jewelers."

They returned to dancing in silence for a while. Logan was frustrated that he had finally gotten her to start talking to him, and then he unintentionally dropped a big bombshell on her. He decided he'd better try to salvage the rest of their limited time together, worried that the song was probably going to be over soon. "It really is great to see you again. And if I didn't say it before, you really do look gorgeous tonight."

She smiled at his compliment and started to relax a bit more though he could still tell his news about Dick and Mac had really bothered her.

"I think Mac has another spot with me later, will you dance with me again?" he asked with a hopeful tone in his voice, then he worried that it came out sounding a bit too desperate, so he quickly added, "at least I saw a Xenia Onatopp on the list, and figured that was another one of Dick's aliases."

"We'll see." She replied with a shy smile after laughing at the other Bond alias.

As the dance came to an end he held her for a moment longer, then carefully tilted his head so he could place a kiss on her forehead above her mask. "Welcome home Bobcat," he said softly before stepping away. He gave her one last smile before he headed towards the front of the room where they would wait to meet their dance partners.

Veronica smiled as she turned to walk back towards their table near the bar. As she reached the edge of the dance floor, she paused for a moment to look back over her shoulder one last time and cringed as she saw the tall gorgeous brunette in the gold dress once again approaching Logan for the next dance. She hadn't realized it before but their masks were really similar, both having similar red and gold designs on them. They definitely seemed to be familiar with each other by the ease at which they danced and talked. They were still whispering things back and forth and laughing at whatever they were sharing as they moved out on the floor for the next dance. Veronica cursed at her self for actually caring. She most definitely had not come back to Neptune to see him since she actually didn't even realize he was still in town, let alone the Mayor. Even if some little part of her was curious to check up on him when she first decided to come back, the rational part tried to convince her that what they had was in the past and to just let it go.

Veronica was happy to see that the table they had been sitting at before was still open, so she sat down to wait for Mac to finish up her dance with Dick. She hated to admit that at first she was sort of impressed that Logan had devised the whole "Gentlemen's Choice" dance so he could dance with her again. It was too big of a coincidence for an anonymous donor to suddenly request the dance along with his comment to her when they started for it not to be him that set it up. But now she was conflicted because he certainly seemed to be enjoying his time with the leggy brunette. She decided she was being ridiculous and tried to just let it go and push those types of thoughts of him out of her head.

Mac appeared back at the table after song 10 ended and 11 started. "How are you doing champ?" she asked as she took a seat across from Veronica and gave her a guilty smile. "I bumped into Logan on my way off the dance floor and he let me know he accidentally shared my big news with you." Once again, Mac sheepishly said "surprise?" though the forced excitement as she said it was getting weaker with each time she had used it throughout the night.

Veronica gave her a slightly annoyed look and said with a sigh. "I'm getting a bit tired of surprises tonight."

"I'm really sorry I didn't tell you. I was trying to figure out how to bring up just the fact that we've been dating for a while first, before jumping into the whole 'hey guess what I'm engaged' part of the story. I know you were never much of a fan of his when you lived here, but you've been gone 8 years now and we've all changed a lot. I know I should have told you a long time ago that we had gotten involved, but I guess I was worried about your reaction."

Veronica sighed and looked a bit glum before finally replying, "I know, it's not your fault that I tried to avoid most everything about this place for all these years. I don't know what I expected." She paused for a moment before continuing, "Of course time wasn't just going to stand still here while I was gone."

Veronica caught a flash of gold out of the corner of her eye again, and noticed the leggy brunette ordering a drink at the bar. Once she had her drink, the tall attractive woman turned back toward their table and Veronica caught her giving a little wave to Mac before she headed back to the other side of the room.

Veronica raised her eyebrow in a questioning gaze at Mac, "Friend of yours?"

Mac looked a bit disgusted and shook her head slightly. "Not really, more of a work acquaintance I guess you would say."

"Hm…" Veronica pondered, "well she looked pretty friendly out on the dance floor with the Mayor earlier."

Mac smiled smugly at Veronica noticing the slight note of jealousy in her tone and the use of Logan's title rather than his name. It wasn't too hard to guess what was going through her friend's mind. "Her name is Alexis Calloway. She's the president of the Chamber of Commerce and I've done some consulting work for them too." She hesitated obviously having an internal debate about whether to say more or leave it at that.

Veronica picked up on her hesitation, "and…?"

Mac thought for a minute before continuing on. Of course if Veronica really wanted to know who she was she'd likely just Google her or look her up in one of her PI databases when she got home, so there wasn't much point in keeping it from her. She knew she was already in trouble for not mentioning that Logan was the Mayor and that she was engaged to Dick, so maybe being honest now could win back some friendship points. Although whether this was the venue to bring it up or just let her find out later was still debatable.

Veronica grew impatient and started tapping her finger on the table. Mac let out a sigh and finally answered, "She's the Mayor's ex-fiancé."

Veronica stopped tapping and stared at Mac. "As in the current Mayor, or the prior one?" Not that she knew who the prior Mayor may have been and not that it would really matter, but she just couldn't actually imagine Logan being engaged to someone. "And please don't say 'surprise' again!" Veronica snapped at the end.

Mac shrugged and looked around the room trying to find a new distraction.

After dance 11 ended, they announced another short break and the dance floor started to clear out again. There were still 4 dances to go and Veronica realized she should check to see if Wallace had any spots left. She spotted him across the room with Cora, and let Mac know she was heading over to talk with him.

As she crossed the room, she caught sight of Logan and Alexis chatting closely together again. For exes, they were awfully friendly she thought to herself. Although there had been times in the past when he and she had been that way too. And with all their on again, off again history, she could easily see a definite pattern with Logan not giving up on someone he was really interested in. She couldn't help but wonder if that was the case with Alexis now. She may be his ex-fiancé, but was that just temporary until they worked through whatever issue had ended the engagement in the first place.

"How you doin' Superfly?" Wallace asked as she reached the two of them.

She narrowed her eyes at him with a grim expression. "Please don't tell me you have some other big surprise that you've neglected to share?"

He shook his head as he chuckled slightly. Cora gave her a sympathetic smile.

"Lots of things change when you've been gone for 8 years," he said with a reluctant smile. "Maybe if you would have come back to visit a bit more often, there would be less surprises for you now." He reached his arm across her shoulder for a gentle half hug. "You know I still love ya though, right sis?"

She smiled at him and leaned into his side. They stood and chatted for a few minutes about his various dance partners. He let her know that the rest of his dance spots were already filled up as well. Wallace was obviously trying to avoid the subjects of both Logan being there and Mac's impending nuptials as they talked. Veronica decided she could get after him later for keeping all of that from her, rather than here at the ball.

A few people Wallace knew greeted him in passing and he introduced Veronica to a few of the people that were also teachers at the high school. She had successfully distracted herself enough that she was starting to relax a bit more and joked around with Wallace and Cora. Soon the break was over and the voice over the PA announced that they would be starting dance 12 in a few minutes.

Veronica felt an arm circle her waist. "Hey there, Miss Onatopp," Logan joked as he flashed the dance ticket in front of her face. "Give me the honor of one more dance?"

She sighed but reluctantly let him drag her back to the dance floor. He resumed their prior position, with one arm around her waist and the other holding her hand closely against his chest. He seemed to be getting a bit bolder this time though, and she noticed he wasn't just holding her hand, but rubbing his thumb in small circles along the back of her hand. She wondered if he'd had a chat with Mac while she was off with Wallace and found out that Dillon was no longer in the picture, or if he was just absent-mindedly doing it without even realizing it.

"Are you and Mac going to come down to Dick's yacht when the fundraiser is over?" He asked as they danced in slow circles to the rhythm of the music. "I know he was never your favorite person before, but you really should give him a chance for Mac's sake. He grew up a lot after you left and Mac certainly helped get him in line. Even though they might have seemed like such an unlikely couple, they really fit well together now."

She smiled and shrugged, "Maybe we will. At least for a little while. Wallace said he and Cora would be there too."

"That's great," He replied then after a moment he sighed and added, "I don't want to make you uncomfortable Veronica, so if you'd rather not have me there, I'll understand. I really do want you to have a good visit, and I would love to be able to spend time with you, but I don't want to make you feel awkward either. I get the feeling that you weren't expecting to run into me tonight, and I don't want to ruin the rest of your night if you'd rather just spend it with them."

She let out a little huff of air that was a mix between a laugh and a sigh. "Look Logan, we're both mature adults now. I'm sure we can be civil to each other and spend time together with our friends without it being an issue. We've been able to get through two and a half songs without any trouble right?"

He gave her a little smile and nodded, keeping his eyes locked on hers. She quickly became a bit overwhelmed by his heated gaze and turned her head way from him, looking to the side as they continued to dance.

"Mac said you and Dillon are over?" Logan finally asked softly. She didn't answer but did nod her head. "I'm sorry, Mac said you'd been together for quite some time, I'm sure that was hard." She replied with a soft thanks.

After a minute of just dancing in silence, he finally spoke again. "I'd really love to hear all about your job and what else you've been up to these past few years. Can I take you to dinner tomorrow night?"

"Sorry, I'm supposed to join Mac and Lauren for a family dinner at the Sinclair's. Won't that be beyond strange," she said with a small laugh.

"How about Monday night then?"

She shook her head again, "Sorry I already have dinner plans for Monday too."

He narrowed his eyes at her and gave her a skeptical look, "You're not just trying to avoid me now are you?"

She didn't answer, but gave him a little shrug and a smirk, and turned her head back to the side.

He chuckled softly and squeezed her a little closer as they continued dancing in silence.

With the lack of conversation, and the effect of several drinks, her mind started over analyzing everything. While it felt great being in his arms and dancing, she quickly flashed to his obvious chemistry with Alexis and how she definitely didn't have that with him now. Eight years is a long time to be away from someone and so many things were different now. She started feeling a bit depressed to think about how the rest of them were all close friends now, with their own little jokes and nicknames, and how she had become the outsider again. For a second she felt a slight panic attack, thinking how this was almost like it was in high school after Lilly died and all her friends abandoned her. She tried to clear that from her mind and convinced herself that she was being ridiculous and that she'd just had a few too many unwelcome surprises tonight.

She'd gotten so lost in her thoughts that she didn't realize the music had stopped, until she heard Logan asking if she was OK. He gave her a concerned look as he dropped his arm from around her waist, but he was still holding her hand on his chest. She smiled and nodded. He reached up with his free hand and pushed a strand of hair behind her ear. Such a familiar feeling and she felt her heart rate speed up and her breath hitch again for a second.

"Thanks again for dancing with me tonight," He said with a smile. "I'll see you later on the yacht." He stood still holding her hand for another second before giving her a little wink and turning back toward his designated meeting spot.