sorry for the delay in updating. life's just been in the way a little ^^
i hope you like this chapter and please review =) for every review i get i'll write one more scene with logan and veronica. promise ;)
thank you Lunky for all you work betaing this.
-/-
The last day of school came and as it was previously agreed, Veronica took Lilly and Ronnie home after the day ended. They were having a sleepover and then they would go to the airport to meet Wallace, Mac and their families.
"Lilly, you girls can't stay up late tonight, ok? The plane lands at 9 a.m. so we have to get up early. One movie and then it's bed time. For real." Veronica knew there was no way the girls would go straight to bed after the movie but it didn't hurt to try. "Did you pick the movie yet?"
"Yes," Lilly replied without further explanation. She sensed her mother wouldn't agree with their choice.
"And? What is it going to be? Harry Potter?"
Lilly and Veronica snorted. "I thought we could watch American Pie II…" Lilly tried.
"I don't think that's very appropriate. Give it a couple of years. What happened to your love for Harry Potter?"
"But my dad let us watch the first one the other…" Ronnie looked at Lilly and saw her shaking her head no. She knew she had screwed up and went silent, her mouth still slightly opened.
"I don't feel comfortable with Lilly watching movies that are not age appropriate, Ronnie. And I don't think your mom will feel any different."
Ronnie looked down, embarrassed. She got herself, Lilly and her dad in trouble, probably. They watched another movie in silence and went to bed quickly after it was over.
"Goodbye fun stuff," Ronnie said dramatically. "So many years, so much practice getting my dad wrapped around my finger without him ever suspecting and now your mom will blow my thing. It was a good thing I had going, Lilly… It was a good thing."
"I'm sorry Ronnie. My mom is kind of strict when it comes to 'age appropriate'," Lilly air quoted. "I don't know what her deal is but that's just how she is. I should have warned you…"
"It's ok. I'll look at daddy like that and we'll be right back where we were before. My dad is predictable that way. And there's nothing he won't do for me. Except not letting me go to that premiere, but I'll get something else for that."
"You are unbelievable. You should have my parents and see what not fun is," Lilly scoffed.
"Yeah, like the nerd in you didn't just love going to the museum with daddy or reading a book at the caffe with mommy. Nerd…" Ronnie was laughing.
Lilly smiled at Ronnie. "Ok, ok… you're right. We have different ideas of fun. Get to sleep. I want to go on every ride at Coney Island tomorrow. Night Ronnie."
"Night Lilly."
-/-
Veronica woke the girls up and served them breakfast. They all sat at the kitchen bar eating. Veronica had a cup of coffee and some French toast. Lilly only wanted cereal and Ronnie had some French toast too with orange juice. Soon they were ready to leave for the airport. Veronica was taking her car and the others were renting cars at the airport for the weekend.
They were waiting at baggage claim and Veronica couldn't wait to hug her friends. She then reminded herself that she still had to inform them they were having company.
Mac saw Veronica first and she wanted to run to hug Veronica but Emma was on her lap, sleeping. She turned to her husband Steve and slowly handed him their little girl. Wallace was right behind her, with Alice on top of the bags on the cart. His wife Janice was supervising the three boys who were racing through the airport.
"Bond! I missed you." Mac hugged Veronica. "You look good. Did you put on some make up? That's new." She winked at Veronica.
"Hey Q. You look good. This," she pointed at her face, "Just good genes. It's a new brand called Genes, Genes foundation and mascara. It's great, you should try it." Veronica laughed.
She looked at Wallace and hugged him. "Missed you too Papa Bear."
"Yeah? I thought you had forgotten about me. The older you get, the girlier you become. Shouldn't it be the other way around?"
"Don't act all jealous BFF. There's enough of me to love everyone. And I should say hi to your better halves or they will ditch you." With that, Veronica greeted Janice and Steve. The boys were still running around them, the younger girls were now both sitting at the top of the luggage and Lilly and Ronnie were whispering some super top secret teenage conversation.
They all went to the rent-a-car window to pick up the cars they had reserved. While they were waiting for the guy to bring them the keys and all the documents to sign, Veronica thought it would be a good idea to let them know about the extra company.
"So… We're having company today."
"We are?" Mac said curiously. "Is Ian coming too?"
"Uhm, no, not Ian. Someone from back home… uhm…" Veronica was avoiding eye contact with her friends. "Well, it's Logan and Dick. Surprise."
Mac smiled and said, "I knew that already. You're terrible at surprises, V."
"Oh, you did? How did you…?"
"We're friends, Logan and I, remember? We've had this conversation a few months ago."
"I'm just wondering why the both of you knew this and neither thought it would be a good idea to let me in on it," Wallace said slightly angry.
"Not my fault," Mac started, "Veronica is the host and she invited them."
Like a kid trying to explain herself to a parent after they did something wrong, Veronica said, "No. I didn't invite them. Do you think I'd ever invite Dick for anything?"
"Not Dick. No one invites Dick for anything," Mac said, "He's just like that 'buy one get one free' thing. Only you never want the free thing."
"And when are we having the pleasure of catching up with them?" Wallace asked, disdainfully.
"In five minutes… they're coming by to pick up Lilly and Ronnie. Logan has a big car so he can fit everyone in, the girls plus Dick and his kids and we don't…"
"Wait, Dick has kids? KidS, plural? Someone voluntarily chose to mix their DNA with Dick's? And more than once, no less?"
When Veronica was about to answer Wallace, her phone rang, Logan was outside waiting for the girls so while Mac and Wallace went to pick up the two rentals, Veronica went outside to meet Logan and see the girls to his car. She barely got to the car before the girls hopped in and Logan told her he'd call them on the way to the park to set up a meeting point. She didn't know if he was being polite and trying to spare her from having to talk to Dick so early or if he was trying to spare himself of Dick's jabs about them. Probably both.
As promised Logan was going to call Veronica but the car was so noisy that he couldn't use the speaker, and honestly, he didn't want to give Dick the chance to say anything wrong. He decided to make a stop at a rest stop and get out of the car to talk to Veronica. They decided that they'd split up for the day because the girls didn't want to go on the 'baby' rides, they'd said, so Logan offered to take them on every roller-coaster and scary ride there was. They'd meet up for dinner and decide if they were going to stay for the night or go back to the city then.
When Logan, Dick and all the kids arrived at the restaurant near the beach they had picked for dinner, Veronica and the others were already there. The little kids were coloring and soon Dick's twin boys joined Mac and Wallace's kids in the activity. Lilly, Ronnie and Katy sat at the free end of the table leaving only two seats available, one next to Veronica and the other one right in front of her. Watching her daughter going to the end of the table instead of the seat next to her she thought she'd occupy, Veronica tried to call her and ask her to sit next to her but Lilly pretended she couldn't hear her mother.
That led to Veronica sitting next to Dick and in front of Logan. Mac was sitting right next to Logan so she was chatting him up and trying to include Veronica in the menial conversation. They ordered their food and drinks and the table was pretty loud with kids' laughs, teenager squeals and adult conversation. Their food was coming by, first the kids were served, and then they started bringing out the adult's orders leaving Steve, Veronica and Dick waiting for their food. Since everyone was pretty much starving, every conversation got postponed when their food arrived at the table leaving Veronica in a very awkward position. She refused to look at Dick and was staring at Mac eating her food.
"So Ronnie Mars, have you already casted your damned spell on my boy Logan, here?"
Logan dropped is fork and looked at Dick menacingly while Veronica coughed.
"Don't tell me you've rekindled already?"
"Dick," Logan said, with threatening eyes shooting daggers at his friend.
Only, Dick was, well, Dick and everything flew by him. "Don't tell me you two have already done the deed. What is this, the fifth, sixth reunion?"
"Dick!" Now both Logan and Veronica shouted his name.
"What?" he said, totally oblivious of his surroundings.
Janice and Steve were a little lost about what was going on; Wallace was looking at his plate and playing with his food; Mac, Veronica and Logan were glaring at Dick, all on a different scale of an 'I-could-kill-you' look; Ronnie had a half-eaten pizza slice on her hand and her mouth wide open, a reaction she shared with Lilly, only she still had her mouth full of lasagna.
"So have you?" Dick finally broke the awkward silence.
Veronica got up and stepped outside. Mac was about to follow her but Logan stopped her and said he'd go instead. Mac could see the guilt in his eyes and for a second she felt sorry for him, even though he was not at fault here. Well, maybe he was since he thought bringing Dick would be a good idea. On a second thought, him getting yelled at by Veronica was very well deserved.
When Logan finally found Veronica, she was sitting alone at the beach looking at the ocean. He sat beside her and opened his mouth to start talking but words just weren't coming out.
At the restaurant, Lilly and Ronnie finally came out of the shock and Lilly immediately turned to Mac.
"Aunt Mac, what… is it true? How come my mom never told me?"
Mac didn't want to have this conversation with Lilly. Lying wasn't an option but she knew it was something her friend would want to explain to her daughter. "Lilly, well, yeah, your mom and Logan dated a long, long time ago in high school and our first year at Hearst but I think you'll need to talk to your mom."
"They were high school sweethearts?" Ronnie shrieked.
"Oh hell no! Those two were everything but sweet, she…"
"Dick, shut up." Mac said harshly. "You've said enough."
The girls looked at each other speechless and lowered their heads to their plates.
Outside, after a few minutes of a very uncomfortable silence, Logan finally spoke up.
"I'm sorry Veronica, I thought he'd be good, I…"
Veronica started laughing totally caching Logan by surprise.
"You think this is a laughing matter? Did you see out girls' faces inside? Have you thought about what you're going to say to Lilly? Because I'm everything but excited about having that conversation with Ronnie. Do you wanna do it for me instead?"
Between residual laughs and tiny breaths Veronica turned to Logan. "I'm sorry I was laughing. It has to be a laughing matter otherwise I think Dick's leaving this place in a body bag. Unrecognizable."
Logan chuckled. "I'd back you up on that, you know?"
"This has all been so Twilight Zone-y. I don't even know what to think about it, seriously. We live in the same city, our kids are best friends and we don't run into each other for months. Then you bring your best friend on my time with my friends and I end up having to explain to my kid how I dated her best friend's dad. This isn't happening. Don't even get me started on you having a daughter with my name."
"Veronica…"
"It's fine Logan. I just can't deal with all this right now. Let's go inside and finish dinner and just go, ok?"
"What about the girls, they were going to come with me, are we still doing that?"
"Yeah, sure. Lilly can go with you. I guess we'll have to talk later but it's no rush."
When they stepped inside all the eyes on the table were on them. The food was cold but once they sat, everyone over the age of 10 was eating in silence.
The kids ordered dessert and the adults coffee, and after Logan kicked Dick under the table to foot up the bill as a punishment, they all started gathering their things to leave.
Veronica turned to Lilly, "Sweetheart, your bag is in the trunk, let's go get it so you can go with Ronnie, ok?"
"Can… can I come with you?"
"Sure. Do you want Ronnie to come over instead?"
The two best friends looked at each other and blurted at the same time: "No."
Veronica and Logan shared a concerned look but did as the girls were asking.
It had been a big day so Veronica didn't find anything of Lilly's quietness in the car. They'd talk calmly in the morning.
