A/N – Thank you for all the wonderful comments on the last chapter! I hope you all like this one too. Let me know what you think and there are a few more notes at the end of the chapter too.

Disclaimer: All original VM characters belong to Rob Thomas.

Chapter 7

Logan was having more fun watching Veronica watching the movie than actually watching it himself. Of course I've seen it about 10 times already. He'd shifted slightly against the couch so he could see her face better. She'd glanced over at him a few times and smiled at him before turning back to watch the movie again. He'd wanted to kiss her so badly earlier by the door, but didn't think it would be a good idea with Evie there. He'd gone on dates with a few women in the last couple of years, but none of them had actually spent any time around Evie, so he wasn't sure how she'd react to seeing that. Not to mention he really didn't want to get his heart totally broken when she left and keeping a bit of distance was probably best. For all he knew, she could even have a boyfriend still at home waiting for her to return. I'm just going to enjoy what ever small amount of time I'll have with her again as friends. He couldn't help but think about how comfortable and familiar it felt to just enjoy breakfast and a movie with her. Albeit it was far different than lazy weekend mornings they'd spent having breakfast at the Grand when they were dating. Those of course involved room service and typically not much clothing. And the movies were never G rated animated cartoons. This was in some ways so much better though. No worries over dangerous PI cases or deep dark secrets that he was trying to hide. Just them being together with no drama going on around them.

They had just watched the part where Agnes gets the big fluffy unicorn when Evie started to laugh. "See, just like you said it," she said as she turned and gave Veronica a big smile. Veronica laughed and nodded. Evie had her unicorn and minion sitting next to her on the beanbags and wrapped her arms back around them as she turned to watch the movie again. Logan couldn't help but notice how soft Veronica's expression was as she watched Evie as well as the movie.

"I'll be back in a minute," Logan whispered to Veronica a little while later as he stood up and headed up stairs.

Logan pulled out his phone and typed in a text to Sara. 'Whatchaa doin?'

'Building an intergalactic transporter' She texted back a minute later.

He chuckled and sent a reply. 'Aren't you a little young for that?'

'Yes, yes I am' She texted back, followed a second later by another text. 'I'm just waiting for Devin to get off work. What's up? Need a sitter?'

'Actually I wanted to borrow Bandit for a little while.' He texted back as he opened the fridge and pulled out some grapes and went to the sink to wash them.

'Sure. When?"

'30 min?' Logan texted back after he put the grapes into a big bowl.

'k c u then' Sara texted back. He smiled and headed back downstairs with the grapes.

Veronica gave him a small smile as he came back in the room. Bella had totally stolen his spot and had her head in Veronica's lap. "Theif," he whispered as he walked over to the other side of Veronica and sat down. He offered her some of the grapes before he let Evie know he'd brought them down. Evie hopped up from the beanbags and crawled on the other side of him to eat some of them too. Evie took one and then gave Logan a sweet smile after eating it. She pulled another one off and turned so she was facing him.

"You too," she said holding it up so he could eat it. She giggled as he opened his mouth wide and pretended to try to eat her fingers before taking the grape. She ate a few more before she climbed back down to her beanbags where she'd left her unicorn and minion. Logan glanced back over at Veronica who seemed to have been watching him a bit more than she was watching the movie at that point. He quirked an eyebrow at her with a questioning expression and she shrugged and shook her head. He so desperately wondered what was actually going through her head. Of course this wasn't exactly the place or time to try to get her to open up to him. He thought it was a bit ironic that he really wanted to get her to tell him exactly what she was thinking and feeling, when in the past she was the one who'd tried to push them to be completely open and honest with each other. He vowed if they were able to have that discussion this time, there wasn't anything he'd try to keep from her. He was proud of himself for being open with her about Katy the night before. Even though she'd said at the time that he didn't owe her any explanations, he felt like the only chance they had for whatever type of relationship they might be able to build this time had to be based on being open and honest with each other.

Pretty close to 30 minutes later the movie was ending and Logan heard the door upstairs open and close. Veronica gave him a curious look and he whispered that it was just Sara. He stood up and called Bella to go outside.

"Lo?" Sara called out from upstairs.

"We're downstairs," Logan called up to her.

"Sara!" Evie squealed out happily, but then she gave Logan a sad look. "Are you leaving again?" It always broke his heart a little when she got upset about him leaving her. He didn't actually do it very often, but Kathleen had really pushed him to get away and do things without Evie so she'd get used to being away from him before she had to start going to school.

"No, Sara brought you a surprise," Logan said with a little grin. Sara walked in the room a minute later carrying the surprise in her arms.

"Bandit!" Evie cried out as she hopped off the couch and ran over to Sara.

"Sit down sweetie so you don't scare him," Logan called after her as Veronica had turned to see what Sara was carrying.

Veronica's eyes opened wide and she turned back to look at Logan who had sat down next to her again. "Are you a magician or something?" Her tone was clearly full of amazement.

Logan laughed and shook his head. It had been so long since he'd seen a look of amazement like that on Veronica's face. Sara came over and sat down next to Veronica with Evie sitting on her other side. Sara was holding a little white rabbit that had what looked like big black eyes. Evie and Veronica both reached out to pet him. Veronica laughed as the bunny licked her hand.

"Oh my, he's even better than the fluffy unicorn!" Veronica said in an almost giddy tone.

"You can hold him," Sara said to Veronica as she moved him over to her lap.

"Can I get him a carrot Daddy?" Evie asked looking over at him. He nodded and she ran up to the kitchen again returning with another carrot. She laughed as she held the carrot and the bunny would take bites of it.

"Is he yours?" Veronica asked Sara.

Sara shook her head. "No he belongs to a friend of mine, but she's out of town for a week, so I've been taking care of him for her."

"He actually has black hairs around his eyes doesn't he? Almost like eyeliner." Veronica asked as she studied him more closely.

Sara nodded. "Yeah, he's a special breed that has that type of marking. It makes his eyes look even bigger than they are."

"What big eyes you have," Veronica said playfully to the bunny.

"All the better to see you with, my dear," Logan couldn't help but reply. Perhaps I've read Little Red Riding Hood one too many times to Evie. Veronica gave him a delighted little smile and then he remembered an x-rated version they'd done one night when she came over to his suite with a red hoodie on. He practically blushed as he saw the look on her face.

Evie giggled. "I love it when Daddy reads me that story." Both Logan and Veronica chuckled a bit nervously as they quickly turned their attention back to the rabbit rather than the look they had just exchanged.

"Well he's even more adorable than the wild rabbit that was in the yard earlier." Veronica said as she continued to pet him and watch Evie feed him the carrot. Logan caught her giving him another quick glance with the same sly little smile on her face. He tried really hard not to think about playing big bad wolf with her, but it wasn't easy and he felt his face heating up a bit. I'm never going to be able to read that story the same way again now.

When Bandit was done with the carrot, they let him hop around on the floor for a little bit. Sara finally said that she should probably put him away for a while and scooped him up to take him back up to his cage that she'd left in the kitchen.

"What are we going to do now?" Evie asked Logan as Sara disappeared back up the stairs.

Logan shrugged. "What did you want to do?" Come on Logan, you know that's a dangerous thing to ask her. Having Veronica there seemed to be throwing off his normal behavior though, and he asked the question before he even thought about the repercussions. Damn the big bad wolf and little red riding hood distracting me.

"Can we go to the beach?" Evie asked with a hopeful look.

Logan gave Veronica a quick look. "Do you want to go to the beach again?" He was a bit concerned the change of venue might give her an opening to head back to the B&B. Why couldn't it have been just coloring or finger painting this time? Veronica seemed to be enjoying her morning with them, but he wasn't sure how much family time she was going to want to stick around for. Evie was a bundle of energy most days and it was exhausting for even him to keep up with her sometimes and he'd had lots of practice.

"Sure," Veronica replied with a big smile.

"Okay, let's see if Sara wants to come too," Logan said giving Veronica a grateful smile. The three of them walked up the stairs to check with Sara.

"Yeah, I could come along. Devin doesn't get off work until 5, so I have lots of time to kill. Let me run Bandit home and get some stuff," Sara said as she went to pick up the cage to take it back to her car.

Logan suggested they pack some food and could have lunch there. Veronica helped him make some sandwiches and pack some other food to take along. Sara returned a short while later with a bag swung over her shoulder and changed into different clothes.

"I'll get Evie ready to go too," Sara said and led her up toward her room.

"Don't forget to put sunscreen on her!" Logan called after them.

He gave Veronica a shy smile after they were gone. "So…" he started a bit hesitantly. "This isn't too much for you is it? I didn't mean to turn it into a huge family day… though I guess most days are like this for us… I just don't want you to feel overwhelmed…" Veronica put her hand on his arm stopping his rambling.

"Hey, it's fine," she said with a warm smile on her face. "I'm having fun." She gave him a tender smile. "It's not every day that a guy makes a rabbit appear for me."

He let out a soft laugh and nodded. He put his hand on top of hers and squeezed it lightly. "I'm just really happy to have you here and I don't want you to feel uncomfortable."

"I don't," she said again with a reassuring smile, but then her expression changed slightly. "Oh I almost forgot again. I brought the picture that Charlie sent for you. Did you want to see it?"

Logan nodded and she walked over to where she'd left her bag on the back of the stool. She pulled a small envelope out and then took out a picture and handed it to Logan. He'd still never met Charlie in person, though when the media had gotten wind of their story, he'd seen photographs of him. He looked pretty much the same as he had then, and Nick looked a lot like Charlie. Charlie's wife had long brown hair and some light freckles on her face and Nick seemed to have the similar freckles as well. Logan looked at it for a moment and then handed it back toward Veronica.

"You can keep it," she said with a tender smile. "He wanted you to have it, even if you didn't want to help them." She paused for a moment and her expression became a little sadder. "I think he realized how important family really is once he had his own son and seemed to really regret not giving you a chance before."

Logan nodded and looked down at the photo again. "I did decide I'd get checked to see if I'm a match or not."

"That's great Logan. He'll be so happy to hear it. Did you…" she paused and gave him a concerned look. "Did you want to call and tell him, or do you want me to."

"Could you?" Logan quickly replied. "I'm not sure I'm ready to talk to him yet."

She gave him a compassionate smile and nodded. "Of course. Did you want to go in tomorrow? There's a doctor's office in Florence that is able to do the testing and I can schedule some time with their lab tech if you want."

"Um… could we wait until Friday?" he asked with a slightly concerned expression. "I'd already promised Evie we'd go to the aquarium tomorrow and hoped the doctor visit could wait until Friday."

"Sure, that's fine Logan," she replied with an understanding smile.

"Hey, if you're not totally sick of us by the end of today, you should come to the aquarium with us tomorrow. It's up in Newport and it's a really cool place." Logan suggested with a hopeful smile.

"That sounds like fun," Veronica replied, but then her expression became a little concerned again.

"What's wrong?" Please don't let it be that she needs to get back to someone in Neptune already.

"Well I wanted to stick around until you had the test done so I could be sure all of the information gets sent back to Charlie, but if we wait until Friday…"

I figured there was probably someone there waiting for her. "Do you need to get back to Neptune before then?" Logan asked disappointed that she'd be leaving already.

She shook her head and gave him a slightly embarrassed look. "No, it's just… I'll need to find somewhere else to stay since Paige only had a room through tomorrow night. I'm sure I can find something else though."

Logan gave her a shy smile, "I do have a guest room if you want to stay here… but if you'd rather not stay with us, Kathleen has an extra room too."

"Whatever you'd rather have me do is fine," she said with a small smile. "I don't want to make things weird for you and Evie, or inconvenience Kathleen. I'm sure I might be able to find somewhere else to stay."

Logan gave her a skeptical look. "On a weekend in Yachats in August? I highly doubt it. I really don't think Evie would mind. She's used to Sara staying over sometimes, so I don't think having you stay would seem all that strange."

"Okay, thanks. If you're sure it won't be a problem."

Logan gave her a reassuring smile and nodded. Yep this isn't going to be weird at all. Just don't stand in her doorway watching her sleep like you do to Evie. That would be worse than checking newspaper articles about her.

Evie and Sara were back downstairs a few minutes later. Evie's hair was French braided and she had different clothes on. After confirming that Sara did put sunscreen on her, they all headed to the garage to pack things into the Range Rover. The girls led the way, followed a bit by Logan and then Veronica. Part way down the stairs Logan turned back and smiled up at Veronica. "I do have extra sunscreen if you need to borrow any."

She gave him a playful smile. "Does application come with that offer?"

"Mm hmm," he replied quickly without even thinking as he gave her a salacious grin. She laughed and poked him in the side softly. Keeping my distance is so totally not going to work if she keeps making comments like that. He gave her a little wink and then turned and continued down the stairs.

Once he was in the garage, Logan opened a side door so Bella could come back in and she immediately ran over and jumped in the back of the SUV. Veronica stood there watching as Logan loaded some folding beach chairs, a bag of sand toys and a few other items into the back with Bella. He was mentally going throw a checklist of what they usually would take along and when he turned back toward Veronica he saw a very bemused look on her face.

"What?" he asked sheepishly.

She laughed softly and shook her head. "Who are you?" she asked with an amused smile on her face.

He shook his head as he closed up the back of the SUV. "Just Logan," he said tipping his head down and giving her a shy smile.

She gave him a tender smile in return and held out her hand. "It's really nice to meet you, Just Logan."

He chuckled softly and reached out his hand to squeeze hers. "Likewise," he said playfully before they parted and went to climb into the SUV.

A/N – If anyone thought Logan's texts to Sara seemed odd, it's actually a reference to Disney's Phineas and Ferb. I'm guessing some of you might have figured that out, but thought I'd mention it for others so it didn't seem so strange.

And Bandit is actually based on my family's own pet rabbit Bandit. I put a picture of him on tumblr. (You'll have to adjust the tumblr address since FF won't let me put URLs in the story. Just replace the * with . - sorry FF is such a pain!)

lisawolfe80*tumblr*com/post/114761070037/bandit

Next chapter will be back to Veronica's POV and cover the first half of their time on the beach. Be sure to let me know how you liked this chapter!