A/N – Here's the next chapter for you all. Not quite as fluffy as some of the earlier ones, but they can't all be super sweet. The next chapter will be back to Veronica's POV. Thanks for reading along and all the wonderful reviews you've left. I really do love reading them all, and try to reply to as many as I can. Enjoy and let me know what you think!

Disclaimer: All original VM characters belong to Rob Thomas.

Chapter 10

Topper's wasn't as busy as it would be on a weekend, so there were a few empty tables and only one other couple at the counter ordering as they walked in the door. Logan had let go of Veronica's hand when they got there so he could open the door for them, and Evie of course let go of his as soon as possible too. Part of him wanted to grab Veronica's hand again after walking through the door, but didn't think that was probably a good idea since Evie would probably find that a bit strange.

The middle-aged woman behind the counter gave them a pleasant smile as she finished up with the couple in front of them. "Hi Evie… Logan…" She paused and looked at Veronica with a bit of surprised. "… and friend."

"Hi Anita." Logan replied in a warm tone. "This is Veronica. A friend of mine from California."

"Hi Veronica," she said with a friendly smile. "Nice to meet you."

Logan gave Veronica a quick glance and saw her nod as she returned the greeting.

"The usual for you two?" Anita asked as Evie and Logan nodded. "And what would you like?" she asked Veronica as she grabbed a sugar cone and started scooping chocolate chip ice cream into it. Veronica started looking over the flavors as Anita handed Logan the cone so he could give it to Evie. Evie took it and bounded over to one of the open booths.

Anita had already grabbed a waffle cone and started on Logan's. "White Chocolate Raspberry Yum?" Veronica asked him with a curious smile.

He nodded. "Yep," he replied with a sly grin. "It's the best. Did you want a taste?" He reflexively waggled his eyebrows at her. It's like I can't help myself around her. She gave him a coy smile and nodded.

Anita handed him his finished cone and he held it out for her to try. She of course wasn't shy about the way she used her tongue to take a long slow lick of it, while gently holding on to his hand to keep the cone near her mouth. Is she actually trying to kill me? "Mmmm…" she quietly moaned as she finished. Yeah, she's definitely trying to kill me.

"Did you want the same?" Anita asked with an amused expression.

"Actually I think I'll take a waffle cone with the Fireside S'mores," Veronica replied. "I'm sure I can con him out of a few more licks of his too."

Anita chuckled and nodded in reply. "Are you taking one back for Kathleen too?" Anita asked as she finished up Veronica's and handed it to her. Logan nodded as he pulled out his wallet and paid Anita for their ice cream. He grabbed a handful of napkins before the two of them walked over and joined Evie at the table she'd claimed. Veronica raised her eyebrow as he was grabbing all the napkins.

"What?" he asked questioningly. "I've seen you eat!" Veronica laughed and shook her head at him.

It didn't take them too long to finish their cones. He'd shared a few more licks of his with Veronica, and she wasn't quite as sensual with those as she had been at the counter now that they were at the table with Evie. Logan had sat next to Evie and Veronica was sitting on the other side of the booth across from them. He tried not to notice how low cut her tank top was when she would lean toward him for another bite of his ice cream, but after the first time, she must have realized and gave him a coy smile and shook her head playfully at him. He tried to feign innocence but couldn't help the little smirk that crept across his face.

He also couldn't help but think back to all the other times they'd had ice cream in the past. So many trips to Amy's as well as having some in his suite at the Grand too. Of course most of the time when they'd picked up a couple pints to have at the Grand or ordered it from room service, they ended up doing more with the ice cream than just eating it. Focus on the trips to Amy's not the things we did in my suite. He realized he really needed to stop thinking about all the intimate things they had done together, or it was going to be harder to keep from wanting to go there again, and he just didn't think that was practical at all with whatever limited time they were going to have. Not to mention he really did want to rebuild a friendship with her and usually sex made things way too complicated in any relationship. Nope, this time I'm not going to screw this up with her.

When they were finished, Logan stopped at the counter to pick up a cone for Kathleen. After he'd taken the cone from Anita, he saw a certain look on Evie's face and knew exactly what was coming next. As he expected, 'can we go to the toy store' came tumbling out of her mouth. There was a small toy store located a few doors down from the ice cream parlor and usually they went there first before they had ice cream, but yet again he'd been completely thrown off his game with Veronica being there.

Logan let out a small sigh. Even though she'd been a little strong-willed around Veronica, having a complete meltdown was something he hoped they could avoid at least for a while longer, if not just altogether during her visit. "Sorry Evie, but we need to take Nana's ice cream back or it's going to melt." He was hoping reasoning with her might work, but past experience told him it was unlikely.

"But we always go to the toy store when we get ice cream," she said as her expression started to become more agitated.

"Yeah, but we usually go before, and I forgot today," Logan started to explain. "Maybe next time."

He saw a look cross her face that clearly showed she wasn't done protesting yet and he wondered how quickly this might escalate, when Veronica put her hand on Evie's shoulder. "I could take her to the toy store while you take the ice cream back."

"Oh," Logan said a bit surprised. "If you're sure?" Veronica nodded. "Is that okay with you Evie?"

"Yes," Evie said with a chirpy tone and took Veronica's hand. "They have lots of pretty unicorns," she said as she started pulling Veronica toward the door.

'Thanks,' Logan mouthed silently as Veronica gave him a quick glance over her shoulder and disappeared out the door with Evie and a sly smile on her lips.

He walked quickly back towards the gallery. He didn't want to leave them on their own for too long, not quite sure how much trouble Evie might try to get into while he was gone. Of course it hadn't taken long for him to realize how much Evie was just like Veronica, although unfortunately it was more the feisty post-Lilly version of her and not the more reserved version from when they'd first met as twelve year olds, and mixing that with someone who wasn't even five yet meant lots of challenges for him.

He was hoping that Kathleen might have customers in the gallery because he wasn't sure what sort of questions she might throw at him if they were alone. As the door opened, he saw that particular wish wasn't being granted, finding Kathleen alone sitting at the front counter looking through an art catalog as he walked in.

She gave him a curious look. "What happened to the girls?" she asked as she took the cone from him.

"They went to the toy store."

She gave him a sly smile. "Smooth move earlier with the hand holding," she teased.

"Hey, that was entirely your granddaughter's doing," Logan replied with a shy smile.

She chuckled and nodded slightly, "Yeah, but you certainly didn't protest." Logan's smile grew a little bit more and he shrugged.

He changed his expression to look more critically at her. "And don't think I'm not on to you about 'dinner' tonight," he replied with a raised eyebrow.

"What?" she asked innocently. "It's Wednesday. You always come for dinner on Wednesdays."

He laughed and shook his head. "Right… I seem to recall someone telling me just yesterday that I shouldn't worry about my normal routine."

She gave him a guilty smile. "Okay, I just wanted to get to know her too." She watched him carefully. "I'd love to know more about a woman who turns you into a shy schoolboy. Face it Logan, you typically exude confidence and charm, and around her, you're like a tongue-tied love sick puppy."

Logan let out a deep breath and shook his head. "Yeah… somewhere along the way she started doing that to me." Probably the moment I realized I was hopelessly in love with her. He paused a moment and his smile faltered. "It doesn't matter much though because she's only here for a few more days and then she'll be gone. She's starting law school at Stanford in a couple weeks."

Kathleen gave him a tender smile and reached across the counter to squeeze his hand. "Well then you need to make the most of the time you do have with her." She took a sharp breath. "No one knows how much time they'll have with anyone, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't take advantage of whatever opportunities you're given."

His expression became a bit softer and he squeezed her hand a little tighter. "I just don't want it to be difficult for Evie either."

Kathleen gave him a slightly more skeptical look. "Evie will be happier if you're happy Logan. And please don't try convincing me that you're totally happy again. I know you love Evie and you do an amazing job with her, but that doesn't mean you need to sacrifice your own chances at happiness either."

Logan sighed again. "I just don't want Evie to get the wrong impression, especially since Veronica can't stay." He thought about saying that things never seemed to work out before for them either but kept that to himself instead.

Kathleen bit on her lip for a moment before she replied. "Why don't you let Sara and I take Evie a bit more while she's here so you have more time alone with her. Sara already mentioned interrupting you two in the garage."

Logan gave her a slightly embarrassed look before he regained his composure and continued again. "Evie and I already had plans for the aquarium tomorrow, and Veronica said she'd come along." As long as today doesn't scare her away completely. "Then Friday we have to go for the testing in Florence, and then I'm guessing she'll be done here and head back to Neptune after that."

"Well then Friday sounds like a perfect time for the two of you to spend the day together." She gave him a sly smile. "…and night if you want."

Logan chuckled nervously and shook his head at her. "I'll think about it."

"Good," Kathleen replied with a satisfied grin. "Now you'd better go rescue her from your unruly daughter."

Logan laughed and shook his head again. "She gets that entirely from you I've been told."

Kathleen chuckled back and nodded. "Yeah, that might be true."

"See you at dinner," he called out as he headed out the door.

He walked quickly back to the toy store, hoping that Evie had behaved herself while he was gone. She was usually good at the toy store, at least until it was time to go. He really did try not to spoil her, but it was sometimes extremely hard for him to show as much restraint as he probably should. He spotted them in the book section of the store. He gave a small wave and smiled at the older gentleman who ran the store as he walked toward the back corner.

"Daddy look!" Evie chimed as soon as she saw he was there. She ran over toward him with a book in her hand. "They have a new unicorn book." She held it up so he could see it better. "It's called Little Lost Unicorn. Can we buy it pleeeease?" He couldn't help but wonder if the whole head tilt thing was just genetically encoded for all small blondes because he certainly never taught it to her and she didn't get it from watching him, as she stood their in front of him doing it again.

Veronica stood behind her with an amused expression on her face. She tilted her head the same way and mouthed 'pleeeease' at him too.

He chuckled slightly and let out a defeated sigh. At least it wasn't a toy, he always felt better when it was a book she wanted because he didn't feel as guilty about giving in to those requests.

They walked to the front of the store, where Mr. James rang up the book for him and told them to have a nice afternoon. Logan couldn't help but notice the curious look he had on his face as well. Logan wondered what his expression had been when Veronica had come into the store with Evie. Living here in such a small town for 3 years, meant most of the proprietors in town knew them, especially since Kathleen ran a gallery here and several of them had kids that had grown up with either Katy or Sara.

When they walked out of the store Logan had to remind Evie again to hold his hand. Part of the way between the gallery and the shops was on a sidewalk, but part of it was close to the road too and his rule was that they always held hands when they were walking near any cars. She raised her eyebrows and looked between him and Veronica. Veronica laughed and raised her hand for him to take again. A satisfied grin crossed Evie's face and she turned her attention back to the direction they were headed. Veronica gave him a slight shoulder check and smirked up at him and he couldn't help but give her a tender smile in return. He started to feel those same feelings that he'd had on the way there come back as she gently caressed her fingers against his. He wondered what she was thinking as well, but it wasn't something he could just come out and ask. Maybe she was just absentmindedly doing it, and it didn't make her feel the same way it did him. Even before they were a couple, back when Lilly was still alive, Veronica would sometimes grab him by the hand to drag him somewhere, but that of course seemed completely different then.

When they finally arrived home, Evie hopped out and scrambled into the house to look at her new book. "Hey, I was thinking," Veronica said as she climbed out of the SUV and started to follow Logan inside. Logan stopped and turned back toward her. He braced himself for her to gracefully bow out of dinner with Kathleen. She must have noticed his slightly worried look because her expression softened immediately. "I was just thinking I might head back to the B&B and get cleaned up and changed before dinner." She was close enough to reach out and squeeze his hand. "and... I forgot to thank you for the ice cream," she continued with a sly smile as she leaned up on her tiptoes and gave him a kiss on the cheek.

He let out the breath he didn't realize he'd been holding when she first started to speak. "You're welcome," he replied back with a warm smile. "I can pick you up on our way to Kathleen's."

She nodded. "That sounds great."

He turned and they walked back into the house. He'd been thinking more about dinner on the drive back and decided he'd actually better talk a little more with her before they went. He could see Evie was stretched out on the sectional downstairs looking through the new book. He knew she'd want him to read it to her, but was hoping he could buy a little time to talk with Veronica before she left. "I'm going to walk Veronica out to her car, and then I'll come back and read the new story with you, okay?" he called in her direction.

"Okay," she replied back distractedly, already looking at all the illustrations in the book.

Logan gave Veronica a small smile and headed back up the stairs to the main floor. He stopped on the porch after he'd closed the door behind her. "Hey, um…" he wasn't quite sure how to start and hesitated a moment. "Can we talk for a few minutes before you go?"

She gave him a curious look and nodded. He waved to a bench that was on the edge of the front porch and she walked toward it and took a seat. He followed her and sat next to her, though there was a bit of distance as they turned to look at each other.

"I thought I should give you a little head's up before we go to Kathleen's," he started as she watched him carefully. "I um…" he took a deep breath before he continued. "I didn't have any idea when I was first with Katy… and didn't find out until I came out here… and I... I didn't want you to think it was me being strangely obsessed or something." She gave him a puzzled look and cocked her head at him. "Yeah, I guess the universe just likes messing with me." Her eyes opened a bit wider, obviously wondering what he was going to say next. He let out a deep breath. "Katy's dad worked for the sheriff's department here in Lincoln County." He saw a small surprised look cross her face. "He um…" Logan looked down at his hands for a moment before he looked back at her and continued a bit more somberly. "He was killed in the line of duty when she was about to start her junior year of high school."

"Oh…" Veronica said with a troubled look on her face. "I wondered… you know… where her dad might be since you've never mentioned him at all."

Logan nodded in reply. "I just didn't want you to see pictures of them around Kathleen's house and wonder what the story was and have to ask after we got there. And seeing him in his sheriff's uniform in some of the pictures would definitely have gotten your attention. It's been over 7 years now, but it's still sort of tough for Kathleen sometimes." Veronica nodded in understanding. "Katy and I never talked about it though, but I guess that was when she started having issues dealing with things according to Kathleen. They tried therapy for her right after he died, and that seemed to help a little, but she wouldn't keep going. And then…" he sighed again before he continued. "Toward the end of her senior year, her best friend was killed in a car accident." Veronica's expression became even more somber as Logan shook his head sadly. "That's actually who she named Evie after. They were supposed to go to college in Seattle together. Katy still went, trying to claim she was fine, but I guess she fell apart there and tried not to let Kathleen know. Of course when she showed up 3 months pregnant at home again with fading bruises on her face, Kathleen knew not everything was as great as Katy had tried to tell her."

Veronica took a sharp breath and cringed. "Did Evie's biological dad do that to her?"

Logan shrugged. "I think so, but she never told me who the guy was that had beaten her up there, or who the biological father was. There wasn't a father listed on Evie's birth certificate, and as far as I know, she never told Kathleen either. Of course I'm guessing it was the same asshole." He sighed again. "That's also why I went to Cliff for the adoption. If the guy happened to ever try to track Katy and Evie down, I didn't want the paperwork too easily tied back to Yachats. I don't know if he even knew she was pregnant when she left there though. Katy would never talk about it. I of course didn't know at first either to even ask her, but after the first time she took off, Kathleen and I started talking more about her past."

Veronica nodded in understanding before she gave him a soft look and spoke again. "How'd Kathleen feel about you adopting Evie?"

Logan let out a nervous laugh and ran his hand through his hair. "Actually… Kathleen was the one who suggested I do it. She was um… she was worried that Katy would come back and try to take Evie away from me at some point. We'd been here with Kathleen over 2 years, and she said it would break her heart if Evie were to ever lose me like that. She has several retired lawyer friends in town and talked with them before she suggested it to me." Veronica looked at him with a clearly surprised expression on her face. He shrugged. "Yeah, not exactly the scenario you'd probably imagined."

She shrugged in reply and her voice got a bit softer. "Do you think she would have? Come back and tried to take her away from you?"

Logan shrugged again. "I don't know. She never alluded to it the times she had been here. But the more Kathleen and I talked about it, the more I started to think that it was a good idea."

"What happens now? If she comes back?" Veronica asked quietly.

Logan let out a deep breath. "I don't really know. I never really wanted to take Evie completely away from her. I just didn't want to risk losing her myself. I think… I think I'd probably ask her to go to therapy again before she spent any time with her. Now that Evie's older, I'm sure it will be harder for her if Katy came back and left again. At least this way I feel like I have some control over protecting Evie." He paused and shook his head. "I'm sure this probably seems completely crazy to you, but I never really knew what it was like to have someone need and love me like Evie does. You know…" he took a deep breath feeling slightly more emotional then he'd intended to. "I never had something like you and your dad did… I was always so in awe of that… Kathleen and I don't have exactly the same thing, but it's so much more than I ever had with my parents."

Veronica reached over and squeezed his hand. He gave her a tender smile and stared into her compassionate blue eyes. He couldn't help but notice that something just felt different with her this time. He wasn't sure if it was him who had changed or her, or maybe both, but for the first time he felt like he could really just be completely honest with her and not afraid of how she was going to react. He was a bit overwhelmed with how amazing it actually felt and he couldn't help leaning toward her to kiss her again. As his mouth was just inches from hers, the front door opened freezing them both in place.

"I thought you were going to read to me?" Evie asked as she looked out at them.

Logan chuckled softly and shook his head. "Yeah sweetie, I'll be right there."

Veronica smirked at him and laughed softly too. "And the role of my over protective father will be played by your four year old daughter this time around…" she said in a secretive whisper.

This time... What are we doing… this time? For a split second Logan thought back to when Veronica had asked him almost that same question standing in front of his parents' house over 5 years ago. Is she actually wanting something more than just a few days of reconnecting as friends? Well okay... friends that have kissed and flirted a bit more than just being casual friends would do. He didn't feel ready yet to get into that deep of a conversation with her though. If that's not what she meant I don't want to look like an idiot or have my heart smashed to pieces so soon either. How could she really expect more if she's leaving in a few days though? Evie turned to go back in the house, leaving the door open, and Logan quickly gave Veronica a chaste kiss on the cheek. "Pick you up at about 6:45?"

She smiled back and nodded. He stood up and offered her his hand to pull her up. He could tell from the sound of Evie's footsteps that she was almost back to the kitchen. He pulled Veronica in thinking he might try for another real kiss because regardless of what he should rationally do, he still just really wanted to kiss her, before he heard "Daddy!" come from inside the house.

"You're being beckoned," Veronica said with a playful grin as she patted him gently on the chest.

He kissed her quickly on the forehead before he dropped his arms from around her waist. "See you in a little while," he said with an amused smile as he watched her turn and bounce down the stairs toward her car.