Disclaimer: O how I wish I owned Matt Czuchry…
AN: Thanks for all the great reviews…
Logan enjoyed watching Rory drink her coffee. In fact he thoroughly enjoyed watching her drink her coffee. The look of pure ecstacy that crossed her delicate face was enough to make his stomach flutter. He didn't know when it had happened but that fluttering feeling was becoming a more frequent visitor whenever he was near Rory. He had always taken pride in the fact that he was a ladies' man and never really got emotionally involved with any of the girls. But even he was starting to realize that Rory was different. Whenever he was with any of the other girls he got those 'I'm about to have sex with this girl' feelings in his stomach, but with Rory the fluttering never stopped. He was nervous around her. And that scared him. He had never been nervous around a girl before. Ever. The girls were always nervous, not him, not Logan Huntzberger. But needless to say he was nervous. He was worried that she wouldn't like this date no matter how much trouble he went to. But sitting here watching her drink her beloved 'elixir of life' with the smile on her face all of those worries flew from his head. She glanced back up at him and caught him staring at her. A smile graced her lips at first but then it quickly changed to a half-frown. "Is there something wrong Rory?" Logan asked her. The tone in his voice showing that the worries he had just minutes ago banished from his system were now coming back with a vengeance.
Rory, noting the concern in his voice, unconsciously smiled. It was good to know that he cared enough about her to be concerned. "No Logan everything is fine." Rory told him trying her hardest to assure him
"Then why the frown?" he asked her
She could tell by the tone in his voice that he didn't believe her. She had been lost in thought while drinking her coffee and hadn't even realized that she was frowning. "What frown?"
"The one that was on that normally gorgeous face of yours just a few seconds ago Ace."
"I didn't realize that I was frowning. I was just thinking that this is one of the most romantic nights I've had in a really long time."
"And that inspired a frown?" Logan asked quizzically
"No, of course not. Nothing about tonight would ever inspire a frown. Logan tonight is wonderful."
"Well I am glad to hear that tonight is wonderful Ace. You know I try to surprise you whenever I can. So again I ask… explain the frown."
"Well I was drinking the coffee from Luke's and that made me think about Luke. Which made me think about him and my mom breaking up. Which made me think about my mom, and that made me sad, forcing a frown to grace this, how did you put it, normally gorgeous face of mine." Rory told him
"Well…" he started but was interrupted by a ringing cell phone coming from Rory's side of the table. Rory just sat there listening to it ring for a few more rings before Logan reached over and grabbed it off and answered it before she could even protest. He looked at the caller id and smiled. "Huntzberger dating slash babysitting service. How may I be of assistance?"
"Why Mr. Huntzberger now that you mention it I may actually need a date. Or maybe a babysitter. Rory does say I act like a baby sometimes. Why, are you interested?" Lorelai's voice carried through the phone
"Well of course I'm interested, but I am currently doing both so I'd have to pencil you in. Let's see…" he said and looked over in Rory's direction, "Hey Ace… I'm trying to pencil in another date with one fabulously good looking woman. How long you think it'll be before little Ms. Gigi will let our date be over and I'll be done babysitting you?" he asked her grinning
"Funny Huntzberger, but dating my sister would make you a jailbird and of the two of us here don't you think I'd be the one babysitting you?" she shot back with anger in her voice at him but with the smile never leaving her face
"Well it seems that my current appointments don't really like the idea of me abandoning them for you duchess." He said back into the phone
"Well damn and I was looking forward to spending some quality time with a rich Yale man…"
"You know actually we were just talking about you." Logan told Lorelai changing the subject
"Yea, WOW that date must be going really well…" Lorelai said sarcastically
"You know I really think it is… did you want to talk to Rory?" Logan said ignoring the sarcasm pouring from Lorelai's mouth
"Yeah let me talk to her and then I'll let you know if your date is going as well as you think it is." She told him laughing
"Sure thing…" Logan told her before handing the phone to Rory, "Here Ace your insane mother wants to talk to you."
"Thanks" she told Logan, "Hey Mom!" Rory said excitedly
"Offspring! Fruit of my loins! How's my favorite daughter doing?"
"I'm fine mom… I can't believe you helped Logan set this whole thing up."
"Is it romantic?"
"Yea."
"Even with Gigi there? Tell me something. How did Logan really end up with Gigi most of the day? What did you really bribe him with? What have I told you about making deals with Satan spawn guys? They are all just a big ball of trouble. And this thing was Huntzberger has me worried babe. You two aren't dating and you were going to sleep with him. That's not like you kiddo." Lorelai said barely being able to mask the genuine concern in her voice
"Yes even with Gigi here, Logan is great with Gigi, and I'm sure that whatever story he fed you about ending up with Gigi was truthful, unless it was perverted and then it's a lie. And he's not Tristin Mom, I thought I had made that clear." Rory told Lorelai purposely ignoring the comments about her and Logan's stringless arrangement and her and Logan having sex.
The mention of someone named Tristin caught Logan's attention and he looked at Rory. He stopped listening to the conversation that was going on between Rory and her mother and retreated back into his thoughts. He wasn't sure who this Tristin guy was but he was certain Rory had never talked about him. The only one of her ex's that he knew anything about was that moron Dean. The idiot that dumped her in front of a group of people, but that was all he knew. He made a mental note to ask Rory about Tristin later when he was interruped by Rory's voice. "Logan… god Logan are you ignoring me?"
"What? NO! Of course not, I just spaced out for a second. What is it?" he asked
"My mom wants to talk to you again." She told him as if it was obvious
He then noticed the phone being held out for him to take and felt kind of stupid. He took the phone and held it to his ear, "Hello."
"Get up and walk away from the table, out of her earshot. I want to talk to you." Lorelai told him calmly
"Um.. ok." He told her and then looked at Rory, "Apparently I will be right back in a second Ace." He told Rory
"Where are you going?" Rory asked Logan
"Apparently out of your earshot, although why I'm doing so is a mystery to me." he told her. He walked over to her and kissed her on her cheek. "I'll be right back, I promise." He then walked away from Rory and made it back to the jungle gyms he had kicked Finn and Colin off of earlier. "Ok, I'm out of her earshot." He told Lorelai
"Good. What did she really bribe you with to watch Gigi?" Lorelai asked immediately
"Nothing."
"Don't lie to me boy, I can still go back to calling you the smarmy rich Yale guy only interested in getting into my daughters pants, and if I don't like you, you can bet your little rich ass that her father with never come around on his opinion of you."
"She let me sleep on the couch in her common room last night. And you could go back to calling me that if you want. You'd still be wrong about me. I am not focused on getting into Rory's pants." He told her calmly and suprisingly truthfully
"Please Huntzberger. If I wouldn't have shown up at that vow renewal you and I both know that things in that room would have progressed much more than they did, and at the time you two didn't even have this extremely confusing no-strings relationship."
"With all due respect Lorelai, this thing with Rory has never been about getting into her pants." Logan said trying to contain the hostility in his voice. He wasn't sure why but it was bothering him that people thought all he cared about was sex. Rory was never about that. She was special.
"What are you saying Logan? Because with all due respect, I don't know if I believe you. It's not like you are in a committed relationship with her. You both can see other people, and I bet you take full advantage of that fact."
Logan wasn't quite sure what to say. He knew he could defend himself and say that he had barely been out on any dates that weren't with Rory in the past few months, but he knew that Lorelai wouldn't believe him. "What happened to the Lorelai I talked to this afternoon?" Logan asked. He was unsure where all this was coming from. This afternoon Lorelai had been warm and inviting and now she was being, well kind of rude.
"She's having her head examined. She went insane when she inadvertently encouraged her daughter to have a casual sex relationship. Hell I don't even know how I did it, but I must have. Or you did. 'Cause that's not Rory."
"We don't have a causal sex relationship. We haven't even had sex." He told her slightly more agitated than he was before
"That doesn't mean you haven't been sleeping with half of Yale though."
Logan was offended. Sure there were other girls and other dates but he hadn't slept with anyone since he started his arrangement with Rory. For some reason he felt like he would be betraying Rory and he didn't want to do that. "OK, I'm going to be perfectly honest with you Lorelai. You may think that I'm some rich playboy, and you are certainly entitled to your opinion of me, and I'll admit that my reputation is deserved, but I'll say it again. This thing with Rory. It isn't about sex. It's about me caring about your daughter. I haven't really known her that long but she's always there in my head. Has been since before the whole vow renewal. She's special and I care about her; more than I think I even realize yet. And yes while I have in fact been out on a few dates since our arrangement began I have not slept with a single girl. And while I sit here arguing with you about my good or bad intentions towards Rory, she's sitting over there all alone on a date that YOU helped me arrange, and I don't really think that it's fair to her to leave her all alone much longer."
"Don't think that because you gave that little speech that this is over. I'm not going to help some rich playboy break my daughters heart, and I helped you with this date cause Rory deserves to have fun every now and again, and I knew that she would like it. And you're right it's not fair to her for me to keep you away arguing with you. Take me back to her so I can say goodbye."
"Already on my way. And just so you know Lorelai. I have nothing but good intentions towards Ace. And I certainly am not trying to break her heart."
"Good to know. Give me to my daughter." Lorelai said anger still evident in her voice
"Do you hate me now?"
"No. But that doesn't mean I like you now either."
"Earlier today you said you loved me."
"Coffee withdrawals." Lorelai said with much conviction
Logan walked back over to the table where Rory was sitting talking with Gigi. He put a smile on his face, tried to get all the anger out of his voice and handed her the phone. "Here Ace. Your mom wants to say goodbye."
Rory smiled when Logan came into view and took the phone "Hey mom."
"I'm going to go sweets. Call me later and let me know how the rest of the date went."
"I will. I love you."
"Love you too kiddo."
"Bye."
"Bye."
Rory hung up the phone and looked over at Logan who was looking slightly pale. He was smiling but the smile looked forced, which wasn't something she thought she had ever seen. "What was that all about?" she asked unsure if he was ok
"Oh nothing. You ready for part two of the date?" he asked her smiling a real smile now
"There's more?" Rory asked excitedly
"Yup I just need to make a call." He said reaching for his cell phone.
He got up and starting walking away from table but he didn't go very far. Rory observed him carefully noticing that he seemed uneasy about something. He flipped his phone off and started walking over to her. She looked at him and he looked sad. She started to get up and walk over to him and wrap her arms around him but her phone rang. Logan tensed slightly but recovered quickly, but Rory still caught it. She knew he could see confusion written all over her face and that she wanted to say something but the phone just rang again. She moved to answer it. "Hello."
"Rory it's your father."
"Oh. Hey dad."
"I just got off the phone with your mother."
"You were on the phone with mom?" Rory asked and looked over at Logan, her voiceclouded withdisbelief. He had taken in a sharp breath at the mention of her mother but Rory couldn't address it now.
"Yes, she still won't forgive me."
"Dad, I don't think I want to discuss this with you. You really don't want to know where I stand on this whole you, mom and Luke thing." Logan let out a breath he had been holding when hey realized that Rory and Chris weren't talking about him.
"Fine. I'm standing at your door will you let me in?" Chris asked her
"I actually am not there at the moment but Paris should be and if she isn't you can let yourself in. I'm almost positive that it's unlocked. I'm on my way there as soon as I hang up this phone."
"Ok sweetheart I'll see you in a few minutes?"
"Yeah like 10. I love you."
"Love you too."
Rory hung up the phone and looked at Logan. "We have to make a stop at my dorm and give Gigi back."
"Sounds like a plan. Let's go." Logan said. He reached over and picked up Gigi out of the play pen and started walking away from the picnic area. "Come along Ms. Gigi time to go back to daddy."
"What about all the stuff?" Rory asked
"Don't worry Ace it's taken care of."
"By who?"
"Who else. Your stalkers." Logan said laughing and reaching for Rory's hand.
AN: Ok I know I said there was going to be a lot of Rory and Lorelai interaction here but the fact that Luke was so miserable that he was being flat out mean to people and Lorelai was acting like nothing had happened was getting to me. And I decided that Lorelai needed someone to snap at and who better than Logan. So when the opportunity knocked to let her, I ran with it. Plus I really don't think that Lorelai approves of Logan at all since it doesn't appear that she likes the direction Rory's life is headed on the show. Next chapter Logan re-meets Chris. Rory and Lorelai fight about Logan. And Colin and Finn do some manual labor. Read and Review… let me know if you like this chapter… also any suggestions on what part 2 of the date should include would be welcomed… Thanks…