Chapter 14 Diamonds

After lunch, Logan and Veronica grabbed some towels and went down to one of the beaches within a stone's throw of their front door.

"Sun or shade?" Veronica asked before they spread their towels.

"Melanoma…wrinkles…let's take advantage of the shade." Logan nodded to the dappled sand beneath the cottonwoods lining the beach. "It's plenty hot enough without frying."

"Since when do you worry about that stuff?" Veronica asked, as she lay down her towel and stripped off her cover up.

"Since I met an aspiring esthetician. Besides, I like your alabaster skin just the way it is."

"Well, I brought sun screen. Mind getting my back?" she pulled a bottle out of the beach bag and shook a large dollop into her hand.

"Can I get your front, too?"

"No but you can watch me get it." She began rubbing sunscreen on her chest.

"Mind getting my front?"

"This is a public beach!" She nodded toward the groups of mom's with kids scattered across the sand.

"Plenty of my front is fit for the public."

"I can see that. Let's keep the rest of it that way."

"I do have some self control, Sugar britches." He said, rubbing a palm full of lotion on her back.

"I don't."

"Oh."

Logan went out into the water and swam half way across the lake. Veronica pulled her camera out of her bag and walked up and down the shore, snapping shots of the lake, the surrounding woods and everything else that caught her fancy. She took a half dozen of Logan walking up out of the water toward her.

"I think I'll turn the second closet in our room into a photography studio." She said when he dropped to the towel beside her. "We're never gonna have enough clothes to fill even one of those."

"I might." He lay back, propped on his elbows, looking out at the water.

"You think?" she grinned at him. "You'll save a corner of it for me, won't you?"

"How much of a corner?" he frowned at her. "I'm conflicted; I'd like to dress you up in fancy duds but I like the idea of you with no clothes at all even better."

"I know what you mean." She let her eyes wander all over him. "We'll figure it out. I'll have to take down most of the shelves."

"What else will you need? A desk?"

"Or a drawing board, plenty of cork on the walls, a table for a printer…a large capacity, hi-def printer. Maybe a flat file. I don't know exactly; I'll start fairly small."

"You'll need… a chair."

"Yes. I knew your input would be valuable."

"That's a great idea. I'm glad you're gonna get your camera out again. You were really good."

"Thank you." She looked at him with her head cocked. "What exactly, are you basing that opinion on?"

"Lilly had a lot of your stuff. I noticed. There was one you took of us that was my favorite…I never told you how much I liked your work. I don't know why."

"Cuz… you were a fifteen year old jackass?"

"Ah, yes." He nodded as though she had discovered something new. "That and the part of the code that prevents guys from telling their buddy's girl that they love 'em."

"You mean you loved my work."

"Yeah, but I loved you, too."

"You didn't love me, you loved Lilly."

"I did." He nodded but looked at her. "But I loved you, too. And if I had ever tried to tell you how much I liked your pictures, I might have let that slip."

"You are so full of crap." She reached out and shoved his shoulder.

"Yeah, but that's beside the point," he laughed, falling back onto his towel.

"You think just because you love me now, you always did. I know you didn't."

"So many things you think you know…" He sighed and closed his eyes.

"For awhile there, you hated me."

"I never hated you."

"You may as well have."

"I didn't. But either way that's no argument that I didn't love you. Hate's not the opposite of love; indifference is."

"You and I have certainly never been indifferent to each other." She admitted.

"Nope. Hate is often just love, disappointed."

"Who said that?"

"Weren't my lips moving?" He opened one eye and peered at her.

"No, mean who said it first?"

"I'm extemporizing here. If someone else said it first that's only because it's obvious."

"With you it's so hard to tell." She shook her head and looked back out at the water.

"Because I've never been known to have an original thought?"

"No, because you spend so much time pretending you don't have any thoughts."

"I never pretend that. Folks just presume 'cause I'm so good lookin'. The idea of someone having both beauty and brains throws off their sense of proportion, not to mention justice. That's why people don't like you."

"People like me." She said, unconvincingly.

"Not really."

"You're like an iceberg."

"An iceberg with a killer physique and a classic profile?"

"Yeah." She grinned. "That's the one."

"Best known for sinking the Titanic and killing thousands in a single night?"

"Hardly." she giggled.

"Cold and impenetrable? That actually does sound like me."

"No. You give the impression of being one thing but beneath the surface you're something else entirely."

"You're thinking of a duck; calm on the surface and paddling like mad underneath."

"You are not like a duck. You pretend things roll off your back, but…" I've seen the scars. She shook her head again. "No; I'm thinking you're eighty percent below the surface."

"Look who's talking;" He half sat up, propping himself on his elbows. "Ms. All-American Cheerleader who just happens to have a license to kill."

"Sadly, that license seems to be an urban myth. But I don't deliberately give the impression that I'm a high school ditz." She pointed out. "You like giving people the wrong impression."

"I don't give people anything. What they take is entirely up to them. Their prejudices aren't my fault."

"Nothing is ever your fault."

"How could it be?" he grinned. "Everything is your fault."

"What?" She turned from the water and glared at him. He laughed.

"You know there's a big part of you that thinks bad shit wouldn't happen if only you had seen it coming. Preventing shit is not your responsibility. You're not in charge of the world, V. You're not God." He rolled to his side, propping himself on one elbow, facing her. "You're not even an angel, regardless of what I may have thought when I first met you."

"Explain, please." She lay back, propping herself on one elbow facing him.

"Well, in the beginning, God created the Heavens and Earth…"

"Not that part. I know I'm not in charge of the world. Do you think I have control issues?"

He raised his eyebrows and blinked, slowly.

"Yeah, okay." She conceded. "I have control issues, but I never passed myself off as an angel. Explain how you've rewritten the past now to say that I did."

"I'm not rewriting or re-inventing or misremembering it. You never passed yourself off; you never had to. When I moved to Neptune, I'd known Duncan and Lilly for years. Of course, that was when we were all kids. Smokin' hot Lilly was new. That girl hit puberty like it was a road block and she was a 66 Thunderbird convertible."

"Yeah, she did. She was into a C-cup before I outgrew my first training bra."

"Did you outgrow your first—?" His eyes slid to her chest.

"Back on track, please."

"In a minute…Yeah. So." His eyes met hers again. "I may have been a bit blinded by the hot new version of Lilly Kane but not so much that I couldn't appreciate her bestie in knee socks. I had just gotten to town and you two had come home from a game or…I don't know. Whatever."

"I don't remember that. I don't remember the first time we met."

"Well, you know, it wasn't like we were introduced or anything. I was just hanging with Duncan. You and Lilly breezed through. Duncan told me who you were. I just noticed the pair."

"Two blondes." She nodded.

"No, Lilly's pair."

"Shut up!" she shoved his shoulder again.

"I was twelve!" he laughed. "That's what I noticed. It's pretty much all I could see at that age." Then he looked at her and the laughter in his eyes turned into something much softer. "I love your streamlined form; less dependent on defying gravity. My first impression of you was that you were hot. Not as hot as Lilly, but you know; who was at twelve? When I got to know you a little, you seemed like the embodiment of 'virtue'. You were so goodyou practically glowed. I am certain that on more than one occasion, I saw a halo. You and Duncan were like an advertisement for following the rules. Getting the two of you to break a few with us was like…pulling teeth."

"Makes us sound so boring."

"Yeah. Boring. Now you carry a gun and DK's a fugitive. How weird is it that he's the one who knocked up his girlfriend, stole the baby and went underground and I'm the one here with you?"

"Shit really does happen." Veronica nodded.

"Enough to make you wonder if Einstein was wrong; God does play dice with the universe. Even Lilly tried to behave herself when she was with you. Sort of, anyway. Duncan thought you were the perfect girl and it never occurred to me to argue. I loved Lilly because she was just like me; fucked up and fun. We bitched about our parents and were hot for each other. She was willing to roll around in the dirt with me while you…you were like this porcelain doll, locked in a crystal case, out of reach on the top shelf. Completely unobtainable."

"I wasn't…unobtainable." Veronica winced at this description of herself.

"Yes, you were. Duncan was happy to be in his own case up there, next to yours. I loved you, but I had no illusions about my ability to rise out of the dirt."

"I was…" she stopped. She couldn't argue that she was down there, too. Looking back on those days of innocence, before Lilly's murder, before Shelly Pomroy's party…Veronica could barely remember the girl she'd been. The girl she'd tried to be.

"Why do you think I was so pissed off at you for awhile there?" Logan went on. "When you turned on us, it was like…being cast out of Eden all over again."

"Eden? You are full of Biblical references today!"

"Biblical? I meant that club down on…"

"Yet still so full of crap!" she cut him off, laughing.

"You love my crap." He laughed, too. "Don't forget; the second part of the Bible is all about redemption."

"The second part? You mean the New Testament?"

"I've always just thought of it as 'Act II'."

"You would. Have you actually read the Bible?" she asked, determined not to be surprised if he said yes.

"Nah." He shook his head. "I heard the ending sucks."

"Only if you're on the wrong side."

"You understand that I'm not that crazy about the idea of judgment."

"All things considered, I'd say you come out way ahead."

"Only because of you."

She looked at him, a question in her eyes.

"Lilly's death was an earthquake." He explained. "It shook the foundations of everything. The ground opened up and swallowed me. Duncan got knocked clean off that top shelf, but you didn't. Your glass case was broken but you never fell. I guess I figured it wouldn't be so bad, living in Hell, if you were there, too. So I spent the next year and a half trying to pull you down."

"Is that what you think happened? That we're together now because I'm as fucked up as you?"

"No." he shook his head. "Not at all. I was trying to pull you down but you were too strong for me. Next thing I knew, you had dragged me up out of the pit. I've been trying to climb up to you, ever since."

Her breath left her in a whoosh and she stared at him, her mouth open in amazement. He laughed but stopped abruptly.

"Hey, don't," he said quickly. "I didn't say that to make you cry."

"No, no; they're happy tears." She smiled, wiping away the sudden tears in her eyes. "You are so good at this! Every time I think I'm getting used to the insanely beautiful things you say to me, you go and up the ante!"

"I do spend a good share of my time thinking up new ways to render you speechless." He admitted with a smirk.

"You really don't have to work so hard." She assured him.

"But doing it without using my hands is part of the challenge." He explained.

"You were always good at this but you keep on getting better." She sighed, smiling at him.

"As long as you keep looking at me like that, I will keep working on it." He said then leaned forward and kissed her. He rested his forehead against hers. "And I like the way the world looks through your camera lens. You should have a computer specifically for photography." He laid back and closed his eyes. "Tell me what the best is and I'll get it for you."

"You're the best." She breathed, running a finger up his chest and tickling his chin. "Ready to go?"

"I don't know. This feels pretty good." He didn't open his eyes.

"Could feel even better…" she ran her finger down his chest.

"Isn't this still a public beach?" his eyes snapped open and he grabbed her hand as it passed his belly button.

"I warned you. I have no self control." She grinned, leaning against him and lowering her voice. "Come on, you started it. Now take me home and make love to me."

"What do you think I've been doing all afternoon?" he closed his eyes, still holding her hand. "I want to show you something I found the other day."

"Oh, I found it a long time ago. I know where it is and I know how it works."

"Not that." He chuckled. "Something new."

"What is it?"

"I'll show you later."

"Tell me." She cajoled.

"It's a surprise."

"Tell me!" She ordered.

"It's a secret."

"You get me all hot and bothered and now you try to distract me with secrets?" she complained, pulling her hand out of his.

"It's a couple miles from the house. We'll take our bikes, later."

"What is it?" she placed her hand on his knee.

"You'll like it." He smiled but didn't open his eyes.

"Come on, Tell me." She coaxed, letting her hand slide slowly up his thigh.

"You want to try and get it out of me?" He grabbed her hand before it could cause any…harm. "Then we should probably move this up to the house."

"If we do," she leaned against him and whispered in his ear, "will you tell me?"

"No, but I promise; you won't care."

"Let's go." She hopped up, grabbed her beach bag and towel.

"This is turning out to be the best day ever." He said, sitting up.

When they came off the beach they could see that JR had the rental truck in front of the house and the men he'd hired were hauling Veronica's new furniture inside.

"Oh! Come on!" she turned to Logan with an excited grin.

"Oh." He was considerably less excited than she was but he followed her back to the house.

"Hey, Mars." JR said when Veronica reached the front door. "Nice stuff. Got a bed, a dresser with a mirror, a whole bunch of tables and a dining room set with three leaves and eight chairs."

"Eight chairs? I thought there were only six." Veronica said, looking at the set.

"They found two more and they're all yours."

"Even better!" She bounced on her toes and called to Logan who was just coming up the walk. "Come see! We can have dinner parties, now!"

"Goody." He said, coming in the front door. "I've really missed feeding people I don't like."

"We won't feed anyone that you don't like." Veronica assured him. "But now when Dad comes to visit, he won't have to sit at the counter."

"Score one for the Sheriff." Logan nodded. "Where's the rest of it?"

"The bed is upstairs," JR said. "I don't know which room you wanted it in…"

"Oh," Veronica ran up the stairs to direct the movers.

"You don't seem very excited." JR said to Logan. "Where were you planning on feeding…"

"No, no. This is great." Logan said. "It's just put a cramp in my plan for right now."

"Jeez." JR rolled his eyes and shook his head. "I can't leave you two alone for five minutes."

"I wish you'd try."

A few hours later, the furniture was all in place, a new box spring and mattress had been ordered for the new bed, Logan's video equipment had all been set up in the flip top table and the dining area adjacent to the kitchen now boasted a handsome table and chairs. Veronica had insisted that they remove two of the leaves from the table and store them. Broken down, it was just the right size for four. They liked that it didn't take up all the space. Two of the extra chairs were set near the floor to ceiling windows facing the lake and the other two were near the large windows looking out at the back yard.

"Tonight, we eat dinner at a table!" she said to Logan.

"No; tonight, we have plans."

"Oh? Is that the secret you told me about at the beach?"

"You remembered? I thought that entire episode had slipped your mind."

"In all the time you've known me, have I ever let a secret slip my mind?"

"No, just…other things."

"That hasn't slipped my mind either, Doll face."

"Ah, but you've never gotten a new dining room set, before. It's a day of firsts."

"I haven't forgotten anything. Not promises made, nor promises implied." She slipped her hands under the edge of his t-shirt. "Jeff is gone…"

"I know, I tossed him out the back door myself." He leaned down and kissed her. Just as she was about to slide her arms around his waist, he straightened and said "It's time to go."

"Go? Go where? Time for what?" she frowned.

"Get your biking shoes on. I'll take you there. But don't worry; I haven't forgotten any promises, either."

Fifteen minutes later they were riding down the bike path just east of Cedar Lake. Despite being in the middle of the city, the path was completely wooded and secluded. The occasional rooftop peeking through the trees and the occasional fellow bicyclist were the only reminders of civilization as they rode through trees and meadows for well over a mile before the free way loomed high over the trees.

"This is really beautiful." Veronica said. "When did you take this path?"

"Just the other day. I went all the way around downtown to the river and back up the parkway. It's over twenty miles."

"How long will that take us?" Veronica was a bit alarmed. "I'm kinda hungry."

"Oh, we're not going that far today. We're almost there, in fact."

"How can you tell, we're in the middle of the —hey!" Something caught Veronica's eye over the tree tops in the east. "is that..?"

"Yep." Logan shot her a grin as they came around a curve that gave them a clear view of the red letters spelling "Twins" rising above the trees. "Target Field, dead ahead."

"What are we, two miles from home? I knew we weren't far from downtown but…wow."

"The ball park is right on the western edge of downtown. Oakland is in town tonight. I thought we'd check it out."

"I haven't been to a baseball game in years." She said.

"Well, the park only opened in April. It's supposed to be one of the nicest fields in the country. I thought it would be fun to catch some of the game and have a beer or two."

"But every game's been sold out since the opener in April. How are you gonna get us in?"

"Trust me."

"Are they scalping tickets on Craig's list, now?"

"If I said 'yes', would you have to arrest me?"

"You could probably buy my silence with a hot dog."

"I didn't find a scalper."

"Well, if you think you can take me to a ball game and not spring for dogs, think again, Smarty pants."

In a few minutes, they were taking a ramp off the bike path toward the streets around the new ball park. There were plenty of bike racks for baseball fans who biked in from all over the metro area. The nearby parking ramp was filling with cars and the streets and sidewalks were crowded with fans swarming toward the park. They locked their bikes up near the field and joined the throng.

When they reached the plaza outside the park, Logan nodded toward several huge bronze statues of players.

"Check out the immortals." He said. "I'll buy you a dog if you can tell me who they are."

"Easy peasy lemon squeezy." She grinned. He looked skeptical. "Harmon Killebrew and Kirby Puckett. And I want a dog and a brew."

"How did you know that?" he was impressed.

"Psshhh. Who doesn't know that?" she looked around at the crowd. "Seriously, how are you gonna get us in?"

"Trust me." He found the box office. There were several people in front of the 'will call' window but no one in front of the ticket window. He spoke briefly to the gal behind the window and in a moment returned to Veronica and handed her a ticket. They joined the crowd moving toward the turnstiles.

"Remind me never to doubt your uncanny ability to get whatever you want." She said, frowning at him. "Are you gonna tell me how you pulled this off, or not?"

"What do you mean? I asked for a ticket and she sold me one."

"But every game's a sell out. People have been talking about it all summer."

"Every seat has been sold since pre-season." Logan corrected her. "We don't have seats. Check your ticket."

Veronica looked at the slip in her hand. Sure enough, there was no seat number to be found.

"They started selling standing room only." Logan told her. "They sell a couple hundred of these every game but not everyone knows about it."

"How did you know about it?"

"My vast network of spies."

"You stopped by and asked on that bike ride you took the other day, didn't you?"

"Ask and ye shall receive. Isn't that what the good book says?"

"You're scaring me with all this Bible thumpin' you've been doing today."

"I feel good about it. I think the Twins are on a hot streak."

They presented their tickets and in a moment were inside Target Field, standing on a large plaza overlooking a jewel of a ball field. The new park had a very small footprint with tiers of seats rising steeply above the diamond, open to the clear blue sky, surrounded by the blue towers of downtown Minneapolis. Several indoor decks graced different levels of the park, including one club with a large, red Budweiser sign above it. Higher than the Budweiser sign rose the huge scoreboard and hi-def jumbotron, above which floated the Twins sign that Veronica had seen from the bike path far below.

"This is beautiful." She said. "I feel like we've stumbled into some kind of parallel universe."

"How so?" Logan was looking all around.

"A block and a half away, we were on a bike path, alone in the middle of the woods yet here we are; surrounded by tens of thousands of major league baseball fans and skyscrapers. From those seats," she gestured to the seats on the western edge of the park, "we could spit onto the path we just left. Two very different places, occupying the same space and time. Parallel universes."

"You really miss Mac and Wallace, don't you?" He asked. "Let's check this place out."

They started with a quick look into the large gift shop just to the right of the entrance gate. Not interested in buying Twins apparel or MLB memorabilia, they didn't spend much time in there. Veronica was more interested in the view of downtown from the full glass walls of the shop. Back outside, they wandered the concourse, up one level then down another. There were food kiosks offering everything from ball park franks to fifteen dollar steak sandwiches. Killebrew root beer was everywhere. Logan bought them beers and they continued exploring. Unobstructed views from every corner of the park and the jumbotron hovering over center field made it easy to see the game while people watching everywhere. They stopped whenever they found empty seats but eventually the ticket holders would arrive and politely request that they move.

"Josh has a box," Logan said after a while. "We could hang out there if you want."

"No." she shook her head. "That's like watching from home. I like being out here with all the normal people, not shut up in a box like we're something special." She looked at him. "Do you want to watch the game from a private box?"

"Not me. I've always enjoyed mingling with the common folk. They can't...smell fear, can they?"

"Come on." she grabbed his arm and pulled him down the concourse. "We're going to the peanut gallery."

"We've had our shots, right?" he asked.

Eventually they made their way to the top tier over right field. They found a pair of empty seats at the front rail and Veronica sat while Logan went to get them something to eat.

Veronica stretched her legs out and closed her eyes briefly, enjoying the sun on her face. Most of the seats around her were filled with people her own age; lots of young men and a few couples. They all seemed to be having a terrific time and if Veronica weren't familiar with the weird camaraderie of fans, she would have thought they all knew each other. She smiled, remembering Padre games with her dad and the instant friendships he'd struck up at the ball park.

She opened her eyes and sat up as the stands around her erupted in cheers. A quick look at the field assured her that she hadn't missed a home run but a double play by the home town team. She couldn't help but to laugh at the glee the fans around her took in the outs.

"Well played, Mauer!" shouted a young man standing near the railing next to her. He was wearing a Twins jersey with the number 33 on it.

"I actually blinked and missed it," she said. "Did Mauer help?"

"No, not really." He said. "It's just…the ad. You know? 'Well played, Mauer'?"

"Uh. No." she shook her head as the jumbotron filled with the serious face of a commentator, saying in a deadpan voice; "Well played, Mauer."

Veronica met the eyes of number 33 and they both laughed.

"It's a catch phrase." He shrugged. "Is this your first time to the park?"

"Yes," she nodded. "I actually have a standing room only ticket but I'm poaching this seat till it's rightful owner shows up."

"You a baseball fan?" 33 leaned on the railing and grinned at her.

"Well, I kind of was when I was a kid. My Dad bleeds Padre blue but I haven't paid much attention in years."

"Us Twins fans have been stuck in the Metro Dome for decades, which sucked. Now that baseball is outside again, it's the greatest thing that's ever happened in Minnesota."

"Didn't the Twins win two World Series in the Dome?"

"Yeah but that was like, a million years ago." he dismissed ancient history with the wave of his hand. " I was only in second grade the last time they won the Series. My Dad took me to a game but all I really remember is the noise. I'd rather watch a game here than get to the Series every year in that barn. Baseball indoors is an abomination."

"You and my Dad would get along." Veronica laughed. Just then, she caught sight of Logan, at the bottom of the stairs leading up to the nosebleed seats. He was carrying a tray with food but had stopped at the stairway and was chatting with a very pretty woman with blond hair and a deep cut tank top. From where she sat, Veronica could see acres of cleavage.

"Hey, don't worry; we'll get the third out, Mauer will knock out a couple of homers and we'll win this thing." 33 said, misunderstanding the sudden frown that crossed her face. "Too bad Morneau's injured. He's our best hitter."

"Hmm?" Veronica barely heard him as she watched Logan smile at the pretty blond. Plastering a smile onto her face, she looked at 33 and asked "Who?"

He went into a dissertation about Justin Morneau but Veronica only pretended to listen as she kept one eye on the couple at the foot of the stairs. She let out a breath she hadn't known she was holding as the girl laughed and Logan turned from her and started up the stairs. He looked up and their eyes met and she felt a genuine smile cross her face as he grinned and held up the tray of food he was bringing her. Her smile faltered briefly as she saw the woman behind Logan turn and watch him climb the stairs. Veronica wished she still had a beer so she could indulge her overwhelming urge to throw it at the busty blond checking out her husband's ass as he climbed the stadium stairs.

"What'd you bring me?" she called as soon as Logan got within earshot. He cast a look at the young man still going on about Morneau, whose monologue finally faltered as he noticed Logan.

"Excuse me," Logan said, smiling cheerfully and sliding past 33 to the seat beside Veronica. "My wife gets cranky if I don't feed her regularly."

"Yeah, she does!" Veronica said, eyeing the tray. "What do we have?"

"Kramarczuk's" the suddenly crestfallen young man said, glancing at Logan's tray.

"It's something called 'bratwurst' and it's supposed to be pretty good." Logan handed Veronica a tray with an oversized sausage covered in sauerkraut and mustard on a bun.

"You've never had a brat?" 33's eyes flared wide. "Where are you guys from, Mars?"

"Yes." Logan said, as though that were a stupid question.

"Wow." 33 grinned and leaned against the rail. "This, I gotta see."

"What?" Veronica frowned at him. "you're gonna watch us eat?"

"No, man. I'm gonna watch you eat your first Kramarczuk's brat."

"Dude, you make it sound like porn." Logan said.

"Take a bite." 33 urged with a leer. "just take a bite and then you tell me."

"Now I feel self conscious and worried about my performance." Logan frowned at his dinner.

Veronica took a bite.

"Oh. My. God." She said with her mouth full. Logan and 33 watched as her eyes rolled back in her head and her lids fluttered closed. She swallowed, sighed and slowly opened her eyes.

"That," she said in a low, breathless voice, "Was the best thing I've ever had in my mouth."

"Great." Logan looked forlornly at his dinner. "Now I'm really self conscious."

"Pretty good, huh?" 33 nodded. Logan glanced up at him.

"Dude. If you think I'm gonna let you stand there and watch my wife eat a brat, I may have to kick your ass."

"Yeah!" 33 laughed. "I would. I think I'd better go get my own. You're in my seat, by the way."

"I'll keep it warm till you get back." Logan finally picked up his own brat when 33 was half way down the stairs. He looked at Veronica who was clearly revelling in her dinner.

Veronica was determined to say nothing about the busty blond Logan had been talking and smiling with but the moment she finished her brat, the words "So…I see you're busy making new friends." Popped out of her mouth.

"Me?" Logan took another bite of his brat. "I'm not the one he was hitting on."

"Hitting-? I..What? He wasn't hitting on me!"

"I swear," Logan shook his head. "I leave you alone for one minute, to get us something to eat, no less and I come back to find you flirting up a storm with Justin Morneau's biggest fan."

"I…he… I wasn't flirting."

"It's that minuscule ring you insisted on. If you were wearing the rock I picked out, he would have been way too intimidated to pick you up. Never underestimate the importance of a great diamond." he nodded toward the field, as though that made his point. He took her left hand in his. "A diamond on a woman's hand says more about the man who gave it to her than it does about her." He rubbed his thumb across the back of her hand. "This one says 'loser; may as well take a shot'."

"I love my ring. Maybe I should get 'Property of Logan' tattooed across my ass." she said, pulling her hand out of his.

"Don't be silly. No one would see it there." He was satisfied to see the flash of a smile she quickly suppressed. "You would have let him watch you eat that whole brat, wouldn't you?" he heaved a melodramatic sigh. "Is nothing sacred?"

"We were just talking." she said in a small voice, trying not to laugh.

"You were just talking. He was flirting." He popped the last bite of his brat into his mouth.

"You can't blame me for what he was doing." She pointed out.

"No," he looked at her with a raised eyebrow. "That wouldn't be fair, would it? We'd better get out of his seat before he comes back. He might expect you to watch him eat a brat."

They continued exploring the ball park, winding their way back down to the large plaza where they had entered. They hadn't planned on staying for the whole game but were having so much fun that before they knew it, they were celebrating a 2-0 victory with the rest of the Twins' fans. Mauer had gotten three hits including an RBI in the eighth that clinched the win.

It was an exuberant crowd that flowed back into the streets of downtown Minneapolis at dusk. Veronica and Logan walked hand in hand toward the rack where their bikes were locked.

"Darn." She said as Logan unlocked their bikes. "I wish we had gotten a couple of those brats to go. Those were delicious."

"Best thing I've ever had in my mouth." Logan agreed.

"Honestly?" she said as she mounted her bike and took off. "Second best thing I've had in mine."

"Are you just saying that to make me feel good about myself?" he asked as he caught up to her at the light.

"Not at all." She smiled as the light turned green.

"Well, it's totally working." He followed her down to the bike trail.

Much later that night, Logan was down in the kitchen getting a drink of water. He put the cold water carafe back in the fridge and was about to hit the light when the back door opened. He turned in surprise to see JR standing there. Logan raised his eyebrows in a silent question which JR answered with a single word.

"Chicago."

to be continued...