A/N – Here's the next chapter for you all. Thanks for reading along and all the wonderful reviews you've left. There are notes again at the bottom of this one. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: All original VM characters belong to Rob Thomas.

Chapter 14

Logan enjoyed the feel of having Veronica leaning back against his chest while they stood in the shark tunnel watching the graceful creatures soar above their heads. He knew Evie's interest would probably only last a little while longer before she'd be ready to move on again. Even though the sharks were one of her favorite parts of the aquarium, a four year old could only stay focused on one thing for so long. He leaned down and pressed a warm open mouthed kiss on Veronica's neck. He'd been trying to keep the PDA to a minimum, but it was so hard to be with her and not touch her, especially after the night before in the back of his SUV. He heard her let out a soft moan and lean a bit toward him as he kissed her. He lifted his head so he could nuzzle his nose against her cheek and placed a tender kiss there as well. He realized how torturous this taking it slow thing may prove to actually be, especially considering he'd invited her to stay at the house with them. Other than Katy, he'd never had any women stay the night there. He'd been on a handful of dates, and none of those had ended up with overnight arrangements, at either his house or theirs. He took a deep breath and placed another tender kiss right below her ear as he kept his eyes locked on Evie. He saw her head turn from watching the sharks toward the other end of the tunnel where the exit was and knew that was the sign that she was about done. He stood up straighter and then shifted so his arm was around Veronica's shoulder and he was standing next to her, a second before Evie turned to look up at them.

"Can we go?" she asked with a slightly mischievous expression. He knew there were two major land mines at the end of the tunnel. He swore whoever had designed this part of the aquarium had taken a lesson from Disney because they strategically added a second gift shop right at the exit, as well as a food cart which had ice cream during the summer months. If they made it past both of those without a melt-down or temper tantrum, it would be a miracle given how she was right before they reached the shark area.

"Sure. Do you want to go show Veronica the puffins next? I bet she'd love to see those," Logan suggested, hoping that Evie's love for those might buy him a reprieve from arguing about stuffed animals or ice cream.

"Puffins?" Veronica asked with an excited tone. "Do they really have puffins here? I don't believe it!"

"Yes," Evie answered getting excited as well. "Do you like puffins?"

"I love puffins," Veronica replied with a joyful smile. "Can we go see them next?"

"Come on. I can show you," Evie said as she reached up and took Veronica's hand.

Veronica looked up at Logan as he gave her a grateful smile. She must have remembered his comment beforehand about the ice cream at the end of the sharks. Of course leave it to Veronica to remember where the ice cream would be located. 'Thank you,' he mouthed silently to her and she gave him a little wink.

"Let's try to beat your daddy there," Veronica said in a conspiratorial whisper, loud enough for Logan to hear. Evie giggled and pulled on her hand harder as they started weaving among the other patrons who were watching the sharks.

Logan laughed and watched as the two blond heads started to disappear through the crowd. He followed, but let them have a little bit of a lead, of course never letting them out of his sight. By some miracle, they made it out past the gift shop as well as the food cart without Evie stopping and then they headed back around to where the aviary was. Evie took Veronica to a little cave area outside of the aviary where they could watch the puffins diving and swimming underwater. Evie had put her little hands on the glass and was watching the birds as they swam by the water. Veronica gave him an affectionate smile as he rejoined them a minute after they'd walked into the covered viewing area.

"We won," Evie said as she gave him a playful smile too.

"Yes you did munchkin," he replied as he placed his hand on her head for a second and smiled at Veronica. "Are some of the puffin's swimming today?"

She nodded and turned back toward the window again with a smile on her face. They stood there for several minutes watching the birds dive before Evie said she was ready to go into the other part. They let her lead the way around the corner to one of the sets of doors that lead into the aviary. One of the caretakers was out feeding fish to the birds and talking about the different species that they had in the aviary, so they stayed for a little while to watch them eat. On their way out of the aviary, they stopped by the octopus exhibit that was nestled into a little cave right by the birds. The octopus was sometimes hiding back among the rocks, but at least today it was out near the glass where they could see it. After they watched it for a little bit, Evie announced that she wanted to go play on the animals. Veronica gave him a confused look at her request.

"They have large rock and brass animal sculptures at the end of the trail for kids to climb on," Logan explained in answer to her expression. They let Evie lead the way again and soon they were at the play area. There were quite a few other kids playing too, and Evie soon had made a friend and they were having fun hopping from one sculpture to the other. Logan and Veronica took a seat on a bench and she pulled out the camera again. Instead of taking pictures though, she held it out for him. They spent the next twenty minutes or so with Evie playing on the animals and Veronica giving him a lesson on the various features of the camera. He took quite a few pictures of Evie as she taught him how to use it and make adjustments as they went.

Evie had finally had enough play time and ran over to them. "Ice cream now?" she asked hopefully.

"Sorry sweetie," Logan said with a tender smile. "Lunch first."

Evie let out a deep sigh. "Okay… can we go eat lunch now?"

"That sounds like an excellent idea," Logan replied with a smile. "Wanna go to the stinky place?"

Veronica laughed and gave him an odd look, while Evie shook her head.

"Please," Logan said in a slightly whiny voice at Evie. "You know it's my favorite."

Evie laughed at him. "But it's STINKY!" she said loudly. Logan laughed at her and shook his head.

"You know it's not smelly where we eat though and you like to watch the boats," Logan argued as he stood up from the bench and reached out for Veronica's hand.

Evie let out a sigh, "Fine daddy. Because I love you," she said with a sly smile.

Logan laughed. He knew that meant she would try to get something out of him later. She may not quite be even five yet, but the little girl knew how to work things when she wanted to. "Thank you Evie," he said bending down and scooping her up to give her a kiss. She settled against his hip and didn't try to wiggle to get down, wrapping her arms around his neck and resting her head against the shoulder closest to her. He could tell she was starting to get tired from all the walking around the aquarium and wondered if maybe she'd actually take a nap later when they made it home. Although the more likely scenario was that she'd fall asleep on the drive back from Newport and he wouldn't get to take advantage of a nap himself. He'd actually still taken advantage of it a few times though and pulled into a beach area where he could leave the doors locked and take a nap in the car with her. He didn't think that was going to happen today with Veronica there though. He'd much rather drag her to the back of the SUV again and continue where they left off the night before if Evie fell asleep, although during the middle of they day, they'd have to find a pretty isolated place to get away with that.

They headed back out to the SUV, strategically taking the exit doors that did not lead back by the gift shop. He ended up carrying Evie all the way back to the car since she never asked to be put down and seemed completely content to just be carried. With her getting older, she definitely wanted to be more independent, and the opportunities to carry her around were certainly getting fewer and farther between. It was amazing at how fast she was growing up and how much he'd missed some of the things she used to do when she was smaller. He couldn't even imagine what it would be like to see her get even older, and a part of him had so much empathy now for how hard it had probably been for Keith to watch as Veronica changed from his little girl to the woman she was now.

He'd reached down and took Veronica's hand shortly after they stood up from the bench and they stayed that way all the way back to the car. After they were all buckled in, he drove them a short way over toward the bay. Their destination was Rogue Nation Brewery. There was a large warehouse there where they made their beer and tucked away in one corner upstairs was a restaurant. Since you had to walk through some of the brewery part to get up to the restaurant, Evie would always complain about the smell. But once you were in the dining area, you only smelled the food that was being prepared and served upstairs and not the brewery below. They were lucky enough to get a table near the window so Evie could look out at all the boats in the marina right below them while they waited for their meals. Once they were seated, a waitress left them menus and went to get them some drinks. Logan settled on the Smokehouse Stack, which was a burger with bacon, house smoked pulled pork, Rogue Creamery White Cheddar, Dead Guy Whiskey BBQ Sauce and chipotle mayo, all served on a ciabatta roll. He saw Veronica's eyes get big when she asked what he liked and he read off the description of it to her. She decided on just getting a BBQ Chicken Sandwich, but warned him that she would probably steal a few bites of his burger too. "I wouldn't expect anything less," he said with a sly smile as she shook her head lightly back at him.

They had an enjoyable lunch with Veronica asking Evie questions about the aquarium and all the different animals they'd looked at. When they were finally finished and headed back out of the restaurant, a poster caught Evie's eye.

"Can we go see the butterflies?" she asked with big eyes and a very hopeful expression. "Pleeeeease Daddyyyyy!"

He'd forgotten that the last time they'd come up to the aquarium, they'd gone over to see them too. It was a special exhibit that was set up over on the other side of the bay along the bay front, and she had absolutely loved going there and having butterflies land on her. He shot Veronica a quick look. "What do you say Veronica? Up for playing with some butterflies?"

Veronica laughed and nodded. "Sure, why not," she replied gleefully too. "What sort of magical place is this that you live in? Are there unicorns hidden around here someplace too?"

Evie laughed and shook her head. "No there aren't unicorns, Vronica."

Veronica laughed in return. "I don't know Evie. You two keep surprising me, so I'm not going to rule out finding a real unicorn somewhere around here."

"There's ponies," Evie replied with a smile. "Kinda like unicorns… but no horns."

"Yeah they are!" Veronica answered with a big smile. "Where are the ponies?"

Logan laughed and shook his head. "That was at the fair a couple weeks ago," he explained. "They don't have them all the time Evie."

Veronica gave him a sad pout. "I missed the ponies?"

"Take Vronica to see some ponies, Daddy," Evie said in a slightly demanding voice.

"Evie," Logan said in a slightly scolding tone before he looked at Veronica apologetically. "Sorry. You'll have to come back next summer when they have it and we'll all go see the ponies together."

"Yay!" Veronica said with a playful tone. "I'm going to hold you to that."

He laughed and shook his head at her again. He really did hope that she would hold him to it. He would love it if she'd come spend the entire summer with them next year if she wasn't taking classes. He'd been thinking more about Kathleen mentioning their chief deputy DA the night before and wondered if maybe Veronica could get an internship there next summer if she needed to do one for law school. He could certainly imagine Kathleen arranging one for her if she was interested. Kathleen had a lot of connections from not only the people that she knew from the gallery, but also from when Brad was with the Sheriff's department.

After getting settled in the SUV again, Logan drove them across the large arch bridge that spanned over the Yaquina Bay and then took a right off the highway to head down to the bay front. The bay front in Newport ran along the north side of the bay, and was lined with a variety of shops, restaurants and even fish processing plants. Since it was summer, there were lots of tourists visiting and the sidewalks were full of people browsing the stores and attractions. They found a place to park near Mariner Square, which was home to the Wax Museum and Ripley's Believe It or Not. On the roof of Mariner Square they'd set up a large green house area, filled it with lots of flowers and brought in butterflies to live there for the summer. If you stood still the butterflies would land on you as they flew around. Even though Evie was extremely excited and loved the butterflies, she still remembered to be really careful and watched for them on the ground so she wouldn't step on any. She'd found a beautiful plant with quite a few butterflies on it and sat down next to it watching them. Veronica was as fascinated by all the butterflies as Evie was and after taking a few pictures handed the camera off to Logan and sat down next to her to watch them with her. Logan couldn't help but snap several pictures while they weren't looking of the two of them enjoying the butterflies together. Evie had even ended up moving so she could sit on Veronica's lap while they were watching them. Evie would giggle every time one would land on her face and Logan was lucky enough to snap a shot of her laughing while one was sitting on the tip of her nose.

After a while, Evie had had enough of the butterflies and they decided to go. Of course the first question out of her mouth after they walked out was whether they could get ice cream. Veronica gave Logan a mischievous smirk as he let out a defeated sigh.

"I'm sure I'd have a riot on my hands on the way home if I don't get you both ice cream, won't I?" Logan asked with a knowing smile.

Evie gave him a slightly confused look, not quite sure what he meant, but then when Veronica smiled at her and nodded her head, she smiled back and nodded too. Logan laughed as he took both their hands and headed down the sidewalk toward Doodle Bugs. Veronica convinced him they should also get some fudge to take home, in addition to the ice cream, which drew an enthusiastic nod from Evie as well. They walked around the bay front for a little while as they ate their ice cream, mostly just glancing at the store windows as they went. Logan ended up carrying Evie after they got their cones because he knew she wouldn't do very well walking and eating. Once they were finished, they headed back toward where he'd parked the Range Rover and then started the drive back to Yachats.

As they were about halfway back to Yachats, Logan caught Veronica looking up at a large billboard on the side of the road. "I saw that," he said with a slightly teasing tone.

"What?" she asked innocently.

"You were checking out the horseback riding on the beach billboard," he said with a soft chuckle.

"Well I did miss the ponies," she replied in an exaggerated tone with a slight pout.

He glanced up in the rearview mirror and as expected, Evie had already fallen asleep. "Maybe we could go tomorrow," he suggested in a quiet voice as he continued to drive.

"But we have the doctor's appointment tomorrow," she replied, with just a hint of disappointment in her tone.

He reached over and squeezed her hand that was resting on her lap and lightly rubbed his thumb over the top of it. "But that's just in the morning and we'll have all day. Kathleen and Sara are going to keep Evie for me tomorrow." He glanced at her again and saw an excited smile on her face.

"Okay… well only if you want to do that," she replied, apparently trying not to sound too eager, but her tone completely gave her away.

"I'm sure it'll be a lot of fun," he said with a smirk. He saw a sign ahead for one of the smaller state parks along this part of 101 and decided to take advantage of Evie being asleep. She quirked an eyebrow at him as he pulled into a spot at the far end of the parking area. He gave her a lascivious smirk before he placed both hands on either side of her face and leaned toward her, pressing his lips to hers for a deep passionate kiss.

"Sorry," he mumbled softly against her lips as the kiss ended but their heads still remained as close as they had been for the kiss. "I've just wanted to do that all day, and once Evie wakes up, it's going to be several hours before she's ready for bed and I just couldn't wait that long."

"Mmmm…" she moaned softly against his lips. "No apologies necessary… well maybe for stopping," she teased before pressing her mouth to his again. When they finally pulled apart a few minutes later they were both breathing hard. "How long do we have?" she asked as she traced her fingers along his jaw line.

"It's tough to say… maybe thirty minutes… an hour tops… by the time we were home though, she'd probably wake up when she hears the car doors," he answered a bit breathlessly as he moved one of his hands back toward the nape of her neck, and tangled his fingers into her hair.

"What if she wakes up while we're… you know… like this?" she asked as she stared intently at him, glancing from his eyes to his lips as she licked her own lips slowly.

"I guess you could tell her you were just practicing your loud kisses," Logan said with a playful smirk as she laughed loudly and quickly covered her mouth with her hand, glancing back at Evie. He chuckled softly and looked back too, but Evie was really exhausted from the aquarium and definitely fast asleep.

"I think we've got some time if that loud laugh didn't wake her up," Logan teased as he brushed his lips across hers.

He looked a bit more seriously at her and leaned back slightly. "You're still coming to stay tonight or did you decide to wait until tomorrow?"

She gave him a sly smile in return. "I've already packed up all my things and let Paige know last night that I'd be leaving when we got back from the aquarium."

"Good," he said with a pleased expression and then leaned back in to kiss her again. He wanted so badly to pull her over into his lap. They'd made out plenty of times when they were younger in the Range Rover, and he knew he could push his seat back and with her petite size, there'd be plenty of room for her on top of him. Slow Logan… remember you're suppose to be taking it slow. He heard her seat belt release and she shifted so she could lean more comfortably toward him. He moved on from kissing her lips to kissing her right below her ear in a spot that used to drive her crazy. It certainly did elicit the reaction he was expecting with a deep longing sigh and her hands moving up to his head to pull him even closer to her.

Fortunately perhaps, although at the moment he wasn't sure, a car had pulled in right next to them and the loud slam of their door made them both jump slightly. He let out a nervous chuckle as he saw the slightly embarrassed look on her face. There were several kids getting out of the car and they were being quite loud and definitely not easy to just ignore. Luckily neither sound woke up Evie, but it did remind them that they weren't exactly in a very private place.

She gave him a knowing smile and shifted a bit back in to her own seat, although moving a hand so it was still holding his and gently running her thumb along the edge of it. "So… college? What sort of classes are you taking?"

He let out a deep breath, trying to focus on the question rather than the thought of wanting to pull her into his lap which he still hadn't been able to completely get out of his head. "Yeah… um…" he shook his head slightly. God kissing her is so intoxicating. "Mostly literature classes… They have quite a variety of different ones they offer, so I decided to give some of those a try. I always did enjoy writing you know."

She gave him a little smirk. "Yeah… Freedom, that's what it's all about..."

He laughed and shook his head. "You're never going to let me forget that are you? If you'd read the entire paper, you would have seen that I only took my inspiration from the movie, but I really did write a lot of it myself."

She gave him a little wink. "How do you know I didn't actually read the entire paper?"

He cocked his head to the side and studied her for a minute. "You did, didn't you?" She smiled and nodded. He gave her an inquisitive look. "When?"

She bit on her lower lip for a moment before she answered. "I stumbled across it one day at the Grand when I was waiting for you to get back from class and so I read it." She reached up and gently stroked his cheek. "It was really good Logan."

He gave her a genuine smile and nodded. "Thanks." He'd actually thought a lot about his mom when he wrote it.

"So do you think you want to become a writer, like professionally?"

Logan shrugged. He really wasn't sure exactly what he wanted to do with it, but he knew it was something he enjoyed doing. He never expected to want to find something to do that he could be proud of for someone else, but he really did want to do that for Evie. He realized though now that he'd tried to do that for Veronica too, when he'd enrolled at Hearst. He'd done that partly to just be around her, but another part wanted to do something she'd be proud of. He certainly wasn't as focused then as he should have been, and of course that year didn't really go as well as it could have at all.

"Well I think you'd be really good at it Logan," she said with an affirmative smile. "Did you take other classes too?"

He gave her a slightly awkward smile and nodded. She quirked an eyebrow at him, definitely expecting him to elaborate. He let out a little sigh before he answered. "I took a Psych class… Family & Intimate Relationships… It was more the family part I was interested in of course…"

She gave him an understanding smile. "Of course."

"It covered traditional and non traditional relationships and families… and with me and Evie… I thought it might be good to try not to screw her up too badly… save myself some money later on for therapy for her you know." He gave her a playful smile and winked, but she looked at him seriously and squeezed his hand a little tighter.

"I think that's a great idea, Logan. And you're doing such an amazing job with her… I can't imagine you doing something to screw her up. She's really lucky to have you." The expression on her face was so open and loving. He swallowed a small lump he felt in his throat and nodded. He couldn't really remember another time when she'd looked at him like that… with absolute confidence and belief in him.

"Thanks Veronica," he said as he dipped his head down a bit shyly and then looked back up at her.

She smiled softly and leaned toward him placing a gentle kiss on his lips. "I'm really proud of everything you've done here Logan…" she whispered softly after the kiss as she stared into his eyes. "I'm sorry I never told you before… things I was proud that you'd done… I never stopped to really appreciate everything…" She took a quick breath. "Until you were gone… and then it was too late." Her eyes took on a regretful, sad look.

"It's never too late," Logan whispered as he kissed her again. He felt her take a deep breath as they kissed and she nodded her head slightly against him. When he pulled his lips away she gave him a softer smile. He reached up and brushed some of her hair back. "We should probably head back to Yachats so we can stop at Paige's for your things." He knew if they stayed much longer there he'd lose his self control and end up pulling her into his lap for sure.

She took a deep breath and nodded, likely understanding why staying could be a risky idea. They were back in Yachats a short while later and he dropped her off at Paige's to get her luggage and her car. He'd offered to come in and actually help her take the stuff out to her car but she just gave him an amused smile and shook her head. "I managed getting them inside by myself just fine, so I'm sure I can manage to get them back out." He'd also offered to wait for her to follow him to the house, and again she gave him an amused smile and shook her head and reminded him that she'd already found her way there several times on her own. She leaned in and gave him a lingering kiss before telling him she'd see him in just a little while. He was slightly surprised that Evie stayed asleep even with Veronica opening and closing her door, but knew the aquarium frequently did tire her out.

When he pulled into the garage, he opened the back door and unbuckled Evie. She slowly opened her eyes and gave him a glazed stare. "Hey sweetie. We're home," he told her as he started to help her out. She looked around the car and the garage before giving him a concerned look.

"Where's Vronica?"

"She'll be here in a little while. She had to go get her stuff and her car. Remember I told you this morning before we went to get her that she was going to stay a couple nights in Sara's room."

Evie nodded and smiled. "She could stay in my room with me."

He gave her a tender smile in return. "Well you could ask her, but she might want to sleep in the bigger bed." Evie let out a yawn and nodded. "Did you have fun today?" he asked her as they headed into the house to check on Bella. She had a nice dog house out on the lower patio and didn't really mind being outside for extended periods of time when the weather was nice.

Evie nodded again. "I like Vronica," she said with a smile. He gave her a quick kiss on the cheek.

"I like Veronica too," he replied with a warm smile. He thought it was probably best to at least prepare Evie for Veronica's inevitable departure though. "But you know she's only visiting for a little while. She has to go back to California soon because she lives there and is going to College there."

"Why can't she go to college with you?" Evie asked as he sat her down on the sectional downstairs. They'd talked several times when he'd started taking classes about how he was going to college and would be gone for some of the day and had homework that he had to do too.

"Because what she's learning about, they don't teach at the college I go to," Logan explained as he walked over to the back door to let Bella in. Bella was very excited to see them of course and wagged her small tail excitedly as Logan bent down to pet her and then she ran over to greet Evie too.

Evie seemed to be thinking about his answer as she pet Bella. "Can we go visit her… in Cafornia?"

"Cal-i-forn-ia" Logan said slowly to help Evie learn how to say it. "Maybe, but she'll be even busier with her classes than I've been with mine. She's going to Law School." Evie gave him a puzzled look. He thought for a moment before he replied. "Law School is where they teach you all the rules and how to help make sure people follow the rules."

Evie smiled and nodded. "Well I hope we can still go and see here there."

Logan nodded as he knelt down in front of her and placed his hands on her knees. "Me too sweet pea," he said with a tender smile before leaning in and giving her a kiss on the top of her head.

A/N – The butterfly exhibit really did exist, but only one summer, and it turned out to actually be the summer this story would take place so I thought that was really cool. We only had a chance to visit it once, but my kids loved it. I put a few picture on my tumblr page if anyone wants to see them. I'm lisawolfe80 over there. Unfortunately, like most cool things, they ran into issues and decided to only do it that one summer.

The next chapter will likely stay in Logan's POV, but this chapter was getting pretty long and I wanted to get something posted, so decided to stop it here. I'm sure everyone's looking forward to their first night staying out the house together too!

As always, thank you to everyone who's been reading and leaving comments. I appreciate it so much. I'm glad you all are enjoying having a fluffy LoVe story to offset a lot of the other angsty ones out there. Please be sure to let me know what you thought of this one too!