AN: This chapter is not properly proofread. I made a decision to post because my life is extra chaotic for the next few days so it was now or never, and I chose now. Please note this chapter is M rated but I am not changing the overall rating of the story. We move forward. We have hope...i have also reached the end of my outline sooo, probably 5 more chapters of this one. Read, review, enjoy.
Disclaimer: I do not own Gilmore Girls or Forever My Girl
Chapter Twelve
Logan glanced behind him in the rearview mirror where he saw Hannah smiling and watching the town pass her by as they made the short drive from The Dragonfly Inn to her friend Chloe's house. Logan had hung out with Hannah at the inn so that Rory could get a bit more time with her. He could see that Rory was spinning. Something he hadn't really seen personally since Rory had stressed over writing exams at Yale and planning a wedding. It was worse now though. It didn't take a genius to figure it out. Plenty had changed since he left, but some things had remained the same. Sookie was still…lovely but scatterbrained, leaving Rory in the same position her mother had been in years earlier, trying to pick up the slack for the business side of the inn. She grasped onto the weddings because they were the only thing that Rory truly enjoyed doing…and then there was doing it all without her mother. It wasn't supposed to be this way. He hated watching her like this. He didn't even want to think about how long Rory had been struggling to keep all the metaphorical balls in the air. He didn't even think it was about the money. The inn seemed to be doing well enough. It was busy enough. But Rory for some reason couldn't relinquish control. When she did relinquish a little bit, which that particular weekend he learned had been hiring a company to get her lawn done…it had backfired. The company had cancelled, and now Rory was left with no lawn mower and a lawn that she thought looked unkept and as the spiral continued, Rory reminded him that she didn't need to be known as the crazy single lady who also couldn't maintain her house.
"It's that one," Hannah interrupted his thoughts by pointing to the house, "on your side," she told him. Their eyes made contact by way of the rear view mirror and Logan couldn't help but enjoy watching her so excited for her sleepover. "Are you going to come to the door?" She asked him excitedly.
Logan chuckled, "I thought you could just roll out of the car?" He joked, "haven't they taught you stop drop and roll at school?" When Hannah gave him a bewildered look he couldn't help but notice that she looked more like Rory in that moment than he thought he had noticed before. The way her brow furrowed as he pulled into the driveway. "I'm kidding." They both unbuckled their seatbelts and Logan got out, he opened Hannah's door and she hopped out, then he went to the trunk and grabbed her packed duffel bag. "Am I just the bellhop?" He asked with a wink. "Something tells me you don't have the money to tip."
"Talk to my Mom," Hannah retorted, "come on, Chloe is waiting," the little blonde girl skipped up the path to the front door. Logan couldn't help but smile. Hannah lived in a world where things could be so easily fixed. He was walking proof of that. She had simply accepted that one day he had come into her life and now he was there to stay. While he wished he had been there earlier, he had to question if he had still managed to come at the perfect age…she still believed that people were inherently good, that they could be trusted…she believed he wouldn't let her down, and he hoped he never would. "Can I ring the bell?" She asked him enthusiastically.
"Go for it," he laughed. He watched as she leaned forward, raising her right index finger and pushing the doorbell. A moment later the door swung open and another little blonde haired girl squealed in delight to see Hannah, immediately pulling her into the house where the pair ran off. This of course left Logan face to face with a man who looked to be a few years older than he was. "You must be Chloe's dad?"
"Matthew," he extended a hand, "you're…Hannah's…" he paused. Of course Matthew had dated Rory so he knew who was standing in front of him, but he was also surprised. It had been a bit of a foregone conclusion around Stars Hollow that Logan Huntzberger wasn't likely to reappear, but somehow, here he was.
"Hannah's dad," Logan nodded. "Logan Huntzberger. It's…nice to met you." He shook his hand and then lifted the bag, "she packed light. Uh…Rory says to just text her tomorrow and she can come by whenever is good for you. When the girls are done I mean," Logan began to ramble in a way that was all to reminiscent of how Rory could ramble when she felt uncomfortable.
"She's working today?" Matthew assumed and Logan nodded his head. "Well, lord knows Rory isn't the best at delegating. She never quite understood that she needed to put her own oxygen mask on first…she's always…" he paused.
"She would save anyone before she would save herself," Logan finished for him. "Han," he saw Hannah run by him and stop in her tracks at the sound of his voice. "Can I have a hug? I'm going to head out." Hannah ran over and hugged him tightly. "You be good, and if you need me, you have my number? Right?" She nodded her head, "love you, kiddo." He stood up and nodded to Matthew who took he bag from him, "thank you for tonight. Uh…Rory really appreciates it." Logan let out a long sigh once he was back in the car. Thinking about what Matthew had said…he wondered how long it had been since Rory truly took a break. He wondered how much of that was his own fault. How much of it was because he hadn't been around when he should have been. Although it sounded like she had still been struggling even when she was in a committed relationship and someone there to help. But still, he knew. He knew now that help was different than having the other parent be there. They were not comparable things. Before Logan knew it he was pulled over looking at his iPad which he kept in place of a new phone because he refused to let go of his archaic Motorola Razr. Pulling up websites he was certain he had no place visiting trying to get his hands on a lawn mower. He could do this. He could do something simple that would make her life easier. He could show her that he was there, and he was trying and whatever she needed from him…whatever he could take off of her shoulders, he would.
"Hey, do you have a lawn mower?" Logan spoke into his phone. He noticed as he flipped it open
"A lawn mower?" Colin repeated, Logan was certain if he could see his friend, Colin would be looking at him with confusion. "I mean no, I don't personally own one. But I have a service. Do you need someone? I would've thought your Dad still had a service?" He started to ramble, "I'll send you the contact information."
"No, Col," Logan ran a hand through his hair, "I don't need a service. I need a lawn mower. The actual physical thing."
"A lawn mower?" Colin repeated, "why?"
"To mow a lawn," Logan answered cryptically.
"Why are you mowing your lawn? Let me send you the contact of my guy."
"Col, Rory needs her lawn done. She doesn't need the name of a guy…she needs…" he exhaled, "she needs someone to help her. So thank you, but I don't need your lawn guy."
"You need a lawn mower," Colin repeated what Logan had started with.
"I need a lawn mower."
"Doesn't…Home Depot? Lowes…"
"Apparently they're a hot commodity this time of year," Logan admitted.
"What about Honor and Josh?"
"I can't ask Hon…if I ask Honor she will make it a thing and by the time I convince her that it's not a thing, Rory will be home from work. I need one…I need one now. Fuck I'm going to have to ask someone in this town for one and…well you can imagine how they all feel about me."
"Look man, I have no advice here. But I have to ask…can you make sure someone takes a photo of this?" He choked back a bit of laughter at the image of Logan Huntzberger mowing a lawing butt fuck nowhere Connecticut. "Do you even know how to pay your cellphone bill?
"Of course I do. I pay someone to fucking make sure it gets done, asshole. Not that different from you. I've gotta go."
"Good luck."
"Thanks," Logan hung up the phone and sighed. Of course he knew there was an option…he wasn't sure which would be worse. Asking Miss Patty or Babette and being sexually harassed, or doing what he was going to have to do next as he put his phone and iPad down and drove the few streets to get downtown, if you could even call it that. Of course, he couldn't even be sure if Patty or Babette owned lawn mowers. Luke…Luke he knew would have one. He had needed one back when he and Lorelai lived at the house that Rory and Hannah now lived in. So even if it meant he was likely going to get a strip torn off of him, he knew it was who he needed to see. He parked his car in front of the diner and walked slowly inside. He was aware of course that Luke's grumpy demeanour seemed to become more grumpy once he looked up as the bell on the door chimed and saw who the newest patron was. "Hey Luke," Logan nodded awkwardly as he walked to the counter.
"You eatin?" Luke asked. "We're pretty backed up. There must be something you can get between here and Hartford…"
"I need a favour," Logan told him. He wasn't looking to play games, he wash't looking to order a burger and have a heart to heart. He just needed to help Rory. He saw Luke bristle and before the man could speak, Logan continued, "I need a favour so that I can help Rory."
"What does Rory need? I'll take care of it," Luke told him as he looked at whoever Logan was standing beside and topped up their coffee. "You don't need to worry about it. Rory has people to help her."
"Luke, can we…" Logan looked around, even if people weren't completely staring at him, he knew they were watching them, "can we talk outside or upstairs or…anywhere except in front of this peanut gallery?"
"For your sake it's probably best that we stay out here. What do you want Huntzberger?" Luke retorted through gritted teeth.
Logan inhaled. Although Luke wasn't being particularly welcoming, it was actually not that different from just general Luke behaviour. "The company Rory has cutting her grass flaked. She is overwhelmed at work. I need a lawn mower."
Luke chuckled under his breath. "And what are you going to do with a lawn mower?" He asked. Of course he was also pissed that the company had flaked. Rory had told him already a couple of other times that they had failed to show up when they were supposed to.
"I'm going to do the lawn."
"You? You are going to do her lawn?" He smirked.
"Luke I'm trying," Logan told him honestly. He expected this of course, and frankly…Luke wasn't being as bad as he could've expected. He deserved the shit he got from her family. He hadn't been good to her. He hadn't treated her right. He had literally left and ignored her when she tried to tell him she was pregnant. He didn't deserve a welcome back party. "I just want to help her. I want to do something that will make her life easier."
Luke nodded his head. He shifted his jaw from side to side and nodded once more. "There's one in the garage. It needs gas, but it works. I store it there. She doesn't even know how it works," he laughed. "But Logan…before I give you a key to the garage. I need to know one thing."
"Sure, anything," Logan agreed.
"You're here. Right? You're not just going to dick off in a few months once you get sick of playing dad?" Luke wasn't even asking to be rude. His voice was soft and calm. He was asking because he was worried about Rory and his granddaughter.
"I might have to leave for work from time to time," Logan did his best to answer honestly and completely. "But I'm not going to be running away any time soon. I will be here. For both of them. Whatever Rory needs, whatever Han needs."
Luke dug into his pocket and pulled out his keychain. He unhooked one particularly old key and slid it across the counter. "Don't forget the gas."
"Thank you," Logan paused for another moment as he took the key and twirled it in his fingers. "Do you think I could get a coffee to go?"
Luke gave him a weak smile, as if to say that he was willing to accept what Logan was telling him at face value, but not so broad to suggest that anything had been forgiven. "Celebrities get a surcharge."
"I wouldn't expect anything less," Logan smirked as Luke pulled out a to go cup.
"And assholes who left my kid a week before her wedding, and then ignored my granddaughter…it's double that."
Logan put a twenty dollar bill on the counter. He knew that Luke wasn't serious about the cost, but he still felt compelled to leave a more than generous tip given that he was asking Luke for help. He walked back to his car and got inside, taking a long sip of the hot beverage he immediately remembered why Rory had always loved it so much. It was good coffee. After getting some gas from Gypsy, he once again he found himself driving the short distance back to Rory's house. He saw Kirk Gleason who had waved at him excitedly, seemingly getting over the animosity he felt towards Logan when he had first appeared in town. The coffee was still piping hot when he returned to the house. He parked his car in the driveway and looked at his watch before letting himself in. The first order of business was tidying up. Rory had told him the other day how overwhelming she found the mess. It took him about an hour while drinking his coffee to deep clean the kitchen and the main bathroom before doing some general tidying in the living room and Hannah's room. He stayed out of Rory's bedroom, but everything else in the house was done. He knew that there would be plenty of people who would never believe that he had actually cleaned, but the truth was, Logan had always found stress cleaning to be somewhat cathartic. He could focus all of his attention on something other than reality. He moved to the yard, walking slowly to the old garage which he had always known to be full of stuff, never a vehicle. As he put the key Luke had given him in the lock, it seemed that hadn't changed. The door swung open and Logan immediately knew he was walking into a time capsule. The lawn mower was still towards the front and he pulled it out first, then he exhaled as he looked at everything else. There were boxes marked with Lorelai's name on them and Logan could only imagine what was inside. There were photo albums that had been haphazardly left on shelves. He imagined that Rory, or maybe her mother had pulled them out from time to time… there were a couple of small bicycles, he imagined they belonged to Hannah when she was younger. There was a dismantled crib, and maybe the biggest gut punch was the box with his name scrawled on it. Of course he knew that the box would likely be full of…remnants of their relationship. He had no intention of looking through it, but knowing that it was there…knowing that not everything had found its way into a bonfire…it gave him a sense of hope but also more sadness.
He closed the shed and went to his trunk to grab the gas can, carefully filling the lawn mower. He regretted his decision to wear jeans, but it would have to do. He decided to start in the back. Of course he had been in the backyard a couple of times, but seeing it now, seeing all of Hannah's things strewn around, seeing the things that she has presumably enjoyed when she was younger as he did this mundane household chore, it was different. By the time he got done the backyard he had sweat through his shirt. He let himself back into the house and checked the time, having been there for almost two hours at that point, he knew that he would need to get out sooner rather than later if he wanted to let Rory come home and relax. He grabbed himself a glass of ice water and peeled off his sweat covered grey v-neck t-shirt, leaving it in the laundry room off the back porch before he went back to finish the task at hand.
The front yard was more difficult than the back. Maybe it was because the sun was still beating down on him and despite the water and the lack of shirt, he was still covered in sweat. Maybe it was also because the front yard had decidedly more obstacles and less of a clearcut back and forth path to do, or maybe it was because he was acutely aware of Babette gawking at him from her own porch. Either way, he was nearly done when he heard the familiar sound of tires on the driveway and looked up to see Rory pulling into the driveway slightly earlier than he had anticipated. Part of him wanted to stop…but instead he continued. He continued as he heard her cut the engine and get out of the car. He continued as she got her purse from the backseat and then started walking towards him.
"Logan?" She called his name. "What are you doing?"
That was when he stopped. He let the engine on the mower stop and looked up at Rory. Wiping his forehead with the back of his right hand as she walked towards him and looked at him with confusion. "I'm just finishing up the lawn," he told her simply. Of course she could see what he was doing…but it was more shock over the fact that he was doing it. "I should be out of your hair in a few minutes. I'll put everything away and lock the garage."
Rory blinked as she stared at him. She could feel the lump in her throat and she knew that next her eyes would be watering. "Why…I can see that you are mowing the lawn. Why? Have you just been…here?" She thought about how he had picked Hannah up hours ago. Logan shrugged his shoulders and Rory bit her bottom lip, "come on, you look hot," she let the words slip out without meaning to, "I mean…temperature wise. You look like you are warm," she corrected. "Come have a glass of water?"
"Let me finish," Logan told her. "I just have a couple of more passes and then I'll be done."
Rory went inside. It didn't take a genius or an ivy league education to see that she was flustered. Her stomach dropped when she saw that he had cleaned up. Everything was put away just so, she could tell he had vacuumed and swept. She walked to the kitchen and saw further evidence of the time he had been there and this time she couldn't stop the tears from coming. Rory looked in Hannah's now immaculate room for a Kleenex and returned to the kitchen after dabbing her eyes and blowing her nose. She heard the engine on the lawn mower cut again and grabbed the glass that Logan had previously been drinking from and filled it to the brim with water. She couldn't believe he would do this. Of course she knew from having lived with him that he didn't mind cleaning, he was a tidy man, but…she had never expected this.
"It's all done," Logan surprised her by coming in the back door and joining her in the kitchen. "I put the mower back in the garage and locked it. I'll take the key to Luke."
Rory blinked at him slowly as she handed him the glass of water and watched him take a sip. Her eyes started at his lips and moved slowly down his well defined and naked torso. "You," she licked her lips and then averted her eyes, "you went to Luke?"
Logan shrugged as he finished the water in one long swig. "Couldn't think of anyone else who would have access to a lawn mower in town that would give it to me without many questions."
"So you…you talked to Luke?" Logan nodded in response and ran his free hand through his sweat drenched hair. "Luke hates you."
"I know."
"You went to him even though you know he hates you?"
"You're drowning Ace," he shrugged as though it was the simplest thing in the world. "I just…I'm here."
If he ever asked her, Rory would tell him it was an out of body experience as she closed the gap between them and wrapped her arms around his frame. She didn't care that his body was sticky with his perspiration as her lips quickly meshed against his. Her hands on his neck as she swiped her tongue across his lips, hoping that he would sense it. Hoping that he still knew her well enough to know that this was different. This wasn't anger or frustration or just a result of the lust that she had felt in every part of her the moment she saw him mowing the lawn. It wasn't his actual physical appearance that had done it though. It was that he was taking care of her. After all of these years, he was taking care of her. It took a second but she got her wish and Logan opened his lips slightly. He was cautious. His arms still frozen at his side as Rory's hands moved from being intertwined at the base of his neck, tangled in his sweat drenched hair. She pulled away, her soft hands moving from his neck to his cheeks, "Logan," she breathed.
"I can't," he finally spoke, shaking his head as he took a step back and put some distance between them. "You were clear. Last time…it was a mistake."
She understood. It hurt of course, to know that she had…scared him like that. "Logan," she whispered softly, she wasn't talking about sex. She wasn't talking about scratching an itch or a roll in the hay. "You're not a mistake," she told him. She waited another moment, he didn't say anything, his eyes looked guarded, he looked torn. Unsure of which way to move, where to run, what to do next. Rory trailed her fingers from his cheeks down his torso until for a moment they broke contact. Logan remained glued to the spot and Rory held his gaze as she slowly began undoing the buttons on her white button down. She felt the coolness of the faux pearl buttons as she slowly made her way down until her shirt hung open in front of her and for the first time since she had seen him when she got out of the car, she wondered if he wanted this too. She had assumed of course that on some level they had always been the endgame for him. That he wasn't just here for Hannah, he was here for her too, but she had been too guarded, too scared to move forward. Now as she stared at him with her chest heaving and her plain white bra visible, she wondered if he wanted her too. Had she made it up in her head? Had she imagined the glances? The looks? The consideration he had given her… was he just being nice. She banished the thought from her mind as she leaned forward and kissed him again. She saw his eyes flutter shut before their lips met and this time he was a much more active participant. His tongue sweeping across hers and putting a bit of pressure on her lip as she pulled away. Rory shrugged the shirt off of her shoulders and took a step backwards towards the archway that would take her to the living room and then to the stairs, "take me upstairs Logan." Her voice was soft as she stepped backwards, her arms slipped behind her back as she unclipped the decidedly un-sexy bra she had worn that morning.
She was worried for a second as she hit the bottom stair. But almost as quickly as that worry had crept into her mind it went away as she heard him approach. His hand reached for her as she hit the landing and pulled her back into his arms. "You're sure?" He asked. His lips once again hovering millimetres away from hers. "I can't…I can't do back and forth with you." It was almost as if the pull was magnetic, his lips moved to her neck. Slowly and gently sucking and licking at her sensitive skin. "I need to know…" His hands were on her back, caressing the smooth skin of her spine. "I need to know we're going to try," he wasn't sure if he could handle it if she said no. He wasn't sure if he could stop if she said this was a one time thing.
"We'll figure it out," Rory murmured, "I promise," she told him. She wrapped her legs around his waist and his hands went to her ass, she didn't have any regrets about her decision to wear a skirt. She wanted to say something else, but they could talk later. "Thank you," she whispered as his hands went under her black midi skirt. "For today," she moaned, his lips were on hers once more as he was pressed up against the wall. "Take me upstairs, please."
He didn't need to be told more than once. He walked up the stairs as quickly as he could, her room suddenly seemed far away. This time she kissed him, hard. "God," Rory moaned as he gently placed her on the bed. "You look," for the first time since he had come to the stairs she stared at him, taking in the sight of him. "How do you look like this?" She smiled as he slowly lowered himself on top of her. He kissed her gently, it was slow and sensual, it wasn't fevered or frantic.
"You're magnificent," Logan responded when they broke apart, he needed a moment to catch his breath and so he stared at her. He saw Rory try to retreat into the mattress as his eyes wandered her body. When they were last together, the car, it had been frantic, chaotic, they had both remained fully dressed. As he slowly lowered his mouth to capture her right nipple, his tongue flicking and his hand attacking her left breast, massaging the skin and rubbing his thumb over her.
"Logan," Rory arched her hips up towards him. Of course he had kept just enough distance between them that she couldn't have the desired effect. "Please," she whimpered.
Logan looked up at her and nodded. He moved his lips from her breast down her stomach, kissing what seemed like every inch of her until he reached the top of her skirt which was hiked up as a result of his carrying her up the stairs, but still very much in the way of what he intended to do to her. "Lift," he gently placed his hands on her hips and Rory lifted them up, allowing him to pull the garment off of her body and leaving her laying before him with just her panties on. Of course if any of this had been planned, had she known where they would end up, maybe she would've worn something other than a pair of simple black boy shorts, but the way Logan looked at her, the way his eyes darkened with lust…there was something about it that made Rory feel like the most attractive woman in the world.
She moved her hands to cover her stomach, she watched as his eyes lingered on her body and he shook his head, taking her hands and removing them from her body. Whatever it was she didn't want him to see, he wanted to take it all in. She was intoxicating. "It's been…" she breathed, her voice was shaky now. The bravado, the lust driven courage…it was still there, but the self doubt was coming to the surface as well.
"Too long," Logan brought his lips to hers once again. His hand snaked between them and he began rubbing her. He could feel her wetness through her panties and he couldn't hide his smile as she pushed herself against him. "Fuck," although he was more than happy to make sure that she got hers, the confines of his jeans beneath his erection were starting to be too much for him. He maneuvered his body so that it was on the bed beside her, with his one hand moving under the waistband of her panties and touching her centre, the other hand undid his own belt and Logan ungracefully removed his pants. Rory giggled at the sight of him and he withdrew his hand playfully, the giggles turned to a pout and Logan leaned towards her again and captured her lips in his. "Laughing isn't nice," he told her, her hands were around him firmly, slowly moving up and down his length.
"I won't do it again," Rory breathed. She could feel his fingers hovering so she chose to encourage the process by slowly removing her underwear. "Please."
"Come here," Logan rolled onto his back and Rory slowly complied. It was late afternoon and the sun was coming in through the sheer blinds, "you're beautiful," he told her, she was grinding her centre against his pelvis and he knew that she wanted him inside of her as much as he wanted to be there. "Come on Ace," he encouraged her with a charming grin, one that he was sure he hadn't used in a long time…one that maybe had been reserved for her for all of these years, even if he hadn't realized it.
Rory moved her body, it wasn't lost on her that he was rock hard and she had barely touched him for two minutes. She felt his tip at her entrance and then she paused and groaned, Logan looked worried for a moment as she leaned her body almost completely off of him and opened the drawer to her bedside table and pulled out a condom, "sorry," she mumbled awkwardly.
Logan didn't say anything. He understood of course. Given…everything, it made sense that she would want to be safe. He watched as she shyly opened the package and rolled it onto him before once again positioning herself with him at her entrance, he couldn't help but groan at the sensation as she slid down on him. She waited a moment, leaning forward and kissing his shoulder, his neck, his lips before she started moving her body slowly up and down. His hands were on her hips now and his thumbs were holding her, they were both sure it might leave a mark but as she moved faster not to mention adding the circular motion that he loved so much, he had no choice but to dig in. "Oh my god," Rory breathed, her head tossed back as one hand left her hip and went to her breast where he kneaded the skin for a moment before letting it get tangled in her hair, "fuck Logan, fuck me. Fuck me."
Of course she was in complete control and he loved it. He knew he was close and it seemed as though as soon as his hand had taken a rough grip on her auburn locks it travelled back down her body, this time moving along the curve of her back and down to the swell of her ass until he brought it down between their bodies, "let go," Logan told her firmly as he bucked his hips upwards, causing Rory to squeal at the sensation. A moment later he saw her familiar tells. Her bottom lip sucked into her mouth, her head thrown back in ecstasy with her eyes barely open as she began to repeat his name over and over again. "Come for me Ace," he told her. She kept moving, rolling her hips and it was enough for him. Coming down off of her own high, she leaned forward and captured his lips in hers before rolling off of him. "You good?" He asked.
Rory blushed as she pulled the sheet up overtop of her naked body, "don't be smug," she told him as they looked at each other. His eyes lingered on her and she wanted nothing more than to curl underneath the blanket even farther, "don't."
"I've seen you naked," Logan leaned forward and placed a wet kiss on her exposed shoulder.
"Not…" Rory shook her head. She wasn't going to do this She wasn't going to ruin whatever this was by getting inside of her own head. "That was…wow," she admitted.
"No words from Rory Gilmore?" He smiled at her, "glad I still have my touch."
Rory rolled her eyes. She wasn't sure what to say next. Obviously there was plenty they needed to talk about…but this hardly felt like the moment for that. There was no need to bog the moment down with…reality. Not yet at least. "I'm just going to get a water," Rory told him, she rolled over and sat up on the bed, Logan stared at her back as she grabbed a t-shirt from the floor and pulled it on, she then searched for her discarded panties and pulled them on. "Do you want anything?"
"I could use a shirt," he admitted, "mine is…"
"Right," Rory nodded, "manual labour…it looks good on you."
Logan laughed as he found his boxers on the floor and put them on. He wasn't really sure what was happening. Rory walked out of the room to get a water and he took a moment to take stock of his surroundings. It was all so familiar yet so different. That made sense of course…she had grown up. They had both changed in so many ways, but apparently some things had stayed the same. He sat back down on the edge of the bed and waited. He knew she was only gone for a minute but it felt like longer and he was relieved when she handed him a glass of water and took a seat beside him. "Thanks," he gave her a smile.
"Here," she produced a piece of grey material from underneath her arm.
Logan smiled as he opened it. He felt the thinning cotton material and remembered it instantly. "I thought you burned my stuff?" He asked her, feeling a sense of relief wash over him that she hadn't in fact destroyed every piece of him from her life.
"I liked the shirt," Rory put her water down on the bedside table and turned to face him, leaning forward and kissing him as she memorized the way he looked. He looked so young again. His mussed hair, his face was content…that freshly fucked look she had known so well when they were young.
"I'm surprised you didn't sell it on e-Bay. I'm sure there was a period of time that it would've gone for big bucks," he joked.
Rory licked her lips and laughed. "Mom suggested it," she admitted with a shrug, "but apparently you have to provide proof of authentication before you can claim an item belonged to a celebrity, and my seven month pregnant stomach wasn't enough to do it for the kind folks at eBay." His face fell almost instantly. It was like the air had been sucked out of the room, "Logan," she put her hand on his cheek, "I'm kidding."
He nodded, trying to decide if he believed her, but something about the way her blue eyes were searching his made him trust her. He always trusted her. Rory could tell him to jump off a bridge and he would, that was how much he trusted her. "Do you want me to…" he looked at the door and silently hoped that she wouldn't take him up on his chivalrous offer.
Rory shook her head, "I thought we could just…relax," she admitted. "I don't remember the last time I just relaxed."
Logan watched as Rory leaned back into the mattress and maneuvered herself into a horizontal position. He stood up and walked to the other side of the queen sized bed and got under the blankets so he was looking at her. She grinned and he followed suit as he took in the sight of her. "You're something else."
Rory leaned forward again and kissed him. It was as if she was trying to reassure him that maybe they didn't know exactly what this was, but it wasn't nothing. "Likewise."
"Tell me something I don't know about you," Logan suggested. He could sense that neither of them were in any particular rush to think about exactly what all of this meant, but he still…he wanted know everything he had missed.
"Sometimes I write articles for the Gazette," she admitted with a laugh. "Just…Taylor lets me. I guess it's scratching an itch."
Logan felt an odd sense of relief knowing that she hadn't completely given up on her journalistic aspirations. "Why didn't you ever get my dad to help you. He would have…"
Rory of course knew that was true. There had been a time when she had considered it…but then after the dust had settled when her mother had died, Rory couldn't quite bring herself to part with the business her mother had worked so hard for. "I think I thought I would be able to ask him one day," she admitted honestly. "He offered…you know Mitchum, he never stopped offering. But…I just…I wanted to make sure that everything at the inn was good. I don't hate it," she admitted, "I enjoy some of the work. No two days are the same, so that is like journalism."
"You're not meant to be planning weddings," Logan told her honestly, his hand had started tracing circles on her bare arm. "You're meant to be writing…"
"I'm meant to do what is best for Hannah," Rory countered. She didn't say anything more, but the point was clear whether she intended it or not. Rory didn't have the luxury of following her dreams, she had a daughter. Unlike Logan who had chased every one of his whims to the end of the earth. "I don't mean…I just…I need to be in Stars Hollow, I need to be local. Lane is here, Luke…you're close by now…"
"You could do both," he told her. "You could stay here and you could follow your dreams. I'm here…I know now. I can be present while you follow your dreams."
Rory leaned forward again, she brushed her lips against his, "my dreams…it isn't as simple. It isn't a one track thing…I don't feel like I'm missing out on anything."
"Ask me something," Logan changed the subject.
"What is it like to be with the Logan Huntzberger?"
Logan gave her a look. His brow furrowed and his eyes narrowed with confusion. "You would know…"
"No," she shook her head. "I know you. I know your heart…I don't know what it's like to be with the superstar. Who is that guy?"
Logan shook his head, "you don't want to know him."
"One date," Rory told him with a grin, she received another confused look in response. "I want one date with the Logan Huntzberger and then I will never bring it up again."
"You'd go on a date with me?" Logan took only what he wanted from her statement.
"You'll show me a good time?"