AN: Some answers to your questions: Rory does not own Gilmore's mansion anymore. It was sold. Besides since it was where Rory had her missed miscarriage, it wasn't exactly a place with good memories for her.
And of course - Finn and Paris… I wasn't even going to spell it out for you but as not everybody guessed it, here it is. I imagined that call to Logan being a very panicky Finn just after Paris had told him. I am not going to go into details on that storyline, but you can imagine them figuring things out in the background. I can just picture Paris giving him the time of the pregnancy to make up his mind / or prove himself to her before she decideds whether to put him on the birth certificate/share custody with him. And I just don't see Paris considering abortion. And I've always imagined the Finn in this story perhaps needing a bit of a motherly/guiding hand at getting his mind straight. Whether they'll end up together in the classical sense or not, I don't think it even matters, as that's not necessarily the main influencer on whether they'll be happy or not. Families can work in a variety of ways.
Chapter 121
February 5th, 2022
Logan loved how driving from Vinyard Haven towards Makohikey cleared his mind. Supposedly it was similar to what Rory had described to him concerning Nantucket. Coming to his place, formerly his family's place and now his, in Martha's Vineyard had once meant a break from everything else because back in the 1990s and 2000s there actually had been a chance that there wasn't good reception in every part of the island, which offered a good excuse to dodge a few calls.
He'd left Loki with Rory and Em, unsure how safe the old house was for the puppy to roam in while he focused on packing. He aimed to be back that same night, but there was a slight risk going through everything would take him a little longer.
The roads here were pleasantly narrow, reminding him of older European towns, and the older houses, similarly to Nantucket, small - at least in the parts closer to the Vineyard Haven. The difference this time was that he actually felt a little like he didn't fit in anymore. Partly it was the fault of the rental Ford Transit he was driving, knowing he'd need to haul back at least a few boxes, and he hadn't entirely ruled out he wouldn't want some smaller pieces of furniture for the new house. Nothing major, maybe a dresser, a few personal items or some coffee table, mostly aiming to use them in the guest rooms, wanting to be sensible with his money. It was also something his therapist had suggested, since he'd already abandoned everything else in his life when he'd left London. According to her, leaving like that could've left him with a bit of a fluctuating identity, her theory being that things that connected one to the past were often physical items.
He turned right from the road to visit Cronig's Market, deciding to grab a few things for lunch, and possibly dinner if he decided to stay, and parked the van at a vacant spot by the shop front. He truly enjoyed the island this time of year - even on the weekends there wasn't too much crowd.
He noticed a few familiar faces, the kind that were best avoided, across the parking lot, packing their groceries into their car, and Logan pulled his shoulders up instinctively, wanting to blend into the background and made his way quickly towards the store. He didn't want to explain - neither his presence, his choice of vehicle, the sale of the house, which many had surely noticed nor his divorce that surely was primarily in these people's minds whom he had once known here compared to how well his life was really going. Still - he almost felt like he just wanted to get this over as quickly as possible.
He bought a chopped salad mix, some salted peanuts, hummus and pita, aiming that to suffice for lunch. He didn't bother with anything too complex for dinner, not even being sure he'd be there long enough and bought some pasta and some basic pasta sauce which would be easy enough to just bring home if he didn't finish. After picking up something to drink, he made his way towards the register, not wanting to risk running into anyone he knew.
It was however as he piled his purchases onto the register, it was the person in front of him whose voice he recognized, it taking him several seconds to place.
"The lobster you had last week was incredible, you don't happen to know what company that was from?" the tall and slightly chubby man asked the check-out girl, making casual conversation.
"I'm sorry, I wouldn't know. But you could go ask Sean in the back," the girl suggested.
"Another time then," the man replied, and in that moment cast a look towards Logan, casually.
It took them both a moment, both the timing and the location being so weird for them to meet.
"Hugo Gray! What a small world!" Logan said, his tone changing from the avoidance he'd prepared himself for to something a lot more friendly and genuine. He offered to shake his hand.
"Indeed," he replied, and shook his hand without formality. Logan struggled to read him, truthfully.
He was kurt for words but he was always that. Logan just hoped him approaching him wasn't something that he wanted to avoid, not really knowing where they stood in the business part of things since his abrupt exit.
"How are you, man?" Logan added, feeling genuinely curious. He'd seen him several times since Rory had worked for him, and while he had had some business with the HPG Hugo never really dealt with Logan directly, hence enabling their talk at various parties or conferences to remain above business, the topics being something more general and philosophical than business gossip. He'd truly believed Hugo had liked him as a person and vice-versa.
"Good, good," Hugo replied, and gathered up his small bag of groceries. "Yourself?" he asked.
Now was the moment of truth, stick to 'fine' and some humorous comment about their formerly joint field of business before they went their ways, or actually explain why he was here. They'd actually discussed the ridiculousness of American 'how are you' culture, where the phrase was thrown around all the time with nobody really wanting to know the real answer. Though that had been years ago, and he was doubtful he remembered.
"Excellent," Logan replied. "Just over here to empty out my property here this weekend, bit of a farewell to the island, I suppose," he offered, while the checkout girl scanned his items.
"Oh, that's right," Hugo noted, waiting around with his paper bag under his arm. He could've hurried off, making some excuse, but he had this special calmness about him. Almost like he was living at a different pace than the mainland had. "I think I saw that ad in the local Facebook group," he recalled, and glanced casually at Logan's purchases.
"Yeah, the realtor made it sound like it was a pretty tough market right now," Logan committed as he paid for his things. "What brings you here? You sound pretty local," he noted.
"Well, I am. Moved here a few years ago, my wife and I are working long distance these days. It's a great place for the kids too," Hugo added.
"No more big city pace?" Logan noted, with some surprise. But come to think of it Hugo really did have that something about him that made him just fit in at a place that had slower pace, while he had in no way struggled at different settings.
"Nope," Hugo noted, making a humorous 'pop' sound as he said it. "And you? I hear no more London for you either?" he asked, as the two walked out of the market.
"Hartford. I have a small start up, hoping to keep it small," Logan replied.
"I guess there just comes a time in a man's life where sometimes one just needs to make drastic changes to get to where one really wants to be," Hugo commented, and stepped off the curb to pack his groceries into his Subaru SUV.
Logan smiled, raising the corner of his mouth. His own car wasn't far and he was just about to say a casual "It was nice to see you, I hope to see you around," as a goodbye, but before he got a word out, Hugo spoke.
"I know you're probably busy with the house and all, but if you want you could stop by later for dinner. Kaisa is in the mainland with the kids, it was just going to be me anyways. The place is nothing as fancy as you're probably used to but we got this Finnish sauna hut that's a bit of a sightseeing destination," Hugo offered, and Logan genuinely felt like agreeing.
There was just something about this guy's energy that Logan liked, always had, and in that way that got his ideas flowing. There was of course the question of having to call Rory and leave her caring for Loki, but perhaps one night she could somehow manage.
"Alright, sure," Logan replied, knowing he'd need to make haste with all the packing. But in a way he felt like it wouldn't be a loss, but a gain to spend an evening with someone he clicked with. Re-befriending Tristan had been great, but truthfully the two didn't have that much to talk about regularly. They had fun when in a group, and might perhaps catch up for a beer or a game of pool, but he didn't come close to being that person he'd call to discuss his ideas or life in general.
With a quick exchange of phone numbers and Hugo's address, they both headed in different directions, adding a new prospect to their evening.
The house, Logan's house, was just as he remembered it, just more worn. No wonder it had been a difficult sell and frankly it looked worse than in the pictures they'd had made for the sale. The double doors squeaked and felt fragile as he opened them, clearly needing some repairs, but it was the time machine effect of the inside that he hadn't quite expected.
It was as if seeing glimpses of his summers there as a kid, even if mostly it had been just with his sister or their nanny. But there were a few memories of his father chasing them, actually playing with them in some rare event, or simply the scent and feeling in one's muscles of arriving at the house dead tired from a long day at the beach. The end of several near-perfect days.
Those memories were his own, not his fathers. The way he'd tried to teach Rory how to cook in this kitchen right here, providing endless laughter and many-many times leading to something naughtier than cooking. The sound of Rory squealing at the first run-in with Stan or the way they'd snuggled up in front of the fireplace and talked about their travel plans.
There were less than perfect memories too, naturally, but those he tried to push away more quickly. Those where his father had embarrassed him in front of his guests, the times when someone had called the cops on one of his parties and Finn had ended up playing a lost tourist to get away with it - not all bad. But the worst - the one that had worn him off of this place completely was the way Odette had disliked it here.
There was no question that the style of the place was not what Odette had been used to, and that was a woman who was used to old houses. She just was never a fan of architecture and interiors trying to be something they were not and the US was full of examples like that, unfortunately. This place tried to be something older than it really was, incorporating farmhouse styles and country style tiles in occasional places, instead of embracing the island's architecture. But Logan hadn't designed this place, for him this place was more than just the architecture. It was mostly about the beachy location and what one felt when one sat out there on the porch and stared at the ocean endlessly.
"Why don't we just rent someplace else? Some place with floor heating, pretty please?" Odette had said, her voice echoing in his brain.
She'd had problems with the showers too, naturally, having once by accident gotten a cold shower in the morning. But just like these tiny details popping into his brain now, he knew that Odette hadn't been that one sided. So what if the place hadn't been her style - she'd still humored him. She hadn't forced him to sell it, despite not being keen to come here. He'd tried hard to make her like this place - cooked for her, shown her how nice evening out there on the porch could be. It was back then when he'd still genuinely tried to make it work, but perhaps it had been a lost cause, especially here since he kept seeing memories of Rory in here.
Having stared at the ocean from his favorite place in the whole house, the porch, for several minutes, and at the same time letting the house air out a little with the open door behind him, he took a deep breath and knew that it was time for him have some lunch and start packing.
He just needed to gather the things he wanted to keep, leaving everything else to be donated, as the house was going to go under massive construction before the summer.
About twenty minutes in, already having gathered up the books he'd actually loved, one of them actually having belonged to Rory, he struggled between taking or leaving the Maze Runner series.
"Hey? How's Stan?" Rory answered his call, her voice sounding so sweet to his ears.
"Hey… haven't seen him," Logan replied. "Loki doing alright?" he asked.
"Yeah, Em and him are tireless… perfect for keeping them both busy and out of trouble," she replied, looking at the girl on the floor pulling on one of Loki's chew toys. There were a few small bites that went along with it, the puppy not quite yet knowing the limits of a game, but Em seemed to have enough experiences with puppies not to let it bother her and was even using the reward method, half unknowingly, to encourage him if he knew when to stop.
"Listen, I might have to… well not have to… but I kind of want to stay overnight. I hope it isn't too much trouble," Logan said, hesitantly.
"Oh?" Rory replied, having not quite expected it. "There's a lot of work? I guess, it's okay… I might have to take him over to your place though, maybe stay there with Em overnight," Rory discussed, knowing that her home lacked that safety gate that might become handy at nighttime.
"That and… I ran into Hugo, Hugo Gray. Got invited to dinner, actually," Logan shared.
"Really? What's he doing there?" Rory inquired, the name being very familiar to her. After all she'd worked for the guy.
"He lives here apparently. Working long distance. I don't know… he's a nice guy, I feel like I should be making the types of connections here that I actually like, you know," Logan tried to explain.
"Wow…," Rory sighed, still not believing he'd run into him there of all places. "Make sure you say 'hi' for me, okay?" Rory added.
"So it's okay? I'll make it up to you, I promise," Logan said.
"Yes, absolutely. He's a nice guy, I get it…," Rory assured. She really did want Logan to have friends, and exactly this type of business connections, the kind that didn't try to screw him over - Hugo had been a decent guy, through and through. "We'll be fine," Rory assured. One night over at Logan's apartment might have actually been like a fun sleepover thing, a change of scenery for Em.
"Oh, and I meant to ask - do we need a full series of the Maze Runner?" Logan asked more practically, and continued to go through the house asking for Rory's opinion on several things, some with photos. There were surprisingly several things Rory didn't mind him bringing, having expected Odette-like complaining about not wanting old crap in their new house. But this was Rory. And even from afar he felt like Rory and him were a team in this. Not much later he was finding himself packing up stone carved emus and fish that he'd once bought himself as souvenirs.
What he left, however, were the framed pictures of his family. The reason was that they weren't real - they were put in prominent places by the decorator, not really depicting the real family that the Huntzbergers had been. All except one that is - one with him and his sister, sometime before the age of 10, in their swimming clothes, their feet all sandy. That was the kind of memory he wanted to bring with him.
Before it was getting dark his van was already packed up with the contents of their wine cellar, the books, a couple of boxes of knick-knacks, a pair of nightstands and a couple of lamps, an antique dresser with tens and tens of tiny drawers that Rory had always loved. The latter had been challenging to get to the van by himself but he'd managed. But it wasn't until he closed the door to the van when he realized he'd still need to take that same van out to Hugo's that night. Not quite the perfect plan, considering not all the roads on the island were in mint condition.
Walking back to the house he noticed the garage, realizing he didn't really know what it held these days. He didn't even remember the last time he'd stepped into it, truth be told.
The side door was warped, but he managed to push it open, realizing that the garage actually held a car. The place was dusty - and that was putting it lightly. It was only as he pulled off the car cover, when mouth formed a broad, despite coughing through the dust. It was his Porsche. 2006 Porsche Carrera Cabrio… boy that thing was still a beauty in his eyes.
The car itself was open, its keys in the container by the hand break like he had often instructed people to leave them. He didn't quite recall whom he'd asked to bring it here, but clearly he had. And he was glad. It was a flash from his youth, and now most definitely the highlight of his day, and a collectors item on top of everything. He still loved the way this car smelled - new cars didn't smell like that anymore. He enjoyed the soft leather under his hands on the steering wheel and honestly it was the car he truly would've loved to take for a spin right then and there.
But he knew better than that - there were steps to take with cars that have been sitting around that long, and he was not the man to do them. Hence he made a call to the local mechanic, or well… left a message, that is, hoping he'd be willing to come check on the vehicle tomorrow morning. Maybe he could indeed keep this as a souvenir of his youth - like a trophy of his mid-life crisis?
Hugo really didn't live very far, just 10-15 minutes. The neighborhood was a little older, the smaller houses being a good indicator. But Logan was past judging people by things like that and considering them less for any such reasons - he'd been past that as soon as he'd met Rory.
The house itself might have been small, but the acreage was sizable, quite impressive for a seemingly humble estate. He'd brought a bottle of wine as a present, not having to really think about it with a half a vine cellar full of rarities that were now klincking at the back of the van.
"It's a nice place you have here," Logan noted as he was invited in after the initial greetings.
There was a delicious smell of something hearty cooking in the oven, and the house, while technically looking very middle class, seemed very deliberate like that. After all, a house in the Vineyard in itself had very little to do with the middle class. But Logan liked the simplicity of it. It looked homey, and that was what matters. Now he truly appreciated that.
"Nothing like your place, but it's home, you know," Hugo replied, feeling humble.
"Yours looks like it's in much better shape, really - the only thing my house here is good for is hoarding memories," Logan chuckled, wanting Hugo to relax as well. Logan didn't want to be this guy he felt he needed to impress, and thankfully he seemed to get that too.
"It's my wife's really, her family has owned this since forever, but they only really traveled here a couple of times a year back when she was growing up," Hugo began, and explained in depth how his wife was of Finnish-Swedish descent and how her father had been a diplomat in the US for years, hence the house.
They moved from casually showing him the house, the traditional Finnish sauna in a separate building which seemed to be his pride and joy, to the kitchen where Hugo offered him a light beer and began to plate their dinner of potatoes and fish, along with some simple salad.
"My fiance has a place in Nantucket… we just felt like we didn't need the two... This place was just too big anyways," Logan explained. "Oh, by the way she says 'hi'. Perhaps you remember Rory Gilmore?"
Hugo's response was a friendly chuckle of recognition.
"Of course," Hugo replied, "she's difficult to forget. Good writer. But I guess you know that," he added. "And I suppose congratulations are in order," he added, with a friendly smile.
"Thanks, man," Logan replied. "Definitely a long time coming," he added.
"Better late than never," Hugo agreed, and led him to the dining room.
"Tell me about it," Logan exhaled.
"So what's she up to anyways, haven't heard much about her," Hugo inquired.
"Teaching mostly, though I kind of hope she'll take another try at writing," Logan explained.
Hugo nodded as he chewed, both enjoying their meals.
They talked about what both did for work - Logan filling him in on his start-up and Hugo on how he still had that online magazine of his, but just let it do its thing without intervening much. Hugo explained how he now mostly did freelance consulting for publishing houses and media agencies along with some writing of his own, how it was nothing flashy but that was what he'd wanted at this stage of his life, his main focus being on being at home and being around for his young kids - 3-year-old twins. Hugo was older than Logan, which led him to think that his wife was probably significantly younger than him and that he also had the kids pretty late in life, which was assuring to Logan.
"Yeah, I am definitely in that stage too now. I just want a nice and quiet life," Logan sighed. "Sometimes it just takes a very different reality to make one realize that," he added.
"Oh I know. I was married for 10 years, my ex was working just as hard as I was but when I wanted to get off that train, I realized that she had no intention of doing the same. We wanted different things. So here I am a decade later, still friends with my ex-wife, especially when it comes to work, but full time here where it matters," Hugo explained, feeling proud of himself.
"I wish things had been as clear with my ex, I doubt she'd even take my call if I ever needed to call her," Logan replied, shaking his head.
"I'll have to admit, I saw a few of those articles last year. It didn't look very pretty," Hugo commented, understandingly.
"She was hurt, but essentially we just didn't want the same things out of life," Logan replied with a shrug, agreeing that essentially a lot of relationships ended for that very same reason. People growing apart and having a drive for very different things did not make a good team.
"Sarah, my ex, she was too at first… it took her a while. But I played nice, I guess. I let her cool off, let her be mad at me and then I just one day called her in all honesty and told her that I was sorry. I admitted that I missed talking to her sometimes. I explained that I didn't want to get back together, nothing like that… but just… I missed her as a friend. She had been the person closest to me for many years," Hugo replied. "It was healing in the end," he added.
With that thought lingering in Logan's brain he drove home that night, after hanging out for a few hours. Mostly the topics had stayed in the business side of things, Hugo enabling Logan to grasp the changes in their formerly joint field this side of the pond, casually also mentioning some quirks of the islands that both seemed to know well enough. It wasn't a horrid remindor of the field he'd escaped, rather bringing up connections that he'd forgotten about and gaps in the business that Europe seemed to have a much better handle on things. It was a good reminder of how well he knew the publishing business.
But that night as Logan laid in bed, staring at the moonlight over the ocean, having not bothered to draw the blinds, he did think whether perhaps something his therapist had said was indeed right. That maybe in order to move on he not only needed to accept some physical items from his past, but that perhaps eventually he also need to make amends with Odette. Maybe he needed to try to at least, even if she probably wouldn't take his call. She had once been a friend, and surely he understood how hurt and dissapointed she'd felt when he'd made his exit like that. It were these negative relationships that were keeping him so far from his former life, the publishing business in itself being not the problem, as that night's discussions had revealed.
