Logan flopped onto his back, panting as he stretched out beside Veronica. She rolled onto her side and curled up under his arm, resting her hand on his chest and taking deep breaths to try to slow her pounding pulse. She could feel Logan's heart thudding rapidly against his ribcage.

"Woof," she said breathlessly.

He choked out a laugh but didn't speak, still breathing heavily.

"Pretty sure you could go professional in that." She spread her hand possessively across his torso. She still didn't understand why he made her feel like he did, or why she was mostly okay with it. It was not her style to allow herself to be vulnerable to anyone. If she was honest, there were even times she was cautious with Wallace and her dad. She had a high level of confidence that neither of them would hurt her, but she still had a tendency to hold back, pretend to be less affected by things than she really was. It wasn't like she was spilling her guts about her feelings to Logan, but the thought didn't fill her with as much dread as she would have expected.

"You're paying?" he asked, wrapping his arm around her and tugging her more closely against him.

"Are you charging?" she squeaked out in surprise.

"Hey, it was your idea." He kissed her forehead. "I know I'd pay...if I had to."

She shook her head, snickering. "This has gotten so weird." She rocked her head back and Logan leaned down to kiss her on the lips. "Why don't we just forget about anybody paying anybody, 'kay?"

"Good idea." She tucked her head under his chin, dropping a kiss on his chest. They lay together in silence for several minutes. Veronica was starting to doze in his warm embrace when he whispered her name.

"Veronica? You still awake?"

She hummed out a sigh. "Mmmhmm. You're just so comfy."

Logan chuckled. "Always ready to be your body pillow."

"Yeah?" She peered up at him.

"Absolutely. Any time, any place."

The certainty in his voice warmed her through. "I think we're gonna have to stick to here for now. My dad's not gonna be as crazy about the idea as I am."

He laughed again, low in his chest. "Yeah, I'd rather not piss him off. Need to be on my best behavior when we finally meet."

She leaned back to look at his face. "You want to meet him?" He raised a skeptical eyebrow.

"Of course. If you're okay with it." He reached up to smooth her hair behind her ear. "I'd do dinner with you on Sunday like Wallace suggested, if you were willing. You said they knew about me."

"They do, but I didn't want to inflict my nutty family on you. Between my dad and Wallace's little brother, I'm sure there'll be plenty of embarrassing questions."

"I can take it. I want to meet them." With the arm around her, he rolled her up to lay against his chest. She crossed her arms, pushing up so she could look down at him.

"Why do that to yourself?"

He frowned, eyebrows furrowing together. "Veronica, I know it hasn't been that long, but you're important to me. More important than any other girl I've ever dated. I'm doing my best to play it cool and take things slow so I don't overwhelm you, but I want to meet the people who are important to you." He ran a hand through his hair, a move she'd noticed seemed to be a nervous reaction, but then he grinned. "If I can win them over, maybe it'll be easier to win you."

She reached for his fidgety hand. "I think you're doing fine with that on your own." She scooted up his body and brushed her lips over his. "Well then, as long as you're okay with it, I would love to take you to family dinner on Sunday."

His answering smile was dazzling. "Excellent. Thank you."

"Don't thank me yet. Wait 'til you've survived dinner with Darrell."

He laughed and raised his head to kiss the underside of her jaw. "He's like ten, right? He's gotta like video games."

She nodded slightly, not wanting to discourage his lips against her skin. "Ahh, bribery by X Box. Nice."

"Whatever it takes."

At those words, she did push away from him, enough to look down and study his face. "Whatever it takes? That seems like a big commitment."

He gave her a crooked smile, looking almost bashful. "I'm okay with that."

She gazed down at him, her mind a jumble. What did he say? 'More important than any other girl he'd dated.' She blinked deliberately and shook her head. That's how you feel too, stupid.

"Veronica?" She focused on him again, worrying his lower lip between his teeth. "Are you okay?"

She huffed, not sure if she was amused by this situation or just terrified. She'd just been thinking that she wouldn't mind him knowing how she felt, but now? She really wasn't as sure she was ready for this conversation as she thought she was.

"Hey, I need a water. Want one?" She rolled from her position atop him, and scooted out from under the sheet. She grabbed his tee shirt from where she'd flung it earlier and shrugged it on as she made her way to his little fridge.

"I can share yours."

She shook her head and grabbed two bottles, then returned to the bed and handed one to him before moving to sit in his desk chair. "I need my own."

"And you need to be over there?" Logan sat up, frowning at her. He pushed himself to a seated position, propping his pillow behind him, before opening his water bottle and taking a long drink. "What's going on, Ver—"

"—so, you remember that first day we actually met, in the Food Court?"

"Vividly," he said in a soft voice. "The highlight of my college experience. And you already know that, because I was just telling you about listening to what you told PIz about your old boyfriends. So what is this about and why are you over there?"

"I need to be able to think, Logan, and I can't always do that when I'm too close to you."

"Too close?" The soft tone grew sharper. "What does that mean?"

She sucked in a deep breath. Here goes nothing. "Being around you...it's different than anyone before. You affect me...in ways I've never had to deal with before. You gotta remember, I helped my boyfriend escape town with his pregnant ex-girlfriend and I didn't have a second thought about the end of that relationship. It wasn't too much after that when I got my next boyfriend sent to a school that was barely a step above Juvie and I didn't bat an eye then either. Not a single break-up song played and I couldn't have squeezed out a tear to save my life. Not in either case. I am practical and rational, not emotional."

"Maybe it was them, not you. They weren't worth wasting your emotions on."

She raised an eyebrow. "Huh. That's an interesting take."

"I mean, yeah, you're practical and rational, no question about that, but I never saw that as keeping you from emotions. I haven't met the rest of your family yet, but I see you with Wallace, and I hear how you talk about your Dad, and even Alicia and Darrell. You are not emotion-free."

"I'm not?"

Logan snorted a laugh and shook his head. "It doesn't look that way to me."

She studied his face. "Not sure what you're seeing that no one else does. I've been called 'heartless bitch' by most people I know."

He shook his head again. "No. I don't believe that Wallace and your dad have called you that."

"Yeah, you're right about that, but Wallace has told me that I can be pretty cold." She laced her fingers together and stared down at them. "He was a little concerned about how easily I sent Duncan off with Meg."

"You knew that relationship wasn't permanent so you made sure the guy did the right thing. Frankly, the fact that he'd knocked up one girl and moved on to another is a little skeezy in my opinion."

"I know, right?" She looked up at him again, nodding vigorously. "I mean really, how hard is it to figure out what the right thing is there?"

"Well, I guess if you were really in love, maybe you just would have had to work out how to parent that baby between the three of you, but—"

"Oh no, uh uh. That was not going to happen."

"Because you weren't in love with him. So you could give him back to that other girl, who probably deserved better, and not feel much of a loss."

She dropped her eyes back to her hands again, considering what he was telling her. It made sense. She'd been relieved to send Duncan away with Meg. He'd been...boring. Not terrible, not offensive, not really...anything. He'd never really made her feel anything, not like Logan did, and that, right there, was the problem. It was a pretty easy transition when she found out about Meg's baby, because she didn't really care that much. She let herself think for a moment how she thought she might feel if she found out that Logan had a baby coming with some other girl. That feeling was bad enough that she switched over to the Troy scenario. What if Logan was just using her as a cover for his secret drug dealing? What if he had another girlfriend waiting in the wings? Would she be able to turn him in to the authorities? The idea that he would use her made her feel hurt and angry, but she didn't like the idea of getting him arrested. It had made her a little gleeful to do that to Troy.

"What's with the face? You look ready to hit someone."

"It's nothing," she said. That really was true, at least it should be. She was being a paranoid drama queen. She was pretty sure Logan wasn't anything like Duncan or Troy.

He patted the mattress next to him. "Any chance we can have this conversation with you here?"

She wrinkled her nose. suddenly concerned that she was just ignoring issues right in front of her "First, no drug dealing empire you're trying to manage, right?" He made a face and shook his head, emboldening her to ask her next question. "No long term girl friend waiting for you? And...umm...any chance of a pregnant girl coming out of the woodwork for you?"

"Definite nope to all of those things." He smiled at her. "It's weird, but I've been a little preoccupied since school started. I saw this cute little blonde on the very first day of school, and I haven't really had any interest in anyone else since."

"What? Not the very first day. English class didn't start until Wednesday of that week."

"Ahh, but that wasn't the first time I saw you." He patted the mattress again. "Come on, come sit beside me and I'll tell you all about the first day of school."

"Is this a trick?" She stood and took a couple steps toward him. "Luring me in with secrets when you know learning hidden stuff is my favorite thing?"

"Your very favorite thing?" He leaned back on the bed and brushed his hand deliberately over his bare chest and abs, then down to lay on the comforter covering the rest of him. "Is that true?"

She shook her head at him. "Think you're cute, don't you?"

"Pretty sure you do."

She raised her eyebrows and tapped her index fingers against her lips as she watched him smirk at her. Yeah, he's right, I do.

"All right, fine." She crossed back to the bed and he tossed the covers back, letting her slide in next to him. "So, tell me about the first day of school. Where did you see me?"

"I enrolled late, as you know, and had to get my schedule from the Registrar's office." He shifted his arm around her shoulder and leaned his head against hers, nosing behind her ear. "There was this argumentative little blonde there ahead of me."

She tilted her head away, giving him more room as she enjoyed the feel of his breath against her skin. "I got my schedule corrected on the first day; they'd messed it up."

"I know, I saw the whole thing." He ghosted kisses on the back of her neck. "And when you were done, I got myself moved into your English section."

"What?!" She twisted to face him, shocked at what he'd said. "You got yourself moved into my English section?"

"You were the most interesting person I'd seen at Hearst. Actually, most interesting person I could remember seeing in...I don't even know how long. It just seemed like a good way to get to meet you." He looked down at his hand that was now plucking at the comforter, and his cheeks turned an adorable pink. Veronica bit her lip to hold back a smile, but when he peered up at her from beneath his eyelashes, she was pretty sure she felt her heart stutter in her chest.

"So you go to the trouble to get yourself in my class but you never speak to me?" She let herself grin at him. "I think this is textbook stalker behavior."

For a moment, his gaze was quizzical, like he was trying to decide whether to believe her expression or her words, then he gave a quick shake of his head.

"If I was a stalker, I would have sat further away."

She laughed and snuggled into him again. "I'm not sure if I'm impressed or nervous that you're aware of how stalkers behave."

"Both my parents had their own, my dad more than one, so I've had some experience." He ducked down and kissed her neck again but she pushed him back with her hand against his chest.

"Oh, Logan, I'm so sorry," she began, but he interrupted.

"Nothing to be sorry for, it's just life with Aaron Echolls. His were usually women he'd banged and then ignored. Mom's at least was a crazy guy in love with a soap character." He pulled away this time, turning to sit slumped on the side of the bed. She followed, kneeling behind him so she could lean against his back, her arms draped over him, and her chin on his shoulder.

"I think I'm mostly sorry that I said something that made you get out of this bed. Tell me what's wrong."

He shook his head, still looking down at the floor. "I just realized that talking about my life makes me look like a bad bet."

He tipped his head enough to grimace at her. "It's another sign you're different in my life. Most people only want to know what it's like to be an Echolls and I don't care if they know or not. The public persona at least. Most people I've been around are shallow enough to think it's glamorous. But you, you don't care about all that crap, and it's made me realize, normal people don't appreciate homicidal stalkers. Normal people want to be around people they can trust. Normal people would hate this shitty mess of a life as much as I do, but they can walk away. I know I would if I could."

Veronica straightened a bit, sitting up on her knees, wrapping an arm around his neck. He kissed her forearm and she leaned her other elbow on his shoulder and ran her fingers into his hair.

"Personally, I've never been a fan of normal. Duncan was normal and he bored the shit out of me. Now I'll admit, that doesn't mean I'm a fan of homicidal stalkers, or abusive, cheating assholes. But knowing about your dad doesn't mean anything as far as who you are."

He'd gone rigid under her at the word 'abusive' and she hoped she hadn't pushed too hard. She kissed his cheek and traced her finger around his ear, making him shudder.

"That tickles," he mumbled.q

"I figured." She kissed him again. "Doesn't matter to me who your dad is. And I'm not talking about his name or his image, I mean the person he is. It doesn't change you and you're the one I care about."

"You don't actually know that. I could end up just like him."

"I don't think so." She straightened, then tugged him back, pulling him with her to stretch out on the mattress again, side-by-side and face to face. "I don't want to spend time on this conversation," she said softly, stroking his cheek. "You've never been anything but gentle and loving with me, so there's nothing to talk about. Understand?"

His lips pressed together, looking almost disapproving, but after a moment, he nodded. "Not today. But I'm not promising this won't come up again."

"I realize that." She flattened her palm against his face, pulling him toward her. "Just remember, you're the one I'm here with. And I don't really know what we're doing—" she leaned forward and kissed him gently "—but I don't want it to stop."

"I don't either," Logan answered, then their lips met again and the conversation was over for a while.