They all sat on the couch, exhausted and worn from the extensive holiday decorating. They had brought in the large Christmas tree Mac had on top of her car. After bringing in her luggage and the box of ornaments, they spent the last two and half hours decorating the whole B&B. The tree was full of sparkly circles in red, green, silver, and gold. There were bright lights all over the place and stockings on the mantel for everyone arriving, even Dick Casablancas.

The upstairs had been arranged for each person as Veronica had already decided where she would room everyone. She was going to be offering the large suites on the third floor first. Then the smaller rooms downstairs after. Duncan and his guest would be in the master suite, Dick and Trina would be in the last two suites.

Logan had decided he liked his room downstairs, near Veronica's, and refused to give it up for an upgrade of any kind. Mac agreed, she demanded that Wallace and she be roomed on the second floor as well. Each room was cleaned, vacuumed, and had the sheets turned down in expectancy of a guest. He could see Veronica's excitement begin to grow as she realized it would be the grand opening of her project. The baby she'd been nourishing for over two years.

Now, the three of them sat on the couch, it was well past noon, and they were simply enjoying the fire crackling before them.

"The place looks incredible. Thank you Mac." She smiled, bringing up her knees onto the couch making herself comfortable. She sat between Logan and Mac. He let himself enjoy the warmth of her body beside him.

"Yea, I have to admit, it looks a lot better than I thought."

"Oh, ye of little faith. You all have to trust me; I know what I'm doing." They sat again in silence for a few moments. Mac finally began to stand up. "I'm going to freshen up. I'm hitting the showers, and then we are going to go for a little ride. We have to put out the flyers, and discount offers at the local stores and areas before the grand opening to the public on New Year's."

The three of them nodded in agreement as she slumped her way up the stairs. They heard the door slam. He sat in the thickening silence, just enjoying Veronica's company.

"Logan… about last night." He felt his heart stop. He reached for his chest to press his hand against it. He didn't want her to say it. He simply wanted to enjoy her.

"We can't do this. You're getting married and… I'm throwing you an engagement party. It would be so hypocritical of me to sleep with you and enjoy you. Then hand you over tainted to the woman that you lov…."

She stopped short at her words and turned to look at him finally, her dark eyes digging into his as he felt her trying to pry within him.

"Do you even love her?"

"I can't love anyone the way I love you." He managed to breathe out, despite his chest burning and his heart now beating wildly.

"Why did you come here?" She asked exasperated, her face pulled together tightly, with her feelings becoming evident in her eyes.

"Because I didn't want to make the biggest mistake of my life." They sat in silence as she turned to look away. He stared at her profile. The face he saw grow into the woman he'd known, and loved his entire life. He watched her carefully, seeing how hard she was trying to work things out in her head. He reached out and grabbed the hand she had on her thigh. He held it tightly as she turned to look at him.

"Logan, I…."

He held his breath, waiting for the words, wanting nothing more than to hear them.

"I…."

"Ok! You guys ready to go?" Mac appeared at the bottom of the stairs and he cursed beneath his breath wanting to slam his head against the wall. He sighed loudly and began to stand up after Veronica. He could really use a Snow Monkey right now.

***

"Well, I am stuffed. Steaks and mashed potatoes… you two spoil me." Mac smiled as she started to get up from the couch. They had just finished watching A Christmas Story and stuffing their faces with food. Veronica could only smile, loving how exhausted she was from all the hard work and entertaining guests.

She began to clean up and take things into the kitchen when she heard the footsteps behind her.

"We should finish talking." She heard the deep voice that stirred her soul. She turned to see his face behind her, with plates in his hand.

"Maybe tomorrow, I'm ready to get into some pajamas and lie in bed for a while." He nodded as he helped her put the dishes into the dishwasher.

"I'm going to hang out down here for a while, watch some TV… is that ok?"

"Please, make yourself at home." She leaned forward and did something she hadn't done in years. She gave him a soft kiss on the cheek and bid him goodnight. She headed upstairs. Once she reached her room, she closed the door behind her with a sigh.

"Ok, time to talk." She opened her eyes, startled by the voice, and smiled at seeing Mac lying on her bed.

"You've got the gifts?"

"Of course! Who do you think you're talking to?" She leaned across the bed and pulled up a large garbage bag full of gifts. Veronica could only smile. This had to be one of her favorite holiday traditions, hands down. She headed toward her closet. She pulled out some rolls of wrapping paper and scotch tape.

After throwing them on the bed, she headed toward the dresser to find her pajamas. She looked around and spotted some warm flannel pajamas that were buttoned in the shirt and had a loose waist. Perfect. Just what she wanted.

"So tell me… what's with all the tension?" She froze for a moment at hearing Mac's voice. She couldn't lie to her. Mac always knew when she was lying. She chose denial instead.

"What tension?"

"Oh come on Veronica, it oozes out of the both of you when you're near each other. Did something happen?" There was a moment of silence and then Veronica turned to Mac, fully dressed in her pajamas. She jumped onto the bed beside her friend. She sighed loudly and Mac laughed, shaking her head in response. "You know it disturbs me that you still look just like you did when we were 16. You're just as cute and innocent."

They both laughed as Mac began pulling out items from the bag and Veronica curled up, her feet underneath her butt, to try and keep them warm.

"Mac… he's involved with a woman. Seriously involved. He came here to tell me that he's getting married." The room went silent as Mac slowly put down the gift and stared up at her best friend's sad face.

"Oh my God… are you serious?"

"Yes."

"Well, how do you feel?"

"What do you mean?"

"Oh come on Veronica, everyone knows that the two of you have been in love since we were like 12 years old. You guys are like soul mates. You're just going to let him go off and get married? I mean… didn't you see My Best Friend's Wedding?"

"Mac HUSH!" Veronica reached out and covered her friend's mouth desperately trying to silence her.

"I'm not ready to be in a relationship." Mac leaned forward and shook Veronica by the shoulders.

"Will you listen to yourself? This wouldn't be a relationship. This would be… I don't know it would be like beyond that. It would be like intense."

"He told me he loved me yesterday."

"WHAT!"

"SH!"

"What?" Mac whispered again, this time her eyes wild with frustration. "And you're just going to sit here?"

"I'm throwing him an engagement party tomorrow Mac. What am I going to do?"

Mac pulled out an album that had been in the bag. She opened it up to a page full of old friend pictures. They both looked down and on the left hand side was a picture of Logan and Veronica, hugging, while ice skating. On the opposite side was a picture of the two of them as children, in front of the camera, and Mac in the back with the spaghetti that had fallen in her hair. They started laughing as they looked up at each other and then back down at the album.

"If I believed in signs honey, I'd say that this was proof enough that you know what you have to do. You have to let him love you. And you have to love him back. You are incapable of anything else." Mac smiled and closed the book.

She reached in and pulled out a trendy new I-pod. "Now… we both know Wallace is a downloading music freak. I figured I'd give him a place to store it, so he doesn't go nuts getting all those blank CDs." She held it out for Veronica to see and she nodded in agreement. "What'd you get him?"

"Blank CDs." They both laughed and began to wrap their presents.

After what seemed like hours, they had pretty much wrapped up all of their gifts.

"These are the last two." Veronica looked down, at the basket before her as she started to fill it with some of the gifts. Mac looked down at her gift, and sighed loudly. "Veronica… I didn't know what to get him because I haven't even seen him in like three years."

Veronica looked up from her work and looked into Mac's eyes confused. "Get who?"

"Dick."

"You actually got him something?"

"Well, yea… I'm not completely heartless."

"No… no I just thought… forget it. Let me see."

Mac held it out and crossed her arms around her chest in frustration. She reached up for a moment to rub her eyes and looked over at the alarm clock which now read 2:30AM.

Veronica smiled as she looked down at the poster in her hands with some famous serfer dude. He probably already had it, but it was the thought that counted.

"Mac, this is great. I think he's going to love it."

"It's signed."

"What?"

"I met up with this guy at the beach, I guess he's working on a new tan or something… anyway, I got him to sign it. So it's like a collector's item now." Veronica's eyes opened wide in amazement and she looked back over at Mac.

"He's going to die when he sees this."

"Let's hope so." Mac laughed and then reached out to look at the goodies still on the bed. "What's that?"

"Logan's gift. I bought him some cologne, the kind that he likes, I baked him some snickerdoodle cookies which are wrapped up in cellophane paper. I threw in some old photographs, a few scented candles, and this bracelet. I had gotten for him a few months ago." She opened up the gold box and Mac's eyebrows went up in curiosity.

"I swear to God Veronica you better have an awesome gift for me after showing me this." They both laughed as Veronica finished wrapping up the gift. They put all of the wrapped gifts back on the floor beside her bed. They fell back onto the plush bed, exhausted.

***

He knocked softly on the door, awaiting some sort of response. Nothing. Complete silence. Well of course, it was practically 3am. He opened the door softly, not sure what to expect. He smiled at the sight of Veronica and Mac sprawled out on the bed. Mac was still in her regular clothes and Veronica was comfortable in her pajamas. He tip toed in and tapped Mac's shoulder. She made a few grunting noises and then finally her eyes opened slowly as she tried to focus on his face.

"Hey, you fell asleep. I thought you might want to get into something more comfortable."

"Are you hitting on me?"

"You just don't miss a beat, do you?" She smiled and stood up, following him out of the room as she turned off the light and closed the door.

"Admit it Echolls, you just wanted to catch a glimpse of Veronica in her nighty."

"I'm not denying it. I was going to fight if you two were in skimpy lingerie and I wasn't invited." He winked at her and started making his way toward his room when he felt her hand on his arm.

"She loves you, you know. She just needs a little convincing. She hasn't had the best of luck with men. She's just not ready to have her heart broken."

"I would never do that to her. You know that."

"I do… but does she?"

"She should."

"You'd be surprised, you'd be surprised." She smiled and headed to her room. The room across from his, and as they stood in their doorways, the doors partially closed. She turned, blew him a kiss, and closed it behind her. Maybe her words were a sign. Maybe he wouldn't give up on Veronica. It was Christmas after all. He could at least pray for a miracle.