"Rory, for the hundredth time, I think I've got everything"
"Okay. Sorry, Logan" She looked at him sympathetically "I know you are capable, it's just I've never really left Lily with anyone other than mom before, I'm a bit anxious about it."
"Well don't be, how hard can it be? I mean you've managed to keep her alive for this long…" he joked and Rory playfully slapped his arm. "Besides, I've got Honor nearby and your mom on speed dial. I think we've got it covered haven't we Lily?"
Rory looked at Logan holding Lily in his arms. She didn't really know what she was stressing about. He'd become so comfortable with her recently. This was a big step for them, apart from her anxieties about leaving her daughter behind she was glad that Logan was getting this chance. Rory felt really quite good about the progress that was being made in the whole co-parenting thing.
"Right. Good. I know. Okay, I am leaving." She said firmly. "Bye Lily," she said kissing her daughter "Be good for daddy. Bye Logan, just…be good" she said warningly.
"Bye mommy," Logan said waving Lily's arm up and down "Hey Ace?" he shouted as Rory walked away. Rory turned around to look at him. "Don't do anything I wouldn't do…."
Logan closed the door of the pool house and placed Lily in her playpen while he went to make a coffee for himself. He'd put a brave face on it for the sake of his relationship with Rory but he wasn't at all thrilled about her heading off for a weekend away a date. The last thing he really wanted to be doing was encouraging a relationship with Carter but Rory had been quite clear in telling him it wasn't any of his business. While he was happy this gave him the opportunity to devote some time to his daughter, he was also nervous about the amount of time they would spending alone together – they'd never spent more than a few hours before. Sipping on his coffee he decided to invite Honor over for lunch so he picked up his cell phone and gave her call. A little while later Honor arrived with Fifi in her arms.
"Well look at you little brother, playing house" she laughed when Logan opened the door.
"Hi Honor, hey Fifi" Logan smiled at the little girl in his sister's arms.
"Where is that adorable niece of mine?" Honor asked.
"She's right over there on the rug, I'm sure she'd love Fifi to play with".
Honor walked over to the rug and placed Fifi down next to the beautiful blonde haired girl who was looking at up with her wide blue eyes. "Hey Lily, I'm your Auntie Honor, do you remember me?" Lily rewarded Honor with a shy smile.
Logan sat on the sofa next to the rug and Honor joined him.
"So how's it going so far?"
"Well, Rory has only been gone a few house…so far I think I am crushing it" Logan said with a smirk.
Honor rolled her eyes "I meant with the whole parenting thing, not just today"
"Oh…yeah, it's going okay I think. Lily seems to like me so that's something"
"And what about Rory?" Honor asked carefully.
Logan turned to his sister with a puzzled look. "What about Rory?"
"You both seemed a little awkward when we bumped into her last week, are you getting on okay?"
"Yeah, well it was a bit weird seeing her on a date, just took me by surprise is all," Logan said.
"And she's with him this weekend. You're okay with that?" Honor raised her eyebrow.
Logan shrugged "It's none of my business what Rory does with her spare time, we're not together. She can date who she likes."
"Hmmm," Honor said, shaking her head at her brother.
Honor stayed for another hour before she said she had to get back. Logan walked over to the door to say goodbye with Lily resting on his shoulder.
"Thanks for coming Honor"
"Sure anytime" she smiled. "You know Logan, I don't want this to sound really patronizing but I am really proud of you. I know this must have all been a terrible shock but you've really stepped up to the plate. Not everyone would do that you know."
Logan smiled and gave his sister a kiss on the cheek to say goodbye. He headed back inside and put a tired and soon-to-be cranky Lily down in her bed for an afternoon nap.
"Yoohoo, anyone in?" Lorelai poked her head around the door of the pool house to find Logan relaxing, reading a book.
He looked up at her. "Seriously Lorelai, did Rory send you to check up on me?" he asked shaking his head as he stood up.
"No! Of course not. Maybe a little bit" she wrinkled her nose. "So how are you getting on Daddy?"
"Everything is fine, Lily is just sleeping. You want a coffee?" Logan said gesturing at the coffee machine.
"Erm…have we met?" Lorelai asked sarcastically.
Logan handed Lorelai a coffee as she took a seat at the breakfast bar.
"So Logan, truthfully, how are you finding parenthood?" she asked taking a sip of her coffee. "Mmm that's good" she murmured to herself.
"Well, it's interesting that's for sure" Logan laughed.
"Sure is. It's nice of you to step in this weekend." Lorelai said. She tried to sound casual about it but she was really intending to poke Logan on the subject.
Logan shrugged his shoulders. "It's not big deal. Rory asked if I could and if we're going to be serious about this co-parenting thing…"
"Yeah but stepping in while she goes away with a date for a weekend? That's quite a big ask." Lorelai raised her eyebrows before she continued. "Okay Logan, I've got, to be honest with you, I think this dating Carter thing is partly my fault."
"Your fault? How?" Logan asked slightly confused.
"A few weeks ago, she called me all discombobulated about your almost-kiss" Lorelai air-quoted.
"She told you about that?" Logan shifted uncomfortably "She's never mentioned it."
"Have you?" Lorelai said accusingly "I thought not" she smiled. "She was a bit worked up about it but she was so adamant that you two just couldn't possibly go there, and clearly she's missing something in her life, I think she's been lonely…so I suggested that maybe a little date might just take the edge off…" she grimaced at Logan. "Sorry," she said taking a sip of her coffee. "In my defense, I didn't actually think they'd get along as well as they do, in fact, I didn't think they'd get along at all! My mothers' romantic suggestions for Rory are so normally way off the mark…"
Logan smiled. "Don't worry about it Lorelai. There's absolutely nothing happening between Rory and myself, and I don't think there ever will be. She's made it pretty clear that she thinks that would be a big mistake."
"And you believe that?" Lorelai laughed.
"You don't?"
Lorelai sighed. "Logan. I know my daughter."
"Yeah, you do" he agreed "So what do you suggest?"
"Talk to her. Do you love her?" Lorelai asked. She knew it was a very personal question given the history between Logan and Rory but the time for beating around the bush had passed.
"I don't know" he answered honestly. "I mean I did, I've really missed her, there's nobody else like her. When I came back to Hartford and saw her again I definitely had hopes that maybe we could start over but…"
"…but she hurt you," Lorelai said sadly.
"Yeah. I'm trying to get over it and move on, I really want to, but…you can't really just forget something like that." Logan said looking down at his coffee cup.
"I know, believe me, I know, and I'm not going to sit here and defend my daughter, however much I love her. She was wrong, so wrong but she's trying to make amends Logan and she really cares about you. That won't ever change. You're the father of her child. Take it from someone who has been there – you two will be intrinsically linked for the rest of your lives. If you think that you could make it work together – then do it before it's too late." Lorelai said passionately.
Logan looked at her. "It didn't work for you and Christopher though did it."
"No" she admitted "It didn't work for us, but Rory is not me and you're not Chris. It was too late for us – too much stuff had gone down by the point that we seriously thought about getting together, I mean Rory was an adult by the time we decided to get married and by that point, I'd already fallen in love with someone else. It's not too late for you guys."
"Lorelai, you never really approved of me, and I know that. Hell, I did enough to earn that disapproval why would you want me and Rory to be together?" Logan asked sincerely.
"Whether I approve of you, is not the issue here. Rory loves you, I know she does. She's never stopped. And whether you feel it or not right now, I know that deep down you love Rory too, or at the very least you could love her again. I'm not telling you what to do, all I am saying is that I think, whether I like or not, you two have something. I don't want you to miss that opportunity because I think you'll both live to regret it."
After Lorelai left, Logan sat in the pool house thinking about the things that she had said to him. He felt torn. Lorelai was sure that Rory loved him and would want to be with him but he didn't want to put himself in a position where he was shot down again, it just hurt too much. Lorelai had really made him question his feelings – he knew deep down that he was still in love with Rory, he just wasn't ready to admit it to himself or anyone else quite yet.
They say time flies when you're having fun and before he knew it, it was almost time for Rory to get back from her weekend with Carter. Logan had really enjoyed spending the weekend with Lily. Sure, it was far more exhausting than he could ever have imagined, and he had a lot more respect for Rory now, but it was also a whole lot more rewarding than he had thought it would be. He relished being the person that Lily wanted to play with, the person she wanted to snuggle on when she was tired and the first person to elicit a smile from her when she woke up. For the first time since he'd known about Lily, he felt like a proper parent. After a long day, he'd finally bathed Lily and got her settled into bed and was now laid out on the sofa waiting for Rory to arrive back from New York.
Rory slowly opened the door to the pool house expecting to find complete chaos. She peeked around the door with one eye open bracing herself for the worst. Instead, she was pleasantly surprised at finding a tidy peaceful house and Logan asleep on the sofa. She dropped her bag on the floor and he jumped up.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you over there Sleeping Beauty" she laughed.
"No worries never intended to fall asleep. What time is it?" Logan said a bit dazed.
"Erm, 8.30pm," Rory said looking at her watch. "Sorry, we're back a bit later than intended. Traffic" she rolled her eyes.
"You have a good time?" Logan asked.
"Yeah, sure" Rory nodded "I had a good time."
"Not too much of a good time I hope," Logan said with a wink.
"Logan!"
The truth was that Rory did have a good time on her weekend away with Carter but well; it wasn't quite what she expected. He was an utter gentleman and when they arrived at the hotel he had told her that he had booked two rooms, not wanting to presume anything about the status of their relationship. Rory knew that Carter was probably hoping that she would choose to stay with him but the fact that inside she was breathing a huge sigh of relief that they wouldn't be sharing was enough for Rory to know that right now, sleeping with Carter would be a mistake.
They had a great weekend, the show they went to see, an off-Broadway play that one of his friends was directing, was good fun and they'd had a good two days pretending to be tourists. They went for a lovely dinner and drinks, followed by some dancing and on Sunday morning had enjoyed a long leisurely brunch together. In every sense of the word, it had been a great weekend but as much as she liked Carter, she really couldn't see it going any further than friends.
"How was everything here? Looks like you had it all under control" Rory said looking around the pool house.
"We sure did. We had a great time. Honor came over with Fifi yesterday morning for a bit and then your mom spontaneously came over yesterday afternoon…"
"Oh really?" Rory said nonchalantly.
"Oh, really my ass!" Logan laughed "You sent her to check up on me!"
"No, I didn't" Rory protested "Well, not check up on you, just see if you needed any help that's all…"
"Thanks for that! Anyhow, I guess I had better get going" Logan said starting to collect up this stuff.
"Okay. Unless…do you want to stay and watch a movie or something?"
Logan paused for a moment. "Sure, why not"
The next morning Rory woke up all of a sudden. She opened her eyes slowly, feeling a bit disorientated. It took her a few moments to realise that she had woken up on the sofa and the noise that had disturbed her so suddenly was her daughter crying. It took a little longer for her to register that she was, in fact, lying with her head positioned on Logan's chest. The sound of Lily demanding attention was enough to also wake Logan from his peaceful sleep.
"Morning" Rory said looking up at Logan slightly embarrassed.
"Morning" Logan said stretching "I've got to say, as comfy as your sofa is, I've had more comfortable nights."
"I'm sorry Logan…I feel a bit awkward, I don't even know when I fell asleep". Rory said.
Logan yawned. "About 20 minutes into the movie"
"What? You should have woke me! Then you could have gone home."
"You looked so peaceful, I didn't have the heart to move you, so I carried on watching the film and I guess I must have drifted off too…" Logan smiled.
"I better go get…" Rory gestured towards her room where Lily was getting more impatient. "Do you have to go or do you want to stay for some breakfast?"
"Oh I'd better get going, I'm actually meant to be in the office this morning. Don't want everyone to think the CEO is slacking off so soon into the job."
"Right, of course" Rory nodded.
Logan followed Rory into the bedroom to say a quick goodbye to Lily before he left the pool house to head home.
"Hey kid, how was your dirty weekend away?" Lorelai asked.
"Thankfully, not so dirty. Carter booked us separate rooms" Rory said, a hint of relief in her voice
"So you didn't…?"
"No, we didn't…" Rory rolled her eyes at her mom.
"but you had a good weekend."
Rory paused before answering. "I did"
"Uh-oh. He's toast right." Lorelai knew that tone in Rory's voice only too well.
"Totally. It was a really nice weekend and he's a great guy but there's nothing there you know. I don't feel anything for him."
"So you're cutting him loose," Lorelai said firmly.
"I'm cutting him loose" Rory agreed.
"So now perhaps you can tell Logan how you feel," Lorelai said cheekily.
Rory gasped. "What? No!"
"Oh come on Rory. You can keep kidding yourself all you like but I know you have feelings for him."
"It doesn't matter if I do, I'm not going down that road." Rory shook her head even though her mom couldn't see.
Lorelai gave up on the subject for now and they continued to talk about her weekend. After the conversation came to a close, Rory put the phone down and thought about what her mom said.
Was it that obvious that she still had some festering feelings for Logan? And more importantly, did he know?