Chapter Thirty-Three

Logan and Veronica were sitting on the white wrought iron porch swing in his backyard. Looking around, Veronica couldn't help but feel at peace. It was a very idyllic setting: quiet and secluded, white picket fence around the yard, umbrella over the almost antique-looking swing they were on. There was even a matching bird bath and a cute little koi pond with a running fountain going into it. From the vantage point of the swing, the ocean could be seen. One could sit there and watch the tide roll in and listen to the sound of the waves crashing to the shore. There was a gate in the center of the fence at the back of the property. Just inside the gate was a small, plain steel-piped shower situated over a four foot by four foot square slab of cement. It was there for people to shower before going into the small, private pool at the corner of the property but mostly got used to get sand out of inconvenient locations when coming in from the beach.

They were shoulder to shoulder, hands loosely connected just at that spot where their thighs touched when they heard the sliding door open from behind them. Figuring it was Dick, neither turned around. Instead, Logan called back, "Hey man, get us a couple brews, would you?"

"I think champagne would be more appropriate," came Wallace's voice instead. It was light and teasing and made Veronica turn around with a smile.

Jumping up from the swing, she moved to give Wallace a hug. In hugging him, she saw Mac by his side. Out of the corner of her eye, she caught sight of a gleam and shimmer. Straightening, she narrowed her eyes as Logan came to join them and reached for Mac's hand, demanding, "What's this?!"

"It's a ring," Mac said giddily, stating the obvious while her dimples deepened with her grin.

"Well, I know it's a ring but how? And who?!" Veronica demanded, astonished that she hadn't know anything about her friend dating anyone, let alone being serious enough to get engaged.

Logan looked between the pair and just knew. He clapped Wallace on the shoulder and said sincerely, "Congratulations, Bro."

Whipping around, Veronica looked at Logan in total confusion. "What are you congratulating him for? We're talking about Mac's ring!" she insisted, turning back to focus her attention on the sparkling diamond on Mac's finger. "Why did I not know about this?" she cried impatiently.

Mac tried to figure out the best way to respond to the totally clueless Veronica while Wallace stood smugly by and said to Logan with quiet confidence, "Thanks, man."

Veronica was about to start asking questions again when Mac stopped her in a slightly hesitant but hopeful voice, "V?" wanting to just get her attention.

"Yeah?" Veronica responded, finally looking Mac in the eye to wait for an answer.

"It's Wallace," Mac explained gently, almost as if she were talking to a fragile child.

"What's Wallace?" Veronica asked, still not getting it, "Of course this is Wallace," she said, motioning with her hand toward her best friend, "He's here, you're here. Just like usual. Well, except this is Logan's place," she added as if that had anything to do with anything.

Logan touched Veronica's shoulder and lightly but firmly turned her toward him. Wallace rolled his laughing eyes, unable to believe it had come to this. How could someone so good at seeing so many things that no one else would see when it came to anything else be so totally inept when it came to this?

"Veronica," Logan began, his voice low and cautious with her, "What they're trying to say is that they - Wallace and Mac - are a couple. Not only are they a couple, they're an engaged couple."

Veronica was speechless. She stood there trying to make things add up but it just wasn't working. How could they be a couple? They were her backup, her sidekicks. How could they be together when they weren't with her? As she thought it, she realized how ridiculous she sounded even in her own head. Of course they could be together! In fact, it was probably all the time they'd spent with her on her cases that helped make them a couple. But still...HOW? She had to wonder.

"I think she's in shock," Logan said with keen amusement. He rubbed his hands up and down her arms, hoping she'd start responding again soon.

Slowly, Veronica looked up at Logan. Her eyes were filled with disbelief but they also clearly asked him with a silent plea, 'Is this for real?'

He nodded to her in the affirmative and gradually turned her back around to face her friends. He gave her shoulders another squeeze, this time of reassurance. Then he took a step forward and wrapped his arms around Veronica from behind to hold her protectively.

"You really are?" Veronica asked, incredulity and uncertainty clear in her tone.

Mac held Veronica's gaze and nodded before confirming with her words, "We really are."

"Yep!" Wallace added happily, teasing Veronica with a grin, "If you're a marshmallow or a twinkie, I guess we're an oreo or a ho-ho!"

Laughing in delight as she reached to squeeze Wallace's hand, Mac leaned forward to get closer to Veronica. She waved in Veronica's face and pleaded with her, "Say something, Bond!"

Still feeling numb and disconcerted as Logan loosed her from his arms, she reached to give each of her friends a hug and then hugged them together as well. She mumbled a congratulations to them. When she let them go, she stepped back and stood awkwardly staring. She had no idea what to do now. She'd never really been around engaged people or brides except for that one time where the bride ran away and Veronica had gone to find her.

Somehow, Veronica managed a slightly strained smile and a valiant, "That's great, you guys!" but ultimately felt like she was going to have to take a seat soon or risk falling over.

Wallace and Logan shared a look and an unspoken conversation. Giving a slight nod, Wallace squeezed Mac's hand and said with a wink, "Come on, let's go show off this bling to your parents."

The newly engaged couple hugged their friends and said their farewells. Once Mac and Wallace were gone, Logan gently guided Veronica back over to the swing and pulled her into his lap. He tucked her head into the crook between his chin and his chest. With his chin resting lightly on the top of her head, he murmured near her ear, "It's not even you and you're terrified."

He rocked them for a bit and held her close until she finally admitted softly, "I want it to be me but I don't think it ever can be."

"Because of your mom?" Logan asked, fairly sure that was a big part of it even if it wasn't the whole reason.

"Not just her," Veronica replied, starting to sound much more coherent now, "It's me, too. You know what I'm like. How I am. What I've seen. I don't even believe in marriage. How could I get married?"

"By being the exception to every rule you've ever known," Logan responded affectionately, "Just like you always have been. Everything that ever happened to you that should have broken you only made you stronger. It's one of the things I've admired about you for as long as I can remember, even when I hated you."

"I AM broken," Veronica insisted, "Damaged, probably beyond repair. Getting married wouldn't fix that. It would just magnify it, maybe even make it worse."

Logan kissed Veronica's temple and nudged her till she looked at him. Then he kissed her forehead and said, "Veronica. You're here. And we're talking. You're not as damaged as you used to be. You've healed. Maybe not all the way, but enough to say that you've learned a lot and are capable of changing even more. Can you say the same for me?"

Without hesitation, Veronica nodded and admitted aloud, "Yeah. You've changed more than I ever thought possible."

"Do you know what that tells me?" Logan asked intently, holding her eyes with his own.

A spark of humor lit Veronica's blue eyes as she gave him the ghost of a smile, offering, "That anything is possible?"

Chuckling deeply, Logan nodded, "That and...in spite of everything, there is hope. And not just for others. For us."

"What are you saying?" Veronica asked, almost scared to hear the answer.

"I'm saying that I've thought about it. About getting married. Someday, not now. And every time I do, do you know who I see?" Logan asked, his dark eyes growing more intense.

Veronica couldn't look away. She held his gaze, her own eyes wide and vulnerable as she shook her head. Somehow, even though she knew what he was going to say, she still couldn't believe it. She wouldn't believe it, she knew, until she heard it directly from his lips.

"I see you," Logan said firmly. "Only you. Ever since that first kiss outside the Camelot, there has never been anyone else who could come close," he paused before continuing quietly, "No matter how jaded I am or how scared you are, I think that, when we're both ready, we could make it work."

Her eyes widening even more, her heart fluttering in her throat, Veronica asked in disbelief, "You do?"

"I do," he said with certainty.

Searching his eyes for a few breathless moments, Veronica took his face in her hands and communicated to him what his words meant to her in the only way she knew how. Her lips captured his. Their tongues tangled together. And the intensity of their kiss held more promise than either of them could have imagined.

Lifting her in his arms, Logan moved toward the door, his destination what he was already beginning to consider 'their' bedroom. When they reached the sliding glass door, Veronica reached to help him open it. Her movement caused their lips to part momentarily and Veronica took the opportunity to look deeply into Logan's eyes and say, "I think I do, too."

Pausing before stepping inside, Logan's entire countenance brightened, "Yeah?" he asked, wanting to make sure that she was sure.

She nodded, her eyes dancing as she grinned in response. "Yeah," she said.

The confidence he heard in her voice and saw in her eyes made him even more anxious to get to the bedroom. Not waiting for the sliding door to be closed, he twirled them to the stairs and took them two at a time. When they reached the upstairs hall and then his bedroom door, Logan kissed her again and said with a grin, "I love you, Veronica."

Her beaming smile mirrored his own and she echoed his words with pride, "I love you, too."