AN: Have loved your comments. Don't want to give you many answers in AN though, sorry :) I do hope you keep reading and reviewing!

Chapter 5

For the next week or so Rory enjoyed the benefits of her daughter having a friend to hang out with. Well - friends - plural was the correct term, considering the older guys also engaged the girls in some of their activities even if they on occasion still kind of treated them like younger children. But to Rory - that was more of a relief than anything.

The basement of the house next door apparently held the coolest rec room ever according to Corinne. There were opportunities to play pool, darts, ping pong, video games and air hockey, and that meant Rory was beginning to worry Corinne was overextending her welcome over there. There were no complaints, however, and for the time being Rory's interaction with her mysterious male neighbor had been limited to brief greetings. It was like they were both a little cautious, and Rory tried to calm down her excitement at the tension she'd felt around him - as far as she knew he was married, after all.

That, however, was more easily said than done, considering Rory had attempted to write in her book about her two main characters who were falling in love with each-other. And considering she needed to channel those emotions at least to some extent to make her writing believable, mostly basing it off memories, it was moments like this one, where she would just sit on her porch, her laptop in front of her, staring into a vacant space somewhere on the ocean, daydreaming.

Forbidden love was the ultimate aphrodisiac, wasn't it? Romantic, flawed, thrilling and more often than not with a tragic, or heartbreaking, ending. Anna Karenina and Count Vronsky, Alinor and James in Tidelands series, Elizabeth Smart and George Baker, Emma Bovary and Leon Dupuis, Jane Eyre and Mr. Rochester, Jordan and Pike in Birthday Girl, Benjamin Braddock and Mrs. Robinson in The Graduate, Sidney Chambers and Amanda Hopkins in Grantchester, Hamilton and Jake in Young Americans, Sookie Stackhouse and Bill Compton in True Blood, "Baby" and Johnny in Dirty Dancing, June Osborne and Nick Blaine in The Handmaid's Tale, hell - the Little Mermaid even, not to mention Romeo and Juliet that seemed rather unlayered in comparison to some of the stuff she'd read in her life. Rory could name a hundred of such love stories just from the top of her head.

It wasn't that just a ring on someone's finger had always stopped her before either. It wasn't something she was particularly proud to admit, knowing most people judged her for thinking about these things the way that she did. But to her, knowing how few relationships and marriages actually worked out, how many people had secret inner lives and hid their unhappiness, love had always seemed like the superior feeling to everything else. She honestly didn't think people who cheated, or people who got involved with someone already involved in a relationship that wasn't working, were automatically bad people. It was generally just a search for feeling alive again, sometimes even a lifeline, unless of course it was malicious or a result of addiction. And generally, as long as the kids didn't get involved and hurt, it was just between the involved parties to settle on. Sure, hurting anyone wasn't ever nice, but sometimes the fault was of both parties not just the one, and there were situations where extramarital relationships were just the tip of the iceberg. She would never debate anyone on it, having learned her lessons long ago – she knew some people considered it betrayal on the most sacred level. But she simply believed there were exceptions to that rule.

She'd also seen her mother love more than one man at the time, and walk the narrow line of fidelity, and ending up hurting people regardless of the actual relationship status. Her mother had not been a perfect person either, but she hadn't been a bad one.

But this train of thought did make her think - would she really be willing to play along this little game of his if this attractive neighbor of hers did want this to develop into something - a brief summer fling perhaps - despite that ring of his?

These were just thoughts, dirty…naughty, mischievous thoughts, and they would've been more forgivable had she simply dreamt the scenario. But she knew that she had enough self-control not to create any embarrassing situations like throwing herself at him based on a whim.

But playing games inside one's mind or even in writing, was surely allowed. It hurt no one.

With the kids and Honor away in Freeport that afternoon, having gotten already used to the quiet around her, Rory was suddenly alerted from her thoughts by a tone that was not at all peaceful.

"No, I told you to talk to my lawyer," Logan insisted, speaking on his phone on his porch.

There was no direct line of sight from porch to porch, one would have to be standing by the waterfront if one wanted to see both at the same time, so it was likely Logan didn't realize Rory's presence even if it was half expected by now that that was where she hung out a lot.

"If you have a problem with the dedicated phone times then that's something you've got to deal with on your end, I'm sorry," Logan insisted, agitatedly.

"I understand that, I do.," he added, sounding surprisingly understanding. "Yes, but please - can you just stop this? This won't solve it. We are where we are now and that's what is best for her," Logan continued.

"Based on what?" he shot back, sounding again angrier. "Well, maybe all those psychologist's sessions? Her teachers? The social worker's opinion?" he added, and Rory was beginning to get this discussion was about Logan's daughter, Eléa.

The relationships between Logan and all the kids next door hadn't been spelled out for Rory the night of the barbeque. But Rory had read enough into the group to notice that the two youngest referred to Honor as mommy, but referred to Logan as Logan. So her guess was that he was not actually the father of those two children. It seemed a real modern family in either case - a blend of ex-es and half-siblings, possibly also surrogate mothers considering the ages of Honor and her children, if she had gotten the correct gist of things by assuming things.

"I know. But please," Logan said, his tone sounding almost like he was begging. "Don't call this number again!" Logan insisted on a much different tone, before ending the call. He was angrier than Rory had thought, as the sound of Logan throwing his phone against one of the garden rocks the next second, the sound of the plastic cracking, caused her to jolt.

Rory sat perfectly still, not wanting to let him know that she'd been listening in to what sounded like a private phone call. She hadn't been given a lot of options on the fact; she had just been there. But clearly Logan had wanted some air, and privacy for that call.

The next moment Rory witnessed something else she hadn't expected. A sudden sound of someone's hasty steps on the boat deck, and it caused her to turn her head.

She could witness Logan taking off his clothes.

Oh my, was he seriously doing this? Rory pondered to herself, with her mouth half-open at the suddenness of this moment.

He didn't strip down completely, which Rory must've said was both a pity and a relief at the same time, leaving his dark boxer briefs on. He was certainly a fine specimen of a man for someone his age - he was fit and lean with his nicely defined muscles even if he wasn't competing for the Mr. Muscle title. There was no beer belly to speak of and from afar, Rory really wouldn't have been able to tell his age, and would've probably underestimated it had she been made to guess.

But his intentions were very clear and the next moment Logan jumped into the water, water bombing the deck with a big splash. For several seconds he remained under water, and Rory's back instinctively straightened, wondering what he was doing.

"He isn't…?" Rory mumbled to herself for a split second, not knowing what was going on.

Rory knew the water wasn't terribly warm - no more than 60-65 degrees -Rory figured - and whatever he was doing hardly had sounded like leisure swimming. More like an escape, a need to clear one's mind or something similar.

Then Logan surfaced, taking an audible deep breath. He hit the water with his fist several, letting out a groan… it was almost a roar of frustration. He was definitely working through something, relieving stress.

And while Rory found it fascinating to observe him like this, thinking how this man probably knew better than most of the men she'd known in her life how to work through his feelings rather than bottling things up inside, she wished she could just become indivisible. She didn't want him seeing the way she'd been watching him when he glanced up towards her house. Sure, she had the opportunity to pretend to be working, but it would be near impossible to pretend she hadn't heard or seen any of it.

Logan swam a couple of breast strokes before diving again, and it looked like he had a good set of lungs, being able to stay underneath the surface for several long strokes. He swam out towards the sea before turning around and floating on his back for a moment.

The next moment Logan turned around and Rory assumed he could see her, so she directed her eyes to screen in front of her, trying to not appear aware of him. She wished she had her daughter's pink headphones on at that moment.

She tried to focus her attention back to the paragraph in front of her, whilst hearing a slosh as Logan got out of the water and started walking along the dock. He could see her from there too if he looked. She wondered if he did, if he cared if she did.

Rory felt herself wanting to ask if he was okay. She was naturally a little curious too, but she knew it wasn't really her business. But somehow the emotional wellbeing of him mattered to her. That was silly right, having only truly spoken to him twice and having known him for a week?