Chapter 8

Days ticked forward, and if nothing else Rory hoped that once Corinne would be picked up by her dad a couple of days from now, she would have the whole house to herself and that could possibly present new opportunities. For what, she didn't quite dare to dream, knowing how things rarely went according to any perfect scenarios.

At the very least she'd have some time to think. Maybe overthink too like she'd once been in the habit of doing?

That morning Rory had made herself her morning coffee, her first one, and had taken the cup onto the porch like she often did. She wasn't generally a morning person, but since she was up - it being awfully light outside this early and having not bothered to fully blind her windows when she'd gone to bed, she'd just gotten up, accepting the fact. She had the freedom to nap during the day if she felt like it here. The bright side was that mornings offered her uninterrupted time to think, or write - or both, knowing Corinne generally slept until noon.

It was just after 6.30 AM, and the outside was quiet, hardly any wind nor waves. The island across the bay wouldn't be seen through the fog, leaving her feeling like she had almost complete privacy. As proof - her robe hung loose, and she really saw no reason hiding her sleep shorts and tank top combo.

She observed her surroundings and took a few deep breaths. There were the squirrels again, climbing up a pine tree, a few birds singing in the background, a few fish leaving circles behind as they'd been to the surface. But mostly she was just enchanted by the fog.

Rory had never been much of a nature person, but in this place, it seemed to offer the perfect balance, or so she thought every time until she had another one of those big spider encounters. But in mornings or evenings like this, when nature offered to show its calmest side to her, it was easy to pretend those moments didn't exist. Thinking back to that afternoon when Logan had been over to help her with her latest long-legged friend still made her muse, it had been such a simple, silly thing… but cute, nonetheless. Even a strong and independent woman wanted to be rescued sometimes and not be judged or thought less of because of something like that.

It was just at that thought, taking the second sip of her coffee, and thinking about their lengthy and fascinating talk with Logan, when she heard something moving in the water. Bigger than a fish. Smaller than a boat, more submerged too. And as the figure got a little closer, she recognized Logan's light, blonde mixed with natural gray, head of hair in the distance, swimming along the coast towards his boat deck. The sight of him made her feel alive, giving her a rush. She could also picture him jumping into the water from his deck the other day, definitely providing a feast for her eyes.

Rory didn't have a fancy deck - all she had were stairs heading down to the water that had been there since she bought it. Her property had a little more of a cliffy coast compared to the neighboring property, hence a deck could've technically only been put on the end of those stairs, but she'd never bothered, not knowing much about boats let alone owning one. She didn't swim much neither, nor did she do water sports. But as rarely as she went down those steps, that morning she could just feel the pull.

She just wanted to put herself out there - literally. She wanted to experiment, essentially test the border that could and couldn't be crossed with her neighbor.

Rory took her coffee cup with her, wondering if he noticed her making her way across her back yard. Realizing her sliders made her descent down to the lowest platform of her stairs too audible, almost ruining the magic of the morning, she slipped them off, and hoped she wouldn't end up with a splinter, while taking in the excitement of the moment and deciding not to let any small fear ruin it for her.

The coast curved a little between her and her neighbor's property and honestly, she wasn't sure if Logan was far enough from the coast to see her, making her hesitate a little, whether her plan was entirely rational or just an overly romantic illusion. But she knew that technically she could just pretend to be sitting there, enjoying the ocean air along with her morning coffee, gathering inspiration, in case he wasn't interested in swimming over.

The thought of the water temperature seemed pretty chilling, but since this wasn't the first time she'd seen Logan swimming, she believed he was a capable swimmer who didn't mind a little cold to say the least.

Rory sat down onto the third step of the staircase and placed her toes on the waterline - it was cold but refreshing at the same time. The coffee cup between her hands warmed her skin, the steam of the coffee being visible in the chill, and the dark golden liquid made its way to her insides warming her up from within. Why the hell hadn't she tried this spot sooner? As for contrasts and being in touch with nature, without another person in sight - this was certainly the prime spot.

Wait… there was that other person - Rory realized after that brief thought, seeing Logan pull himself closer to her one slow breaststroke at the time.

She wanted to bite her lip, as the sight was pretty delicious, his strong shoulders popping out of the water between strokes. She could swear she could also see him smirk a little too.

"Morning," Rory chimed quietly, unable to hide some cheekiness on her side.

"Hey," Logan exhaled, his breath all foggy contrasting the coolness of the water. He was breathing heavily, but he was far from being out of breath.

"How's the water?" Rory asked, keeping her voice low.

"Nice. You should try it sometime," he urged, squinting his eyes just a little.

Honestly, an invite like that was kind of tempting, despite the cold. She'd gone skinny dipping before; she'd been in cold water before too when the thrill of the moment had exceeded the inconvenience. But Rory couldn't help stopping herself from thinking three steps ahead. No way was it going to end there if she decided to strip down right there and jump into the water. Mainly the fact that there was a teenager in her house slowed her down. Besides, she didn't want to be exactly throwing herself at him either.

"I probably should. Sometime…," Rory replied, not wanting to show how tempted she was.

"I swim every morning. Unless the weather's horrible, of course," Logan said, and honestly that sounded very much like an invite.

"Funny, I haven't seen you before," Rory pointed out though honestly the reason for that mostly lied in the fact that she wasn't up this early often.

"Coffee smells good," Logan noted, swimming in place. He could've climbed out, technically, but he didn't mind.

"Tastes good too," Rory mused.

The next moment, realizing a second later that she must've gone momentarily insane, at the very least there was a small loss of judgment, Rory extended her arm and held out her own coffee cup, offering him a taste. For some people an offer like that would've seemed gross, but if one had already pictured kissing the other, sharing a drink hardly seemed like much. But it was a small intimate step, nonetheless.

Logan smiled without showing his teeth, but it was definitely a sneaky and amused smile. He swam closer and held onto the step next to Rory's feet, accepting the cup.

"Thank you. And might I add - you make excellent coffee. Even if it is low tech," Logan hummed approvingly, handing the cup back to her.

"Oh, you're one of those high-tech kind of guys, eh?" Rory teased, smilingly.

"What man isn't?" Logan shot back.

"I know a few...," Rory replied, shrugging lightly, Luke and Jess coming to her mind first.

"Any interesting plans for the day? Aside from finishing that coffee that is," Logan inquired.

"I don't know if I'd call them interesting… but grocery shopping is on my list for one," Rory said, balancing the mundane topic with a mysterious tone in her voice, hoping he'd make his conclusions from it.

Rory was certain this presented Logan with a couple of options - either he could offer her something more interesting to do, or if nothing else he could just happen to run into her at the supermarket. It wasn't much, but if something was what he was after too - it was a start.

"Oh, really? So was I," Logan smirked.

"I thought you guys had someone to do all the shopping for you," Rory said, not hiding the fact that their habits were rather different. Also, she'd seen their two housekeepers, one who dealt with the house and yard maintenance, and one that shopped, cooked, cleaned and did their laundry, many times by now.

"Sometimes," Logan replied.

"Uh-huh," Rory mused.

The sound of someone opening their window in Logan's house pulled them out of their little moment of privacy. They couldn't be seen out here, but it was enough for the magic to fade.

"I better head in and make breakfast. Maybe I'll see you later," Logan said, and swam back towards his deck on his back and side, continuing to smile at her. Truthfully, he would've liked to hang out a little longer, but he'd been in the water for a while and was getting cold just standing in place like this.

"Maybe," Rory chimed, deciding to finish her coffee. Knowing his lips had touched her cup actually made it taste a little better, more special at the very least.