Chapter 45

"It looks good," Rory exhaled, approvingly, looking over her upstairs bedroom that had just been finished. The bedroom had certainly used a make-over by Emily Gilmore's standards and the part that Rory had gotten to choose new flowery Scandinavian wallpaper and new accenting colors hadn't really been the part that she'd minded.

"Are you sure? I wasn't sure if I was out of line approving the work on your behalf. It seemed pretty straightforward," Logan replied, standing next to her. The guys had finished before Rory got back, hence Logan had had a quick look-over at Rory's place.

"As sure as I can be. I'm sure you probably know more about these things than I do anyways. All I see is that it looks nice and - hey, there's no longer a hole in my wall," Rory joked, feeling mostly relief that she could move back to her own room.

"I doubt it," Logan commented humbly in the first half of her statement. "But if there's anything, I can have them come back and fix it," he assured.

"I'm sure it's fine," Rory replied. "And thank you," she added, wrapping her arm around Logan's waist and gave him a little kiss.

Since Rory had been out of town for a couple of days, Logan had taken charge on making sure the workmen finished fixing Rory's house. It was him, after all, who had arranged them in the first place. And Rory had without hesitation trusted him to do it, not that she had expected him to.

"It was no problem," Logan replied, having seen that part as obvious. He was there, and he wanted to help. He also had a lot of time on his hands. As summer slipped towards its end at an unimaginable speed, Logan couldn't help but to wonder how long he would be able to handle having as much time to kill as he did now. The days would grow shorter soon, and while he enjoyed a good book or movie as anyone would, he had never not worked for this extent of time in his life. Could he, in fact, retire?

"Thank you for also not making this weird by offering to pay for it," Rory said, feeling like she had to. It was a small detail that she appreciated. Something that had always been an issue in her former relationships - the money.

"I'd like to think I know you a little bit by now," Logan admitted.

"And you have no idea how rare that is," Rory commented.

"A self-sufficient woman is not something a grown man should ever complain about," Logan replied, raising his eyebrows, finding the fact that she had needed to mention it a little peculiar. But Rory was anything but generic, and that was a good thing.

"Ha-ha," Rory teased. Her mind had been on Tucker a lot these past few days, for having to interact with him, even if minimally. And now, being back in Maine with Logan, it was just a fresh reminder to her how different Logan was from him.

Money had never really been an issue between the two. Logan treated her as equal, even if they were probably far from it - even her house was a lot simpler. But what mattered to her was that he treated her as competent and capable.

"So, did you convince that daughter of yours to come back here on free will or sheer coercion?" Logan inquired. He was oddly eager to tell Rory about his talk with Theo, though he knew he shouldn't. Not in great detail at least.

"A little this and that," Rory chimed. "She's not terribly happy with her dad right now either, because of Gigi… and I guess I did convince her to want to enjoy the rest of the summer with her new friends. Give Theo at least a chance… of whatever, you know," she added.

"That promise to try out Maine's biggest roller coaster might also have something to do with it, I gather," Logan added.

"Ah, you heard that," Rory said, recalling how Corinne had rushed out of the car to tell Eléa about it.

"I'm not exactly the biggest fan of carnivals myself, but I might be convinced otherwise," Logan replied, huskily.

Rory looked forward to incorporating Logan and his kids to their outing, and she could only hope none of the kids would mind if they combined things.

"Did you talk to Theo?" Rory asked.

"I did," Logan exhaled.

"And?" Rory encouraged him to share.

"Not my place to share, I think. It was kind of sensitive. But it was good… I am just really glad he opened up to me about… things. But for what it's worth, we now know none of what happened was Cor's fault. But I don't think it'd be fair to blame Theo either," Logan explained. "I think it's best to let them talk, sort things out amongst themselves," he added with a sigh, hoping Rory wouldn't mind his lack of full disclosure.

"It takes a lot of guts to talk openly. Especially to each-other," Rory sympathized.

"Can't argue with that," Logan replied, thinking not only about the kids but also about Rory and himself.

"Feels good to be back," Rory chimed, looking over both the room and Logan. "You feel like sticking around tonight?" she added, hopefully, stroking his chin.

"Do I?" Logan hummed to her ear, leaving a gentle kiss on her neck just below her ear.

"But?" Rory said, sensing a 'but'.

"I kind of took your advice," Logan admitted, pulling back a little.

"You did? On what?" Rory asked.

"We've been having dinner together. I know it's such a silly thing and it's still something that happens with a lot of eye-rolls, but I like it," Logan replied.

Rory laughed, recalling indeed how she'd shared her opinion on Friday night dinners with him the other day. Logan, however, seemed to have taken it to another level. But Rory liked it. Logan was making big changes, and she appreciated seeing that side of him, the one that wanted to change and do things differently. There was of course the forever topical debate whether one could really change or would all those things be temporary. It was something that scared her a little too, to be honest. But at least for the time being changes like this were what enabled her to remain hopeful.

"That's great. Besides, I wouldn't mind getting some writing in. Been feeling guilty about not completing my daily pages these past few days," Rory said.

"Ah, that mysterious book of yours. Am I ever going to get to see it?" Logan hummed, adding a few more kisses in hopes of convincing her.

"Someday maybe," Rory chimed, being a little reluctant. There was criticism and then there was criticism, and she feared as if somehow Logan hating it would break her bubble.

"I hope so," Logan replied.

"Anyway, I got things to unpack…reorganize," Rory said, knowing the construction had also meant that the contents of her room were all over the house rather than where it was supposed to be.

"Yeah, I better get going. Get dinner started," Logan replied.

"That never gets old," Rory commented, being not too used to his love for cooking.

"I'll save you some if you want," Logan promised.

"You certainly know a way to a woman's heart," Rory said and kissed him.

Every cell in Logan's body wanted to continue kissing her. And invite her over to his house for dinner and spend every waking and asleep moment with her. He was in love - he felt like shouting it from the rooftops. But he knew that his kids needed some love of their own. And at their age that came in the form of simply giving them undivided attention.

"But I might sneak in later, if the offer still stands," Logan murmured to her ear.

"We'll just have to see about that," Rory flirted, pushing her nose up in the air playfully. She couldn't wait.