Chapter 27
"Where did they go?" Rory yelled, sounding confused, over the music, having stopped by the concert bar for just a minute to get herself a light beer. The only person who'd remained as her companion was Logan, the kids having taken full advantage of their freedom to roam the concert grounds as long as they never went anywhere alone and kept an eye out for each-other. It had seemed like a fair compromise, coming from the kids who'd clearly plotted against their parents on the drive over.
"Oh, just wandering their own paths," Logan chimed, sounding very knowing saying that.
"And here I was thinking we'd have a nice time together. So much for that," Rory complained, referring to Corinne.
"Would you have wanted to hang out with your mom…?" Logan began to tease, but reconsidered, knowing her better than that. "Scratch that," he added, cheekily, figuring from all of her stories that she probably would've.
"Exactly," Rory confirmed, pointing her finger. She'd actually kind of looked forward to an evening with Corinne, out and about like this.
Their plans to have a meal together before the concert hadn't really turned out the way they'd wanted, someone having lost their reservation. So, the best they'd gotten were some drive-thru tacos. Not bad tacos, but still - no sitting behind the table, getting used to seeing each other in this kind of moment.
"Hey, but look at the bright side. This also means we get a moment alone," Logan said, slipping his hand around her waist. Rory had worn a flowy wrap dress and some leggings, embracing the subtle sexiness she seemed to prefer during her holidays. Practical, but also gorgeous on her, embellishing her best parts - her delicate cleavage, long neck, thin waist and feminine hips, while at the same time fighting off the occasional mosquito.
"Oh, I don't know what you would mean by alone considering we're surrounded by a few thousand people," Rory shrugged, allowing herself to indeed wrap her arms around his neck and kiss him.
"Oh, we're doing this now?" Logan reflected, the kiss coming as a bit of a surprise to him. This was the first place where they were literally risking one of their kids seeing them be affectionate, but then again it was not like their offspring were unaware of their activities so far either. They'd just never exactly seen them do anything publicly.
"It's just a kiss. Get your mind out of the gutter," Rory reprimanded him cheekily and took a sip of her beer, but enjoyed the way his hands rested on her hips now. Her mind kept hoping he'd slip a little lower, squeeze her ass and pull her firmly against him, allowing her to feel his awaking arousal like he had done already many times. It was an instant turn-on to Rory, and she was generally not a woman to be turned on at the flip of a switch like that. But with Logan, the ignition was instantaneous.
They ended up enjoying the concert immensely, even if the music wasn't exactly what they considered them to be fans of. But it was great, allowing them to feel like they were on an actual date. It was simple, fairly inexpensive all things considered, and not too elaborate. And while on occasion they did see glimpses of one or the other of their kids, mostly it was just assurance that they were perfectly fine on their own. In fact, the glimpses that they'd gotten - had shown the kids to have fun too. Wasn't that all that they needed?
It was during the second half of the last performance, when Rory and Logan had simply been listening to the music, Logan's chin resting on her shoulder, allowing her to lean on him, when an unexpected greeting jolted them.
"Logan? Is that you?" a man, a little younger than the two, approached them, speaking with an interesting accent that to Rory's ears seemed to be a combination of Australian and Scottish.
On automatic, the two created some distance, Rory reading Logan's body language well enough.
"Malcolm! What are you doing here?!" Logan greeted him with a pat on his shoulder, his initial dread of the interaction disappearing.
"Well, you know me. One day I step foot down at Stewart, spend a day chasing down Finn and when I eventually find him, he tells me he's off to the Maldives with some red-haired lass," Malcolm explained, expressively, gesticulating with his hands a lot. The man was not terribly tall, but he was lean and bald, his sunglasses appearing utterly unnecessary this late in the day but seemed to be a part of his rockstar image rather than a necessity. His neck showed elaborate geometric tattoos and his ears had a few old piercings that no longer held any content.
"Well, that is classic Finn," Logan reflected, laughingly.
"So, there I was, having traveled all the way across the ocean to see him. And the man, bloody, has no time for me," Malcolm exclaimed in a chuckle. He went on to explain how one thing led to another, not in an elaborately descriptive way, finishing on how he'd ended up here with a semi-famous actress Rory had only briefly heard of before. Still, it seemed like the man was a popular one, well-connected as well as well-off. And he certainly looked like he could have a good time at the snap of his finger anywhere he went.
Logan stood around, nodding along, failing to introduce Rory. He wasn't sure if he wanted to explain the whole thing just yet, not knowing how to best describe this to an outsider.
"So, I hear you've moved Stateside?" Malcolm continued.
"Yeah, I did. The kids are around here somewhere too," Logan shared, familiarly, giving Rory a hint that Malcolm might've known them.
"Oh good, sounds fun. Hey, I promised to hook up with one of the producers in a minute, so I'd better be off…," Malcolm said, making it clear that it was a busy life he was leading.
"Well, it was great seeing you," Logan said, smiling genuinely.
"Oh yes, yes. Oh, but I do have a little present for you and your lovely woman there," Malcolm commented quietly to his ear, as they half-hugged in goodbye, and pressed a small plastic bag into his palm.
It took Logan a moment, watching the man leave and exchange a glance to Rory and back, realizing he'd forgotten to introduce the two, which was not like him at all, to glance down at his hand, comprehending what it held.
There were two fat joints in his palm, filling him with a sense of familiarity. There was dread too. Some fear, not knowing what Rory would think of him. And, strangely enough, a sense of relief too for the fact that it was just cannabis he'd been handed, which was perfectly legal in this state in this amount.
He tucked the bag into his pockets, not having any place convenient to dispose of it, and not wanting to draw too much attention to it.
"I'm sorry… I completely…," Logan began to apologize, worrying Rory might've taken offense to the lack of introductions.
"It's fine. It's not like I am after some title or the association," Rory replied, feeling actually a little relieved.
"He's the brother of my friend Finn. Remember, I told you about him. We moved around in the same circles in London quite a bit," Logan shared.
"Oh, well, he seemed like an interesting guy," Rory commented lightly, having missed the whole gift-giving part to their exchange.
"He most certainly is. Much like his brother," Logan commented, hoping Rory could take the statement with a grain of salt.
One their way back to their Airbnb, a quirky yellow-painted wooden house, that had an even quirkier interior but at least sufficient room for everyone involved, Rory suggested they stop for ice cream.
It wasn't until they all emerged from their vehicles when Rory got the sense of how awkward this was. Now it had been truly her who'd insisted they do something as a 'family' yet that wasn't what had been her intention.
But despite the fact, the four teenagers dragged them into the ice cream shop, and found the childish excitement one got when one had full freedom to pick out their flavors.
It was as they sat on the bar stools, taking up almost the entire bar at the shop, digging into each one of their fascinating flavors, talking casually about the concerts and about their plans to do some sightseeing the next day, when Rory suddenly noticed Theo and Corinne sitting a little further away, talking only to themselves. Rory could just see something twinkle in her daughter's eyes. Maybe this really was the dreaded first crush? But at the same time, she was glad for her daughter as well… even if it just turned out to be that. If Theo had even a fraction of his father's charm, Rory wouldn't have minded if they dated, thinking that maybe Logan was wrong to suspect he was gay. To an outsider what it looked like was a good friendship at the very least, and all that was left for Rory to hope was that nobody would get hurt.
Rory and Logan had taken the master bedroom at the house they'd rented for the night. The place was nice, even if a little eclectic to Logan's tastes. Their bedroom was on the ground floor, right by the kitchen and looked out to the back yard. The two other bedrooms - one for the girls and one for the guys were upstairs, and while it all felt a little domestic to Rory and Logan, for one night they felt this would suffice, and they didn't need to pretend to prefer to sleep in separate rooms.
"This is kind of weird, isn't it. With the kids and us all under one roof," Rory stated, as they'd both slipped under the covers. It was unusual for them too, having generally been in a different kind of mood when getting into bed. This felt almost mundane, awkward and reminded both of them of former times with their respective spouses. It was not a comparison one readily wanted to make.
"Didn't think things through, did I?" Logan commented, having jumped into this solution. Sure, a hotel would've been fine, but he'd wanted something different from another Marriott or Hilton, and short notice it had been the best he could do without calling in any special favors.
"But then again, this is kind of like being forced to jump head first into the water, sink or swim?" Rory discussed, thinking of this from the parenting point of view.
"So, did we sink or did we swim?" Logan inquired, cheekily.
"Well, we haven't drowned yet, have we?" Rory replied.
"I guess it's them who'll be the judge of it tomorrow, once they've been split up onto their own territories and feel free to speak their mind again. I'm sure I'll hear all about how much this sucked," Logan noted, realistically.
"But that's tomorrow! We still have today," Rory chimed seductively, raising her thigh onto his.
"Ah-ha…," Logan chuckled, huskily, and pulled her on top of him, leaving her straddling him.
Rory giggled, and leaned down to kiss him, not being in any hurry. His lips were delicious to graze, kiss slowly and on occasion alternate with hungrier open-mouthed kisses they seemed to have mastered as well by now. She could just make out with him for hours it seemed, while most of the time their hips already got minds of their own and began to move and rub against one another.
Edging each other off like that, made Rory feel like she was a teenager again… kind of reminding her of Jess. But Logan was more gentle, more bold but less angry, cheekily knowing his strengths that he played on without shame.
"Ah, you're so wet," Logan murmured into her ear with a hot mouthful of air, after slipping his fingers between her legs, ready to take this to the next stage, after a good 20-minutes of kissing and fooling around.
"And I'm going to make something else very wet, very soon…," Rory chimed, pulling the edge of his boxers down, already feeling his hardness.
Logan growled quietly whilst biting his lip for the way she was touching him, both knowing they would need to keep it down.
But suddenly, before they could take this any further, that would've been no doubt the most tempting thing to do, Rory heard something.
"Wait," Rory called him to a halt, and they both listened, Rory remaining on top of him, her face just an inch or two from him.
"What?" Logan whispered.
"Shh.," Rory shushed him.
"The concert was nice tonight, wasn't it?" Rory could hear her daughter's voice, coming from the back yard. Clearly, not all the kids had gone straight to bed.
"It was okay, I guess," a guy, whom Logan recognized as his youngest son. It took Rory a moment longer to get that far.
The two breathed, feeling both deeply curious but also feeling guilty for overhearing whatever this was. It was cute, exciting, but certainly not something for the parents' ears.
"Thanks for inviting me along, though we all know how this turned into something else entirely. God, sometimes I hate how she can turn things around and make it all about her," Corinne said, clearly referring to Rory.
"Auch," Rory noted quietly to Logan, but didn't take it too deeply into heart.
Logan stroked her back calmly, wanting to reassure her that she had done no such thing. If anything, this had been all about him.
Some more words were exchanged but in a low tone that Logan and Rory couldn't quite make out from where they were, the bed underneath her making some noise as they shifted their balance a little.
Rory wished she could just peek outside, but the windows were covered with sunshades, and by no means did she want to have the kids aware of the fact they were overhearing them, so she stayed put.
There was more silence and they both wondered whether the kids had gone back inside.
The next thing Rory and Logan heard, however, was upsetting.
"No, wait. I can't do this… Sorry," they heard Theo say, followed by the bang of the kitchen door.
"Oh, no…," Rory chimed, raising herself up in the bed. Her heart broke for her girl, even if she didn't exactly know what had happened. The worst of it was, that she couldn't just go out there and see if she was alright without admitting she'd overheard her either. Not right away at least.
"Crap," Logan sighed, getting a similarly bad feeling in his gut.