When October Goes

Chapter 14

"Hey, Dad," Viv called as she walked through the door.

"Viv, what are you doing home?" Logan asked curiously, but he already knew she was coming home thanks to her text to Richard.

"The boys were driving me and Aunt Honor nuts.  She didn't want to leave since she never gets to see them," she explained.

"I think that she loves that they drive her crazy," Logan said with a chuckle.

"Well, I don't," Viv replied.  "I'll go back in the morning."

She goes into the kitchen to get a snack and looks around for anything that may suggest Richard was the guest for her father's 'business' dinner.  She saw the extra plates in the sink to indicate that someone was indeed at her house for dinner.  Lobster is not food for one of his regular business meetings.  It's a long-standing family tradition, Viv thought.  Time to start putting some pressure on him.

"Hey," she said walking back to the living room.  "How did your dinner go?"

"What dinner?" he asked pretending he didn't know what she was talking about.

"The work thing you had.  Looks like you cooked lobster," she reminded him.

"Oh, oh - that dinner," he replied.

"Yeah, that dinner.....or was it a date?" she pried.  She knew it wasn't, but she had to suggest it was something other than business.

"The dinner went well.  It definitely was not a date," he averred.

"Oh, then who was it?" she asked continuing to probe.

"Just someone from work," he replied vaguely.

Lie! Viv thought.

"Seems awfully intimate for a work dinner.  Are you sure it wasn't a date?" she pressed harder.

"I can assure you, it wasn't a date," he replied definitively.

"You don't just cook lobster for a work dinner....."

"I wasn't planning on being the one cooking, but Lena went home sick and it's what I had originally planned.  So, it was kind of late to change the menu," he said starting to get a little more irritated.

"Really, Dad?  That's the lamest excuse ever," she said pushing the limits.  "Just admit it.  It was a date!"

"Why are you so obsessed with whether or not this was a date?  I'm far too busy to be interested in dating," he replied angrily.  "Can we just love my love life alone?"

She had pressed a little too hard, and she knew it.  Logan's ire seemed to come out of nowhere, but he couldn't handle any more of his daughter's prying.  Sometimes, she didn't know when to leave well enough alone.

"Sorry," she apologized sheepishly.  "I'll be in my room."

That certainly didn't go as planned.  Wonder why he's getting so bent out of shape, and why won't he just tell me? she wondered as she made her way to her room upstairs.

Meanwhile, Logan started thinking about how his life had been thrown into chaos with Rory's revelation.  He'd really felt like he was bonding with his son, although it was at the expense of nearly alienating his daughter.  He was so wrapped up in figuring out the situation himself that he'd forgotten that it's not just about him.  She had a right to know one of her best friends was actually her half-brother.  He hated fighting with her, but sometimes she pressed a little too hard about things.  He didn't want to sit on bad terms, so he went up to her room to chat once he'd calmed down a little bit.