A/N: Thanks to iheartbridges for the beta!
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the following characters/settings. I just play with them.
………………………
Luke, will you marry me?
What?
He's never seen her look so sure about something in the nine years that he's known her. Sure, her voice sounded shaky and nervous, but her eyes never lost contact with his.
"I just asked you to marry me, Luke," She said, her voice not sounding so nervous this time, and if possible, she sounded even more confident in what she was saying.
Luke stood up straight with a look of utter disbelief on his face. "Y-yeah, that's what I, uh, thought you said."
And then there was silence.
"Luke?" Lorelai stood up and moved to stand in front of him, her eyes gazing up at him.
Luke had been staring out the window, watching those stupid bikers rolling back into town, trying to gather his thoughts before letting himself look at her again. "Where is this coming from?" he asked softly.
This was definitely not the response she was going for, or expected. "What do you mean where's it coming from? It's coming from me!"
Luke sighed, "I know it's coming from you, but it just came out of nowhere. I mean, one minute you're upset about Rory and your parents, and the next, you're asking me to marry you. I just want to make sure it's not coming from the wrong place."
Lorelai took a step back, hurt. She raised her voice a little now when she spoke, "The wrong place? Do you think I don't mean it, Luke? When have I ever said something like that as a joke?"
Luke reached out to her and lightly held onto her arm He didn't mean for his last question to come out the way it did. He looked into her eyes as he spoke, "I didn't mean that you were joking, I just… You have so much stuff going on right now, and I don't want you to say something now that you might regret later."
"Luke, listen to me. Hearing what you were saying just now, about Rory, and how we can fix everything, I just realized how much you love her, and how much you love me. I knew it before, but just… these past few weeks with all this stuff going on, I realized how I can count on you. I could always count on you. You were the only person that Rory and I could always count on, no matter what, and that means so much to me." She moved closer to him again, looking deeply in his eyes. "I want our middle to start now. I don't care about some big, fancy consulting job. You are what I want, Luke. Forever." She kissed him softly on the lips.
Luke smiled at her, silent for a moment, taking in all that she just told him. After a few seconds, he spoke, "Hold on, I have something for you."
"Um, Luke? You realize you didn't answer my question."
Lorelai followed Luke with her eyes as he walked around the counter and crouched down, looking for something underneath. She began to walk over, curious as to what he was looking for. He stood up again and headed back in her direction, something clutched in his right hand. When he got closer, she saw that it was a black velvet jewelry box. He stood in front of her, and without saying a word, he opened the box. Lorelai let out a little gasp when she saw what was inside—a diamond engagement ring, pretty and sparkling under the diner lights.
He nervously reached for her left hand, slowly took the ring out of the box and slipped it onto her ring finger.
Lorelai's tearful eyes looked back and forth from her hand to his face in wonder. After a few moments, she found her ability to speak again. "Luke, you were going to propose to me?"
Luke smiled and nodded.
"You had a plan with a ring and everything? I ruined it for you! I'm so sorry! If you want, you can ask me now! Pretend like I didn't ask you first."
Luke chuckled. "No, it's okay. It means a lot that you were the one who asked me. Really." He was holding her by her waist now, slowly pulling her towards him.
"So, does this mean you'll marry me?" Lorelai asked with a grin on her face.
"You bet." He leaned down to kiss her again, slowly, lovingly, tenderly. One of his hands was at the side of her face, cradling her head as he kissed her, his fingers entangled in her hair, his thumb softly caressed her cheek. His other arm was wrapped snugly around her waist, pulling her close to him.
When they broke from the kiss, they remained wrapped in each other's arms, Lorelai laid her head on Luke's shoulder, her face against his neck, which she softly kissed a couple of times before speaking, "Hey Luke?"
"Hmm?" He murmured, still feeling a little drunk off of their kiss.
"Why did you have the ring hidden behind the counter? Why wasn't it up in your apartment?"
"Well, everything had gone through with the house, so I was just waiting for the right time to ask you. Plus, I was afraid you might find it upstairs. You don't usually go snooping behind my counter, so I thought I was a good hiding place."
"What do you mean? I'm always going behind the counter and you're always telling me not to because sacks of potatoes could fall on my head, and…" she lifted her head up then to look at him, the realization just hitting her. "What house, Luke? What are you talking about?"
Luke took a deep, nervous breath, and figured he'd tell her. Now was as good a time as any. "Well, you know the Twickham house?"
Lorelai nodded.
"Well, I kind of bought it." Luke shifted nervously.
"You bought a house?" Lorelai stepped out of his arms so that she could look at him better as he explained. "What for? You have somewhere to live, and when we get married," a small smile played at her lips at that thought, "I always pictured us living at my house."
Luke nervously wrung his hands. "Yeah well, your house is a little bit small for… you know… a larger family."
That's when it hit her. His 'What about the kids!' outburst a few days ago had seemed strange and un-Luke-like, but it had gotten her wondering, and now it all made sense. "Luke, you want kids, with me?" Her eyes glimmered with tears again at the thought. Suddenly she was seeing their whole future laid in front of them. Marriage, a house, kids…
"Yeah…", he answered softly. "All that complaining about kids and 'jam hands' all these years was all kind of a… defense mechanism. I thought I'd never have that family life, so I tried to make myself not want it." He paused for a moment, suddenly realizing that he had just assumed that Lorelai wanted kids. He vaguely remembers that little talk that they had a few years ago at that dance marathon where Lorelai said she's want more kids if she met the right person, but he wasn't sure if that was still the case. "Ah jeez, I never even asked you about this. If you don't want more kids, it's okay, I was just rememb—"
Lorelai cut him off, "Yes, Luke, I want more kids!" She kissed him, then pulled back to marvel at him. All the pieces were falling into place. Minutes ago, she was feeling like her whole life was spinning out of control, and now here she was, feeling more stable about life than ever.
"There's just one little problem," Luke began, looking a little nervous.
"What's the matter?"
"I sort of backed out and didn't end up buying the house." He sighed deeply, looked at the floor for a moment, and then back up into her eyes.
Lorelai felt her stomach sink, thinking he had changed his mind about it all. "What happened?"
Luke spoke softly, "Well, when I heard you talking about maybe selling the inn and taking that job, I thought you weren't ready to start our future yet. I wanted you to have that opportunity if it was what you really wanted, so I told Taylor that I wanted out of the house."
"Oh Luke, I'm so sorry!" She reached out and cupped his cheek with her hand. "I don't think I ever really intended to take the job. I was just having fun thinking about what it would be like, and I was enjoying having a big company like that basically begging me to come to work for them. Even before my little epiphany where I realized how I can't wait to start our future together, I still don't think I would have ever been able to take the job, and travel, and be away from you for so long. I saw how that affected my parents when my dad traveled, and I don't ever want that to happen to us. Plus, the Inn has been my dream forever. I could never sell the place."
Luke pulled her against him again and wrapped his arms around her. He sighed deeply. "I'm sorry I screwed it all up."
"No Luke, you didn't screw it all up. A house isn't something we need right now anyway. We have each other, and we'll figure out all of the details in time." She snuggled into his shoulder, thoughts of their future together pushing everything else from her mind.