"What did you say Michel called that guest who wanted to know how to get to that water park in Litchfield?" asked Emily, still laughing after Luke and Lorelai had rehashed their conversation from the car.
Lorelai smiled. "I believe it was a 'hot-dog-eating, wrestler-watching, farmer-tanned piece of shi—"
"The meal was lovely, Emily," Luke interrupted.
"Yeah, great, Mom," Lorelai added.
"Thank you," Emily replied, "but it sounds like you two deserved a nice meal after all of the absurdity you've been dealing with."
"It seems to me like you two need a vacation," Richard added.
"I agree with your father."
Lorelai laughed. "I wish."
She turned to Luke, surprised he wasn't laughing with her.
He shrugged. "I actually don't think it would be a bad idea. I mean, we could both use a break."
"Wonderful," Emily smiled, getting up. "I'll go call our travel agent for you. I just need a location and date."
"Wait, hold up, Mom," Lorelai stopped her. "No offense, but we'd like to plan our own vacation and, I hate to break it to you, but it probably won't be quite as fancy as you seem to have in mind. For example, I hear vacation, I'm thinking immediately of one very special place."
"Oh, no," Luke muttered. "Dare I ask?"
"Disney World!"
"Lorelai, really," Emily scolded. "Are you six years old?"
"But there's a castle there! And fireworks! And at EPCOT, you can drink booze from eleven different countries! That's like going to the UN and hanging out with the Irish ambassador or something!"
"Something I've always aspired to," muttered Emily, rolling her eyes.
"No way," said Luke. "I am not going to some crazy, corporatized conglomerate overrun with a bunch of freaks and their whining kids, dressed up like pirates and princesses and worshipping a rat!"
"Um, first of all," Lorelai started. "I think you would make a very sexy pirate and second of all, Mickey is a mouse. And not just any mouse. One that talks and wears clothes and can make fireworks shoot out of his fingers! They wrote an entire march about him!"
"They did?" asked Richard, beginning to look very confused.
"Yeah. You know the one. M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E!" Lorelai sang. "One of the truly great rodent marches of our time."
"Despite your extremely lucid arguments," Luke continued, "I'm afraid I'll still have to pass on Disney World, at least until our kids are old enough to guilt us into going."
"Wait," Emily paused. "Kids. You said kids. Are you—"
"Oh, no," Luke began to blush, "I was just saying, you know, for the future—"
"Oh," Emily said, relaxing, though Lorelai could swear she almost looked disappointed. "So you're not—"
"No, Mom," Lorelai replied, "You know, Luke and I just got back together and we haven't really—"
"But you do plan on having children sometime in the future," interrupted Emily.
"Yes, but—" Luke and Lorelai began in unison.
"Because, forgive me for being blunt, you're not exactly as young and fertile as you used to be. If you two wait too long—"
"Aw, jeez," Luke muttered as Emily prattled on, his face deep red.
"Mom," Lorelai tried again, "I really think we should—"
"Change the subject?" Richard cut in, smiling as Lorelai mouthed a silent 'thank you'. "I absolutely agree. So, Luke, if Disney is out, for which I don't blame you in the slightest, what's your vacation of choice?"
"Me?" Luke managed, his normal coloring returning to him. "Um, I guess I always kind of liked the shore."
"The shore?" asked Emily, "As in the beach? Perfect. I have a dozen places I could recommend for you two. Do you prefer the Cape or the Vineyard?"
"You mean I could have dragged you out to the beach on any given weekend and you never told me?" Lorelai asked.
"Not really, no," replied Luke. "I'm not really a beach fan. I like the shore. The Jersey shore, actually. I used to spend every summer there as a kid."
"You did?" Lorelai was surprised. Luke rarely spoke of his childhood. "Why there? I thought you were Stars Hollow born and bred."
"I was," Luke said simply. "My Dad's family goes way back in New England. I think we even have a couple of Revolutionary War soldiers back there somewhere."
Emily tried to hide her look of surprise, her DAR interests sparked, as Luke continued.
"My Mom was from down near Philly, though. Bryn Mawr, I think. Went to college there, too. Pretty hoity-toity kind of town. She grew up going to Ocean City, Sea Isle, Cape May, all those kind of places."
"Really? That's so cool," Lorelai said, genuinely interested.
Luke's enthusiasm began to grow, something that rarely came to the surface, as he recalled his family.
"That's actually how my parents met. My Dad was just out of the military, visiting with a couple of buddies of his before he went back to the Hollow to take over his Dad's hardware store, and they were all on the boardwalk one night, playing one of those carnival-y type of games when this girl came up next to him to play and just, you know, basically trounced him, and the next thing you know, a month's gone by, and he's on one knee proposing at the beach."
Lorelai was mesmerized.
"That sounds like something right out of a movie," she murmured. "It's perfect."
"Yeah, and I guess, after they were married, they just never really thought to go anywhere else. We'd go down, open up the family beach house, and relax for a couple of weeks. Do the beach, the boardwalk, the cool little doo-wop, rock-n-roll kind of places down in Wildwood, maybe sneak into the casinos out in Atlantic City when we almost old enough. It was neat."
Suddenly, Emily spoke up, interrupting him. "I'm sorry, Luke. Did you say your mother was from Bryn Mawr?"
"Uh, yeah, I'm pretty sure."
"Just out of curiosity, what was her maiden name?" Emily asked. "I know quite a few women through the DAR chapter in that area and my college sorority used to take a trip to our sister house down there. Perhaps I know her family."
"Oh, I doubt it," Luke chuckled. "My Mom's family were all immigrants. She was first generation American from a long line of bull-headed, working class Irishmen. She did have some bigwig uncle or cousin or something, though, from what I've heard. The family's pretty much all gone now, though, not that we were ever close or anything."
"So, you're a Jersey boy who wants to take his Jersey boy vacation," smirked Lorelai. "Does this mean when we go, you'll take me to the Badda Bing? Will I finally get to play that Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi, Frank Sinatra mix tape I've been saving?"
"You do and we're not going," Luke retorted, trying to sound gruff, but his voice was light. "I mean, that is, if we're really thinking of going somewhere."
"I'd love to go," Lorelai giggled. "I've never been there, other than a couple of extremely ill-planned weekends in Atlantic City that neither you nor my parents ever need hear about."
"Wonderful," smiled Emily. "And I have no problem excusing you from dinner for the next few weeks if you'd like to leave soon."
"Wait a minute, Mom," Lorelai held up a hand. "I appreciate you actually trying to help us get out of dinner and everything, but we can't just pick up and leave town like that."
She snapped her fingers.
Lorelai turned to Luke. "Can we?"
Richard spoke up. "I don't see why not. You both own your own businesses. You both seem to have more than adequate support in running them. From what you've said, neither of you has any pressing issues that need to be taken care of in the immediate future. You've both earned a vacation."
"But, Dad, I—"
"I think it's a good idea," Luke finally said.
"You what?"
"I think your Dad's right. We should go. It wouldn't take much. We don't need to worry about a hotel room. I don't go there, but I've always paid to keep the beach house kept up. Ceasar's fine running the diner, not to mention Zach and Lane. Michel and Sookie can handle the Inn for a bit. We should go. I mean, if you'd like to."
Lorelai grinned, squeezing his hand under the table. "I'd love to. I'd love to see where little Lukie spent his summer vacation."
"You know, we could arrange to go next weekend, even," Luke said, beginning to get uncharacteristically excited. "Just pack up and go."
"That sounds—oh, wait, I can't!" replied Lorelai. "I've got the Wilson wedding next weekend. My events planner is on maternity leave and I don't trust Michel to keep his cool and maintain that 'service with a smile' attitude for which we all know he's famous."
"Oh, well," Luke began, trying to hide his disappointment, "It's no big deal. Some other time, then."
Lorelai sighed. "I'm sorry, Babe. If it was any other time, you know I would. What about the following weekend?"
"Can't," Luke muttered. "April will be home from science camp and it'll be my weekend with her. I thought the three of us could do something."
Lorelai smiled at his plans for inclusion.
Finally, Emily spoke. "Actually, I think I might have a solution for your dilemma, if you don't mind me saying so."
Luke and Lorelai looked at each other, slightly worried.
"Uh, okay, Mom, shoot."
"First off, how big is your event?"
"Well, I guess around 100 people attending the wedding, with all rooms booked, so about 30 people staying onsite, but the overnight guests are covered. Even Michel can't screw that up."
"And Sookie's got the catering handled?"
"As always."
"And everything's just about arranged? The decorations, music, things like that?"
"Um, yeah," Lorelai replied slowly, growing nervous.
"So, really, all you would need is someone to organize and execute during the course of the day, and keep Michel from throwing one of his prissy Parisian tantrums, right?"
Emily was grinning like the Cheshire Cat.
"Why am I suddenly scared?" Lorelai whispered to Luke.
"Yes, Mom," she muttered, "Who did you have in mind?"
"Why, you're looking at her," Emily beamed. "I mean, I've thrown much larger events with less done than what you've already got under control and dealt with much more difficult people than Sookie and Michel. Sookie just needs someone to keep her calm and productive and Michel… well, just between the four of us, I do believe that little Frenchman has a bit of a crush on me. There's something about the way he stresses his vowels whenever he talks to me…"
"Wow, Mom, how much beer have you had?" Lorelai cried. "I couldn't ask you to change all your weekend plans for that. Besides, I know you've thrown events before, but you're used to arranging everything, choosing everything. With this, you'd have to just coordinate and execute the bride's vision, and let me tell you, I've gone over every detail with this bride and she is, excuse me for saying, batshit crazy!"
Emily pursed her lips and then spoke. "Well, though I'm afraid I'm not as familiar with bat excrement as you are, Lorelai, I'm not some sort of incompitant ogre who must have my own way. I'm perfectly capable of managing a staff, I've been doing it for 40 years, between this household and the DAR and my other functions. I'm perfectly suited for crisis management, provided it's not my own, and besides, Sookie and Michel will be there, will they not? If I have any problems, I'll speak to them. You'll only be in New Jersey, not New Zealand, so you'll just be a phone call and a few hours' drive away."
"I don't know," Lorelai murmured, looking back to Luke, "I really want to go, but…"
"Please, Lorelai," asked Emily, "I really want to do this for you."
"Well… okay. I'll talk to Sookie and Michel and if they don't mind, I'll give you a try. Same goes for the bride. If she's not comfortable with me not being there, the whole thing is off."
"Thank you, Lorelai," Emily smiled.
"BUT," Lorelai continued, "You've got to come to the Inn for the next couple of mornings so we can make sure you're up to it. You've got to know the place, meet the staff, sit down with the bride, everything. You've got to essentially be me for 48 hours. Think you can do it?"
Emily nodded.
Under the table, Luke squeezed Lorelai's hand. "I guess we're going to Jersey."
