"As long as we leave my parents' house by quarter to seven, we'll have time to come home and change," Lorelai said from the stepladder as she hung a silver snowflake ornament on the Christmas tree. "We'll need lots of layers because it'll be cold sitting on Sookie and Jackson's porch."

"It'll be freezing on Sookie and Jackson's porch," Rory said. "How did Taylor come up with the idea for a parade at night?"

"That's the First Annual Stars Hollow Christmas Eve Festival of Lights Spectacular to you, missy," Lorelai said. "Once Taylor found out about Mitchellville's Christmas Eve Parade of Lights, he was determined we would not be outdone."

"So we all have to freeze our butts off. Thanks a lot, Mitchellville." Rory handed another ornament up to Lorelai, then hung a sparkly elf on a lower branch.

"You should be used to the cold after all those outdoor political rallies in Iowa."

"That's exactly why I want to spend my vacation indoors drinking hot cocoa beside a cozy fire." Rory hung the snowman ornament she and Lane had made in third grade.

"Excuse me? Hot cocoa?"

"Or coffee." Rory shrugged. "Dad and I had cocoa Saturday night."

"Ah, he played the Hayden Christmas Eve tradition card on you."

"I didn't mind. Our fake Christmas was fun, even if Gigi did wake me up by pouncing on my bed at seven a.m."

"Well, you made up for it last night. You were out cold when I got home, and what time did you get up this morning, Sleeping Beauty? Almost eleven?"

"I never get to sleep in on the road. There's always a small-town pancake breakfast to cover or a glamorous bus journey first thing in the morning."

In truth, Rory had only pretended to be asleep when Lorelai returned from the inn around 11:30 the previous night. She was happy to delay the inevitable confrontation about Logan as long as Lorelai would allow it, and if that meant hiding in her room, so be it. No matter what Christopher said, Rory doubted Lorelai would be understanding—not when she was thrilled that Logan was no longer in Rory's life.

Lorelai climbed down from the ladder and stepped back to look at the tree. "What do you think? Are we done?"

"The angel's a little crooked."

Lorelai moved the stepladder closer to the tree and carefully reached up to straighten the angel. "How's that?"

"Perfect," Rory said. She looked at the boxes strewn around the living room. "Now we just need to put all this stuff away, and I have a couple more gifts to wrap before we leave for Grandma's."

"I know! We'll call Emily and tell her we can't come because you haven't had time to wrap your gifts."

"Mom, she'll never fall for that," Rory said as she stacked the empty ornament boxes for their return to storage.

"I know, but we just saw them two nights ago," Lorelai whined.

"And they didn't get to spend much time with us because they had other guests. I barely talked to Grandpa at all. Besides, it's Christmas Eve. You're supposed to spend the holidays with family."

"So you go. I'll hang out at the diner with Luke until it's time to go to Sookie's."

"It won't be that bad. Besides, you should just be happy that Grandma agreed to have dinner at five tonight instead of seven, so we won't miss the parade."

"You mean the First Annual Stars Hollow Christmas Eve Festival of Lights Spectacular. There'll be hell to pay if Taylor hears you call it a parade."

"Duly noted."

When Lorelai left the living room with the empty boxes, Rory slipped into her room to check her e-mail for probably the tenth time that day. She didn't know what she was hoping to find. In fact, when she woke up, she wasn't even certain she had sent Logan the letters. He had been haunting her dreams for months, so it wasn't too hard to imagine she had dreamt the whole thing. However, a check of her sent folder had proven it was no dream, and she'd been waiting for some kind of response ever since. Like all those months on the road, her inbox was empty of e-mail from Logan Huntzberger. She had no missed calls and no little envelope in the bottom corner of her Sidekick to signify she'd missed a text message.

The more hours that passed, the more queasy Rory felt about her decision to send the letters. It had been foolish to pour her heart out like that, and waiting for a response—any response—was torture. She told herself not to expect a quick reply. After all, it was Christmas Eve, so Logan may not have checked his e-mail, and it would take hours to read all the letters if he had. She was certain of one thing: she had written her last one. If the letters were a catalyst for their reconciliation, Rory would have no need to continue writing. But if Logan chose to ignore her after she had made herself so vulnerable, she'd have to stop kidding herself that they had any chance of fixing things. Either way, she was done with the letters.

Lorelai appeared in Rory's doorway. "Whatcha doing?" she asked.

"Just checking my e-mail."

"Expecting something?"

Rory shook her head. "Nothing in particular."

Lorelai sat down on the end of the bed. "And you're not expecting a phone call?"

"What?"

"You've been carrying your phone around all day," Lorelai said. "Is your dad supposed to call from France?"

"No, I had a text this morning to let me know he and Gigi arrived safely. He's going to call tomorrow." Rory shut her laptop.

"Carrying the phone around wouldn't have something to do with Logan, would it?"

Rory ignored the disdain in Lorelai's voice when she mentioned Logan's name. "I really need to wrap the twins' Christmas presents. I got them books. I know they're not a year old yet, but it's never too early—"

"Rory, we need to talk about what you said the other night."

"Why? So you can tell me again how I need closure? Or how I made the right decision? How, if Logan had been the right guy, I wouldn't have hesitated?"

"But you did hesitate, hon," Lorelai said. "That tells me that, deep down, you didn't want to marry Logan."

"No, it just means I didn't want to get married then—not that I didn't want to marry Logan," Rory said. "Mom, you knew how I felt about him, but you were so quick to dismiss him, to convince me I'd done the right thing. Because you never liked him."

Lorelai frowned. "You're right. I didn't like him," she said, and Rory was struck by how much she sounded like Emily. "Logan was the typical society brat, and I didn't like the way he treated you from the beginning, sleeping with you when he was still seeing other girls—"

"That wasn't Logan's idea."

"Oh, come on, Rory. You agreed to that because you liked him and it was the only way you thought you could be with him."

"Maybe so, but that was almost three years ago. Things changed. The way we started is completely irrelevant. You knew I loved Logan and you knew he loved me."

"You're too young to get married."

"Don't you think that's a little hypocritical? By the time you were my age, you had a seven-year-old."

"Talk about irrelevant. You know I have never regretted having you for one minute, but it did mean I had to give up some of the opportunities that you have. If I had married your dad and become one of those society wives at 16, my life would have been even more restricted. I want more than that for you."

"Logan would never try to turn me into a society bimbo."

"Maybe not right away, but it doesn't mean that some day he won't want a wife whose main function is to keep his social calendar and look pretty on his arm."

"That would never happen, which you'd know if you'd ever taken the time to get to know him. I know you two got off on the wrong foot on an epic level, but I thought after your late-night talk during Spring Fling weekend that you had started to change your mind about him. I guess I was wrong. You just can't see past the privileged background."

"Maybe because I've known dozens of guys like Logan. Sooner or later, they all want the Stepford wife, no matter what they say."

"How would you know? You're such an expert on the world you ran away from over 20 years ago?"

"Look, Rory. We worked so hard for years to make sure you had every opportunity. We didn't go through all of that, getting you into Chilton and then an Ivy League school, so you could throw your life away on some guy."

"Logan is not just some guy, Mom. He's the love of my life!"

"You may think that now, but—"

"I don't think that. I know that. I am in love with Logan. Being with him would not be throwing my life away. Why can't you trust my judgment? I'm not a child."

"So what are you saying? That you made a mistake by not accepting his proposal?"

"I don't know. Maybe." Rory sighed. "I definitely made a mistake letting him walk out of my life. If the only way I could have prevented that was to say yes, then maybe I should have. You told me it would just take time to get over him, but time hasn't helped. Not at all. You have no idea what it's been like for me."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Lorelai asked.

Rory scoffed. "Are you serious? This conversation is exactly why. You were glad that Logan and I broke up. You didn't want to hear about how unhappy I was, and I didn't want to hear about how much better off I was without him."

"I wouldn't have said that," Lorelai said.

"Says the woman who told me just hours after I turned him down that I had made the right decision."

"I was just trying to make you feel better."

"I wish I could believe that."

"Rory, I get that you're unhappy, but have you thought about the possibility that it isn't Logan? Maybe you're just homesick. I know your job hasn't turned out to be all you'd hoped."

"See, you're doing it again! You're trying to make me believe what you want to believe. Why can't you accept that I know what I feel?"

"That's not what I'm doing. I just think you need to consider the possibility that you're holding on to the idea of Logan because the rest of your life isn't so perfect right now."

"And you need to consider the possibility that you're so against Logan because you're jealous that somebody else became more important to me than you!"

They both froze at the harshness of Rory's words.

Finally, Lorelai stood up and said, "I'm going to walk over to Luke's. I'll be back in time to shower before we go to Hartford." She walked out of Rory's room.

When Rory heard the front door slam, she flung herself down on her bed. Once again, the tears came. She was disgusted with herself. She cried more than the Leave Britney Alone guy on YouTube.


By the time Rory and Lorelai left for Hartford, Rory had checked her e-mail—and been disappointed by Logan's silence—another half-dozen times. Although she could easily continue to monitor her inbox from her phone, Rory knew Emily would never tolerate her fiddling with her Sidekick during dinner, and maybe that was good. The last thing Rory wanted to do was read a letter from Logan while sitting in a room with her mother and grandparents.

The drive to Hartford had been miserable. Lorelai was obviously punishing Rory with the silent treatment, but no matter how much Rory disliked fighting with her, she was not ready to apologize for hurting her mother's feelings, particularly when she believed she had told the truth with her outburst. Lorelai resented no longer being number one in her life and had never given Logan a fair chance because of it. Still, Rory realized an apology would be required at some point. One needed to look no further than the five and a half months Rory had lived in her grandparents' pool house for proof that Lorelai was a champion at holding a grudge when Rory didn't act exactly as Lorelai wanted.

For most of her life, Rory had perfected the role of the dutiful daughter, stepping out of line so rarely that discipline had no place in her relationship with Lorelai. They were more like sisters or best friends than mother and daughter, and the bond they shared was ridiculously close. It wasn't until Rory got older and dared to veer off Lorelai's preferred course of action that the cracks appeared. While Rory would be the first to admit she had made some poor decisions, they were her mistakes to make. On those rare occasions, she had been shocked to see the emergence of a Lorelai who bore a scary resemblance to her own mother. The wardrobe and the sense of humor may have been different, but the judgmental attitude and controlling nature were all Emily Gilmore. If Rory ever truly wanted to wound Lorelai, she would only need to share this revelation with her.

Dinner at the Gilmores' house was a mostly pleasant experience. Christmas gifts were exchanged, and the conversation was lively, although Lorelai and Rory continued to ignore each other. If Richard and Emily noticed the frost between their daughter and granddaughter, they were wise enough not to mention it. Instead, they peppered Rory with questions about the campaign trail, and she was grateful for any conversation that kept her from talking directly to her mother.

They were finishing up dessert when the question Rory had been dreading all night finally arose.

"Rory, dear, I have to ask you," Emily said. "Did you get a chance to speak with Logan at the party? I was pleased to see he came with Mitchum and Shira."

Lorelai snorted, and Emily gave her a puzzled glare.

"Um, yes, Grandma."

"Mitchum tells me the young man is making quite a name for himself out in California," Richard said. "I dare say Mitchum's even proud of him."

"That's nice to hear," Rory said.

"And how was it? Seeing him again?" Emily asked.

Rory squirmed in her seat. "Oh, it was...fine." Before she could think of anything else to say, she heard an electronic beep coming from inside her purse.

Emily frowned. "Rory, you know I don't approve of phone calls during dinner."

"That was a text message not a call, but I thought I'd switched it off. Sorry, Grandma." Rory took the phone from her purse to turn it off, but stopped when she saw the name on the screen: Logan. "If you'll excuse me a moment, I need to take care of something."

Rory hurried from the table before anyone could say anything and crossed the foyer to Emily's small sitting room. With shaking hands, she clicked the button to open the text.

Need to see you. Back to CA Wed. Can I come to SH, maybe tonight?

She looked at her watch. It was 6:25. She and Lorelai had planned to head back to Stars Hollow by 6:45, but she was certain that Logan and Lorelai in the same town was a bad idea, considering Lorelai's current state of mind. Although Lorelai would be furious if Rory skipped the parade, seeing Logan was more important than Taylor's stupid festival of lights spectacular, and they had limited time before he returned to California. Her heart raced as she typed a reply before she changed her mind.

In Hartford w/o car. Pick me up at Gilmores' in 20?

She hit send and waited. The phone beeped within seconds.

On my way.

Rory's stomach churned. Logan wanted to see her. No, he needed to see her. Rory didn't know if she should be excited or apprehensive or both. This is exactly why I don't make spontaneous decisions, she thought.

It was too late to back out, so Rory slipped into the powder room for a few minutes, hoping to regain her composure. She did a quick grooming check (teeth, food-free; make-up, not smudged; hair, presentable), then rejoined her family, who had returned to the living room.

"Everything okay?" Emily asked when Rory entered. "You look a little flushed."

Out of the corner of her eye, Rory noticed Lorelai's glare. "Everything's fine, Grandma. I was just making plans to meet someone."

"When?" Lorelai asked.

"What?" Rory asked.

"You heard me," Lorelai said. "When are you meeting this someone? Like I can't figure out who it is."

"Lorelai, what on earth are you going on about?" Emily asked.

"Ask your granddaughter."

"Fine, Mom. I'm meeting Logan. Are you happy now? He's picking me up here."

"Just like that. He says jump and you say how high, and on Christmas Eve, no less." Lorelai shook her head in disgust. "Unbelievable."

"It's not like that. I need to see him before he goes back to California," Rory said. "God, Mom! Why are you being so difficult about this?"

"What about Lane?" Lorelai asked. "Weren't you supposed to hang out with her at Sookie's during the parade?"

"She was only going to stay for a little while before the twins' bedtime," Rory said. "And Lane will understand."

"Does this mean you and Logan are getting back together?" Emily asked.

"I don't know, Grandma. We're going to talk."

Emily beamed. "Well, I think this is wonderful news. Richard, isn't this wonderful—"

"Of course you think it's wonderful, Mom," Lorelai said. "Nothing would thrill you more than to see Rory bound to Logan and his trust fund. You've probably got Vera Wang on speed dial."

"Lorelai, I don't like your tone," Richard said.

Lorelai stood up. "And, on that note, I'm out of here," she said. "Thank you for dinner and the gifts. Merry Christmas. I'll see myself out."

As unreasonable as Rory felt Lorelai was being, she didn't want to meet Logan for what might be the most important conversation of her life with this bitterness looming over her. She followed Lorelai into the foyer. "Mom?"

"What, Rory?"

"I just...I don't want you to be mad about this. Please try to understand why I need to see him."

"You want my blessing to run off with Logan."

"I'm not running off with him. Please don't be like this."

Lorelai said nothing as she pulled on her coat.

Rory sighed. "Fine, whatever. I don't know when I'll be home, so don't wait up."

Rory waited until Lorelai was gone before returning to Emily and Richard.

"Sorry about that," Rory said. "Mom and I...well, we had a bit of an argument this afternoon. Clearly, it's not over."

"Is she really so upset that you and Logan are getting back together?" Emily asked.

"Grandma, I don't know that we are. Saturday night was the first time we'd had any contact since, well, you know."

"But if he's coming here—"

"Emily, leave the girl alone," Richard said. "She doesn't need you asking her a million questions. When she has something to tell us, I'm certain she will."

Rory smiled weakly at her grandfather. "If you don't mind, I think I'll just watch for Logan at the window. I know it goes against proper etiquette not to let him come to the door, Grandma, but I think it'll be easier in this case."

Before Emily could respond, Richard said, "That will be fine."

After they said their good-byes, Rory gathered her things, put on her coat, and positioned herself in a window where she could see Logan pull into the driveway, which he did almost exactly twenty minutes after Rory's text. She stepped outside as soon as she saw the headlights, then stopped just beyond the front door. She held up one finger to Logan in a gesture that said she'd be right with him.

Logan watched as Rory removed her phone from her purse. Once again, he was struck by her beauty. With the tasteful white Christmas lights illuminating the arched doorway behind her, she looked positively angelic, and just the sight of her calmed the butterflies in his stomach, at least a little bit. She had responded to his text so quickly that he still had no idea what he was going to say to her. Honor had assured him it was a good sign that Rory hadn't hesitated to respond, and after determining Logan was adequately groomed and dressed in clean clothes, she had dropped the car keys in his hand and shuffled him out of the Huntzberger house.

Rory ended her call and opened the door to the black Range Rover.

"Sorry about that," she said as she climbed in. "I needed to let Lane know about the change in plans."

"Am I keeping you from something?" Logan asked, nervously. "I don't want to mess things up for you. If you need to be somewhere—"

"Logan, it's not a big deal. I'll see Lane tomorrow." Rory belted herself into the passenger seat. "Is this your car?"

"Nah, it's Dad's. He's letting me drive it while I'm in town."

"Huh. I never would have pegged Mitchum as an SUV guy."

"He only drives it in snowy weather." In his Mitchum voice, Logan added, "The newspaper business does not come to a halt because of winter."

Rory chuckled. "Only Mitchum Huntzberger would have a, what, $70,000 car just for driving in snowstorms. Wouldn't it make more sense to have a beat-up old truck for that?"

"Mitchum in a beat-up old truck? That's crazy talk, Ace."

Rory smiled slightly at the sound of her nickname. "Of course. What was I thinking?"

"So how'd you get here without a car?" Logan asked. "You haven't mastered teleportation, have you? Because that would be awesome."

"God, I wish. Covering the campaign would be so much nicer," Rory said. "But, no, Mom was here until about ten minutes ago."

Logan noticed the annoyance in Rory's tone. "Is there a problem?"

"Nope," she said. "So does this fancy snowmobile move or are we going to sit in front of my grandparents' house all night?"

"No, it moves," Logan said, putting the vehicle in gear. "Though I have to admit I didn't really think this through. We need a place where we can talk. You know, somewhere—"

"Private."

"Right. But I'm staying at my parents' house, and since you told me to pick you up here, I assume you don't want to go back to Stars Hollow."

"Definitely not."

Logan couldn't make out Rory's expression in the darkened car, but something was definitely up between her and Lorelai. He hoped he wasn't responsible. Lorelai had blamed him—unfairly, he thought—for their estrangement when Rory dropped out of Yale. If he and Rory had any chance at a future, they would need Lorelai's support—or at least no blatant opposition from her.

He stopped at the end of the Gilmores' drive. "So any ideas?"

Rory thought for a minute. "I know where we can go," she said. "Turn left."

For the first five minutes or so of the drive, the only sounds inside the car were the oldies music on the radio and Rory's occasional directions. She desperately wanted to say something more intelligent than "turn right at the light," but she couldn't find the words. Writing things down was much easier. It didn't help that she was distracted by the absurdity of listening to "We Can Work It Out"as she and Logan were about to talk about the sorry state of their relationship. Finally, the Beatles' song ended, only to be followed by the Beach Boys' "God Only Knows," which Rory thought made things even more awkward. It had only been named the best love song of all time by Entertainment Weekly. Mitchum's radio was as mean as her iPod.

"Mind if we turn the music off?" she asked.

"No problem." Logan switched off the radio. "Dad's a fan of the '60s channel."

"Because who doesn't enjoy a little Motown while dodging snowplows."

"Exactly. It did kind of seem like the music was mocking us."

"I was thinking the same thing," Rory said. "Take a left here."

"You know, Ace, there are over a hundred channels on satellite radio. I could probably find some Backstreet Boys if you want."

Rory glared at him in the dark. "You're hilarious."

Logan chuckled. "Sorry. Couldn't resist." He sighed. "Can we just acknowledge that this is a little weird?"

"Yes. But also not weird, which kind of makes it weirder. I felt the same way at the party."

"Me, too. So are you going to fill me in on our secret destination, or are you just messing with me by making me turn at random intersections?"

"It's not a secret. We're going to my dad's house," Rory said. "We're almost there. Take a right at the next stop sign. Then, it's the third house on the left."

"I thought Chris was in France."

"He is. You said you wanted private."

"We're not breaking in, are we?"

"No, I abandoned my life of crime after the yacht." Rory opened her purse. "Dad wants me to feel like this is my home, too, so he gave me a key when I was here in October. I stuck in my wallet in case I ever needed it on the spur of the moment."

"Like tonight."

"Can't say I imagined using it under these circumstances, but at least we've got a place to go."

Logan pulled into Christopher's driveway and parked in front of the garage. Security lights were burning on the corners of the house. Rory and Logan glanced at each other in the dim light, but neither made a move to get out of the SUV. While the atmosphere between them was not quite comfortable, something about it felt surprisingly familiar, and they seemed reluctant to lose that feeling in the emotional upheaval they both knew awaited them.

Finally, Rory said, "So we should probably go inside."

"Probably."

Rory gathered her things and climbed out of the SUV. "Coming?" she asked.

Logan got out and hit the lock button on the key fob. "Right behind you, Ace," he said and followed her up the front walk.