A/N: Okay, I have to say that I honestly didn't consider the end of the last chapter a cliffhanger. I mean, she's there, he's there… great, right? But, according to my reviews, apparently a lot of you did. So, I said work, schmerk, and typed up this little ditty this morning. The title was the message I got loud and clear…. Will it hold you for a while, dear readers? Thanks for everything!

Hop To It

Lorelai sprung from the bed and opened the door wide to find Luke standing in front of her, his chest heaving with exertion and adrenaline. "Luke," she said with relief, scanning his scruffy face before dropping her eyes to the floor.

Luke stared at her and said, "I'm not in a bubble. I mean, we're not in a bubble." When Lorelai looked up at him he said, "What I'm trying to say, and apparently not very well, is that this is real. At least, for me it is."

XXXX

Lorelai did the only thing a girl could do when her best friend stood in front of her, babbling about bubbles and telling her that his feelings for her were real. She reached up, cupped his cheeks gently in her hands and pulled him down to kiss him sweetly. Luke's arms immediately enfolded her, pulling her tightly against him as he angled his head and deepened the kiss, breathing her scent in deeply. When they came up for air, Lorelai stepped back, and Luke's fingertips trailed from her hip and fell limply to his side, as he waited for her response. Lorelai searched the depths of his deep blue eyes and whispered, "God, I'm starving."

Luke nodded and said gruffly, "Put your shoes on and grab your key."

As if galvanized by the sound of his voice, Lorelai spun around and spotted her shoes on the floor next to the bed. She sat down on the edge of the mattress to pull them on, unable to keep her eyes off of the man looming in her doorway. He smirked a little and said, "Wrong feet."

Lorelai looked down and giggled, quickly switching the shoes around before she jumped up, grabbed her purse and key from the dresser and walked back over to him. "I'm ready," she said softly.

Luke nodded and stepped aside to let her pass. "Well then, let's go," he said as he pulled the door closed behind her and made sure it was latched. As they walked silently to his truck, Lorelai felt his hand brush against hers and almost jumped at the jolt the casual contact sent zinging through her already taut nerves.

He walked around to open the passenger door for her and Lorelai said, "Oh, you don't have to, with the door," gesturing awkwardly as he opened it for her.

"Well, I have," Luke said as he helped her into the truck.

When he closed the door to walk to the driver's side, Lorelai blew out a breath and said to herself, "Okay, okay. It's only Luke. Only Luke."

"What?" Luke asked as he opened his door and slid behind the wheel.

"Nothing," Lorelai said quickly, flashing a shaky smile at him. As he pulled out of the lot and started down the road, Lorelai asked, "Where are we going?"

"There's an IHOP just down here," he answered, gesturing to the row of restaurants gracing the highway access.

"Ooh, IHOP, good," Lorelai said with a nod.

A mile down the road, Luke turned into the parking lot and found a space near the front door. As he turned the truck off, he saw Lorelai start to reach for the door handle and put his hand on her arm to stop her. "I'll get it," he said in a deep voice, and hopped out of the truck.

"Okay, okay," Lorelai whispered rubbing her palms together nervously as he circled the truck. "Thanks," she said with a smiled as he helped her down.

They walked into the restaurant and were seated immediately. Lorelai opened her menu and perused it avid interest as the waitress approached. As she greeted them Luke looked up with a polite smile and said, "She'll have a vat of coffee, and I'd like tea. Hot tea, please," he ordered.

They were silent as they waited for their drinks, nervously scanning the menu, and avoiding each other's eyes. When the waitress returned with the coffee and tea, she pulled out a pad and asked, "Are you ready, or do you need a minute?"

"You ready?" Luke asked Lorelai.

Lorelai looked up for the first time and said, "I'll have the Rooty Tooty Fresh and Fruity, strawberry." She bit her lip for a moment and said, "Let's see, that comes with bacon and sausage and I'd like my eggs over easy," she said closing her menu with a nod. "Oh, and can I have a side of toast, please? White?" she added.

The waitress nodded and asked, "For you, sir?"

"A bucket for the lady," Luke mumbled under his breath as he scanned the menu again. "Two eggs scrambled, and wheat toast, dry please," he ordered.

After the waitress had taken their menus and gone to put their order in, Lorelai met Luke's eyes across the table and blurted, "I'm so sorry."

Luke nodded and said, "I got that. Talk to me, Lorelai," he said gently as he folded his hands on the table.

"I don't know. I don't know what happened in there," she said gesturing to her head in frustration.

"I thought things were going well. I mean, as well as they could go with me here and you there," Luke said gruffly.

"They were," she insisted as she took a sip of her coffee. "They were. I just I don't know. I think I dreamed about you that night," she confessed quietly.

"After we talked?" Luke asked.

"Yeah, but I can't remember what the dream was. I woke up and I just kept thinking of all of these things you've said to me over the years. Stuff about getting married and dating, and I just got all mixed up," she told him in a rush.

"Like what stuff?" Luke asked with a frown.

"Stupid stuff," Lorelai said shaking her head. She smiled and said, "The usual Luke Danes rants about marriage being a useless bureaucratic ceremony and people not changing and evolving together. Junk like that."

Luke smiled sheepishly and said, "Ah, that stuff."

"Yeah, well, it was all mixed up in my head with the conversation we had the night before about you and Nicole," she told him.

Luke snorted and said, "That would be a mess." He shifted in his seat uncomfortably and said, "Lorelai, I told you that stuff about me and Nicole because I wanted to be honest with you."

"I know, and I appreciate that," Lorelai said quickly.

Luke nodded and toyed with the tag on his tea bag. After a minute, he prompted, "Okay, so you were using everything I've ever said against me."

"No, it wasn't like that," Lorelai said as she reached across the table to still his hand.

When Luke looked down at her fingers covering his, Lorelai dropped her gaze too and started to pull her hand away. Luke turned his over and captured it in his before she could slip away and asked, "How was it then?"

Lorelai stared down at their joined hands for a moment before she softly, "I was so happy. I mean, we'd talk, and we'd flirt, and then you'd say something. All of these little slips or admissions or something, letting me know that you liked me, that you wanted to be with me," she explained.

"I do," Luke said plainly.

"And then we talk about serious stuff. You and Nicole, me and Rory, and it's just like it always was. Two friends talking, poking at each other, pushing each other until we get to the gist of it, you know?" she asked.

"Oh, I know," Luke said with a chuckle.

"I just kept hearing you say that you didn't love her," Lorelai said quickly causing Luke close his eyes and wince a little. "I don't know how to explain it. Part of me was happy, you know. I was relieved that you didn't love her, that you weren't hung up on what happened," she told him shyly. "And then, there was a part of me asking, why not, and if you had ever loved anyone, and if you even believed in love. I mean, judging by the Luke tape recorder in my head, I could have made a pretty good argument that you didn't," she told him. "Anyway, I had been thinking all of this stuff all morning. The inn was crazy, Rory sent Lane a postcard from Paris, and I kept thinking about you, and about me, and it all got to be too much," she said squeezing his hand. "So I called you and asked you straight out," she said with a rueful laugh. "And you answered, and then I felt like a fool. I mean, who calls a guy that they're just starting to, whatever, with and asks him if he believes in love?" she asked incredulously. "I may as well have waved a big checkered flag in front of you and yelled, 'Go, run, run before it's too late!' or something," she said with a snort.

"I see," Luke said quietly. "Well, just so you know. Checkered flags are for the finish. Green flags mean go," he informed her.

"Thanks," Lorelai said rolling her eyes. She tugged on his hand a little and asked, "Do you? Do you see?" Lorelai asked again, searching his face. Just then, their food arrived. Lorelai pulled her hand back quickly as they arranged the plates on the table. She looked down at her strawberry covered pancakes and said softly, "I haven't been able to eat."

"What?" Luke asked, looking up from his eggs in surprise.

"I've had no appetite. Everything just gets stuck in my throat," she explained with a grimace.

Luke smirked and said, "Good thing you ordered enough for an army, then," softening his words by handing her the maple syrup.

By unspoken agreement, they tabled the serious discussion until after they had eaten, and instead Luke told Lorelai about some of the characters he had gotten to know at the faire. "So, this Henry guy has this beard that he's very, very proud of for some reason. He's always combing it or stroking it or something. The really great thing is, that no matter how much he grooms the thing, there's always something stuck in it, and no one ever tells him," he said with a laugh.

Lorelai grinned as she cut off another hunk of pancakes with her fork and swirled them in the strawberry/syrup combo. "Like food and stuff?" she asked.

"Food, bits of napkin, an old tire, a discarded boot, you name it, it's in Henry's beard," Luke said, enjoying her delight in his story.

"When I come to the faire tomorrow, can I meet him?" Lorelai asked.

Luke nodded and asked shyly, "Um, how long are you staying?"

"I have to head back tomorrow night," Lorelai told him. "We have a convention coming in on Monday, so there will be a lot of prep work," she explained apologetically.

Luke nodded, trying to mask his disappointment in the quick turn around. "Well, I can see if Liz's friend Sheila can lend a hand at the booth for a while. That way, we could go do something else tomorrow. If you want," he added quickly.

Lorelai shook her head and said, "No, I want to come to the faire. I want to see it, so I can picture what you're talking about when you call."

"So, I'm going to be allowed to call again?" Luke asked with a nervous laugh as he pushed his plate away.

"You will be expected to call again," Lorelai said firmly.

Luke sat back in the booth and crossed his arms over his chest as he watched her finish her meal. "You know, we do fight a lot," he observed.

Lorelai nodded as she chewed. She swallowed quickly and said, "I've noticed that, yes."

"Why do you think that is?" he asked with a frown.

Lorelai shrugged and said, "Because we care."

"We care, so we argue?" he asked with a snort.

"Well, yeah," Lorelai said as she set her fork on her plate. "If we didn't care, there wouldn't be anything to argue over, we'd just blow it off and move on," she said reasonably.

Luke pursed his lips as he puzzled out her reasoning and said, "That could be it."

"What's your theory, Einstein?" Lorelai asked with a shrug.

"We like to get a rise out of each other. Or, at least, you like to get a rise out of me," he said slowly as he thought it over.

"Dirty!" Lorelai said with a grin. "Sorry, well, I guess that goes along with my theory. If you didn't care, I couldn't get a rise out of you," she reasoned. A slow smile spread across Luke's face and Lorelai narrowed her eyes at him. "What?" she asked suspiciously.

"Nothing," he said with a shake of his head.

"Something," she retorted. "Tell me," she demanded.

"I can't," Luke said dropping his eyes to the table.

Lorelai raised her eyebrows and asked, "Would you have told me on the phone?"

"What?" Luke asked as he glanced up again.

Lorelai picked up her last strip of bacon and dragged it through the pool of syrup left on her plate. "Would you have told me if we were on the phone, and not here in person?" she asked slowly.

Luke frowned and said, "I don't know, maybe."

"Was it dirty?" she asked as she bit into the strip.

Luke smiled and chuckled as he looked down at his hands clasped on the table and said, "Yes."

"Okay, see, this is what I meant by the bubble thing," she said as she pointed the end of the strip of bacon at him.

"I got the bubble thing," Luke grumbled.

"I don't want you saying things to me on the phone that you wouldn't say in person," Lorelai said as she pushed her plate back, folded her forearms onto the table and leaned closer to him.

"That knocks out a lot of the, uh, flirting stuff," Luke mumbled, shyly avoiding her eyes.

"But why?" Lorelai asked shaking her head.

"Because I'm not gonna say stuff like that to you," Luke shot back, rolling his eyes at her.

"It's still me on the phone," Lorelai argued.

"And here we go again!" Luke said throwing his hands up into the air.

"Because I care! I fight because I care," she said, her frustration boiling to the surface. She reached out and clenched her hands like she wanted to choke him and grunted, "Ugh!"

Luke laughed and said, "Well, this is a great start. Our first meal together and you already want to strangle me."

"This isn't our first meal together," Lorelai said with a sneer.

"Well, no, but our first meal as a, uh, um," he stammered.

"A what, Luke?" Lorelai challenged.

Luke blew out an exasperated breath and said loudly, "A couple, Lorelai. As a couple." He shook his head and looked down at his hands. "A couple of idiots," he grumbled.

"Well," Lorelai said as she placed her napkin on the table with a laugh. "Now that we've covered the strangulation, yelling and name calling portions of the date, shall we go?" she asked.

"Sure," Luke said shortly, a flush creeping into his cheeks as pulled out his wallet and dropped some cash on the table. He grabbed the ticket and began to slide out of the booth. He stood waiting for her to gather her purse, and when she stood up, she kissed him lightly on the lips and said, "Thanks for dinner. I needed that." When she saw the stunned expression on his face, she jerked her head toward the cashier and asked, "What do you say? Shall we continue round two in a more private setting?"

Luke nodded and followed her to the front of the restaurant to pay the bill. He walked her out to the truck and opened her door for her, making sure she was settled before he slammed it closed and walked around to his side. He got behind the wheel and blew out a gusty breath and closed his eyes for a moment while Lorelai waited patiently for him to say what was on his mind. Finally, he opened his eyes and turned toward her, opening his mouth to speak. When he saw the little sparkle in her bright blue eyes he stopped and stared. Finally, he reached over, cupped the back of her neck and pulled her to him, pressing his lips to her in a demanding kiss. He dragged his mouth away, pressed his forehead against hers and whispered, "You make me crazy."

"The feeling is entirely mutual," Lorelai whispered back.

"I don't know why I want you. I should know better. I don't like to have to work this hard," he said with a chuckle.

"But you do, right?" she asked, her breath tickling his lips.

"Oh yes, I do," he said as he ran his hand over her hair, tucking it behind her ear. "I do," he whispered before kissing her again, slowly and sweetly, burying his hand in her curls.

When he pulled back, Lorelai pressed her fingertip to his soft lips, tracing them gently as she said, "Then, let's go duke it out."

Luke nodded and said, "Okay," as he sat back and started the truck. He put it into reverse, and looped his arm over the back of her seat as he looked behind him and backed up. He put it into gear and said, "Round two, coming up," as he took her hand and pulled out into traffic.