A/N – Sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry! I'm sorry I lied and said this chapter would be out soon. What has it been, like 3 weeks? Idk. I'm so sorry. But here it is.

Please review. I read and reply to all of them. Suggestions, comments, criticism, questions. Anything is great!

I hope you like this chapter and I've been really busy recently and I have finals next week, so after that, I should be totally free to write and post. I probably won't have a chapter out any time this week, but I'm out of school on Fridays and I promise I'll write up a bunch of great chapters. Reviews will definitely inspire me to keep writing.

Sorry for the long authors note. Let's get into the story.

Disclaimer - I'm not sure if I've been putting disclaimers on this story or not because I don't really understand the point. Anyways, I don't own Gilmore Girls.

The next day, after the Goldman's left, Rachel stuck around.

"Hey," she said as she walked up to Lorelai.

"Um, hi Rachel."

"So, I'm guessing you know who I am by now. I know who you are."

"Yeah…"

"I just wanted to let you know, Luke is an amazing guy, and you seem like a great girl. I'm glad he's found you, because I didn't treat him right and I know that now. Anyways, I just wanted to say that he loves you. He told me not to talk to you, but I'm doing it anyway. He loves you so much and I don't want to see him get hurt. Please, be good with him. Even though he may not act like he has feelings, he does, and they're very fragile."

"Yeah, I know." Lorelai smiled.

"Bye, Lorelai. Hopefully I'll see you again."

"Bye Rachel."

Lorelai smiled when Rachel was out of sight. 'He loves you'. That line replayed in Lorelai's head. Sure, people have told her that Luke loves her many times before, but this was Rachel. Luke's Rachel. This means he told her that he loves Lorelai. Thinking about all of this made Lorelai's heart flutter. Luke loves her.

Lorelai helped Sookie clean for a while until she finally headed over to Luke's. It was 9:00, and the diner was still open, but nearly empty. The only person left was Kirk.

"Hello..." Kirk greeted, elongating his word.

"Um, hi Kirk." Lorelai sat down at her usual first stool.

"He's in the back."

"Okay Kirk."

After a few moments of sitting there in awkward silence with Kirk, with only the sound of his chewing, Lorelai got up to find Luke.

"Uh, you're not allowed-"

"I'm fine, Kirk." Lorelai ignored him and walked into the storage room.

She found Luke unpacking boxes, and he had no idea she was standing there. She decided to take advantage of the situation. Lorelai tiptoed behind a shelf that Luke was facing. He couldn't see her, but she could see him.

When he was looking down, she knocked off a pack of hamburger buns from the shelf.

Luke popped up, and then he noticed what fell. Lorelai watched his eyebrows furrow, trying to figure out how it fell. He picked it up, put it back in its place, and then went back to cutting open a new box of supplies.

When Lorelai noticed another chance, she knocked off a bag of potatoes.

This time, Luke knew something was up.

"Kirk! I told you to stop coming into the storage room!" He called out.

Lorelai emerged from behind the shelf. "Aww, you thought I was Kirk? Couldn't you have at least thought of someone hot?"

Luke let out a chuckle and a smile formed on his face. He didn't feel like responding to her comment, so he just went up to her and pulled her in to an impossibly tight hug. One of his hands pulled her lower back closer, and the other rested in the middle of her upper back.

Both of Lorelai's arms were under Luke's, and she wrapped them up and around so they were resting on the back of his shoulders.

After a few minutes, they finally pulled away and Luke gave her a passionate, long awaited kiss.

"I better go deal with Kirk," he said. "And you should get out of here." He looked around and Lorelai knew he meant the storage room, not the diner.

She smiled and walked back out into the main part of the diner where Kirk was sitting. Luke went over and gave Kirk his receipt.

Lorelai sat down at the counter, and Luke poured her a cup of coffee as he waited for Kirk to pay.

Lorelai and Luke made eye contact, and neither dared to break it. It was like they were battling, but there was no winner.

As usual, Kirk interrupted their moment by waving the money in the air and saying, "Oh Luke!"

Luke rolled his eyes and grabbed the money from Kirk.

"Now get out of here," he said.

"Fine." Kirk stormed out.

Luke came back to the counter and stood across from Lorelai. "Hey," he said with a smirk.

"Hey." Lorelai smiled up at him.

"I missed you," she said to him.

"I missed you too."

"How was day two?" He asked.

"Ugh." Lorelai sighed. "They were annoying and rude."

"Sorry."

"How was your day?" Lorelai asked.

"The usual. Not too busy but not too slow. Kirk was in here all day."

Lorelai chuckled because she could hear the annoyance in his voice.

"You wanna go out with me?" Luke asked.

"What?"

"Tomorrow night. Actually go out, like on a date or something."

"But you hate dating."

"Yeah, but you don't, and I don't hate you."

"Really?" Lorelai asked.

"Uh… yeah."

"No, I mean the date part, not the hating me part."

"Yes to that too."

Lorelai turned to look him in the eyes, and she smiled when their gazes met.

"I missed you," she said sweetly.

"You already said that."

"I know, but I really missed you."

Luke smirked at her and leaned in for a kiss. "Come on," he said as he pulled away, grabbing her hand. He led her up the stairs to his apartment.

She followed him in to the apartment, immediately dropping her purse on the floor. She held on to Luke as he led her to the couch. No communication was needed because they both knew where this was going. Luke fell onto the couch and Lorelai climbed on top of him, kissing him passionately. She laughed against his lips when she realized what position they were in.

"What?" He asked when there was an opening between their kisses.

"I was just… thinking… we're two adults… making out… like teenagers." Lorelai finished her thought between kisses.

Luke realized what this position would look like to anyone not in it, and he stopped kissing her for a second to think. She used her arms to push herself up and away from his face for a second. They were laying down, her on top of him, on a couch shorter than both of their heights.

"Who cares," he said, pulling her back down on top of him.

She giggled as their lips smashed together when he pulled her back down.

This was it. This was that happy feeling everyone has in the movies. Lorelai thought it didn't exist, that it was all a lie to make people hopeful and happy, but she was wrong. This was that feeling. This is the happiest Lorelai has ever been in a relationship.

After a few minutes in that exact position, the phone began to ring.

"Just leave it," Luke said in between kisses.

"But what if… it's… an emergency."

"It's not."

"But-"

Luke silenced her by biting her lower lip. With a giggle, she joined back in. Of course, the phone didn't stop ringing and the answering machine picked up.

"Hey, Luke?"

Lorelai and Luke jumped off the couch when they heard the familiar voice.

"I'm not sure if this is still your number, but I'm guessing it is since you still own the diner. Anyways, it's Caroline. I know it's been a while since I saw you and Lorelai at the beach, but I was wondering if tomorrow would be a good time to stop by and look over the pictures? Sorry I took so long. Call me back. Thanks."

"Woah." Luke didn't know what to think.

"Yeah, woah."

"I forgot about that."

"You forgot about that?" Lorelai asked.

"Yeah."

"You forgot we saw your ex, aka my childhood best friend taking pictures of us on the beach?" Lorelai asked.

"It's been weeks!" Luke pointed out.

"Yeah…" The truth is, Lorelai would never forget. Of course she knew not to judge Luke by what happened because that would be wrong. That's not who he is, but she still thought about it.

"And she is not my ex."

"Well, you slept with her."

"That doesn't make her my ex."

"It kind of does."

"Lorelai…" Luke warned.

She backed off. "Call her back."

"What?" Luke asked, surprised by the change of mood.

"Tell her tomorrow's fine."

"Why?" Luke had no idea what to think. Lorelai was confusing him.

"Because I want the pictures!" She stood up from the couch and he stayed down.

"Oh." Luke showed no signs of getting up any time soon.

"I'll call her."

When she got to the phone, she pressed the redial button.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Caroline?" Lorelai asked.

"This is she."

"This is Lorelai."

"Oh! Hi Lorelai!"

"Hi, um, sorry we couldn't get to the phone earlier, we were in the middle of something."

Luke let out a little chuckle when Lorelai said that. Of course, he had to add what she would normally say in that situation. "Dirty."

Lorelai smiled at him but didn't say anything because of the phone.

"Oh, is this still his apartment number?"

"Yes…"

"Do you live with him there?"

"Oh, no. No way. My daughter and I live in a house a few minutes away."

"Oh, well, that's nice. Wait, you have a daughter? How old is she? Is she Luke's?"

"Oh, no. God, no. She's 16. Actually, Christopher… and I…"

Luke winced when he heard Christopher's name.

"Oh my God! Christopher? You guys were best friends! And she's 16? You must have been, what, 16?"

"Yes. I got knocked up when I was 15. Um, enough of that." Lorelai was getting annoyed with Caroline's questions. She always hated when people judged her about getting pregnant so young. "We were calling back to tell you that tomorrow is great. Please stop by."

"Okay, I will. See you guys tomorrow."

"Bye." Lorelai let out a big exhale as she hung up the phone. "I hate that."

"What?" Luke asked.

"'Wow, so you were, what, 16?' I hate when people judge me because of how old I was when I had Rory. You never judged me."

"Well…"

"You never judged me for my age. You judge me for a lot of other reasons."

Luke smiled up at her.

"Nice dirty by the way."

"Well, I learned from the best."

Lorelai started to unbutton her shirt, and Luke raised his eyebrows. She smirked at him and started backing up towards the bed. As she sat down onto the bed, he stood up off of the couch.

When he got to her, he helped her finish all of the buttons and slowly pulled her shirt off.

She started to unbutton his flannel. "We have to make up for the past two nights."

"Mhmm" was all he could say. He lost focus when he saw her lacy bra.

Soon enough, all of their clothes were scattered around the floor, and they were going at it again.

"I hate your alarm!" Lorelai groaned as Luke's alarm blared in her ear.

He leaned over her and pressed the snooze button.

"Don't you have to open today?" Lorelai asked as he kissed her neck.

"Yeah."

"You're not getting up?"

"No."

Lorelai smiled and Luke kept kissing her.

After a few minutes, the alarm went off again and they both groaned.

"We better get up." Lorelai pulled the sheet off the bed with her to cover herself up. "What time tonight?"

Luke smiled. "I'll pick you up at seven?"

"Sounds great." Lorelai smiled at him and then proceeded to get dressed.

"You'll come by before then, right?" Luke asked as he pulled his pants up.

"Try and stop me."

After a few minutes, they were both fully dressed. Lorelai still had to go home, take a shower, and change before work, but Luke had to get down to the diner as soon as possible.

They submerged down the stairs together and saw the crowd waiting outside. Luke sure did have his fair-share of loyal customers. Everyday, the same group of customers would come in for opening.

Lorelai and Luke watched as the expression on everyone's faces turned from annoyed, to surprised, to annoyed again. At first, they were annoyed because opening was a little later than usual, due to Lorelai and Luke's sleeping in. The surprised look was when they saw the two of them emerge from the staircase. Their emotions changed back to annoyed because this has happened multiple times before, and at this rate, it didn't seem like it was going to stop.

"Sorry… sorry." Luke opened the door and let his customers in.

As soon as all the customers were inside, Lorelai waved Luke off and he winked back at her before she walked out of the door.

"Well, you look happy!" Sookie exclaimed when Lorelai walked through the door.

"Of course."

"What's with the good mood? I need all the details."

"I stayed at Luke's last night."

"Sex? Did you have sex?" Sookie asked, a little too loudly for Lorelai's taste.

"Shh. And of course, sex is a given, but that's not why I'm happy. Well, it is." Lorelai said, correcting herself. "But it's not the main reason."

"Ooh, intrigue. What's the main reason?"

"We're going out on a date. Tonight." Lorelai really emphasized the word date.

"But Luke doesn't date. He doesn't do dates."

"I know." Lorelai smiled.

Sookie's eyes instantly widened and her smile grew atleast twice as big. "Oh my God! He's popping the question! Lorelai! He's popping the question!"

"What? Sookie, no. We haven't even told each other we love each other."

"But you love him?" Sookie asked.

"Yes."

"And he loves you. He's popping the question!"

"Sookie! No! Luke and I are not getting engaged."

"Why not? Don't you want to?"

Lorelai laughed at how confused Sookie was with this situation.

"Because he isn't asking me. He wouldn't ask this soon."

"Are you sure?" Sookie asked. "Because no one has ever seen him this happy."

"I'm sure, Sook."

"Oh, well, okay. Tell me everything anyways."

"I will, I promise."

Lorelai left the kitchen to go back to work. She had her lunch break around noon and decided to head over to Luke's.

When she walked in, the diner was packed. She took a seat at her usual spot on the counter, and it took Luke a couple minutes to get to her. When he finally got back around the counter, he leaned in and gave her a quick kiss before he poured her coffee.

"Pretty busy, huh?" Lorelai asked, trying to make conversation.

"Yeah. More than usual. That big group is about to leave, though." Luke said, gesturing to a party of over 10 people, taking up atleast 4 tables. They were all packing up and pushing in their chairs until finally, they left the diner. It was instantly quieter, and less stressful.

Luke went over and fixed the tables back to their original positions. When he was done, he came back to Lorelai.

"Sorry about that," he said.

"It's fine." Lorelai smiled up at him. "Where are we going tonight?" she asked.

"It's a secret," he responded.

"Luke! Tell me!"

"No!"

"Why?"

"Because it will ruin the surprise."

Luke's response actually made Lorelai nervous. The surprise? What was the surprise? Was Sookie right? Could Luke be asking her to marry him? No. No way. No way. That was not going to happen. Luke wasn't that type of man, and of course, he had to know she's not ready. She decided to push those thoughts to the back of her mind.

"Okay…" Lorelai responded awkwardly.

Luke could tell something was troubling Lorelai, so he gave in. "It's a restaurant. From my past…" he added.

"Oh. Okay." This revelation made Lorelai a little less unsettled, but she still wasn't sure what he was thinking, or how far he was going to go. In a way, that revelation was even more unsettling. If Luke was going to propose, an old restaurant from his past is definitely a good place to do it.

Luke looked at Lorelai and he could tell she was being distant. He couldn't figure out why she was acting that way. Did he say something? Did he do something? He was a little nervous for the dinner now that she was acting this way. He had planned on telling her he loved her, nothing more, but even this started to seem like too much when he saw the way she was acting. No… Luke Danes, no. You are telling this woman you love her, no matter what happens.

Both Luke and Lorelai were lost in thought until they heard the oh-so-familiar jingle of the bell on the door. Lorelai turned around, and Luke looked up to find Caroline walking into the diner.

"Hey guys," she greeted.

"Hi." Both Luke and Lorelai responded simultaneously.

"Do you have the pictures?" Lorelai asked excitedly, hopping off the stool.

Now Luke knew something was up. She was acting weird, but not to everyone. Just him. With everyone else, she was her usual self.

Luke sighed and walked around the counter to see the pictures that Lorelai and Caroline were already looking over.

"These are even better than I remember!" Lorelai exclaimed.

They spread all of the prints out on a table and sat down. Luke stayed standing, looking down at them and the pictures, trying to figure out what Lorelai was thinking.

Lorelai picked out a group of pictures from the ones Caroline had brought. "What about these?" She asked, looking up at Luke.

"Huh?" Her voice snapped him out of his thoughts.

"These pictures," she clarified. "Do you like them?"

Luke didn't even take the time to look through them before responding. "Yeah, sure."

"Luke, you didn't even look at them."

"Whatever you want is fine. Now hurry up, I need the table."

Luke walked back to the counter and started wiping it down.

Lorelai was hurt. How could he do that? How could he just embarrass her like that? Especially in front of Caroline. A girl she knew as a child, and a girl he used to sleep with.

"Um, sorry." Lorelai said, turning back to Caroline. "I'm not sure what just happened. These are fine, how much?" Lorelai looked down at the group of pictures she picked out.

"Take them for free."

"No, Caroline, I couldn't do that. You had to pay to get these printed." Lorelai protested.

"Think of them as a gift from a friend. You're the one helping me out. My portfolio and everything."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm 100% sure."

"Thanks." Lorelai smiled and put the pictures in her purse. She walked over to Luke at the counter. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," he answered, not making eye contact.

"Okay…" She leaned up to kiss him and he gave her a quick, insincere peck on the lips before wiping the counter again.

Lorelai took another look at him, not sure what just happened, before she walked out of the diner. She gave Caroline a little wave before going back to the Inn.

When Caroline finished packing up her stuff, she went over to talk to Luke. "What the hell was that?" She asked.

"What?" Luke rolled his eyes.

"The way you were just talking to Lorelai. What was that?"

"Nothing, Caroline," Luke warned.

"Oh no, that was something, Luke. You were so rude to her!"

"Please."

"And that kiss? You might as well have been a 5th grade boy being forced to kiss his mom goodbye on the first day of school in front of all of his friends."

"What's your point?" Luke asked, dropping his towel on the counter and turning to look at Caroline.

"My point is, what's wrong, and why were you being such an ass to her?"

Luke rolled his eyes, but he knew she was right. He took a second before answering.

"I was supposed to take her on a date tonight."

"A date? You don't date." Caroline interrupted him.

"I know, I don't date."

"Sorry."

"I was going to tell her I love her, tonight."

"And? What's the problem?"

"The problem is, when she came in here, she was acting like she had just seen a ghost, and she wouldn't tell me what was wrong. And then you come in, and she's totally fine. She's mad at me about something."

"Luke, she seemed totally fine. You were the one being a jerk."

He sighed. "I know. I just… this is a big thing for me… telling her that. I'm starting to feel like she doesn't want to hear it."

"Luke, it looks more like she's getting tired of waiting for you to say it."

He sighed.

"Tell her. Don't wait."

Caroline went in for a hug and Luke returned the action.

"Thanks," he said. She smiled at him and left the diner.

Around 7:00 that night, Luke drove over to Lorelai's. He knew to be late and waited out in the truck until 7:10. When he finally walked up to the door, he was greeted by Lorelai yelling from inside the house.

"Sorry! Come in!"

Luke laughed and opened her door. He shook his head as he shut it behind him. She really needed to start locking things. He walked over to the stairs and listened to the rummaging upstairs.

"Just a minute, Luke!" Lorelai yelled again.

In a few minutes, she came rushing down the stairs.

"Wow," he said, staring at her.

Lorelai smiled and her cheeks started to redden. She smiled at him.

"You look amazing."

"You don't look too bad yourself," she replied, lightly punching him on the chest.

Their interaction was awkward, but that feeling was overpowered by the look of lust in their eyes.

"Uh, here." Luke grabbed the jacket Lorelai was holding and headed out to the truck. He opened the door for her and closed it as she got in.

"Luke?" She asked as he got in on his side.

"What?" He shut the door and started to put his seatbelt on.

"I was going to wait to talk about this until later, but I really want to know right now."

Luke looked around nervously, and Lorelai took his silent response as an invitation to keep talking.

"What was wrong? Earlier at the diner, today. Something was up."

Luke sighed. "I know. I'm sorry I was acting like a jerk. I got a little insecure and I guess that's how I dealt with it."

"Insecure? Why?"

"When you came in, you were acting a little distant. I don't know. It was probably just my imagination. Anyway, I got nervous about tonight and one thing lead to another and I ended up ignoring you."

"You weren't imagining it." Lorelai looked down to her lap, wondering if she should tell him about Sookie's prediction.

"What?"

"Me. Acting distant. You weren't imagining it."

"Oh…" Luke was waiting for an explanation.

"I, uh, I got a little nervous too." Lorelai looked back up at Luke.

"Why?"

"Um…" Lorelai let out a chuckle. "This is probably going to sound really silly, unless it's true, in which case I'm going to feel like a jerk." Lorelai took a deep breath. "Sookie mentioned something about you… maybe… pr- prop- proposing to me… tonight."

Luke's eyes widened.

"I know, I'm sorry, but I got really nervous. I, I mean, I love you, but I'm not ready for that."

Luke's eyes widened even more and he inhaled sharply. He was at a loss for words. She just said she loves him. He was supposed to be the one to tell her.

"Luke?" Lorelai didn't even realize what she had just said.

"Propose?" He asked, a little too quickly.

"Uh, yeah. I told Sookie you were taking me on a date and she thought that's what it meant. Then you started talking about surprises and childhood restaurants and I freaked out."

He smiled. "I wasn't going to propose," was all Luke could get out of his mouth.

Lorelai felt a sensation of relief wash over her, but then, it turned a little bit to sadness. Of course, she didn't want to get married to Luke this early, but was the idea of them being married so bad?

"Oh… w-well then, why were you nervous?"

"I was nervous because of a certain word you just said."

Lorelai thought to herself. The only word she could think of at the moment was 'propose'.

"Like I said, I planned for something to happen tonight, and when you came in to the diner with that look like something was wrong, I felt like maybe you didn't want to hear what I was going to say."

"You lo-" she started, realizing what he meant. She was quickly cut off by his voice.

"I love you, Lorelai Gilmore."

Her eyes seemed to sparkle as he said it and a smile started to form on her face.

"That's all I was planning for tonight."

Lorelai smiled at him, staring into his honest eyes.

"I love you too."

He leaned in for a soft, meaningful kiss.

When they pulled away, they both knew they were back. No more awkwardness. They were back to being a happy, bantering couple, and Lorelai acted upon that.

"Well now that we've said it, I guess there's no reason to go out on this date now. I'll head inside and meet you at the diner tomorrow for coffee." Lorelai jokingly opened the door.

"Funny," Luke said, pulling her back towards him and kissing her, harder this time.

She smiled against his lips.

When they pulled apart, she tried to get him to cave again. "Where are we going?"

"Somewhere."

"Agh." She sighed in fake annoyance.

Luke looked over at her and started the truck.

"You ready?" He asked.

A/N – Guys! I'm sorry about the cliffhanger!

I promise I'll make up for it in the next chapter. I'm not sure how, yet, but I'll figure it out. Honestly, I plan for certain things to happen but then as I'm writing, my mind just goes somewhere else.

Anyways, please review! I really appreciate it. Comments, suggestions, criticism, questions.

Also, read my other story "Departures and Returns." It's a 3-chapter story and so far 2 of 3 have been posted. Each chapter is around 10,000 words on that story so it is long. Please review that one too!

I'll stop lying by saying the next chapter is going to be out soon because I honestly don't know. I'll just say that I promise to get it out as soon as possible.

Thanks for reading.