After their talk, Luke and Richard had returned to the diner to find the girls had finished their desserts and resumed the Monopoly game with Emily taking Luke's place, though Rory had had to explain the rules to her grandmother. Emily had offered to give up her seat and allow Luke to take over again, but he declined.

"That's ok," He said. "I'm not that into board games anyway." He really wasn't. He was more into outdoor activities but he knew that this was part of being a father, sometimes doing things he had no interest in and April loved Monopoly.

"But you were doing so well!" Emily said, indicating the stacks of fake money Luke had acquired before the drama of Christopher's unscheduled visit.

"Seriously, it's cool. I need to head over to Doose's anyway to see if Taylors's got any empty boxes I can snag so I can get the rest of my stuff from the apartment packed up and moved over to the house." Aside from that he wanted to talk to Taylor about the permits he needed, now that Lorelai had agreed to getting married in the square.

"You don't have any here from your deliveries?" Lorelai asked, remembering that he usually had some kind of early delivery on Saturday mornings, which had just been the day before. She'd been sound asleep at the time and he hadn't said anything about it so she just assumed that it had been business as usual.

"No. My dairy delivery was delayed and I won't get it now until tomorrow and my other deliveries aren't until later in the week."

"So, that means you'll be getting up before the crack of dawn tomorrow, then?" She wondered if that meant he'd use the delivery as an excuse to spend the night in the apartment instead of at the house with her like he used to do when he was married to Nicole.

"Just one of the many fun things about running this place," he said dryly. "I'll try not to wake you when I leave. I'm gonna head over to the store now. I'll be back soon."

"Ok," she said with a smile and reached up to him. He planted a quick kiss to her lips, trying to keep it PG since they had an audience, and headed out the door.

After he had left, Richard grabbed a chair from the next table over and sat next to his wife. "So who's winning?"

"She is," April said, pointing to Emily. "But it's not quite fair since she took over for someone else." She wasn't quite sure what to think of Emily. Since she'd occupied her father's former seat at the table, she'd kept looking at her like she expected to sprout horns or something. It was a little unnerving to be under such scrutiny. She felt like one of the bugs she'd examined under a magnifying glass. She thought Lorelai was pretty cool but her mother was something else entirely. She had a hard time thinking of them being related.

"The three of you asked me to," Emily protested. "You wanted to finish the game."

"You didn't have to," Lorelai said.

"I want to be involved in your life and if this is something you enjoy doing…" Emily didn't complete the thought. In spite of their talk yesterday, she couldn't seem to make her daughter understand that she wanted to be included in her life, and if that meant playing insipid games that was what she'd do.

"Yeah, I so enjoy losing all my money to a gold-digging twelve year old," she said with a laugh, gesturing to April's pile of money that rivaled the one Luke had left behind.

"You just made some bad business decisions," April said, trying not to dwell on the gold-digging comment. Lorelai had said it in a joking manner, but she couldn't help but wonder if there was more to it. She'd just met Lorelai today and though, she'd done everything she could to make her feel welcome, she didn't know quite how to take her yet. She hoped that her future step-mother didn't think she'd gone looking for her father for money or the things that he could give her. As she'd told her mother, she really just wanted to know where she came from. Her father wanting to be involved in her life was just an added bonus. She shrugged it off and said, "The real estate game's a tricky business."

"So true," Richard agreed. He sat and watched as they continued their game, wondering how Luke and Lorelai were going to adjust to this new family dynamic. He sensed that, even though they seemed to be enjoying themselves, there was still some tension in the room and things being left unsaid. He knew it they had a lot to work out, but he felt better after his heart-to-heart with Luke. He hadn't meant to share so much of his own experiences with his future son-in-law, but he'd found it was easier to talk to him than it ever had been. Luke seemed a lot more relaxed here in his home town than he had on the previous occasions that they'd talked. He always seemed nervous and uncomfortable at his and Emily's house. He'd thought that maybe that was just part of Luke's personality, but seeing him here in his element, he realized that it was the environment that made all the difference. He reflected on Lorelai's defense of Stars Hollow the previous evening and it occurred to him that she was more relaxed here too. He knew now without a doubt that whatever obstacles life would throw at them, they'd have a better chance of overcoming them here where they both felt at home.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The day passed in a flurry of activity. As a group, they'd packed up the apartment and loaded boxes into to Luke's beat up Chevy and hauled them over to the house. Richard and Emily had even volunteered to help, though Emily was more concerned with the condition of the apartment. She kept saying words like "quaint" and "charming" which he knew was Emily Gilmore slang for "dumpy" and "crappy," but he'd kept his mouth shut. He was really more worried about making sure that Lorelai didn't do anything to strenuous that could put their unborn child at risk. He was surprised at Richard, not thinking that he'd want to take a chance on messing up his nice clothes, but he'd taken off his coat and tie, rolled up his sleeves, donned one of Luke's aprons from the kitchen and dived right in. They were all now gathered at the house unpacking, the remainder of the Chinese food they'd had for dinner tucked away in the fridge. Lorelai and Emily were upstairs unpacking in the bedroom, while Rory and April were in the kitchen, and he and Richard were in the living room setting up Luke's trophy shelf.

Richard looked at these remnants of Luke's past as he helped unpack them and said, "Wow, you were quite the athlete in your day, weren't you?"

"I guess," Luke replied.

"Which reminds me, when are we going to play golf again?"

Luke shifted uncomfortably, "Uh...I'm not sure that's a good idea. I think you probably noticed last time that golf's really not my game. I'm much better a swinging a baseball bat than a golf club."

"Well, golf is not an easy sport. That's where practice comes in handy."

"I'll make you deal," he said as he heard Emily and Lorelai on the stairs. "I'll spend some more time on the driving range if you will spend a couple of hours with me at the batting cages."

"You drive a hard bargain, Luke. I'm in, though I warn you, I've never so much as picked up a baseball bat in my life."

"That's where practice comes in handy," Luke said, throwing Richard's words back in his face with a laugh.

"Wait a minute!" Lorelai said with a gleeful smile directed at her father. "You're going to the batting cages with Luke? I want to go with you. I've so got to see that!"

"Absolutely not," Richard replied. "The whole male bonding ritual doesn't work if there's a woman present."

"Fine," Lorelai said with a pout.

"Lorelai, what's that?" Luke asked noticing the picture frame she had in her hand.

"It's the picture of us that was on your dresser. I thought it should be displayed down here instead of being hidden upstairs where no one can see it," she explained while she walked over to the mantle and started shifting the other pictures there to make room for it.

"I just put it up there because I didn't want to disturb all your pictures of Rory you're got down here."

"I was wondering about that picture," Emily said. "I noticed it yesterday. Was it from some festival or something?"

"No, "Luke answered. "It was taken at my sister's goofy renaissance-themed wedding. It was kind of our first unofficial date. "

"That was not a date," Lorelai contradicted him.

"Oh, come on, Lorelai, it was too a date. We ate, we drank, we talked, we laughed, we danced, and I walked you home that night and asked you for another date. All very date-like things."

"First of all, when you walked me home, you asked me to a movie, which is not necessarily a date. Friends go to the movies together all the time. Second, you never said or did anything throughout the whole night that indicated you thought the wedding was a date."

"You're right about friends going to movies together, but you and I had never gone to a movie together. On the second point, why would I have asked you to go to my sister's wedding with me, a woman you'd only met a couple of times, if I didn't think it was a date?"

"Ok, you've got a point there, but if you were thinking is was a date, why didn't you try to kiss me when we said good-night? That's a very date-like thing too."

"So by your logic, because I didn't act like an animal on our first date, it couldn't have been a date? I was trying to be a gentleman! And if you think back, you should remember that I did kiss you a week later the night of the test run on the front steps of the inn and you kissed me back and we would have kissed again if it hadn't been for naked Kirk coming flying down the stairs at us."

"Naked Kirk?" Emily questioned. "How did we miss that? We were at the test run."

"This all happened after you guys left," Lorelai explained. Lorelai laughed remembering that night. She turned to Luke. "You were so incredibly cute that night, ranting about the flowers, and the book and Jason."

"Jason?"

"Yes, Mom, Jason, He showed up there uninvited that night. You saw him there, remember?"

"I remember, but I'd assumed that you were still dating him at the time. I had no idea you were already involved with Luke then."

"Luke and I weren't really involved yet. We were just beginning to start something. I hadn't been broken up with Jason very long and he'd just gotten divorced a month before, so it was all still very new." Rory and April walked into the room, now finished with unpacking and putting away Luke's dishes and kitchen utensils.

"For the record, I was not trying to be cute that night," Luke said. "I was trying to tell you how I felt about you."

"Well, trying or not, you were cute that night. In fact you're still pretty cute," She said with a smile as she lightly brushed her lips against his in a sweet kiss.

"Ewww! Mom, come on!" Rory said in mock disgust. "Not in front of the children!"

Everyone laughed at that. April looked at Rory. "Are they always like this?" she asked indicating Luke and Lorelai realizing that there was such much about her father she still didn't know.

"You mean all smoochy?"

"No, I meant the arguing," she replied nervously.

"Please, that wasn't arguing. That was just typical Luke and Lorelai banter. They're not arguing unless they're screaming at the top of their lung and slamming doors. They don't fight very often, but when they do, everybody else better look out."

"Hey, we're not that bad!" Luke protested.

"Have you forgotten when you and Mom broke up last year and you were in such a foul mood you kept throwing everyone out of the diner if they looked at you funny? And the food! Oh my God, was the food awful and I never thought I'd ever say that about food from Luke's"

"Awww," Lorelai cooed. "Somebody was missing me."

"Shut up," Luke grumbled.

"You missed me! You missed me!" Lorelai chanted.

"Yeah, I missed you," he conceded. "I think I showed you just how much the night we got back together!"

"Again I say ewww!" Rory said.

"Ditto!" April said. She looked around the room at the pictures of Rory and Lorelai and she noticed the one Lorelai had just placed on the mantle of her and Luke and sighed. This was her dad's home, yet there was nothing of her in it. Her mother's house was littered with pictures of her over the years. Seeing her dad so comfortable here with Lorelai and Rory, she wondered if she was just an intrusion in their lives or if there would someday be pictures of her here too. She hoped so. As much as she loved her mom, it had always been just the two of them and she longed to be a part of a real family. Her thoughts were interrupted by Emily's voice.

"You played hockey?" She asked Luke, remembering her own hockey playing days. She'd been looking at the trophies he and Richard were still unwrapping and setting up on the shelf.

"Yeah, Ice hockey. I only played my sophomore year. I was into it for a while until I skated into a tree when I was practicing and broke my nose." Richard handed him the last trophy and he set it on the shelf and turned back toward Emily.

"I played field hockey in college, you know?"

"Yeah?" Luke said with a glance at Richard indicating he intended to keep his promise not to say anything about his revelations regarding Emily's wilder side.

"Like you, I didn't play for very long. I never broke anything, though. I imagined that must have been painful."

"Oh, yeah, it was. That pretty much ended my interest in the sport. That's when I switched to track. I was pretty good too," he said gesturing to some of the other trophies.

"For a geek sport, "Lorelai quipped earning a scowl from Luke.

"I always thought baseball was you primary interest," Emily commented.

"It was, I played from the time I was eight playing in little league all the way up through my senior year of high school, but I wanted to try other stuff too. I actually was offered baseball scholarships to both University of Hartford and Central Connecticut State."

"You didn't accept?" Emily asked, wondering why Luke hadn't gone to college if that were the case. She'd always assumed his lack of higher education had to do with money

"I did. I went for a year in Hartford, commuting from home. I was studying business management since my dad had always wanted me to take over his business someday, but then my dad got sick and my sister ran off with that bum Jimmy Mariano and got pregnant with Jess. Plus the hardware store was in trouble. I had no choice but to leave school. I was needed here."

"You never thought of going back?"

Luke shook his head. "Jimmy up and left Liz the day Jess was born and my dad died and I had to deal with all the funeral stuff and settling his affairs. I had to shut down the store and I ended up selling my parents house and sending half the money to Liz just so she could feed her kid. I converted my dad's old office into an apartment and put the furniture that wouldn't fit up there into storage. I couldn't stand the thought of living in that house alone with my whole family gone. "

"Is that when you opened the diner?" Emily was intrigued. She knew he'd lost both of his parents at a young age, but she didn't really consider how much he'd given up. Seeing the memorabilia from Luke's youth had made her curious about his past. She wondered what had turned him from a promising young athlete into the hermit Lorelai has described in their conversation the previous evening.

"No, I didn't do that until about four years later. I hadn't even thought about what I was going to do with my dad's building at that point. I went to work for some friends of my parents who owned a restaurant and just saved my money except for what I needed to live on. It wasn't until I worked there for a couple of years that I considered opening a restaurant of my own. They really helped me out. I learned everything I know about running a restaurant from them."

"They sound wonderful. Are they still around?"

"Yeah, they're still running their place. You'll probably meet them at the wedding."

"Speaking of the wedding, "Lorelai said. "Mom, I'm going to need your help."

"You need my help with planning your wedding?" Emily asked, incredulously. She smiled never imagining that Lorelai would even think of letting her help.

"Don't get too excited, Mom, and don't start thinking that I'm going to let you hire some over the top wedding planner. Most of our plans are made, but what I need help with is the guest list. That's the stuff you're so good at. You know all the aunts and cousins and other relatives who should be invited and how to do seating charts that won't cause bloodshed at the reception."

"Just make sure you keep your cousin Marilyn away from me," Luke said with a grimace. "That woman is scary!"

"She's not that bad."

"She kept hitting on me all through your parents' vow renewal and she grabbed my ass twice when you weren't looking."

"That's Marilyn," Richard said with a laugh. "She's never been known for her subtlety."

"That's certainly true," Emily agreed. She turned to her daughter. "Lorelai, I'll call you tomorrow and we can set something up to go over the guest list, but your father and I should really be getting home now."

"So soon?" Lorelai said with a sarcastic tone. She'd spent a good portion of the last two days with her parents without them fighting, but she knew it couldn't last forever, especially now that she'd admitted that she needed her mother's assistance.

Emily glared at her daughter as she and Richard made their way to the door. "Tomorrow, Lorelai," She said firmly.

"Ok, I'll talk to you tomorrow." The Gilmores said their goodbyes and left.

"Hey, listen," Luke said. "It's getting late. I should be getting April back to her mom."

"Ok, Rory and I will just finish cleaning up around here now that we've got everything unpacked."

"Be careful, Lorelai."

"Hey, I'm pregnant, not fragile. I think I can handle picking up a few empty boxes and carrying them outside."

"I'm being too overprotective, aren't I?"

"A little bit, but it's sweet," she said as she reached for his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze.

"Oh, Dad," April said. "Don't forget, we need to stop by the diner and get my bike out of the storage room."

"What's your bike doing in the storage room?"

"I stashed it there last night. I didn't want to leave it out on the street all night."

"Ok, we'll stop by there on the way out of town." He replied as he grabbed his keys from the entry table and the two of them headed out.

"Wow," Rory said after they were gone. "Crazy day."

"You can say that again, Kid," Lorelai replied. "Come on, let's get to work. If I'm gonna get used to this wife thing, I should start practicing keeping a nice home for my man."

"Right, "Rory said skeptically. "I see that lasting about as long as a Spinal Tap drummer."

"Why do you have to be so mean to your pregnant Mommy?"

"It's gonna be a long nine months if you keep that up."

"Hey, Rory?"

"Are you really ok with all of this? You know, Luke moving in, the baby, hanging with April and all that? That's a lot of changes all at once."

"Yeah, Mom, I'm fine. I'm glad you're happy."

"Oh, I just had a thought! What if I ask April to be a bridesmaid? Then we could get her a dress to match yours and have the two of you walk down the aisle together, kinda of a step-sister bonding thing."

Rory was a little hurt by that, but tried not to show it. Her mom was so happy that she'd finally gotten to spend some time with her future step-daughter. She put on a smile that she hoped looked genuine, and said. "That sounds great, Mom. I bet April would love to be included." Rory's thoughts plagued her. One day with April and I'm already being cast aside. I'm supposed to be Mom's maid of honor. That's not a position you're supposed to share with anyone. Rory felt she couldn't tell her mother any of this. Her mom was happy and Rory didn't want to ruin it. Besides which, she didn't want to fight with her again. The time they'd spent apart had been unbearably painful. She decided to just keep quiet and let Lorelai have her wedding day the way she wanted it. "I'm just going to go get the boxes out of the kitchen," she said, her jealous thoughts still tormenting her.