Rory and Lorelai stood side by side in front of the living room windows, sipping coffee and watching Logan and Luke as they cleared the snow from the driveway. Actually, they were watching Luke. The snowblower was a one-man machine, so once Logan had finished shoveling the snow from the front walk, he could only join them as spectators.

"I hope Luke lets Logan have a go with the snowblower," Rory said. "Logan thinks snowblowers are cool."

Lorelai chuckled. "I heard."

"You did?"

Lorelai nodded. "Oh, yes, Logan declared his love for snowblowers when we were checking out the snow this morning. If we'd been in here instead of in the kitchen, he probably would have jumped up and down on the couch."

Rory laughed. "It's not quite that serious."

"Could be. Better keep an eye on him. Make sure he doesn't start badmouthing psychiatry," Lorelai said. "So I take it you heard about our little kitchen pow-wow."

"I did. Logan didn't provide the written transcripts, but I got the headlines," Rory said. "Anything you want to say about it?"

"There's a lot I want to say, but do you really want to talk now when Logan and Luke will be back inside any minute?"

"Probably not. Look at your dog." Rory giggled as Paul Anka crept up to the stream of snow shooting from the snowblower; as soon as the snow touched him, he jumped back and ran circles around the yard. "There's something seriously wrong with that mutt."

"Hey! Don't make fun of my dog."

"But he's nuts—"

A cell phone rang from the small table in the foyer.

"Is that yours?" Lorelai asked.

Rory shook her head. "Sounds like Logan's. He must have laid it down when he was putting his coat on and forgot to put it in his pocket." Rory walked over and picked up the phone. "It says 'House' is calling."

"Dr. Gregory House?"

"Yes, Mom, a television character is calling Logan," Rory said. "He probably wants to talk about the new doctors they've added to his team this season."

"Well, I don't know. Who is House then?"

"The Huntzberger house. Think I should answer it? It's probably Honor wondering when he's going back to Hartford."

Lorelai shrugged. "Up to you. He's your boyfriend."

"I guess he wouldn't care if I—" The phone stopped. "Just let it go to voice mail."

"So what is the plan?" Lorelai asked. "Is Logan staying in Stars Hollow or going back to be with his family?"

"I don't know. We haven't talked about it yet. I was thinking about inviting him to stay for dinner. Do you think Sookie would mind if I brought him along?"

"Of course not. You know Sookie always has enough food to feed an army—"

Again, they were interrupted by the ringing of Logan's phone.

"House again," Rory said. "Maybe I should answer it. It must be important." She stared at the phone in her hand for a few seconds, took a deep breath, and answered the call. "Hello?"

"Who is this? I'm looking for my son."

Rory grimaced. "Oh, Mrs. Huntzberger. This is Rory. Logan is—"

"Rory Gilmore?"

"Yes." She almost asked how many other Rorys Shira knew, but she figured her sarcasm would be unappreciated.

"Why are you answering my son's phone?"

"Because Logan is outside and his phone isn't. Would you like me to get him? Or could I take a message?" Rory rolled her eyes at Lorelai, who was listening intently.

"Outside where?"

"We're at my mother's house in Stars Hollow. Logan spoke with Honor this morning. She knew he was here."

"Did she? Well, she did not mention that to me, and I didn't think to ask if she knew where her brother was. But you know Logan. One never knows where he spends his nights."

The woman was unbelievable. Was she actually using Logan's former reputation as a ladies' man to make Rory doubt his feelings for her? Rory chose to ignore her attempt to undermine them.

"It was snowing pretty hard when Logan drove me home last night. I wanted him to stay instead of driving all the way back to Hartford in the storm."

"Oh, I'm sure you did." The haughtiness in Shira's tone was unmistakable. "Look, Rory, I'm not certain what you think you're up to with Logan—"

"I'm not up to anything."

"Really? Let me see if I understand. Last spring, after Logan had his falling out with his father and no longer had access to the Huntzberger connections in publishing, he had nothing to offer you—"

"What happened last spring had nothing to do with—"

"Of course it did. Now that he's doing so well in California, you think you can just waltz back into my son's life. Suddenly he's appealing again. I understand how these things work."

It was on the tip of Rory's tongue to say that Shira understood about marrying for money or connections because that is exactly what she had done, but Rory knew better than to pick a fight with Shira. No matter what Rory thought about her, Shira was Logan's mother, and while Logan had never been particularly close to her, presumably Rory would be dealing with her for years to come.

"With all due respect, Mrs. Huntzberger, you really don't know anything about my relationship with Logan."

"Oh, I think I do. I know you rejected his marriage proposal. Do you have any idea how many young women would kill for a marriage proposal from a man like Logan? Someone with his status?"

"What other women would do really doesn't concern me. My feelings for Logan have nothing to do with his status."

"Hmph, so you say. You may be able to fool Logan about your true intentions, but don't think you can fool me."

Having experienced the dinner from hell when she and Logan had first become official, Rory shouldn't have been surprised that Shira would come right out and accuse her of using Logan or trying to trick him, but she had no idea how to respond to such a ridiculous claim. It was unlikely Shira would believe anything she said, anyway.

"In no way am I trying to trick Logan," Rory said.

"I guess we'll see about that. What exactly is Logan doing outside?"

Rory walked into the living room and looked out the window. "At the moment, he is pushing a snowblower." Even in the middle of her unpleasant conversation with Shira, Rory couldn't help but smile at the boyish exuberance on Logan's face as he walked along behind the snowblower.

"You asked him to clear your driveway?"

"He volunteered to help Luke with the job."

"Luke?"

"My mother's boyfriend. Would you like to hold on while I get Logan, or should I just have him call you back in a few minutes?"

Shira sighed into the phone. "Please have him call me as soon as possible. It is rather urgent that I speak with him."

"Okay, I'll tell him right away."

"Fine. Good-bye."

"Bye. Merry—" Rory's words were cut off when Shira ended the call. "Christmas." She frowned at Lorelai. "Guess I should have let it go to voice mail."

"What did the lovely Shira have to say?" Lorelai asked.

"Let's just say she wasn't too thrilled that I was the one answering Logan's phone." Rory sighed. "I guess I'd better go tell him he has to call her. She said it was urgent." Rory slipped her coat on over her pajamas and went out the front door wearing her slippers. She hated to interrupt Logan's snow-blowing fun, but the last thing she needed was to give Shira any more ammunition for her anti-Rory campaign.

Logan was so intent on the job of clearing the small area of the driveway that Luke had left for him that he didn't notice Rory as she waved to him from the front porch. When he did look in her direction, he smiled and nodded his head in acknowledgement, but continued with the job. Rory motioned Luke over.

"Luke, I need to talk to Logan. Can you take over for him?"

Luke furrowed his brow. "Everything okay?"

"Yes. I guess so. He needs to call his mother."

With Logan's phone in her hand, Rory waited on the porch while Luke approached Logan and gave him the kill sign. Logan shut down the snowblower, and after a brief exchange with Luke, he headed toward Rory.

"What's up, Ace?" Logan smiled and draped his arm across Rory's shoulders.

"Sorry to interrupt your fun, but I just...I probably shouldn't have...well, you left your cell phone inside and it rang and it said 'House,' and I thought about answering it, but I waited too long and it went to voice mail, but then it rang again right away, and again it said 'House,' so I figured it must be Honor and I thought it might be important, so I answered—"

Logan cut off her rambling with a quick kiss. "So you answered my phone. No big deal. I've been known to answer yours on occasion. What did Honor want?"

"Logan, do you think I'd be babbling like an idiot if it had been Honor?"

Logan frowned. "I guess not, but I could hope. So which Huntzberger was it?"

"Your mother. She wants you to call her back. She didn't sound distraught or anything, but she said it was 'rather urgent.'"

"Yeah, I highly doubt that. Did she say something awful to you?"

For a moment, Rory considered telling Logan the truth about her conversation with Shira. Logan's relationship with his parents had never been easy, but things between them seemed to have improved since last spring when Logan resigned from the Huntzberger Group. If Rory told Logan the truth, she had no doubt that he'd take her side and any positive development in his relationship with his parents would be erased.

"Um, no, well, she was surprised that I was the one answering your phone," Rory said. "You weren't keeping me a secret, were you?"

"Rory, no. I didn't tell her where I was going last night, but it wasn't because I wanted it to be a secret. I'll tell my parents about us. Hell, I intend to tell the whole world, but we only got back together last night, and I've been with you ever since."

Rory smiled. "Yeah, I know."

"So I guess I ought to see what Mom so urgently needs to tell me."

"You'd better, or she'll think I didn't give you the message." Rory handed Logan the phone, and they went into the house. Logan bent down to pull off Christopher's boots, which Rory had insisted he borrow for the snow removal.

Lorelai was sitting on the sofa with a magazine. "Everything okay?" Lorelai asked.

"I'm sure it's fine," Logan said. "Let me just...Ace, I'll go in your room to call."

"Okay." Rory plopped down on the sofa beside her mother.

"You okay, kid?" Lorelai asked, nudging Rory's leg with hers.

"I guess so. It's just...Shira. Ugh."

"What exactly did she say to you? From your side of the conversation, it didn't sound like she was being very pleasant."

Rory scoffed. "Pleasant? No, I don't think I've ever had a pleasant conversation with Shira Huntzberger. Maybe a fake pleasant conversation, but definitely not a genuine one."

"So what was it this time?"

"Oh, she thinks I turned Logan down last spring because he wasn't working for his father and didn't have any connections in publishing that I could use, but now that he's doing well in California, he's become more appealing to me."

Lorelai gaped. "She said that to you?"

"Yep."

"What a bitch."

"You think?" Rory shook her head. "Well, I guess it's fitting."

"What is?"

"Logan's mother hates me. My mother hates Logan."

"I don't hate Logan," Lorelai said.

"You don't like him very much," Rory said. "But then you've never liked any of my boyfriends."

"Not true. I liked Dean and Dean, the Sequel. I thought he was an excellent first boyfriend for you. It was only Dean, Part III, the Final Chapter, I had a problem with."

"You didn't like Jess."

"Hon, nobody liked Jess except you and Luke," Lorelai said. "And I think Luke only liked him out of family obligation."

"Mom!"

"What? Jess was a loser punk. I guess most girls go through a bad-boy phase. You saw something, some intelligence, in him, but I certainly never did. If he was so smart, why did he go out of his way to be horribly rude and obnoxious to everyone he met, particularly the people who tried to help him, like you and Luke? He was terrible to you. No way was he good enough for my daughter."

"Wow, Mom. Tell me how you really feel," Rory said. "You know the thing about Jess—"

"Yeah, yeah, Jess was misunderstood, blah, blah. Whatever." Lorelai rolled her eyes."Why are we talking about Jess? I was under the impression that Logan is the love of your life. Do you really want to waste your energy defending Jess? Unless you still have some unresolved feelings for him."

"No! Not at all. Not for a very long time," Rory said. "What I was going to say before somebody interrupted was that I now realize that whatever it was I felt for Jess was nothing compared to the way I feel about Logan. I wish Jess well. I hope he's happy and has a nice life, but I absolutely do not have feelings for him."

"Well, I'm sure Logan will be happy about that."

"Logan knows Jess is no threat to him."

"I wasn't saying he didn't know that," Lorelai said. "I just, well, after Logan and I talked this morning, I realize I may not have given him credit for just how much he loves you."

"He did ask me to marry him, you know."

"Yes, and I knew that he loved you. I guess I just worried that eventually he'd want someone like his mother. The typical society wife."

"Logan would never want me to be like his mother or for us to have the type of relationship his parents have."

"I'm beginning to get that. But, you know, you're still going to have to deal with Shira."

"I know."

"You sure you want to be her daughter-in-law?"

"Of course I don't want to be her daughter-in-law." Rory turned as she heard Logan returning to the living room. He had a disgusted look on his face. "Well?"

"My mother is being her normal unreasonable self," Logan said. "I have to go back to Hartford."

"What? Now? But we still have things to talk about," Rory said.

"I know, but..."

When Logan hesitated, Lorelai jumped up from the sofa. "Hey, I don't hear the snowblower anymore," she said. "Maybe I should go out and see if Luke needs rescuing from Babette. She probably has him cornered out there with her latest cat stories."

Rory mouthed a "thank you" to Lorelai and walked over to Logan beside the staircase. She placed her hand on Logan's forearm. After they heard Lorelai exit the house, she asked, "Do you really have to leave right now? I was going to ask if you wanted to stay and have Christmas dinner with us at Sookie's. She always makes plenty of food."

Logan shook his head and stared at the floor. "I can't, Ace."

"Oh, okay." Rory let go of Logan's sleeve.

"No, I'm sorry. I have to pick up my grandfather," Logan said. "He gave his driver the day off for Christmas. Dad was going to send a car for him, but the old coot is demanding that someone pick him up in the Range Rover because his driveway hasn't been plowed."

"And you have it."

"It's ridiculous. There's not that much snow out there, and I can't imagine my grandfather cares what car comes for him, but my mother is insisting that I pick him up now."

"So you have to go."

Logan nodded, his mouth a tight line. "Maybe you could come with me. Have dinner with us. I know dinner at my parents' house hasn't worked out so well in the past, but things are different now. They need to get used to the fact that we're together for good."

As much as she wanted to spend Christmas with Logan, the idea of sharing the table with the Huntzbergers filled Rory with dread. Honor and Josh would be great, and Mitchum might be tolerable. He had warmed to Rory's place in Logan's life last winter and apparently had willingly played a role in getting Logan to her grandparents' party. Shira and Elias, however, had never had any scruples about vocalizing their misgivings about Rory, and after today's conversation with Shira, Rory was certain she would not be a welcome presence. Answering Logan's phone had certainly turned out to be a stupid mistake.

Rory snapped out of her thoughts when she realized Logan was waiting for some kind of reply to his invitation. "Oh, well, I don't...I mean, I couldn't go with you right now. I don't think my pajamas and hoodie would be appropriate, so I'd have to take a shower and get dressed for dinner. Plus, I still need to talk to Mom. I haven't spent very much time with her since I've been home. And I've barely seen Lane. I'm supposed to hang out with her this afternoon before we go to Sookie's for dinner."

"Okay, so you can't come with me now, but couldn't you do both dinners? Didn't you tell me you and your Mom once ate three Thanksgiving dinners?"

"Actually, it was four," Rory said. "What time is your dinner?"

"Six."

"Sookie's is at five, so there's no way we'll be finished in time for me to make it to Hartford by six."

"Okay, whatever. It was just a thought."

The expression on Logan's face reminded Rory of the day he had left for London after his graduation from Yale. The doleful look in his eyes was just as heartbreaking as it had been that morning. "Logan, when I made my Christmas plans, I didn't know that we'd be together."

"I know."

"I'm sorry. You know I'd rather be with you, but—"

"I get it. I only saw Honor for a few hours yesterday afternoon. I was supposed to hang out with her and Josh last night," Logan said. "They're heading back to Manhattan after dinner because they have an early flight tomorrow. They're going to visit Josh's parents in Toronto. If I want to spend any time with her, I have to do it this afternoon."

"Josh is Canadian?"

"No, his dad is a visiting professor at the University of Toronto this year."

"Oh." Rory didn't know what to say. It didn't really matter whether Josh was or wasn't Canadian. What mattered was that Logan was leaving her. Again. She squeezed her eyes shut to squelch her tears. She wondered if Logan's grandfather had really demanded that Logan pick him up or if it was just Shira's plan to tear Logan away from her. "But we haven't talked about how we're going to, you know, handle things with us, and you're going back to California tomorrow."

Logan shrugged. "My flight isn't until late afternoon." Logan looked down at the time on his phone. "Shit, my grandfather's expecting me in twenty minutes. I'll never make it. Why he wants to get to my parents' house so early, I have no idea. Probably wants to terrorize the household staff. And I'm going to be stuck in the car alone with him. Fifteen minutes on what a disgrace I am to the Huntzberger name. Yay."

Rory put her hand on Logan's face. "You know that isn't true, right?"

Logan shrugged. "Tell that to my grandfather." He walked to the foyer and slipped on his shoes.

"I wish you didn't have to go," Rory said, following him.

"Me, too, Ace." He bent his head and dropped a quick kiss on her lips.

Something was off. Rory couldn't pinpoint exactly what was wrong, but the atmosphere between them had changed. Had something Shira said to Logan upset him? Was Logan hurt because Rory had refused his dinner invitation? Or had he heard her say she didn't want to be Shira's daughter-in-law? Rory hadn't meant that she would not be Shira's daughter-in-law, only that it wouldn't be easy. Should she tell him that? She felt desperate to return them to the comfortable rapport they'd shared all morning before she'd answered Shira's call.

"Logan, is everything, um, okay? With us, I mean."

Logan pulled Rory into a tight embrace. "What? Of course," he said against her hair. "I love you."

"I love you, too."

After another quick kiss, Logan released his grip on Rory and opened the front door. "I'll call you later, Ace."

"Okay."

And, with that, he was gone, leaving Rory with a nagging sense of foreboding. She and Logan had promised each other they would never again allow minor issues to escalate because they had failed to tell each other the truth about something, yet Rory had a feeling that they had just done that. Perhaps she should have told him what his mother had said to her; then, Logan might have understood her reluctance to go with him to Hartford.

She wandered into her room and lay down on the unmade bed, breathing in Logan's scent from the pillow. During her last year at Yale, when Logan was in London and later Manhattan, Rory had always been reluctant to wash the pillowcases after one of his visits. She had taken comfort in keeping that small reminder of him for as long as it lingered on the soft material.

Now it made her want to cry. Logan had said he loved her before he left, but he had seemed distant, and the fact was that tomorrow afternoon he would be gone again. It simply wasn't enough time. Her tears had just begun to fall when she heard the front door open and her mother call her name.

Rory quickly wiped her cheeks and sat up. "In here."

"Hey, babe, Logan left his boots on the floor in the foyer," Lorelai said as she bounded into Rory's room. "You know I think they are the exact style I bought your dad last winter."

"They're not Logan's boots." Rory stood up and started to make her bed.

"They're not?" When Rory didn't respond, Lorelai frowned. "So they're not the same style I bought your dad. They're the same boots. How the hell did Logan end up with Christopher's boots?"

"I borrowed them last night."

"But Chris is in France." Lorelai sat in the armchair in the corner.

"I have a key to Dad's house."

"Since when?"

Rory shrugged. "Since October. Dad said he wanted me to feel like it was my home, too. He gave me a key and the alarm code, so I could let myself in if he wasn't home."

"So you went to his house last night to borrow snow boots for Logan?"

"We went to Dad's house, so we could talk in private. His parents' house wasn't an option, and you certainly made it clear that bringing him here would have been a bad idea," Rory said. "It started snowing while we were there and Logan was concerned about my walking to the car in heels, so I found Dad's boots in the closet and wore them home. This morning, I convinced Logan to wear them instead of his shoes when he went out to help Luke. It's not a big deal. I'll return them before I go back on the road."

"So you and Logan were alone at your dad's house until you got back here at nearly two a.m.?"

"Yeah, so?" Rory sat on the bed. "We had a lot to talk about. A lot of things we should have talked about last spring."

"That's a long time to talk." Lorelai made air quotes, earning a glare from Rory.

"Mom, we got back together after being apart for seven months. We're in love," Rory said. "Do you really need to know the details?"

Lorelai smirked. "I guess not," she said. "But somehow I don't think that's what Christopher had in mind when he gave you a key to his house."

"That's exactly what Logan said. But, you know, what Dad doesn't know won't hurt him."

"Was that your philosophy when it came to me and the letters you wrote Logan?"

Rory sighed. "I don't know. I didn't set out to not tell you. I just didn't."

Lorelai walked over and sat on the end of the bed. "Hon, why did you think you couldn't talk to me about Logan?"

"Didn't we talk about this yesterday? For one thing, you never asked me about Logan. And I knew you were happy we broke up," Rory said.

"I wasn't happy you broke up."

Rory scowled. "Mom."

"I wasn't! It doesn't make me happy to see you in pain. God, Rory, how could you think that?"

"You were happy I turned down Logan's proposal."

Lorelai sighed. "Because I think you're too young to get married. Both of you. I also wasn't crazy about the idea of your moving to California. Is that what's going to happen now?"

"No, I have my job, and...well, I don't know what we're going to do. We haven't talked about the logistics, and now that he went home, I don't know when we'll get a chance to."

"But you're not engaged?"

"We're not engaged," Rory said. "I'm not in any rush. But we will be someday. I don't know when, but I'm going to marry him. You're going to have to accept that."

"Tell me about the letters," Lorelai said.

Without going into much detail about what was in them, Rory explained the history of the Logan files: how she had written the first letter the night before she left Stars Hollow; how they had become a sort of therapy for her when she was on the road, a way to feel a connection to Logan when she was so heartbroken; and finally how she had come to send them to him. The only thing Rory left out of the story was Christopher's role in convincing her to share the letters with Logan.

When Rory had finished talking, Lorelai reached over and took her hand. "I wish you had told me," she said. "It kills me that you had to write letters you weren't going to send because you didn't have anybody to talk to."

"In a way, I liked writing the letters. It hurt sometimes, but it gave me a way to...I don't know...organize my thoughts. Vent a little," Rory said. "It's easier for me to write things down than talk."

"I know, but I hate that you were alone with this."

Rory bit her bottom lip and stared at the pattern on her quilt. Just as she didn't want to have secrets from Logan, she didn't like keeping things from her mother, either. That had never worked well for them. And, despite her protests, Rory knew Logan was right about her wanting Lorelai's approval. Keeping secrets from her wouldn't help.

"Unless you talked about it with someone else," Lorelai said. "Lane, maybe? Or that roommate you had during the summer? Phil?"

"I didn't talk to Phil about it. A little to Lane, I guess."

"Well, I'm sure you weren't discussing it with Emily Gilmore."

Rory shook her head. "No, not Grandma. I don't want you to be mad, okay?"

"Why would I be mad?" Lorelai asked.

"It was, well, I talked to Dad. He asked me how I was doing about Logan the first time we talked and after that we just kept talking about it."

"Oh." Lorelai frowned. "So you could talk to your father, but not to me?"

"It was just easier with Dad," Rory said. "He didn't want me to get married, either. He agrees with you on that, but Dad likes Logan. With you, there was just so much...so much baggage when it came to Logan. I didn't set out to exclude you—"

"Really? Sure sounds like it to me."

"Okay, in a way, I guess I did, but only because I knew you didn't have a good opinion about Logan. Dad was more sympathetic. I knew he was never going to tell me I was better off without him."

"I never said that!" Lorelai said.

"You told me the night of my graduation that I had made the right decision. Before that you wouldn't give me your opinion, but as soon as I said no, you were awfully quick to jump in on that side."

"Rory, that wasn't a decision I could make for you. I didn't want to influence you and have you resent me or blame me for the rest of your life."

"I know," Rory said. "I understand that."

"And everything I said in those first few days was just my attempt to make you feel better."

"I know that now, but nothing was going to make me feel better that night." Rory brushed back a few tears. "So are you mad?"

"That you talked to your father about Logan? Of course not. I'm glad that things are good between you and Chris. I want you to have that closeness with him," Lorelai said. "But I do wish you had felt comfortable talking to me, too. Rory, we've always been able to talk about everything. I want you to still feel that way."

"Sometimes I wish I hadn't told you so much about Logan. Like when he's made mistakes or whatever," Rory said. "I've been able to forgive him and move on, but you haven't."

Lorelai nodded. "That's what Logan accused me of this morning, that I've been holding every mistake he's ever made against him and that's keeping me from giving him a chance."

"Do you think he's right?"

"I didn't think so," Lorelai said. "Now I'm not so sure. Before you and Logan got up this morning, I told Luke a little about my conversation with Logan. He agreed that Logan was right about my holding grudges against him for stuff that happened in the past. I guess you can count Luke with your Dad on the pro-Logan side."

"I'll make sure he gets the t-shirt and the membership card," Rory said.

"I suppose on some level I haven't been able to forgive Logan for things he did that I didn't think were fair to you or hurt you."

"Well, you are my mother. You're supposed to look out for me. But you don't need to protect me from Logan. He's not just some spoiled society kid. He really loves me, and he only wants what's best for me."

"I'm starting to understand that," Lorelai said.

"I just want you to give him a chance. Can you try?"

"As long as he makes you happy, I can try."

"He does, Mom. I never had any doubts about that, but these past seven months, being apart, I've been so miserable. I know we belong together. We both do."

Lorelai shrugged. "Well, I'll just have to get used to him. I want you to be happy. You know that, right?"

Rory nodded. "Yes."

"Hey, I never asked. Is there a problem with Shira? Logan didn't seem very happy when he said good-bye to Luke and me."

"Shira said he had to go pick up his grandfather right away because his driveway...you know, it's too inane to repeat. Logan didn't want to go."

"Did you ask him to stay for dinner?"

Rory nodded. "He said he had to have dinner with his family, but he invited me to have dinner with them."

"Are you going?"

"No, I told him I couldn't. I've barely seen Lane, and I haven't seen Sookie at all. But really I just didn't want to. I want to be with Logan, but I don't know if I could take dinner with his family. Not after the stuff Shira said this morning."

"But, hon, if you're going to marry into that family—"

"Yeah, I know. I'll have to get used to them, but Logan and I have just gotten back together. I'd rather they got used to the idea of us being a couple again before I attempt a major holiday," Rory said. "The thing is, I'm afraid Logan didn't understand that. Things felt a little off between us when he left."

"Oh, I'm sure it's nothing to do with you. Logan loves you. I'm absolutely certain of that."

"Wow, he really convinced you this morning," Rory said. "You're probably right. I'm probably making too much out of the weirdness, but there's still so much we have to talk about before he flies back to California tomorrow afternoon. He did say he'd call me later."

"Then I'm sure he will," Lorelai said.

But he didn't.

Christopher called from France to wish Rory a merry Christmas, and Rory filled him in on her Logan news. (Except the part about the amorous activities that had occurred in Chris' house, per Logan's request.) After her father's phone call, Rory went to Lane's. She had fun visiting with the Van Gerbigs, but she must have checked her phone about a half-dozen times in the two hours she spent with them. And still there was no word from Logan.

Shortly before they headed to Sookie's house for dinner, Rory broke down and called him. He didn't pick up, and she didn't leave a message. Dinner, as expected, was wonderful. It was truly amazing how Sookie managed to create such a delectable meal while corralling two preschoolers hyped up on Christmas excitement and caring for the newest member of the Belleville family, three-month-old baby Sam. The house was a scene of delightful chaos, and Rory couldn't help thinking the only thing that could have made the evening better was Logan's presence at her side.

With three children under five, any evening at the Belleville house ends early, so it was only a little past seven when Rory, Lorelai, and Luke returned to the house. Rory suggested they have a Christmas movie night with It's a Wonderful Life and A Christmas Story, but Lorelai had other plans for Rory.

"Call him," she said after Luke went upstairs to change out of his dinner clothes. "You've been checking your phone all night."

"I did call," Rory said. "Before we went to Sookie's. It went straight to voice mail."

"Well, try again. You're going to make yourself nuts checking your phone every ten minutes."

Rory groaned. "I know. I'm being a little insane."

"Not insane. Maybe a little insecure, but not insane," Lorelai said. "But I really don't think you need to be insecure about Logan's feelings."

Rory raised her eyebrows. "I must say this is quite the turnaround. You being a new member of Logan's fan club, I mean."

Lorelai shrugged. "I hear the t-shirt's cute."

Rory picked up her phone and placed the call.

"Hello, this is Logan Huntzberger. Leave a message..."

Rory clicked off. "Voice mail," Rory said. "I want to talk to Logan. Not his stupid voice mail."

"Here's a thought: why don't you go to his house? By the time you drive there, they should be finished with dinner. You can spend some time with Logan and say hello to Honor. You like her, right?"

"Just show up? Are you crazy? Shira would have a field day with that."

"With what? Logan invited you, didn't he? So you didn't make it for dinner. I'm sure the invitation stands. Don't you want to spend as much time with him as possible before he goes back to California?"

Rory furrowed her brow. "Okay, who are you and what have you done with Lorelai Gilmore?"

"Hey, I'm trying here," Lorelai said. "This is me being supportive of you and Logan."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

"So you really think I should just show up?" Rory asked.

"Why not? I'm sure the door will be answered by a maid, who will leave you in the fancy-schmancy foyer of the big fancy-schmancy mansion to wait while she summons 'Mr. Logan Huntzberger' for you," Lorelai said. "Shira and the other lunatics probably won't even know you're there. And, if they do, you look beautiful. Very elegant. Definitely Emily Gilmore-approved."

Rory chewed on her bottom lip. "I don't know. Maybe Logan won't want me to drop by unexpectedly."

"Rory, don't be ridiculous. You'll make his night. Go. Have fun," Lorelai said. "Just remember to call me if you're not coming home for the night, so I won't worry. You can leave out the dirty parts."

"Mom! Stop!" Rory picked up her coat.

"So you're going?"

"I guess I am," Rory said. "Thanks, Mom."

"Any time, kid. Love you."

"I love you, too."

Thirty-five minutes later, Rory stood with her finger hovering over the doorbell of the Huntzberger house as she desperately tried to ward off a panic attack.