Chapter 25: Emily Gilmore's Flower Shop
"Sookie, stop fidgeting," Lorelai mumbled around the pins she held in her mouth.
"Sorry, sorry!"
Lorelai slid the rest of the pins into place and stood back, circling around her friend. "Okay, I think we're good. How does it feel?"
"Perfect. It's beautiful." Sookie smiled. "I can't believe you're making these. You have two weeks left until your wedding, you're making big changes to your own dress, and making mine, April's, and Rory's from scratch."
"And the ties and pocket squares for the men, don't forget," Lorelai added, putting away the rest of the pins in her sewing kit, "At least I'm very close to being done. The hectic part will be the last minute alterations for the girls. Okay, go change - and carefully please, I don't want to have to do this again," she eyed her friend.
For as easily as dresses and tuxes had fallen into place the last time Lorelai had planned her wedding to Luke, this time had not gone so smoothly. Either the colors were all wrong or the styles weren't quite right. She finally gave up and began looking at patterns and picking out the perfect eggplant fabric. Rory, Sookie, and April would all wear different dresses of their choosing that best suited their varied ages, heights, and shapes.
Luke had been relatively disinterested in his own wedding attire, and after Lorelai showed him several options, including the offer to simply wear his own suit, he found himself drawn to a black tuxedo, black dress shirt, and black vest, tying in the eggplant color with the pocket square and tie. Emily suggested a white flower and dark purple calla lily boutonniere to brighten it up a little, which Lorelai loved, and was met with an agreeable shrug from Luke.
Lorelai's own dress was undergoing minor alterations as well. The top was a little less floral and whimsical, the skirt changed significantly. She'd ditched the veil entirely, choosing a delicate beaded headband instead. She was still on the hunt for a lace shrug to keep her arms a little warmer in the cooler fall weather.
After changing, Sookie returned with her bridesmaid dress to find Lorelai bouncing a tear-streaked, sniffling Theo.
"Little man didn't like losing sight of you," Lorelai explained as she exchanged the sniffling infant for the dress.
Sookie took him and softly bounced him, "Awww, it's okay little guy, Mommy was just making sure Auntie Lorelai has the most perfectest wedding ever so she and Uncle Luke can make you a little friend to play with."
Lorelai snorted as she began to carefully hand-stitch a few of the trickier spots of the bodice, "Subtle, Sookie."
"Well, isn't that the plan? Leave the big bag of baby blockers at home for the honeymoon?"
"Big bag of-"
"Condoms, pills, whatever other fancy combinations of contraceptives you two kids are using nowadays to prevent little Theodores from making surprise entrances."
Lorelai rolled her eyes and focused on her sewing.
"Oh no. Did babysitting all three of my kids last week make Luke change his mind?" Sookie's eyes widened as she sat down to rest Theo on her knee.
"Hardly," Lorelai replied. She set her work down for a moment and sighed as she looked over at her friend.
"Did you change your mind?" Sookie asked curiously.
"No. No minds have been changed."
"Then what's the issue?"
"Sookie, there's no issue!" Lorelai, exasperated, caved to her friend's needling. "We've broken what you hilariously refer to as Lorelai Gilmore's Rules for Contraceptives and are down to one method, not two or three, and, yes, there's a remote chance I could wind up knocked up on my wedding night. Now can you keep that to yourself or are Patty and Babette going to attack me with pregnancy tests at brunch the day after my wedding?"
"Oh," Sookie's eyes widened. "Did you ditch the pills?"
"Can I keep some of my sex life private?" Lorelai glared.
"Since when do we do that?" Sookie laughed.
"I don't know," Lorelai frowned, returning to the dress. "This just seems different. Luke gets a little sensitive about people knowing stuff, you know that."
"Okay, so no sordid details. You said remote chance, though. Are you keeping track of... stuff?"
"Yeah, I've been keeping track since Luke's whole... dream hangover. It should be around the right time, but I don't want to stress over it. I just want to celebrate being married to Luke. If something happens, that's great, but I'm fine not thinking about it for awhile. Can we change the subject now?"
"She says to the woman holding the baby," Sookie smirked.
"Maybe I'll just steal Theo and not have to go through the whole nine months of sharing my body with another human thing at all," Lorelai muttered.
"Too late now. If you'd offered when I first found out I was pregnant with him, I would've taken you up on that without a second thought," Sookie joked, giving Theo a loud smacking kiss on the side of his head, "Now, though, he's too much of a sweetie to let go."
"Or maybe I'll take the other two if you've forgotten how sweet they can be. I love Davey's frank observations. And Martha's such a daddy's girl, she's adorable."
"Not just Jackson. She loves the men. It's terrifying. I'm going to send her to a convent as soon as she turns thirteen."
Lorelai laughed, "She just knows that her daddy and Uncle Luke still have the arm power to lift her above their heads. I can't believe how tall she's gotten. I thought all your kids would be short."
"They'll be taller than me when they're in the third grade," Sookie whined.
"That's what you get for taking a tall man off the market and making things difficult for us poor tall girls."
"Actually, all of Jackson's exes were short," Sookie thought for a moment. "Y'know... Anna's the only one of Luke's exes that's shorter. He definitely has a thing for you tall, leggy types."
Lorelai wrinkled her nose. Though it wasn't the first time it had crossed her mind, the last thing she wanted to consider was Luke's initial attraction to her being simply due to her fitting his type. "The similarities end there, though."
"Except with Anna. I think, of all the women Luke's dated, she's the most similar to you."
"Aside from the scrappy single mom thing, I'm not seeing it," Lorelai frowned, sewing completely forgotten. "I told my kid's dad she existed. I always let her be a part of his life. When he showed up with Sherry, hard as it was, I still let Rory get to know her. Hell, we were ready to go into the delivery room with the woman when she was giving birth to GG."
"Hey, hey!" Sookie held up her hand defensively, "I'm not saying you're clones of each other. Obviously, I wasn't talking about the kid thing. And I thought things were better with Anna lately."
"They are. I mean, a little. I know Luke has his own guilt about what happened before, but there's a lot Anna put him through needlessly. I don't think either of us are ever going to be able to completely get past that. And with her being so far away, we don't really have to deal with it much," Lorelai explained, and finally turned her attention back to Sookie's dress.
Theo began fussing and Sookie decided to take him home, leaving Lorelai to focus on the task at hand. Lorelai let her thoughts wander back to Luke's exes as she worked on Sookie's dress. She wondered if Rachel would've come back had she known how long it had taken Luke to actually make a move. Or if she'd heard about either of their breakups. Luke never mentioned them, but Lorelai knew Rachel still had family in the area, so she must have come across some amount of Stars Hollow gossip over the years.
Then there was Nicole, who, in the end, Lorelai did feel bad for. Despite being the only woman to actually claim the title of Mrs. Backwards Baseball Cap, Nicole had shown up during a time when the long-lived mutual attraction between Luke and Lorelai was starting to become unavoidable. Lorelai would always wonder what would've happened if Reverend Skinner hadn't interrupted her the night she and Luke broke the church bells. It had been right there on the tip of her tongue after Luke wouldn't let up with the questioning.
Lorelai glanced up as Paul Anka bolted toward the front door. It opened to reveal Luke, who bent down to greet the dog before making his way into the living room.
"Sorry," Lorelai grimaced, glancing around at the vast amounts of eggplant fabric and partially finished dresses cluttering up the room. "It just made more sense to work down here with Sookie and Theo here."
"It's fine," Luke shrugged, giving her a quick kiss. "Gonna go upstairs and take a shower."
Lorelai glanced at the clock and frowned, "You're home early for a Saturday. Everything okay?"
Luke sighed, "I was kicked out of my own establishment by my second in command. I was trying to help, he ended up splattering me with fry grease, and yelled at me to get out of his way."
"I thought that's what I smelled. Now I'm hungry. Were you in Cesar's way?"
"Yeah. John wasn't going to work today, but changed his mind at the last minute, so I decided to work in the kitchen with Cesar, and... you now know how that turned out. Whatever. I'll be back," Luke grumbled, taking the steps two at a time.
Lorelai chuckled and snipped off the last bit of thread, then started working on cleaning up the living room and taking her work back upstairs. Once everything was back in its place, she heard the phone ring as she made her way downstairs. She considered hurrying to get to it, but decided to let the machine pick it up, and listened as she grabbed a treat for Paul Anka from the kitchen.
"Luke, it's Anna," Anna's voice filled the room, sounding tense and tired, "I know you're in the middle of wedding preparations, and I wouldn't be bothering you otherwise, but something's come up over here and I need to talk to you as soon as possible. Um, call my cell phone, not the house, I'm going to be all over Alb-"
Lorelai rushed over to the phone and grabbed it, knowing Luke wouldn't be too much longer.
"Hey, Anna, it's Lorelai. I was going to just have Luke call you back, but it sounded urgent. He just got home and will be out of the shower in a second. Is April okay?"
"Ah, hi Lorelai. April's fine. My mother passed away a few days ago," Anna responded.
"Oh my god, I'm so sorry."
"It's okay. I mean, I'm... it's... we weren't..." Anna sighed, "It's hard. She has this ridiculous list of requests for her funeral and, you know, not having siblings is highly overrated at times like these."
Lorelai recalled her own experience having to run around Hartford to deal with her grandmother's funeral requests after her parents had both been unable to handle it.
"I have a bit of an idea of what you're going through," Lorelai sympathized. "Let me go check on Luke, hang on one sec."
Bolting up the stairs with the phone muted, she was surprised to still hear the shower running, and peeked behind the shower curtain. Luke raised an eyebrow in response.
"Joining me?" he leered.
"I wish. Not here for fun. Anna's on the phone and it's kind of important. April's fine, I just thought you'd be out and dressed by now."
"I was still de-greasing. I could still smell it in my hair," Luke made a face and ducked under the spray one final time to rinse off before shutting off the water and getting dressed. Lorelai handed him the phone and he talked as he followed her downstairs.
She walked into the kitchen to grab her cell phone, texting April as she took a seat at the kitchen table.
hey kid just heard the news. u ok?
April replied immediately.
im good, just trying to help mom. will call tonight. tell dad not to worry.
Several minutes later, Luke filled a glass of water and joined Lorelai at the table with a heavy sigh.
"Everything okay?" Lorelai asked, somewhat concerned. She hadn't expected Luke to react quite so strongly and wondered if he'd known Anna's mom.
"Yeah. I guess. The funeral's next weekend. And they're, uh, moving back at the end of the school year."
"Really," she replied with a surprised smile. "How will that affect your custody arrangement?"
"We'll have to figure that out," Luke sighed. "If I recall correctly, we either figure it out ourselves, get it on paper, and meet with a judge to make it official, or if we can't agree on something, it's... back to court. But we have till June to deal with that, so I don't even want to think about it right now."
"You're happy about the move, though, right?"
"Yeah, of course," Luke ran his hand through his hair. "It's just… is it weird that my daughter's grandmother died a few days ago and I'm only hearing about it now?"
Lorelai thought about it. She didn't call Chris the first time her dad had heart problems and was in the hospital. If he'd died... at the time, she knew she wouldn't have called for a few days until things had settled. Still, things were significantly different between Luke and April compared to Chris and Rory.
"I think I understand feeling hurt that you weren't told, but I don't think you should read too deeply into it. If nothing else, it's a good sign things are better between Anna and April."
"Yeah," Luke replied quietly, taking a sip of water.
"I texted April. She said she'll call you later. I think they must've been pretty overwhelmed until today."
"Anna kinda implied that," Luke admitted. "I think I'm just being overly sensitive about it. I never even met Anna's parents, it's not like I should be a part of that. Or should I? It is my daughter's grandmother."
Lorelai shrugged and reached out to squeeze his hand, "Just wait till she calls later tonight, hon. April said to tell you not to worry."
"Sure. We're both so good at not worrying about our daughters," Luke rolled his eyes. He stared at the table in thought. Despite having just told Lorelai he didn't want to think about the custody arrangements yet, it was already starting to gnaw at him. He dreaded revisiting that, especially when things had finally gotten less awkward with Anna. Here he and Lorelai were, planning a wedding, again, and here Anna was already popping up. Again. Perhaps he should warn his custody lawyer in advance, just in case.
He looked closely at Lorelai, closing his hand over her's. She didn't seem worried, only confused that he was staring at her face. "Uh, you... you know you'll be a part of that, right?"
"Of worrying about both our daughters?" she teased.
"About April and Anna moving back and figuring out the custody stuff. You'll be a part of the whole thing."
Lorelai met his eyes as she spoke, "I wasn't worried."
"It would be the three of us sitting down and figuring that out, I hope you know that."
Lorelai cocked her head, "Four…"
"Four?"
"April's older this time around, Luke. I think she might have her own thoughts on the subject. Look at her outburst about Christmas plans. And, the thing is, there are also going to be times maybe she's supposed to be here some weekend and she wants to spend that weekend with a friend, instead."
"Oh. True." Luke thought about that for a moment. As long as April was happy, and he got to see her more often than he did now, it wasn't too big of a deal. "Anyway. I just didn't want you to think-"
"I didn't," She smiled reassuringly, squeezing his hand again, "I promise."
Luke smiled back, feeling relieved and incredibly grateful, "Before that happens, there's this whole wedding thing to focus on, anyway. The dresses seem to be coming along."
"I had to alter Sookie's. The top had to be taken in to account for the smaller chest now that she finished weaning Theo."
"Already?"
"Already what? Already smaller breastage? She switched to formula last month. Timing seems about right to me," Lorelai gave him a confused look.
"No, I mean, isn't that soon to be weaning him? I mean, I've read-"
"You've read about breastfeeding?" she laughed.
"I've... well!" Luke stood awkwardly, under the guise of refilling his half-empty water glass. "I've read, yes. I know how to be a part time dad to a teenager and that's it. Watching Doula was helpful, but that was just a week. We could be parents in less than a year, I mean, again, but the first time with a baby for me, and you told me to really consider all the ins and outs of it, so... I've read a little. And you know Liz, she overshares everything," he turned to face her, leaning back against the counter. "How long did you go with Rory?"
"Over a year. It was one of the few ways my mother and her litany of hired help couldn't interfere. And then after we got here, you know, free food... and it was nice. The bonding time and all."
"Yeah, that's what the books say too. About bonding and whatever."
"Books plural? Where are you hiding these?" Lorelai briefly considered bolting up the stairs to raid the bedroom, incredibly curious to see what he'd been reading.
"Two books, and Liz gave them to me after we watched Doula. They're at the diner, I've been reading through them on breaks. They're just parenting books. Nothing exciting," Luke took a sip of his water and glanced over at Lorelai. "Stop smiling at me like that."
"I can't help it, you're cute. I should marry you and take you off the market for good."
"Two weeks work for you?"
"I guess I can wait," she grinned.
"We couldn't agree on my last article in time, so he decided to re-feature one of my old ones," Rory complained as she waited for the slow free wi-fi at the truck stop to connect so she could check her email. "I just want your wedding to get here so I can come home."
"Sorry, I need the time to finish getting things ready, and besides, I still haven't found that elusive Remote Control for Life anyway. And if I did, I'd probably hit pause for a few days, not fast forward."
"Lame," Rory pouted. "Anything new?"
"Well," Lorelai sighed. "If I'm trying to make you happy, I don't have much else to give you. My only news is kind of a bummer."
"I can take it."
"April's grandmother died."
"Oh no," Rory frowned. "I'm surprised she didn't text me about it. I mean I just saw April two weeks ago and she said her grandmother seemed to be doing a little better."
"Luke hadn't heard anything until today, either. April said it's been crazy the last few days trying to deal with all the arrangements. I guess Anna's mom didn't have many of her affairs in order aside from weird funeral requests, and it's been a huge mess. Reminded me a lot of Gran, actually. Luke wanted to fly out there, but April told him not to, and I think the offer offended Anna a little."
"Offended?"
"You know, man swoops in to save the day."
"But that's what Luke does."
Lorelai chuckled, "I'll tell him you said that. Anyway, it sounds like they have it more under control now. And there is some good news that came of this. They're moving back to Connecticut at the end of the school year. It means we'll be revisiting custody agreements, which I think we're all dreading, but… it'll be good in the long run."
"Hey, Mom? Did you notice you said 'we'?"
"Yeah," Lorelai replied softly, "Luke's been very clear about making sure I understand I'm included. It's dumb, but it still makes me feel really good."
"It's not dumb. It hurt your relationship before. You're allowed to feel downright giddy to hear him say that." Rory glanced back at her laptop, looking for an email from Scott approving the rewrite to the article he'd thrown out, and glared at the notice that there were no new messages. "So, Hawaii, huh?"
"It's warm, it's pretty, it's relaxing. Neither of us have been there. There's enough hiking for Luke, and I already booked a few days at some campsite to surprise him with. It's not the rustic camping Luke would normally prefer, but it'll work for me, and they provide all the stuff. I expect at least one day of shopping in return, but mostly I just want to come home tan and smelling like coconuts."
"It's still so weird to me you've never gone anywhere together," Rory shook her head, shutting her laptop and heading back to the bus. "Logan and I… well… I guess it's easy when your dad's footing the bill for all your travel expenses…"
"Uh, yeah. Doesn't help that our relationship kinda started right around the time I was opening the inn, and money was tight."
"True. Well, I'm glad you guys are doing this. I really didn't think you'd end up going on a real honeymoon."
"Are you kidding? After all we've been through? We deserve like ten honeymoons. Anyway, enough about wedding stuff, I already have a list a mile long to annoy you and April with during our conference call tomorrow, and I don't want you to be too sick of talking about it. How's bus life?"
"Oddly quiet. I've been so busy dealing with Scott, I haven't had a ton of time for much else."
"No new World Traveler Miles stories?"
"No," Rory slid back into her seat and eyed the man to her right. Miles was leaning back against the window with his hat pulled over his eyes, his legs bent across the seat next to him. "He's actually been respecting the 'no talking while earbuds are in ears' rule and leaving me to my work," she whispered.
Miles had, in fact, been mostly avoiding Rory since New Mexico, which was now over two weeks ago. Their last conversation about anything other than work had been at the cafe in California when she'd made the mistake of inquiring about "dating" on the tour. Photo selection conversations had been made via email.
He'd claimed he wasn't mad, but if that were true, he had no reason to be avoiding her. And as far as Miles was concerned, Rory knew she had nothing to feel bad about. As unintentional as it had been, she'd done exactly as he'd requested and found someone unconnected to the press corps; it certainly wasn't Miles who was constantly plagued by that night.
"Ah, back on the bus?" Lorelai guessed.
"Yup. What's on your agenda for the day?"
"Well, your grandmother has set up an appointment for me with some florist who has promised not to charge an arm and a leg for a last minute wedding. At this point, I'm tempted to see if lying and confirming their suspicions that I'm pregnant will get me a pity discount."
Rory snorted, "Are people really implying that?"
"Only a few have said it. Others will not so subtly drop eye contact to double-check for any obvious physical manifestations."
"Tacky!"
"Nothing like a last minute wedding to rouse the rumor mill. Between Sookie and the florists, I'm not sure who's worse. Anyway, hopefully today's appointment works out and I don't have to fake a pregnancy to get a better price," Lorelai sighed. "With my luck, it would get around Stars Hollow like wildfire, and there goes my virginal reputation."
"Please, your dress isn't even white."
"Exactly," Lorelai smirked. "On a more serious note, are you doing okay? You still sound... what was it you said before? Sullen?"
"Yeah. Sullen works," Rory nodded to herself. "We'll talk when I'm home."
"Sounds serious."
"Not so serious," she promised. "Mom, don't worry about me, you have a wedding to deal with, and I'm sure Luke's going to be freaking out about April until she gets there."
"Okay, well, I'll pretend I'm not worried, then. In the meantime, I need to figure out where this florist is. Talk to you tomorrow while we hash out some wedding details?"
"Yep. Love you, Mom," Rory replied quietly and shoved her phone in her pocket, glancing again at Miles. She'd seen him sleep a million times, and he was far too twitchy for someone who normally slept like a dead man. She decided she was done with the lack of conversation between them and thumped the toe of his shoe.
"Wake up, Evenson. We need to talk."
"Stuff it, Gilmore," Miles growled.
Rory grinned. So far, so good.
"You stuff it. Why'd you change seats again?"
"Got tired of my ear being inches from your head while you argued with Morrow," Miles tipped his hat up. "Did he really re-feature one of your old stories?"
"Yup. Felt a little unloved. Especially since they used some of your newer photos."
"Don't let that bug you," Miles shrugged, sitting up and actively joining the conversation, "It makes your story look fresh."
"You trying to tell me that you make me look good?" Rory teased.
"That's the whole point of my job," Miles replied seriously. "People like media. But it's basically a big arrow to the actual story."
"I disagree. Your photos have their own stories to tell. I've seen your work."
"Rory, most of the stuff you love gets dropped. It's a news website. The stuff you're talking about is... useless for that."
"Maybe," she shrugged. "But if that's the case, why did you take this job in the first place?"
It was something that had often stumped Rory as she'd gotten to know Miles. He was incredibly talented, his best photos were stories in and of themselves; he had several series of photos from his travels that spoke for themselves without the need for narration. He was an artist.
"Wow, we go from not talking for weeks, to you asking about my life choices," Miles smirked, his tone light.
"Not my idea. I'm not the one who pulls the hat over my face and blocks everyone out. In fact, I deliberately dropped a fry on you yesterday to try and annoy you out of your funk."
"I know, I ate it."
"Well, glad I could contribute to your food intake. Answer the question. Why'd you take this job?"
Miles sighed and stared out the window at the afternoon sun for a few minutes before replying. Just when Rory was about to prod him again, he spoke.
"I was burned out. I'm still kinda burned out. This stuff... I don't really have to think much. The story's your job, I just make sure my camera's in focus and Barack looks good. Not that it's always that easy, but it's easier than traveling on some beast of burden for a week, hoping my laptop doesn't get too much sand in it. Or dropped, or rained on. Or hoping I'm not smiling or frowning too much for some customs officer who thinks my lenses may reveal something negative in his country."
"Did something happen?"
"No. I mean, stuff has happened, you know, you've heard a few stories, but... there wasn't really one thing that pushed me. Well... actually..." he chuckled. "I started noticing I was using a lot of sepia tones. I hate sepia. I like using black and white to give a certain mood when it calls for it, but mostly I like color photography. It tells a more authentic story."
Rory listened intently. She'd missed this. He may prefer to let his photography speak for him, but he was still a great storyteller when he let himself speak freely.
"So I let you tell the story, instead. Gives me a break. And then when I have a moment, I can find a different story to tell on my own that I don't have to worry about being a feature photograph," Miles added.
"Like the little girl who was enamored with Obama in Shreveport."
"Exactly. It works out. And I get to still be a part of history, which is pretty cool. The company hasn't sucked either... for the most part."
"For the most part," Rory snorted. "You done being pissed at me then?"
"Maybe. I guess I can put up with you for a bit longer. I get a break soon anyway, right? Once we hit the tri-state area?"
"Yep. Our buddy Chen's covering Pittsburgh, Boston, and Vermont while I give my mom away."
"You're really giving her away?" Miles raised his eyebrows, an amused grin replacing his previously pensive expression.
"God, no. No one gives Lorelai Gilmore away. But Luke did ask for my permission, so signing the marriage certificate is almost the same thing as far as I'm concerned. Hey, did I tell you about the gigantic SUV they bought? A Dodge Durango. My stepsister's already claimed the third row."
"Wow. What's next, a new house?"
Rory felt the slightest twinge deep in her chest. Though she'd made major efforts to start letting go of her childhood home the last time she was in Stars Hollow, there would always be a part of her that would be attached to it.
"Very likely. I just hope my mom's preparing herself for that. There's no way they'll still be there by this time next year."
"Ugh, this place does not exist." Lorelai growled as she navigated the jeep down a residential street in Beacon Falls. She either wrote down the address wrong, or her mother had the address wrong in her email. She pulled over and reached for her cell phone to call Luke, whose navigational skills were second to none. She read off the address to him.
"No, that should be Beacon Falls."
"It can't be, because the street sign after Unity has a Stars Hollow street sign, and the address she gave me for the florist is in Beacon Falls. Plus, this is clearly a residential neighborhood, not at all where a flower shop would be."
"Yeah, the map has it in Beacon Falls, Lorelai, I'm not sure where she was trying to send you, but if you're seeing Stars Hollow houses and you're looking for a Beacon Falls florist, something's wrong somewhere," Luke scratched his head as he ran his finger over the map one last time.
"Right," she sighed. "Time to call my mother. Good thing I left early. Thanks, hon."
Lorelai hung up with Luke and dialed her mother's cell phone only to hear it ring several times before it switched to voicemail.
"Mom, it's Lorelai. You didn't give me the number of the florist, but the address is definitely wrong. I'm driving around Beacon Falls, but the address you gave me seems to lead to a bunch of houses in Stars Hollow? I'm going to drive around a little more, but call me back. I'll try the house phone in a bit."
Lorelai ended the call and drove a little further. Perhaps something changed with boundary lines more recently than Emily had realized. Still, it seemed strange considering this was the florist Emily had recently used for a DAR luncheon mere weeks ago.
"10306 Center Street. A florist you are not," Lorelai grumbled at the mailbox in front of her and gazed past it at the beautiful grey house. She took in the details and her jaw dropped as a flood of memories hit her all at once.
Five bedrooms, four and a half baths. Library, sun porch. Three acres. A little pond. Stables for horses.
It had been one of the worst days of her life, that day in the Beacon Falls realtor's office with her mother. Yet there it was, right before her eyes, the very house Emily and Richard Gilmore had intended to purchase for their daughter and her fiancé. Her parents had finally accepted the most important relationship she'd ever had, and it was past the point of saving.
Lorelai felt her heart thudding rapidly in her chest as she threw the jeep into park. There was a van in the driveway advertising "Cam's Cleaning Crew". As she glanced around, she noticed the grass looked a little unmaintained, but not overgrown, as if someone had only recently begun forgetting to mow the lawn.
The front door of the house opened, and a woman exited with a cart of cleaning supplies, leaving the door open as she did so. Lorelai leaned forward to get a better look and noticed the house appeared empty.
"Excuse me!" Lorelai called as she jumped out of the jeep. "I am so sorry to bother you. Do you know who owns this house?"
"No, I don't, I'm sorry," the woman replied back. "Are you looking for someone?"
"Um, no." She got a better look inside as she approached the woman. "I was just driving by and... I... I have a bit of history with this place. Um, is it for sale, or being sold, do you know?"
"I'm not sure. I know the owners were renting it out and the tenants recently left. We were hired to keep it maintained, my guess is until they find new tenants or sell. I don't really know much more than that, I'm sorry. Did you live here? It's a lovely place."
"No... I almost did, though," Lorelai smiled sadly. "It is lovely. I'll let you get back to work. Thank you for your time."
"Sure, have a nice day," the woman smiled and walked back inside the house.
Lorelai sat back in the jeep and noticed a few missed calls. She dialed the Gilmore house and waited while the maid du jour sought out her mother.
"Lorelai? What on earth are you doing driving around Beacon Falls? The florist is in Waterbury."
Lorelai couldn't help rolling her eyes, "Uh, not the address you sent me. You gave me a Beacon Falls address that's actually a Stars Hollow address."
"No, I didn't. I copied it right out of the..." Emily stared at the computer in front of her, looking at her sent messages. She had, indeed, copied and pasted directly from her computer's address book, only she'd selected the wrong address entirely. Rental Property and Renee's Florals were absolutely not the same address.
"Mom? Are you there?"
Emily glanced at the phone, considering hanging up and claiming the phone had broken. That wouldn't do, Lorelai still needed to get to the florist.
"Uh, yes, Lorelai, I'm not sure what happened. I think something must have combined some old addresses somewhere on my computer."
"Uh, yeah, I guess so," Lorelai replied, still reeling from shock as she stared at the property. "Um, actually, it's kind of funny. You sent me to the house you and Dad wanted to buy for Luke and I."
"Well, that's absurd," Emily ranted, feeling herself beginning to panic, "I'll need to have your father call the man who does IT at his office and see what happened to this infernal thing. This is why I don't use computers, you know, you trust it to work, and expect a problem-free experience. If I'd simply called and read you the address from my address book, there would have been no room for error. Remind me of this when-"
"Mom, I get that something went wrong over there, but I'm going to be late. Can you give me the phone number of the place and we can talk about this later? I can get the address and directions from them, and let them know I'm running late due to a bit of an address mishap."
"Oh, of course." Emily replied, noticing the lack of phone number on her computer. Flustered, she shakily reached for her physical address book, "Is it still nice?"
"Um, it looks a little unmaintained, but I'm not one to judge, you know my lawn was a mess until Luke moved in. But otherwise, it's still beautiful."
Emily's jaw tightened. She'd told Richard the gardening service seemed untrustworthy. She'd have him call later. Of course, first she'd have to admit to her husband exactly why she knew the grass was overgrown. She read Lorelai the phone number and the correct address, apologized again for the mixup, and buried her face in her hands after hanging up.
Lorelai sighed as she pulled up in front of Renee's Florals in Waterbury. She couldn't get past the feeling she'd had seeing the house in person. There was something terribly strange about the entire experience. Recalling her wedding was only two weeks away and she still didn't have one flower for it, Lorelai forced herself to focus on the woman in front of her, and the beautiful floral arrangements she'd readied for their meeting.
"See, this is why I don't use computers," Luke pointed at Lorelai after she told him the whole story later that evening.
"I wouldn't blame the computer. Wait till next week, she'll accidentally invite Shira Huntzberger over for lunch when she meant to invite Sissy Hurdygurdy or something," Lorelai replied with a smirk. "Anyway, flowers. I like everything she did here, especially keeping the eggplant, white, and fall colors theme. And the price was half of what that place in Hartford wanted to charge us. What do you think?"
Luke shrugged, "The boutonnieres are nice."
"We already had those picked out, this is just the example of what my mother suggested weeks ago."
"Oh. Well, I still like those, then. Lorelai, you know flowers aren't really my thing."
"Except for the flowery curtains in your old apartment," she muttered. "Fine. Then you're okay with the price, at least?"
"Yeah. Seems reasonable to me," Luke nodded, looking back at the sample bouquet of lilies in the middle of the coffee table. "It is pretty."
"Yay! A reaction!" Lorelai grinned, dropping a kiss on the top of his head as she stood. "I think so, too. April sent me one text with over a hundred exclamation points, and Rory said she didn't care, so I'll take that as the girls' approving of the choices as well. I'm gonna go call and finalize the order, then!" she squealed excitedly and grabbed the house phone and price sheet.
Order placed, she dropped onto the couch next to Luke with a few papers in her hand. "Um, speaking of flowers, I ordered a really nice arrangement for Anna's mom's funeral this morning. I said it was from you, but I just looked at the receipt and they put both our names on it. I hope that's okay. I was going to talk to you about it first, but-"
"Thank you, I didn't even think of that," Luke smiled gratefully. "And it's good they put both our names on it."
"Okay, good," Lorelai smiled back, dropping the receipt she'd printed out on the coffee table. She looked at the other piece of paper below it, the note where she'd jotted down the Beacon Falls address.
Luke nodded at the paper, "That had to be weird, huh?"
"Yeah. Really weird," she glanced up and saw the sad look on his face. "Luke, don't. I'd rather have what we have now than... whatever we might have had then. Who knows, we might be divorced by now and in some horrible legal battle over the house."
"Taylor would probably have a town meeting to decide. Pink ribbons would win again."
"Maybe. Though if it were still Beacon Falls, he..." Lorelai stopped, staring at the address. "Luke, how old is that map you were looking at?"
"Uh, it was one of the ones the county released after Taylor lost that ruling to use the old historic Stars Hollow street names, and they reprinted them with the old names to switch everything back. So, I guess, just over two years ago?"
"So it would've been a recent change... that block of Center Street past Unity being part of Stars Hollow instead of Beacon Falls."
"I guess," Luke shrugged. "They change stuff like that all the time, though. That town home Nicole rented that I never really moved into used to be in Thomaston. They still had the old address on the stationary in the leasing office."
"Yeah... still weird. Normally Taylor would mention something like that in a town meeting," Lorelai mused, and as she spoke, she remembered something her mother had said in the leasing office...
"I heard that if you grease the palm of the Stars Hollow zoning commissioner, a man named Taylor Doose, you can get him to change property lines."
"What?" Luke cocked his head.
"What are the chances... I mean... they wouldn't have..." Lorelai's eyes widened.
"Who wouldn't have what?"
"My parents. That house. My mom told me they'd investigated having the address changed to Stars Hollow from Beacon Falls when she showed me the pictures of it at the realtor's office that day. Even after my breakdown she still thought you and I would work things out."
"You don't actually think they bought it. They wouldn't have even closed on it until after we'd already broken up. They would've given it to you and Chris as a wedding present."
"My mom is really weird about gifts being for their intended recipients, though. She still won't tell me what it was she bought Max and I when I was engaged to him," Lorelai rested her elbows on her knees and dropped her chin in her hands as she continued sorting through her thoughts.
"What did she get for you and Chris?"
"Wolf girl. This hideous piece of art, if you can call it that. I was never more pleased to return a gift to my mother, and that's saying something."
Luke scratched his head. "She was buying us a house, and she bought you and Chris... artwork?"
"She'll never admit it, but I don't think anyone believed Chris and I were ever permanent. Except me, maybe... when I needed to stop thinking about you," she dropped her face into her hands with a groan. "This is weird, Luke. This is too coincidental. Why did my mom still have that address, and why is that block now part of Stars Hollow, when in my twenty years of living in this town, Emily Gilmore is the only person I know of who has ever had any interest in that area of Beacon Falls?"
"Brunch? Sunday Brunch with whom?" Richard frowned, glancing up from his book. "Isn't it a little last minute?"
"If you were to hazard a guess... who would be the obvious choice to invite us to a last minute brunch?" Emily asked.
"Robert and Karen Seaton," he replied with an eye roll.
"Oh, very true," Emily nodded as she sat in her chair. "In this case, however, it's none other than our very own Lorelai Gilmore."
"Lorelai invited us to brunch?"
"She had that tone, too. I think she knows, Richard," she sighed with a grimace.
Emily had spent the day stressing out over the mistake she'd made with the addresses. She wasn't at all relieved when Lorelai had bought her story about mixing up old addresses. She knew her daughter, and knew she wasn't going to stop thinking about it. Thus, when Lorelai called with a very suspicious, very "I know something you don't know" tone to invite her parents to a last minute brunch at the Dragonfly, Emily knew Lorelai had either figured it out or at the very least suspected.
"Well, then, if she's figured it out that certainly absolves us of coming up with a way to present it to them."
"No, now it's worse. Lorelai's going to play her game to make it seem like she found us out."
"She did find us out," Richard laughed.
"Yes, well, I don't want her to realize that," Emily scowled as she headed toward the coat closet.
"Emily, where are you going?"
"I don't have any nice boxes to wrap the keys in. I used the last of the nice gift wrap on the care package we sent ahead to the girls' friend Mia for Rory's birthday. The rest of it is Christmas themed."
"You're going to wrap the keys?"
"The keys and the photos. Luke hasn't seen it yet," Emily grabbed her purse. "Richard, I'm not letting her get the upper hand on this. If this is going to finally happen, we need to do it in a way that they're not going to immediately turn it down. The house is finally living up to what it was meant for, and I want this for Lorelai."
"If she's figured it out, don't you think they've already discussed it?"
"Yes, which means we have even more work to do and more to discuss, ourselves. Now, are you coming or not?"