"Why did you do that?" Rory rounded the corner in time to see Jess stomping off down the snowy path toward the front of the house.

"How long have you been standing there?" her grandmother asked, setting her teacup down with a sharp clink.

"Long enough to hear you tell Jess to step aside and let someone else take care of me," Rory said on her way to the back door. She didn't know what she'd do once she got there—she was barefoot and wore only pajamas—but she needed to at least try and call him back.

"Rory, don't you dare go out there," Emily said, her tone rooting Rory to the spot.

She turned and faced her grandmother, her face flushed with anger. "Grandma, I love you, but you have got to stop meddling. You did it with Mom and Dad and Luke for years with your scheming and your machinations. But I'm not going to let you do that to me and Jess. He may have made some mistakes in the past but he's more than made up for them. He doesn't deserve this kind of treatment from you."

Emily stood up from the counter and took her cup and saucer over to the sink as if she had all the time in the world. "Are you quite done?" she asked, turning to face Rory.

"Oh no, I have plenty more to say." Rory glanced back out the window, knowing Jess was already long gone. "Logan and I are never going to happen. He and I have both moved on. So I think it's best you give up that little fantasy of yours."

"You think I still want you with Logan? He who was quite content to use you as a side piece while he was engaged to someone else?"

Rory froze. "How did you know about that?" she asked slowly.

Emily raised an eyebrow in a perfectly sardonic expression. "Frankly, I'm surprised you managed to keep it a secret for as long as you did, carrying on in public as if nobody would see."

"Mitchum," Rory said, grinding her teeth.

"It doesn't matter who told me. The question is why would you get involved with an engaged man?"

"It was an arranged marriage."

"I don't care what it is, Logan still put a ring on another woman's finger," Emily said, her eyes flashing in anger. "Who does he think he is? Bill Clinton? You are nobody's mistress. You are a Gilmore, not a Lewins—" She stopped abruptly, the blood draining from her face as she narrowed her eyes and stared at something beyond the kitchen doorway.

Rory turned to look but saw nothing in the dark hallway. "Grandma?"

For a long, uncomfortable moment, her grandmother stared into space, her lips moving as if talking to someone under her breath. Rory was halfway convinced her grandmother was suffering from a stroke when Emily blinked and turned to face her. "I'm sorry, what were we talking about?" she asked with her eyebrows knitted.

"Are you all right?" Rory asked.

Emily's eyes snapped back toward the shadowy hallway. "I was just reminded that, one time, I too was the other woman, that I stole your grandfather away from that dreadful Pennilyn Lott," she said, casting a smile into the shadows.

Rory's shoulders sagged, her anger escaping with a sigh.

"But the difference is that Richard broke off his engagement before pursuing me," Emily said, the gloss dissipating from her eyes. "He never would have allowed me to become the other woman."

"That was my choice, not Logan's," Rory said, the fight leaving her. She slumped against the counter, weary down to the bones. "Yes, my personal life was in shambles and I made a lot of bad choices, but I've taken great strides to clean up my mess. Now, please, I need you to stay out of my personal life. Because, for the first time in a long time, I have a clear vision of where I'm headed. And Jess? I see him right there beside me."

"And what if, somewhere down the road, you find that he is not equipped to be a father? What then?"

Rory paused, continuing to hold her grandmother's gaze. "Then I'll stop the car and let him out. But for now, we're together and we're happy." She motioned to the back door. "At least, we were happy."

"Believe it or not, my intentions in questioning that boy are pure."

"You know what they say about the road to hell," Rory mumbled.

Emily folded her arms across her chest. "I have said or done nothing wrong. All I did was speak the hard truth. And if Jess can't handle that then he has no business being with you."

"But that's my decision, not yours." Unable to take anymore of her grandmother, Rory pushed away from the counter and stalked out of the kitchen. Goosebumps broke out on her arms as she walked through the darkened hallway, but the feeling passed as soon as she entered the guest room.

Rory dressed for the cold weather, intent on chasing after Jess; he couldn't leave her now, not like this. She pulled on her boots and got as far as the doorway when the ugly truth crawled out from the dark recesses of her mind and exposed itself to light: She was chasing after him because, in her heart of hearts, she didn't trust Jess to stay. Maybe she never did.

The realization struck her like a punch to the gut and she stumbled back until the back of her legs hit the bed. Despite it all, even after all he'd done to prove himself, she still expected Jess to abandon her at the first sign of trouble.

She shook her head, trying to deny the truth even as she yanked off her coat and kicked off her boots, continuing to peel off every layer of clothing until she was completely naked. Then she rushed to the bathroom and stood under the hot spray of water for a long time, scrubbing herself with a loofah until she was raw and red and clean.

"Hey, you writing?"

Rory looked up from her laptop to see her mother approach with a coffee cup in her hand. "Yeah," Rory said, gaze returning to the blinking cursor on her screen. She'd been sitting at that same oversized chair for the past hour, her fingers tapping madly on the keyboard as she wrote about the time her father had disappeared from her life yet again.

Lorelai sat on the arm of the chair and looked out at the window and its unobstructed view of the ocean. "I don't know how you can focus with this view right over your shoulder," she murmured into her cup. She looked back over at Rory with a twinkle in her eye. "So, Mom just left to go to the museum. What do you say we sit in on her presentation and heckle her? Or we could hold up some lighters and ask her to perform Freebird."

Rory shook her head, snickering softly. "As fun as that sounds, I think I'll stay here."

"What about Jess?"

"He went out," Rory said, trying to sound casual.

Lorelai eyed her for a moment, her mother's instincts no doubt kicking in. "Why do I have the feeling something bad happened?"

Rory waved her worry away. "It's nothing," she said flippantly, then snapped her laptop shut. "You know what? We should go somewhere. How about we go shopping? I hear Nantucket has some world-class shopping."

Lorelai eyed her for a few moments before nodding her head. "All right," she said, getting up. "Let's go buy you some world-class underwear."

Rory immediately felt better the moment she stepped out on the snowy sidewalks of Nantucket, the crisp air cooling her lungs and clearing her head. She'd felt inactive back at her grandmother's house, sitting and waiting for the return of her man like some 1950s housewife. But she was done being passive, especially when it came to her happiness.

When they reached the main shopping area, Rory threw herself into buying Christmas gifts, looking for something meaningful for each person in her family, finding a lovely angora cardigan for her grandmother and an antique tackle box for Luke.

She and her mother made their way through the various streets lined with shops until they came upon a charming little bookstore with a grey and white facade. "I'd like to look in here for a few minutes," Rory said, her eyes flying to the books displayed in the window.

Her mother raised an eyebrow. "A few minutes? Are you kidding? Since when have you ever gone inside a bookstore and come out after a few minutes?"

"Well, what is a few?" she asked with a smile, reminded of Jess.

Lorelai shook her head. "How about I just meet you back at Mom's?"

"Okay," Rory said and waved goodbye. The minute Rory stepped inside the store, she immediately felt at ease. No matter how far from home or how unfamiliar the place, she always found comfort in the company of books.

Rory ventured inside, her eyes floating over the colorful little store. Aside from books, there were toys and gifts on display along with head busts and globes. String lights and star lanterns hung from the ceiling, lending the space a festive atmosphere. She passed by a sitting area consisting of four leather armchairs surrounding a round table, on top of which sat a small Christmas tree decorated with tiny stuffed dolls dressed in period costumes.

It was one of the most charming bookstores she'd ever had the pleasure of visiting.

She wandered up and down the aisles, stopping to read the blurbs of books that caught her eye, until she came upon the section she was looking for. Pulling three books off the shelf, she paid at the cash register then brought them over to an unoccupied armchair, where she opened the first book and began to write in its margins.

Hours had passed by the time Rory finished writing notes in the first book. She blinked, realizing that all of the other chairs sat empty, their occupants long gone. When she checked her phone she saw there were no texts or missed calls.

She gathered her things and left the store, a shiver racking her body as she started back to her grandmother's house. By then the sun had begun its descent and the snow-covered sidewalks were all but deserted, making for a lonely journey back. It was there, during that long walk, that Rory remembered the look she'd spied on Jess' face the night before. After she'd given her grandmother the ultrasound print, her gaze had flicked around the room and had stopped at Jess' face, at his carefully blank expression that had not been enough to hide the hurt in his eyes.

Rory sped up, her boots slapping onto the sidewalk at a fast clip. She needed to get back to the house and find Jess, to try and explain to him all the thoughts that were going through her head. It wouldn't be easy—it was a tangled jungle in there right then—but she needed to try.

When she arrived back at The Sandcastle, she came upon Luke and her mother in the living room. Luke was on a ladder, reaching up to change the recessed lightbulb in the ceiling while her mother looked on, calling out unhelpful tips.

"Righty-tighty, lefty-loosey," Lorelai said, holding onto the ladder as she looked up.

"Yeah, I got that," Luke called down.

"Should I get a potato?" Lorelai asked.

"What for?"

"I don't know. I just heard when you're changing a lightbulb, it helps to have a potato handy just in case."

Luke sighed. "A potato is only needed when the bulb breaks off inside the socket."

"Good, because we only have yams."

"Mom," Rory said, interrupting their banter. "Have you seen Jess?"

Both Luke and Lorelai stopped and fixed Rory with matching concerned looks.

"He's not with you?" her mother asked.

Luke started down the ladder, the burned out bulb in one hand. "He was looking for you earlier but we haven't seen him since. We thought he'd gone to the bookstore to find you."

"No," Rory said, her hands tightening around the bag in her hand. She could not—would not—give up hope. "We must have just missed each other," she said, turning away and heading down the hall towards the bedroom, desperately trying to stave off the encroaching doubt.

He'll be here. He has to be here.

Please be here.

She pushed open the door and froze. There, laid out on the bed, was Jess, with his eyes closed and an open book on his chest. As quietly as possible, she came closer and peeked at the title of the book.

What to Expect: The First Year.

Tears stung her eyes even as a smile tugged at her lips, the image of Jess holding a baby in his arms flashing before her eyes. There was no doubt in her mind that he'd try his best, that he'd be there for her child in every possible way.

And in that moment, she finally allowed herself to believe that Jess would stay.

With happy tears sliding down her cheeks, she slipped off her coat and boots and carefully climbed onto the bed, taking the book off his chest before stretching out beside him. She curled into his side and wrapped an arm around his chest, listening to his heart beat and falling in love all over again.