"Can we stay like this forever?" Lorelai asked dreamily having just woken up as she and Luke lay entangled in each other's arms early the next morning.
He lazily ran his fingers through her hair and replied, "As nice as that sounds, it's not very practical."
"Practical, shmactical. These two weeks apart have made me realize that I don't ever want to spend a night without you again."
"You never have to. I'm not going anywhere again unless it's with you." He sighed and absently stroked her bare back.
"Something on your mind?"
"Yeah, I was just thinking if I'd kept on being stubborn and not let you talk me into that trip to Martha's Vineyard, we wouldn't be where we are now."
"I don't know about that. Jess still might have told you you were being an idiot."
"I meant the twins. We wouldn't be starting a family now, if it weren't for that trip."
"We might be. When you came here that night after you moved your stuff in, you were determined that we were going to talk about our family plans. Maybe we would've made a baby that night if I hadn't already been pregnant."
"Maybe, I don't know. There are so many little things that have happened in our lives that could have changed everything between us and not led us to where we are."
"Are you gonna' start getting all philosophical on me now? Like the tree in the forest bit?"
"Huh?"
"You know that old that if a tree falls and no one's around to hear it, does it make a noise?"
"Ahhh," he said in understanding. "I'm just thinking how fragile everything is. How easily everything could fall apart again if we were to fall into that old pattern of not really saying what's on our minds."
"It's only going to fall apart if we let it and fall back on old habits. I think we've made some real progress and I for one am not going to let us fall apart again without a fight." She slid her arms around his back and pulled him closer to her and kissed him.
"Ow," he said.
"What? Did I shock you or something?"
"No. But you definitely marked your territory last night."
"What? Let me see." Luke turned over showing her his back. She noticed then that she had indeed marked him up. There were several indentations marring his back between his shoulder blades where she'd clung to him in the throes of passion, not realizing she was hurting him. "I'm sorry, Babe. I didn't mean to hurt you."
"It doesn't hurt, really, not unless you touch it. It's fine. I don't mind at all. It lets me know I'm doing something right," He said with a smug grin, happy that he was able to satisfy her in bed.
"Well, when you look at it that way, then it's kinda your own fault for making me squeal like you do." She grinned back at him and kissed him lightly on the lips, she then shifted the nuzzling his neck, careful not to touch the part of his back where she'd cut into him with her fingernails. "You wanna see if you can make me squeal again," she said suggestively.
"I need to get to work soon," he protested, not wanting to leave their bed but knowing that he'd have to check on his business at some point since he'd been away for two weeks and Lane was now on her honeymoon.
"You're the boss. You can be a little late," she said as she let her hand travel down to his butt and gave it a firm squeeze.
"You remember that next time I want you to play hooky from the inn to spend a little more time in bed with me," he said in a low husky voice as he flipped her over so that she was pinned beneath him again and kissed her hungrily. All of his doubts from the previous night were gone with her promise that she was with him forever. She responded to his kisses with enthusiasm, as she ran her fingers through his hair. She sighed contentedly as he lowered his lips to her throat just as they were interrupted by the bedroom door opening. "Oh, jeez!" Luke yelped in surprise as he saw Rory standing in the doorway, hastily moving away from her mother, and desperately trying to make sure that they were both covered by the blankets.
"Oh, God, I'm sorry," Rory stammered as she backed out the door.
"Just give us a second, Hon!" Lorelai called through the door as she reached for her favorite flannel that she kept hanging from the bedpost and slipped it on while Luke got out of bed, walked to his dresser and pulled out a clean pair of boxers, sweat pants and a t-shirt and quickly put them on.
"It's ok," Rory replied. "I can wait for the bathroom. Go back to whatever you were doing."
"It's fine, Rory. We're decent now. You can come on in," Luke said as he finished pulling the tee over his head.
She tentatively opened the door, "Are you sure?"
"Yeah, Kid. It's fine. I needed to get up anyway."
"That's what I was working on," Lorelai said with a smirk, while Luke blushed furiously.
"I am so, so sorry," Rory said. "I should've knocked. I just figured you'd be at the diner already. It's after six."
"I decided not to open until eight today since half the town's gonna be hung-over after the wedding last night. There's no point in wasting my time opening the diner at six when nobody's gonna be there that early."
"Again, I'm sorry I interrupted you guys," she said, still embarrassed by seeing Luke and her mother in that position. Obviously she knew that they were sleeping together, but it was one thing to know it and another to get the visual.
"It's ok, Sweets," Her mother reassured her. "Really. We should've locked the door, and then this wouldn't have happened."
"I'm gonna head downstairs and make us some breakfast," Luke said, leaving the mother and daughter alone still embarrassed by the fact that Rory had seen him attempting to have sex with her mother.
"Hey, Kid. Are you ok?"Lorelai asked.
"Yeah, just a little weirded out. I didn't mean to disturb you guys at a bad time. Sorry."
"Stop saying you're sorry. You didn't really disturb much of anything. We were just getting started really."
"Really?"
"Really, and we were still mostly covered up so you didn't even get a good view of Luke naked."
Rory blushed and said, "Thank God. I don't think that I could live with that imagery in my head forever."
"You think you're the first kid in the world who's ever walked in on their parents getting busy?"
"No, I just never thought it would happen to me. I didn't even think about the fact that you guys might be, you know, involved when I walked in. I promise I'll knock next time."
"And I'll try to remember to lock the door next time. We're gonna have to get used to that once Sid and Nancy here get old enough to do the same thing," she said as she patted her belly.
"I think you're a long ways away from that right now."
"All I can say is we really need to figure out what to do about this housing thing. One bathroom just isn't enough. Now, go on and do what you need to do. I'm gonna go check on Luke and make sure he's not hyperventilating over this."
"Tell him I'm sorry again."
"Will do," Lorelai said as she exited the room. She found Luke in the kitchen with a pot of coffee already started and pans on the stove. She wrapped her arms around his waist from behind and asked, "Are you ok?'
"Yeah, I'm mostly just embarrassed. I can't imagine what Rory's thinking right now after seeing me trying to ravage her mother."
"If it makes you feel any better, she said she's sorry and she's just as embarrassed by the situation as you are."
"Not really. I'm thinking now that maybe we should restrict our, um, activities to times when she's not here."
She released him and went to pour herself a cup of the vile decaf she knew was in the coffee pot. "You do realize that she's going to be home for the summer in just a couple of weeks. Do you seriously want to go without for three months when we're gonna be newlyweds very soon? 'Cause I'm thinking the solution is just locking the bedroom door."
"Or having Tom build us another bathroom."
"There is always the possibility of giving into my mother and letting her and my dad buy us a house. Since they're coming for dinner tonight, you know they're gonna bring it up. We haven't talked about it since before you left."
"I'm still not sure how I feel about starting out our marriage indebted to your parents."
"My mom made it clear that it wouldn't be a debt. It would be a wedding gift, and you made it very clear that if they did this, that she wasn't going to be allowed to interfere in our lives in said house, and she seemed to agree with it."
"I know, but are you sure you're ok with this, yourself? You and your mom have never the greatest of relationships. Aren't you worried that she'll use it as ammo against us in the future?"
"A little, but she seems to be sincere about just wanting to help us. The Gilmore way of helping has always been throwing money around. Normally I hate that about my parents but let's face it, we're gonna need to spend our money on other things with twins on the way. Baby furniture, car seats, clothes, bottles, diapers, and all the other stuff babies need, aside from the fact that we're seriously gonna need to upgrade to a family car."
"I thought about that too. Neither the truck or the Jeep is anywhere near big enough."
"I know. I've been thinking we should maybe trade the Wrangler in for a Cherokee."
"A Cherokee?"
"Well, if you think I'm driving a minivan, you're crazy. I hate to let go of the Jeep, but we definitely need something bigger."
"We can hold off for a little while. We've still got a little over six months until the twins are due, so we've got time. This housing thing is something else. We're going to need to be prepared ahead of time, have a nursery ready and all that stuff."
"So, what do you think we should do? My parents' offer is still out there and while I know it's kind of an expensive wedding present, what else do we really need? We just combined two households and we bought all new furniture ourselves when we did the remodel, so we're pretty much set."
"I'll tell you what, providing that dinner goes well with your parents tonight and I don't get any unnecessary sniping from your mother, I'll concede. We'll set up a time to look at the houses she's looked at and pick one that we like."
"What about your appointment with Tom?"
"It's not until Friday afternoon, so if we can make a decision between now and then, it won't be a big deal. I'll keep the appointment with him and have him just look at whatever new house we pick. That is if you're ok with leaving this house."
"I'm not quite completely ok with it, but it's necessary. We need a bigger house for our bigger family. Besides my home is wherever you and Rory are."
"If we can set this up, we have to take the girls along. We promised to let them be included in the decision-making process, since it's going to affect them too."
"Absolutely. I wouldn't think of making a decision this big without April and Rory's opinions on it."
"Without our opinion on what?" Rory said as she stepped into the room still feeling a little awkward that she'd disrupted their alone time.
"House-hunting," Lorelai answered. "I think we've pretty much decided that we're going to take your grandparents up on their offer to buy us a house as a wedding present, providing that they behave themselves tonight."
"Wow," Rory said. "You're sure you want to do that?" she asked with a glance at Luke.
"Pretty sure," Luke answered. "It just makes sense. We need a bigger place and they want to buy us one, so why not?"
"That doesn't necessarily mean that we're going to sell this house, though. We haven't decided on that part yet. Like I said before, we can keep it for you, if you want it."
"I don't know. I'd feel weird living here without you. As much as I love this house, it's you being here that makes it feel like home."
"I get that. I was just telling Luke before you walked in that wherever the two of you are is where my home is."
"Even when I get in the way and interrupt private moments?" She said trying to laugh off the embarrassment she still felt over the situation.
"Hey, it's ok," Luke said reassuringly. "You're not in the way. We just need to learn to start locking the bedroom door." He blushed still a little uncomfortable.
"And I need to learn to start knocking, "she said.
"Look at it this way, Kid," her mother added. "It's good thing you walked in when you did and not a few minutes later or you might have really seen something you didn't want to see. Believe me, I had every intention of having my way with your surrogate daddy this morning."
"Jeez." Luke said.
"Ewww, as if the visual I got wasn't enough," Rory said with a laugh, feeling a little better about the situation.
"I think the best thing we can do is just forget about it and move on," Luke said. "It happened and obsessing over it isn't going to change that."
"And it's not like I didn't know the two of you have done it. I wouldn't be getting two new siblings if you hadn't."
"Beside," Lorelai added. "I could always take a long lunch break from the inn and go visit Luke at work. He's still got that double bed up in the apartment."
"That might be a problem if Christopher's drunken ass is still passed out in it," Luke said, then felt bad when he saw the pained expression on Rory's face. "Jeez, Kid, I'm sorry."
"It's not your fault, Luke," Rory said as she reached for the coffee pot to pour herself a cup, then flopped into one of the kitchen chairs. "My dad chose to drink way too much and make an ass of himself and embarrass me at my best friend's wedding. I'm so mad at him right now I wish I was the one who'd punched him instead of Jackson."
"You might want to give him a break, Rory. It couldn't have been easy for him, being here in our town when everyone's so supportive of me and your mom being together."
Rory looked at him incredulously. "Are you honestly defending what he did?"
"No, I'm not. What he did was wrong. I'm just saying that his behavior really had nothing to do with you. It was mostly me and your mom he was upset with, not you."
"Well, it still affects me. He knows that I love the two of you and that I'm happy you're getting married and still he did that. It hurts. I thought he was really starting to come around for just me and not because he was still mooning over mom like a teenager."
"I think that's part of the problem," Lorelai said. "He's still got this teenage image of me in his head and your dad and I were really close in high school, but I'm not the same reckless teenage girl that he remembers. I'm a completely different person now than I was then. I think that's also part of the reason that we could never make it as a couple as adults. I grew up and he didn't. He's trying to get there now that he's a single dad, but it's hard. I know that from first-hand experience. I didn't immediately become a grown-up after I had you. I made stupid mistakes when you were a baby, but I had you to motivate me to get myself together. He's just now starting to go through what I went through at seventeen after I left my parents' house."
"But you did get yourself together. Why can't he?"
"Just give him time. I've got a twenty year head start on him."
"I'm more mature than he is. It's not right."
"Sorry, Hon, but he was really hot in high school," she said with a grin.
"Hey!" Luke said.
"But you're way hotter, Babe. I'm not into the high school boys anymore. I want a real man and that's what I have in you."
"Glad to hear it," he said.
"The point I'm making, Rory is that you shouldn't cut your dad out of your life without at least giving him a chance to redeem himself. Luke's right. His outburst last night wasn't about you."
"I'll try," Rory said thinking about what they'd both said. She wondered if her dad would even try to redeem himself or if he'd just use this as one more reason to start staying away again.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Christopher groaned as the sunlight hit his face. He shifted to turn away from him, not yet ready to lift his aching head from the pillow. He was just getting comfortable again when he heard a gruff voice saying," Get up!" He turned to see Luke walking toward him with a steaming cup of coffee.
"Oh, it's you," He said sleepily as he struggled to sit up and was rewarded for his efforts with a stabbing pain in his head. It took him a moment to realize that he was still fully dressed in his suit from the night before.
"Yeah, it's me," Luke replied a little crustily. "You're in my building. Here," Luke handed him the coffee cup. "I figured you'd need this right about now."
Christopher took the cup from his rival and sipped at the hot black beverage. "Thanks, "he said. "Good coffee." He struggled to remember the night before and how he'd gotten where he was.
"Thanks," Luke said, noncommittally.
"You said this is your building. How'd I get here?"
"Jess, Jackson and I brought you up here. I wasn't about to let you sleep it off in the square. Rory would have killed me for that."
Chris took another sip of his coffee as fuzzy memories of the night before began to come back to him. He lightly rubbed her sore jaw. "Did you hit me?"
Luke chuckled as he recalled the punch Jackson had thrown and said, "No. As much as I wanted to, that wasn't me. That was Jackson."
"Jackson? Sookie's Jackson?"
"That's the one."
"Why the hell would he hit me?"
"He's my friend. That's how it is here in the Hollow. We all look out for each other. Plus, you kinda of had it coming. You made a crude embarrassing speech at Lane's wedding last night, humiliating your daughter and her mother, insulting me, and then you took a drunken swing at both me and my nephew. Jackson decided it needed to end because you weren't about to calm down on your own or listen to reason. Rory begged you to stop and you didn't."
"I drank too much. I didn't mean it," Christopher said trying to shake the cobwebs from his head.
"That's a load of crap and you know it. Alcohol doesn't make you say things you don't mean. It just lowers your inhibitions enough that you actually say what's on your mind."
"Look, I'm…"
"Don't say you're sorry to me. Don't you dare! I know you wouldn't mean it. I know you hate me and that's just fine with me. I'm not part of your fan club either. I'd just as soon see you drop off the face of the earth as set foot in Stars Hollow again, but that would break Rory's heart. As crazy as it sounds, she still loves you even though you've done nothing but disappoint her. You're her father and she needs you in her life."
"Jealous much?" Chris sneered.
"Me? Jealous of you? Hardly." he said recalling his emotional breakdown the night before and the way that Lorelai had reassured him that she only had eyes for him.
"Sounds like jealousy to me. I know the feeling well."
"Yeah, that's it. I'm so jealous of you. Let me see, what could I be jealous of? Could it be the fact that I've built my own business from the ground up and kept is successfully running for sixteen years, when none of your business ventures have lasted even half that long? Or maybe I'm jealous that I have a better relationship with Rory than you do and that she comes to me for fatherly advice instead of you," he took a small measure of satisfaction in the look on Christopher's face when he said this and continued. "No, I got it," he said, "I'm jealous because I'm the one Lorelai's gonna marry in five weeks. I'm the only she's having a family with and the one she shares her bed with. And, oh yeah, it was my name she was calling out last night when we were making love. Boy, there's a lot to be jealous of there."
"All right, already! I get it! You won! You got her fair and square!" He swung his legs over the side of the bed and took another sip of his coffee, willing it to make his headache go away. "You're really loving this, aren't you?"
"You brought it all on yourself, Christopher. Now, what I would suggest with Rory is a ton of groveling 'cause she's pretty pissed at you right now for your asinine behavior last night. You've still got a shot at fixing things with her, but only if you're sincere. She's got a highly tuned bullshit detector. While you're at it, you owe Lorelai an apology too."
"I figured you'd be telling me to stay away from her after last night."
"What good would it do? You're gonna do what you're gonna do no matter what I say and we both know that Lorelai will never tell you to stay away as long as Rory still lives at home at least part of the time. I've accepted the fact that being part of her life means having you come around once in awhile, now you need to accept the fact that you visiting Rory here in Stars Hollow means that you're going to have to deal with me too, because I'm not going anywhere."
Chris nodded. "I get it. I don't like it, but I get it."
"I don't much like it either, but I'm willing to put up with a lot for Lorelai. I love her with all my heart and I know you do too, but the fact is, she chose me. I can't tell you why. I think she must be completely out of her mind. I'm amazed every day that she actually wants to be with me. I know that pisses you off, but that's the way it is and there's nothing you can do about it. You had your chance with her but you blew it and lost her. If you keep on doing things like the bonehead stunt you pulled last night, you're gonna lose Rory too."
"I bet you'd just love that, wouldn't you? Then you could just take my place completely."
"No, I wouldn't love that. Granted, I think I've made it pretty clear that I don't like having you in our lives, but it would hurt Rory too much not to have you around, and it would hurt Lorelai to see Rory hurting and seeing them hurting makes me hurt too. Now, I've said all I have to say on the subject. The rest is up to you. If you need more coffee to clear your head, I've got a ton of it downstairs, not to mention food if you're hungry. I'm gonna head back down there and get back to work and I expect to see you down there as soon as you get yourself together. Whether you decide to stay to eat or just take off is up to you. It makes no difference to me either way." With that said, he left his former home leaving Christopher pondering what he'd just said.
As Luke stepped through the curtain into the diner, he smiled at seeing Lorelai perched on her normal stool at the end of the counter by the cash register. She was the only one in the diner at the moment. "Hi," he said warmly as he greeted her with a kiss. "You here for lunch?"
"Mm-hmmm, And maybe a little dessert," she said with a mischievous glint in her eyes.
"We'll have to see about that one. I just came from waking Christopher up."
"He's still up there?"
"For now, but I told him not to stay up there too long." He looked at the coffee cup in front of his fiancée and said, "Please, tell me that's decaf."
"Yes, Officer, it's decaf. Caesar won't let me have anything else thanks to you."
"Good. So, what do you want to eat?"
"As nuts as this sounds for me, I'm thinking turkey club and a side salad."
Luke's eyes widened in surprise. "Is this some sort of April Fool's joke 'cause this is the last day of April, so it's a little late." Christopher stepped through the curtain holding his empty coffee cup and stood there a little awkwardly. "Have a seat if you're staying to eat," Luke said to him.
"Ok, thanks," Chris replied and took the seat at the other end of the counter and picked up a menu.
"No, this is no joke," Lorelai said answering Luke's question. "The joke is that your kids seem to want to eat healthy like you and the joke's on me. I've been craving fruits and vegetables non-stop lately, especially apples."
Luke chuckled at this as he wrote down Lorelai's order and handed it off to Caesar. He turned back to her and said, "If I'd known getting you pregnant was the way to get you to eat healthier, I'd have done it years ago."
"That's just mean! Besides we weren't together years ago."
"Well, we should've been. We were both just too dumb to see what was right in front of our faces. I'm glad we finally did, though," he added with a smile as he leaned across the counter and kissed her again, not caring that Christopher was watching. He picked up the coffee pot and refilled Christopher's cup, knowing that he'd need it. "What can I get you, Christopher?"
"Is it too late in the day to get pancakes? I've heard your pancakes are a great hangover cure," he said remembering how Rory seemed to feel better the day before after eating the pancakes Luke had made for her.
"Normally, yeah. I usually stop serving breakfast at eleven, but since you're not the only one hung-over, I'm making an exception today. "Plain, blueberry, banana, or chocolate chip?"
"Blueberry."
"You want anything to go with them. Eggs, bacon, sausage, ham?"
"Scrambled eggs sound good with some bacon." They both turned as the bell over the door jingled and Morey walked in holding Babette up.
"You got it," Luke said as he wrote everything down, handed it off to Caesar and walked to the table by the front window with the coffee pot. He chuckled a little when he got to the table Morey and Babette had just seated themselves at when he saw her lay her head down on the table much like Rory had done the day before. "Is she ok?" he asked.
"She will be after a little coffee and some food," her husband replied. "She just drank a little too much tequila last night after Kirk fired the bartenders and it became serve yourself. She served herself a little too much." Luke laughed as he recalled the way Kirk and Lulu had chased each other through the square arguing over whether or not Lulu had been flirting with the bartender who'd put extra fruit in her drink. Luke picked up the cups off the table and filled them both.
"Don't say that word," Babette grumbled.
"What word, Babs?"
"Tequila," She said as she lifted her head off the table and took a sip of her coffee. "That's the most evil word in the world right now."
Lorelai laughed as she watched Babette struggling. "I know that feeling well, Babette," she said. "In fact, Rory wouldn't be here if it weren't for the evilness of Joes Cuervo."
"Just what the hell does that mean, Lor?" Christopher asked affronted. "Are you saying you wouldn't have slept with me if you weren't drunk?"
"Uh-oh," Morey said.
Lorelai turned to Christopher and answered, "No, that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying that I'd have made sure we were more careful about taking precautions than we were had I not been drunk."
"Like you were worried about taking precautions with him," Christopher snapped gesturing to Luke.
"Uh-oh," Morey said again this time joined by his wife.
"Oh My God," Lorelai said. "You so need to get over this teenage fantasy you have that you and Rory and I are going to be one big happy family! I'm not the same wild fifteen year old girl I was when we were together and I have different needs now. Needs that you have absolutely no comprehension of and Luke does. We are going to be husband and wife in just a little over a month and we're having kids together, something we've been planning on since we got engaged almost a year ago. The only way you're ever going to have any peace in your life is if you let go of your childish fantasies and just accept things for the way they are. I'm in love with Luke and I'm going to marry him and if you can't get that through your thick head, then I don't want you coming to our town again."
"So, what? You're just gonna cut me out of my daughter's life?"
"That's not my decision. Whether you're a part of Rory's life is between you and her. She's an adult and more than capable of making her own decisions about who she wants in her life and who she doesn't. As for me, if you can't get your act together, I can't be your friend anymore. I'm not gonna choose you over the father of my unborn children. You and I made a mistake when we were young that resulted in Rory, but even if I could go back and change it, I wouldn't. She turned out to be one of the best things that ever happened to me. She could've been the same for you if you'd have just made an effort to be a part of her life when she was growing up. You can never get back all you missed out on with her, but you can be there for her now, if you really try. The thing is you have to realize that this perfect family fantasy that you have in your head is never gonna happen. My family life is with Luke." She turned back to her fiancé who was standing there silently. She was surprised he hadn't said anything. "You have anything to add?"
"Nope, I'm good. I think you just about covered it," he said walking back behind the counter and replacing the coffee pot back on the burner. "Besides, I pretty much said everything I had to say upstairs, right, Christopher?"
"Yeah, you made things very clear," Christopher grumbled.
Luke was about to say something else when the phone rang. He turned to answer it, "Luke's."
"So, you're alive," His ex-wife said sardonically.
"What the hell do you want, Nicole?" He asked impatiently turning back to Lorelai.
Lorelai looked at him and mouthed, "Nicole?"
Luke nodded uncomfortably shrugging his shoulders, and continued to Nicole, "This is getting a little obsessive. What's going on? Did your new marriage fall apart already and you decided you want go slumming again?"
"Don't flatter yourself," Nicole snapped back. "Believe me the last thing in the world I want to do is be calling you, but I have no choice according to my bosses. This is work-related."
"Work-related? Wow, you must me making some big bucks if you're calling me on a Sunday. Now, tell what your job could possibly have to do with me? You're a lawyer and I'm just the lowly diner owner you used to be married to. I fail to see the connection."
"I've been calling you for three weeks. Are you honestly telling me that you haven't talked to Taylor in that time?"
"I've been out of town for two weeks, so I just got your messages late last night."
"Right," she said skeptically. "That's the same line you had Caesar and Lane feeding me when I've called the diner."
"It's the truth. I have been out of town."
Lorelai having had enough of the one-sided conversation she was hearing, slid off her stool and walked behind the counter and whispered in Luke's ear in a sultry voice, "I'm really glad you came home, too. I missed having you in our bed, doing all kinds of dirty things to me." She wrapped her arm around him and began lightly peppering his neck with kisses. It may have been wrong, but he smiled a little at her obvious jealousy.
"I'm sorry, Luke," Nicole said in an exasperated voice. "I know better. I know from personal experience that it's like pulling teeth to get you to leave Stars Hollow."
"Well, maybe you don't know me as well as you think you do." He sighed as Lorelai continued what she was doing and lowered her hand to his butt.
"So, if you were out of town, where exactly were you?" She knew he wouldn't be able to come up with an answer. She was sure he was just dodging her calls.
"Not that it's any of your business, but I was in Philadelphia," He said as Lorelai started to move her hand to the front of his jeans. He grabbed her hand to stop her, not willing to let things go that far while people were in the diner. "Lorelai, stop it."
"Fine," she pouted and stopped what she was doing.
"Why am I not surprised that Lorelai's there?" Nicole asked sarcastically. "So, are you sleeping with her yet? I always knew it was only a matter of time before you did."
"Look, can we wrap this up? I have work to do."
"So, you're not going to answer my question?"
"Sure, I'll answer your question. None of your goddamn business! That's the nice thing about a divorce, Nicole! I don't have to tell you shit about what goes on in my private life!" He slammed the phone back onto its cradle, grabbed Lorelai by the hand and led her through the curtain and said, "Caesar, you're in charge!" When they reached the apartment and he locked the door behind him, he turned Lorelai around so that she was pinned against the frosted glass in the door. He then proceeded to kiss her passionately, plundering her mouth with his tongue as he lifted her up slightly, running his hand under her skirt and stroking her thigh. She wrapped her arms around him, anxious to feel all of him pressing into her. He released her mouth and whispered in a gravelly voice, "Do you have any idea what you were doing to me down there?"
"I think I have a pretty good idea," she replied as she reached between them, undid the button and zipper on his jeans and slipped her hand inside, causing him to groan at the contact. "That was kind of the point," she said and gasped as he turned the tables on her and moved hand from her thigh to the inside of her panties, yanking them down. She kicked them away as he lifted her up so that she was straddling him.
"This is the way you wanted it last night, isn't it?" He growled into her ear as he began to ravage her neck with his lips and teeth much as he had the night before.
"God, Yes!" She hissed as he gave her what she wanted.
Rory walked into the diner and stared a little bewildered as she noticed her dad sitting at the far end of the counter and her mom's purse sitting on the other end of the counter, but there was no sign of her or Luke. As she stood there, Caesar came out of the kitchen, carrying plates of food, setting one in front of her dad and another at the opposite end, where her mother had obviously been sitting at some point. "Hey, Caesar, Have you seen my mom and Luke?"
"Yeah, he answered. "This is her food. She was here a little while ago, but then Luke got a call from Nicole and he started yelling. You know how he gets, then he just said I was in charge and they went upstairs."
"Nicole called? As in Luke's ex-wife?" She was surprised by this. She wondered why she'd be calling him when their marriage didn't exactly end on the best of terms.
"Yeah, she's been calling here for a coupla' weeks now. I kept telling her he wasn't here, but she acted like she didn't believe me. Like I'd lie about something like that. You want anything?" He asked her picking up the order pas Luke had left behind.
"Yeah, coffee, cheeseburger, rare and chili fries. Thanks." Caesar poured her a cup of coffee and returned to the kitchen as she sank down on the empty stool next to her mom's.
"If you ask me," Babette said. "The way those two were looking at each other, I'd say they went upstairs for a little nooner."
"You don't know for sure that that's what they're doing," Christopher said not wanting to admit to himself that she was probably right. He turned to the plate of food in front of him and began to eat.
"Oh, come on, Christopher. It was pretty obvious with the way she was attacking him while he was on the phone."
"It looked like she was a little jealous to me," Morey added as Caesar returned from the kitchen with their food, planting a big plate of pancakes in front of Babette and a burger in front of Morey.
"Thanks, Caesar," Babette said. "This oughtta help my stomach from feeling like it's gonna turn inside out."
"No prob," he replied as he went back to the kitchen to get started on Rory's burger.
"I don't know, Morey. I don't see my mom being the jealous type. Luke, yeah, but not Mom."
"Are you kidding? She was totally jealous from the second Luke started dating Nicole and they had never even dated at that point."
"Barbette's got a point, Honey," Miss Patty added as she walked in the door mid-conversation. "And when Rachel came back to town and Luke hooked back up with her, you should have heard her pumping me for information about her. Your mom's got a jealous streak worse than Luke's. She's just more subtle about it than he is." Patty walked to the doorway of the kitchen and yelled, "Caesar, darling, can I get an order of chocolate chip pancakes here?"
"You got it, Miss Patty," he called back.
"You too, huh?" Rory asked.
"Oh, honey, I hope you never have a hangover this bad. I wonder what the chances are of getting Caesar to leave the kitchen long enough to get me some coffee." She sank down into the chair opposite Morey.
"I got it," Rory said as she walked behind the counter and retrieved the pot. She poured Patty a cup and topped off Babette and Morey's while she was at it before returning to her seat.
"Luke doesn't mind you just walking behind the counter like that?" her dad asked incredulously.
"No, he doesn't. I'm family to him and besides that I've helped out around here before. Like when his uncle died four years ago and he was busy trying to make funeral arrangements. Mom and I both helped out then."
"So, he just put you two to work?"
"No, he didn't. We volunteered to help because he'd done so much for us. We had to be there for him when he needed help and we didn't mind doing it. That's what people who care about each other do. Unlike some people, who make their daughters promise after promise, always swearing that this time will be different and then doing the same old tired crap over and over again."
"I'm sorry, Rory. I drank too much and I said some things that were out of line."
"You know, that bit's getting tired too," she said then added in a mocking voice, "'I'm sorry, Rory. I was drunk. I didn't mean to humiliate you and your mother. I just can't take it that your mom's happy with anyone but me.'"
"I've never said that," Christopher said defensively.
"No, but that's what it boils down to. You say you're her friend, but if you were truly her friend, you'd let go of your own selfish interests and realize that she is happy with Luke and that he gives her all she needs. It doesn't matter that he's small-town and you're uptown or that you have big buckets of money and he doesn't. He loves Mom and she loves him and they make each other insanely happy."
"It's kind of sickening, sometimes," Patty chimed in. "But it's also romantic. It kind of reminds me of my third marriage," she said with a smile as she internally reminisced.
"What are you even still doing here, Dad? I figured Luke would've tossed your ass out of here by now."
"Well, he didn't."
"That just shows that he's the bigger person if he's willing to put up with you being around after what happened last night."
"Rory, I'm sorry. Really sorry."
"I know, Dad you're always sorry, but you never do anything to change it." She got up, walked behind the counter to grab a to-go cup, poured her coffee into it and called to the kitchen. "Hey, Caesar, can I get that burger to go?"
"Sure thing, Kid!' He called back.
"So, you're leaving?"
"Yep." Caesar stepped out of the kitchen and handed her a Styrofoam to-go container. "Thanks, Caesar. Tell Mom and Luke I'll see them at home later."
"Will do."
Rory took her order and left the diner not once looking back at her father.