"I don't get it!" Lane exclaimed. "I thought you said you were going to go for it? On your birthday you told me you weren't letting him go, what changed?"
"I thought I was, but when we were sitting there. . . on the bridge. . . I just couldn't do it. I'm giving myself whiplash! One minute it's right, one minute it's wrong. . . The way the whole town looked at me and him when he just. . . popped up. . . . do you remember how messy it was when Mom and Luke broke up? Everyone gossiping. . . wearing those ribbons. . . oh those stupid ribbons! I can't put Orie through that!"
Lane sighed heavily. "Rory, do you remember what you said to me right after Logan found out?"
"Yeah but Lane. . . "
"No Rory, listen. You said that you need to stop worrying about what people think about you. Worrying about other people's opinions, that's what kept Logan from Orie for five years. That's what made you lie to all of us. Don't think about what everyone else wants. . . think about what you want. It doesn't matter if the rest of the town is happy, if you're not happy. So the question is what does Rory Gilmore want?"
"I want. . . I want. . . LUKE?" Rory slammed on her brakes as she pulled in front of her house.
"Luke?" Lane gasped, "Rory what?"
Rory watched out her car window, a flannel clad figure milling around on the roof of her house. "Lane, I'll have to call you back. I think Luke's on my roof."
Rory stabbed the end button on the phone, and slid out of her car. "Luke?"
Luke walked over to the edge of her roof. "When's the last time you cleaned out your gutters?"
"Excuse me?"
Luke started to descend the ladder that was propped against the house. "Your gutters are full of leaves. You've got to keep them clean. God forbid your house catch on fire, all those leaves would just fuel the flames. If you can't do it, call Jess. . . .or Logan. . . Have Logan pay someone if he has to, just keep them clean for crying out loud."
Rory threw her arms around Luke, and squeezed him. "I've missed you too."
Luke shrugged her off. "I've got to get back to the diner."
"Luke. . . "
Luke carried the ladder over, placing it in the bed of the truck. "You're bringing Orie over to our house to trick or treat next week right? Your mom's going to pull sausages out of me again, Sookie sent her these special sausages, they're so awful Paul Anka won't even eat them, but apparently they make great intestines.. . . you know Orie loves that kind of stuff. "
Rory nodded, her eyes brimming with happy tears. "We'll be there".
He slid into his truck. "Good See you then."
...
"I didn't expect to see you here!" Mitchum chuckled as Logan walked into his office inside the Huntzberger's mansion.
"The same could be said for you." Logan huffed, instantly upset by Mitchum being home. "Don't you have some Pottery teacher to flirt with or something?"
"She only works on Thursdays." Mitchum replied, deflecting Logan's insult. "What brings you around here? You finally forgive your mother and myself?."
"Unfortunately I still work for you. I need the DataFlex account file and Janine said you had it here."
"How's Orie?"
Logan sighed. "Do you have the file or not?"
Mitchum wheeled his plush leather chair over to the filing cabinet. "You're not going to tell me how my own granddaughter is?"
"She's fine." Logan snapped.
Mitchum pulled out the file, and handed it to Logan.
"Thanks." Logan jeered and began to walk out.
"Logan?"
Logan turned around. "what?"
"I'd like to be a part of my granddaughter's life."
Logan chuckled. "Over my dead body. No. . . not even then, because Rory wouldn't allow it."
"And here I thought Honor was the dramatic one."
"Orie was here, in your house, for the sole purpose of you meeting her, and what did you do? Attacked her mother! In front of her!"
"I would like to formally apologize for the other night. I am sorry that it got so ugly, especially in front of Orie. While I do still think that you need to play it safe, and that Rory may have ulterior motives, I am embarrassed at the way I lashed out. I hope that you understand that I only had your best intentions in mind.``
"My intentions? Pshh you had your money's intentions in mind."
"Believe what you will, but I'm serious. You're a father now, you should understand where I'm coming from."
"Yes, you know all about being a father right? Since you're such a good one and all."
"Logan, quit being difficult. You know my health isn't the best and I'm not getting any younger. I'd like to at least know my granddaughter."
"Don't throw the sympathy card at me! You're the one that dug this ditch."
"And I apologized for that!" Mitchum bellowed.
"I know you hate her, but Rory is a part of her life, dad. if you don't accept her, you don't accept Orie." Logan stormed out of the office, slamming the door behind him.
…
Rory grasped the warm cup, letting the warmth of her coffee warm her cool hands. She grabbed her book and sank down on the couch cocooning herself in a massive fleece Yale blanket, one of the very last gifts her grandpa had given her. She slipped her book from it's bag, revelling in the smell of fresh bound leather, crisp paper, and the fact that no one else was home to call out her weird habit of smelling books. A thunderstorm raged outside, Rain spitting at the window, making a lovely backdrop for a peaceful night at home. She no sooner cracked open the spine of the book and the doorbell rang. Rory sighed, unravelling from her swaddle. She padded over to the door, muttering under her breath the whole way. Logan stood on her porch, hovering under the awning trying to stay out of the rain.
"Logan?!" she exclaimed.
Logan smiled. "I. . . uh. . I was in Hartford, and decided to stop by to see Orie on my way home."
Rory's face fell.
"I hope it's ok. . ." Logan stammered, "Sorry for just popping in unannounced"
Rory shook her head. "It's not that. It's just, Orie's not here. She stayed over at my mom and Luke's to help make the caramel apples to hang in the trees."
"They're hanging caramel apples in trees?" Logan asked, a puzzled look across his face.
Rory giggled, "It's a Lorelai thing."
A sudden gust of wind blew the rain sideways, water pelting Logan in the face.
"I'm being so rude! Come in!"
Logan walked in, the cup of coffee, cozy blanket, and the new book catching his eye. He glanced over at Rory, clad in an oversized Chilton sweatshirt and leggings. She had on a pair of thick gray socks, pulled up high onto her calves. His mouth formed a perfect O as he realized what she had been doing. "I'm interrupting your 'You' time aren't I?"
Rory shrugged him off. "It's not a big deal. I just figured since Orie was gone for the night I'd finally get around to reading the new Grisham book I bought a few weeks ago."
He picked up the book, examining the cover. "You sniffed it didn't you?"
"What?" Rory said, blushing. "I did no such thing."
"Aw c'mon Ace, you and I both know you totally sniffed that book. You're a grown woman in your own house, you do you."
Rory stuck her tongue out at him. "Do you want to watch something? We don't have cable, but we have Netflix, Amazon Prime, and. . ."
A loud crack of thunder rippled through the sky, and the lights flickered. Logan glanced at Rory. "Sure, tv sounds good. . . . If the power doesn't go out."
"Don't be silly. We've lived in this house three years and the power never. . . " A streak of lightning illuminated the sky, and suddenly the house went dark.
Logan turned on his phone's flashlight, holding it under his chin like he was in some kind of horror movie. "First time for everything I guess?"
Rory sighed, grabbing Logan by the hand. "Shine your flash light over here." She led Logan into the kitchen to a small hutch in the corner. She pulled out a box of candles and a small lighter. She lit one and passed it to Logan. "Here help me."
Soon the living room was illuminated by dozens of white pillar candles. Rory fished a pizza box from the fridge, carrying it into the living room. "Guess we should finish this before it goes bad."
He grimaced. "How old is this pizza?"
"Whatever happened to Omnia Paratus?"
"Ready for anything. . . like jumping off scaffolding, or cliff diving while you're three sheets to the wind. . . not eating something that could have been lurking in the back of a Gilmore's fridge for weeks."
"Relax Huntsberger, Orie and I just ordered it last night."
Logan opened the box, revealing a deluxe pizza with the works. "There's only one piece missing. Did you two split a slice?"
Rory laughed. "This was our second pizza. We ate the entire first."
A look of astonishment crossed Logan's face. "You almost seem proud of that. . . .Odette wouldn't even ask for seconds on a salad."
Rory sat her slice of pizza down, silence dampening the light mood.
"I. . . I'm sorry. . .I shouldn't have. . ."
Rory shook her head. "No. It's ok. She's part of your past, I mean. . .you were engaged to her. It's ok to talk about her."
"Good to know." Logan replied, swallowing hard.
Rory picked a cold mushroom off her pizza, wiggling it for a minute before abandoning it on her plate. "Was there. . . anyone before Odette?"
"Do you really want to do this?:
"It's going to be weird until we talk about it. We might as well get it out in the open."
"I didn't date for a long time after you turned down my proposal. . . not even hookups. Then one night Colin, Finn, and Robert dragged me out and I went home with a lovely airline stewardess named Brooklyn who stole all my toilet paper and left before I woke up." Logan laughed. "Finn likes to call her the one who got away."
"More like the bullet you dodged." Rory snapped, her face green with jealousy.
"Then there was Isla. I met Isla right after I moved back to London. She was taking classes at Oxford. We were together for about four years."
"Four years? Why did you two break up?"
"She wanted to get married, start a family. I. . .well after the last proposal I gave, I didn't plan on giving any more."
Rory winced, Logan's words highlighting just how big of a wound she had left on him.
"After Isla I threw myself into work, until my parents introduced me to Odette. What about you?"
Rory shrugged. "Eh, a few awkward dates here and there. Paris was on a mission there for a while. She even made me a Tinder account. She's absolutely crazy."
Logan laughed. "And yet you still chose to name our daughter after her?"
Rory bit her lip, hesitating. "But Logan . . . there was one person. A little while after Orie was born. I . .. I slept with Jess."
All the color drained from Logan's face. "YOU SLEPT WITH JESS?"
"Was I supposed to be some spinster who locked herself in a tower and never dated?"
"But he. . . he's . . . Jess. Man, I'm glad I punched him now."
"How was I supposed to get over you, if I didn't try? You have to realize I thought things were over for good between us. I had been in such an awful slump since having Orie.. . . it sounds selfish, but Jess wanted me and it felt good to be wanted."
"I wanted you." Logan said, his voice almost a whisper.
"Logan I. . ." She glanced up at him, her words tied up in a moment of stillness. Rory quickly turned her head, brushing off the heated tension rising between them, and pretended to be engrossed in the thunderstorm outside. Logan grabbed her face, unable to contain himself any longer. He grasped her chin gently, pulling his lips to hers. Much to his surprise Rory melted into him like ice cream in a warm porcelain bowl, welcoming his lips. His mouth devoured hers, happy to be reunited after all these years.
Electricity rippled across her skin,shutting down every instinct, every part of her brain that was screaming not to do this. This reckless behavior made her feel more alive than she had in a long time. She was good at playing cool, full of logic and feigned detachment, but secretly she had ached for Logan's touch since the inn in New Hampshire.
His smell; sandalwood, peppered with notes of cedar and spice filled her nose, making her moan loudly, embarrassing her that her body could make such an animalistic noise. She grabbed his neck, her fingers grasping at wisps of hair at the nape of his neck and pulled him even closer to her.
His hands slipped to her backside and he silently cursed the thin pair of leggings that she was wearing. She fumbled with the hem of her shirt, her whole body trembling with anticipation. Logan tugged his shirt off by the collar, tossing it onto the floor next to hers. She brushed her lips across his neck, her warm breath sending chills down his spine. Her mouth worked its way up to his ear lobe, nibbling softly before moving down to his collarbone, setting his skin ablaze where her lips touched. He lowered her onto the couch softly, as if she were made of porcelain. She stared up at him, Her blue eyes wide. He paused, noticing a hint of hesitation in her touch.
He rose up, rolling his body weight off of her. "Rory, we . . . we don't have to. We can stop if you this is too far let me know."
She shook her head. "I just missed you, that's all." She whispered before pulling him back on top of her.