All through dinner, Rory sat across from Luke and did her best to hide her smile from him by keeping her head down the entire time. Luke let it go on for a while, but he kept seeing her tongue poke through the space where her bottom front teeth used to be and, eventually, his curiosity got the best of him. Exasperated, he dropped his fork on his plate. The clatter drew everybody's attention and Luke was able to catch Rory's eye long enough to ask, "What's going on, Rory?"

Glancing at Lorelai, Rory nervously stuttered, "N-n-nothing."

"I don't think your mashed potatoes are that funny."

"They might be," Rory argued.

"Jess, are your mashed potatoes funny?"

"Yes, they keep telling jokes."

Luke scoffed, "Your mashed potatoes tell jokes? What kind of jokes?"

"The funny kind."

"Like?"

"What does a detective eat for lunch?"

"I don't know. What?"

"A case-adilla!"

Chuckling, Luke admitted, "That's pretty good." He let the kids laugh for a moment, but just when they started to believe he had forgotten his original question, he said, "I still want to know what's really going on though."

"Nothing is going on," Lorelai told him. "Rory's just really bad at keeping secrets."

"I am not!" shrieked Rory.

Narrowing his eyes, Luke asked, "What secret?" When Rory became very interested in picking apart her mashed potatoes instead of answering, Luke repeated, "What secret, Rory?"

"That it's your birthday," she mumbled quietly.

"That's not a secret."

"No," Lorelai agreed, shoving her chair away from the table. She walked out of the kitchen, but quickly returned carrying a bakery box, which she set down next to Luke's plate. "This was the secret."

"You know I don't like cake," Luke reminded her as he pushed his plate aside and pulled the bakery box into its place.

"You'll like this cake, Daddy," promised Rory.

"Is that so?"

"Uh huh. It's a carrot cake."

"That means it has vegetables," Jess explained.

"I don't know why anyone would want to ruin a perfectly good cake with vegetables," Lorelai complained as she reached over Luke's shoulder to open the bakery box.

"I don't know why anyone would want to ruin perfectly good vegetables with cake."

Lorelai wrinkled her nose in disgust. "I'm going to choose to ignore that, but only because it's your birthday."

"Best. Present. Ever."

Smacking Luke in the shoulder, Lorelai said, "Don't push it. I'm going to grab the candles and a knife, then you're going to eat your vegetable cake."

Luke grabbed her wrist to keep her from walking away. "Skip the candles."

"But we need candles, otherwise we can't sing and you can't make a wish."

"No singing. No wishes"

Lorelai stomped her foot and whined, "Come on, Luke. It's all part of the birthday fun."

"No," he insisted forcefully. "I'll eat the cake, but I draw the line at candles and singing and wishes."

"Spoilsport."

"It's my birthday."

"Fine. We'll do it your way."

"Thank you."

L&L L&L L&L

After the family party, Luke and Lorelai put the kids to bed and decided to call it an early night. While Lorelai was in the bathroom brushing her teeth, Luke was sitting in bed reading the new Stephen King novel that she had given him. He looked up when he heard the bathroom door open and smiled when he saw that Lorelai was wearing one of his flannel shirts.

The sight of his wife wearing his shirt never failed to turn Luke on. Lorelai was well aware of this fact and used it to her advantage on a regular basis. This time, however, she was wearing the flannel shirt for Luke's benefit.

With a predatory gleam in her eye, Lorelai sauntered across the room, climbed onto the bed, and straddled Luke's lap. Tossing his book aside, she asked, "Are you ready for the rest of your birthday present?"

Luke grabbed Lorelai by the back of her knees and yanked her closer. When her hips slammed into his, she collapsed against his chest. "Definitely," Luke growled, thrusting his hips upwards.

L&L L&L L&L

Slick with sweat and breathing heavily, Lorelai rolled off Luke's chest. "We should have birthday sex more often," she panted.

"We each only have one birthday a year and it seems weird to use other people's birthdays as a reason to have sex, so what do you suggest?"

"Half-birthday sex?"

Cocking one eyebrow, Luke asked, "Does that mean it will only be half as good?"

"I hope not, but if you're worried, we could just call it holiday sex."

"Birthdays aren't holidays."

"They should be."

"But they aren't."

Lorelai was silent for several minutes and Luke thought she had fallen asleep until she said, "What about celebration sex? Birthdays are celebrations."

"Lots of things are celebrations."

"And there are even more that could be. Think of all the amazing sex we could have."

"I didn't realize we weren't having amazing sex."

"Don't pout," Lorelai said, rolling onto her side to look at Luke. "Normally, we have great sex, but, when we're celebrating, we take it up a level."

"I guess I can live with that."

"I'm glad."

"So, since we have such amazing celebration sex, what should our next celebration be?"

"Thanksgiving. Obviously."

"That's only ten days away."

"Exactly."

"You're incorrigible."

Lorelai laughed as she slid her hand across Luke's waist to his hip and dragged herself closer to him. When she was pressed against his side, she slipped her leg over his and trailed a series of kisses over his chest, across his shoulder, and up his neck. Nipping at his jaw, she murmured, "I think the word you're looking for is insatiable."

"That too," groaned Luke.

"Poor Lucas, stuck with an incorrigible, insatiable wife. Whatever will you do?"

Without warning, Luke rolled over and pinned Lorelai to the mattress. "I'm going to celebrate."

L&L L&L L&L

Twenty minutes later, Luke was still struggling to catch his breath when he rolled out of bed and began stumbling around the room to retrieve the scattered bedding. He started by scooping up the blankets and dumping them on the foot of the bed, then he picked up Lorelai's pillow and tossed it to her. After grabbing his own pillow, he fell back into bed, moaning, "You were right."

With a satisfied sigh, Lorelai curled up next to Luke. "'Bout what?"

"Celebration sex is amazing."

"As good as birthday sex?"

"Yes. I'm already looking forward to Thanksgiving."

"Me too."

"How are we celebrating anyway?"

"With amazing sex. We already decided that," Lorelai reminded Luke, poking him in the ribs.

"Stop that," Luke snarled, swatting her hand away. "I meant besides sex."

"Why? Aren't I enough for you?" Lorelai wailed in an exaggerated Southern drawl.

"For the love of…you are a lot of work. I want to know how you want to celebrate as a family. With our children."

"Oh. In that case, sex would be inappropriate."

"Wildly."

"Well, since sex is out of the question, we could go the more traditional route and gorge ourselves on excessive amounts of food."

"I'm familiar with the concept. Are we having this feast at your parents' house?"

Recoiling in horror, Lorelai exclaimed, "God, no!"

"So, you want me to cook a feast just for us?"

Lorelai once again settled comfortably against Luke's side. "Actually, I've been thinking about that," she confessed.

"And you've come up with a plan that's going to be a lot of work for me, right?"

"Um, maybe," Lorelai replied hesitantly. Taking a deep breath, she began to ramble, "I've been thinking about how a lot of people, like Mia and Miss Patty and Gypsy, don't have any family in town and how they usually spend the day alone or with friends. That got me thinking about how great it would be if everybody could spend Thanksgiving together and I think I have a plan."

"You want to have Thanksgiving at the diner for the entire town," Luke guessed.

"Yeah. Well, just the people who don't have anywhere else to go. What do you think?"

"I think it's going to be a lot of work."

"Is that a yes?"

Luke sighed, "I better get some sleep while I still can."

"It is a yes!" Lorelai squealed, giving Luke a quick, tight hug. "This is going to be so much fun. And easier than you think."

"I doubt it."

L&L L&L L&L

It turned out that Luke was right about Lorelai's plan requiring more work than she anticipated, but, as Lorelai looked around at the townspeople who were spending Thanksgiving at the diner, she knew it had been worth the extra effort. When Luke walked up behind her, she smiled and commented, "Looks like everybody's having fun. We did good."

"You did good."

"You did most of the work."

"It was your plan."

"Like I said, we did good."

"Fine. We'll share the credit."

"I like it when I win."

"Tell me something I don't know."

"There's nothing left for us to do, except join the fun."

"It's a good thing the kids saved us a couple of seats," Luke joked, gently taking hold of Lorelai's hips and pushing her toward the table where Mia and the kids were waiting.

When they reached the table, Luke held Lorelai's chair for her and then sat down next to her. Once they were both seated, Lorelai asked, "Who's hungry?"

"Shouldn't we give thanks first?" wondered Luke.

Jess dropped the biscuit he was about to bite into and looked at Luke, his head tilted to one side. "Thanks for what?"

"Well, that we're not Native Americans who got their land stolen in exchange for smallpox infested blankets," Luke answered sarcastically.

"Amen," Lorelai declared with a definitive nod.

"Let's eat," added Rory.

"Amen," Lorelai said again.