The next morning Luke went to the diner early and made Rachel breakfast like he had promised, talking with her afterwards while she waited for her cab. When they saw the yellow sedan pull up next to the diner they walked outside, Luke helping her put her bags into the truck.

Rachel went over to the back door of the car, setting her hand on the handle as she looked back at him. "It was great seeing you again, Luke."

"Same here."

"I'll check back in with you when I get the chance, but in the meantime remember that threatening teenage boys can get you in trouble now that you're an adult. So if you have to do it, make sure there's no proof." She said, making him smile.

"I'll make sure of that."

Rachel smiled back at him, leaning in to give him a quick kiss on the lips. Nothing romantic, just a simple goodbye. "Bye, Luke." She said, opening the door and climbing inside.

"Bye, Rachel." He said, closing the door for her. He watched as the cab drove off, waving to her through the car window.

"You sad she's gone?" Lorelai asked, walking up behind him on the sidewalk.

Luke turned to look at her, smiling. "No, I'm alright." He said, truthfully. "What are you doing up this early?"

"My bed suddenly got very cold when you left. I couldn't fall back to sleep."

"You want some breakfast? We can go inside and I'll have Caesar make you something."

"Nah, I was gonna go into the inn early today to get some stuff done. I'll get something there."

"Okay, I'll see you later." Luke said, watching her as she walked off without saying another word.

Getting most of her work done earlier that day, Lorelai was able to leave the inn and get home by two. Normally she would have stopped by the diner for a bite to eat after a long day's work, but she wasn't sure she was in the mood to after what she'd seen this morning.

She had been pulling up to the diner in her jeep when she saw their kiss. She knew it was nothing to worry about, not that she even had any real hold on him, but it still bothered her to watch. And now she couldn't even bring it up to him since she had already accused him of sleeping with Rachel the night before. It would make her sound insanely jealous, something she was already getting enough crap for from her daughter about. So instead, she would just try her best to look past it.

Suddenly she heard the front door open, not wanting to look like she was sitting in the kitchen obsessing over a man again, she quickly grabbed a magazine off the dining table in front of her and opened it up.

Luke appeared in the kitchen moments later, stopping when he noticed her sitting at the table. "Hey." He said, surprised to see her. "You're home early."

"Hoping for an empty house?" Lorelai asked, smiling at him as she closed the magazine and set it back down.

"No, only pointing out that you are home early."

"Slow day." She said with a shrug. "They come about as often as Halley's comet."

Luke glanced into Rory's room then back at Lorelai. "Is Rory home yet?"

"You really don't want to be alone with me here, do you?"

"That is not why I'm wondering."

"Yeah, why is it then?"

"I have something I want to show you both." He said, keeping it as cryptic as possible.

"She'll be here any minute." She said, looking over at him curiously. "What are you showing us?"

"You will have to wait for Rory to get here to find out."

"Can I have a hint?" She asked, eagerly.

"Your hint is to wait till Rory gets home."

"Are you showing me Rory? Because honestly, Luke, I know what my daughter looks like by now."

"Just wait."

"I'm not good with waiting. I start creating random scenarios in my head, and that is never a good thing."

"You are an adult, you can wait a few minutes for your daughter to get home."

"Is it a good thing or a bad thing?"

"Or apparently you aren't."

"I gotta know, good or bad?"

"I think it would be a good thing if you like it."

"Oh, is it a slip and slide?"

"It's fifty degrees out."

"Is it a bunny?"

"Yes, it is." Luke said, sarcastically. "I'm a magician and it's been hiding under my hat the whole time."

"You can hide a rabbit in a baseball cap?"

"It makes my trick further advanced than all the others."

"Does it involve snacks?"

"Will you knock it off."

"Well, I'm starving."

"Wait."

They listened as the front door opened, then in unison they said, "Finally."

Lorelai hopped up from her chair, smiling over at him. "Get whatever you want to show us."

"We have to walk to it."

"Rory, keep on your shoes." Lorelai called out, grabbing onto Luke's arm and dragging him with her to the foyer. She let go of him and grabbed her coat, putting it on as she slipped both feet into her shoes.

"What's going on?" Rory asked, looking at both of them curiously.

"I told your mom I wanted to show you both something," Luke started to explain.

"Oh no, how long ago was that?"

"Like two minutes ago."

"That's two minutes too long!"

"Come on, let's go." Lorelai said, shoving them toward the door. She linked arms with her daughter as they started walking, letting Luke lead the way. "Where is it?"

"You will see when we get there."

"Is this like some trick to get us to go for a walk?"

Rory chimed in. "That'd be a good trick."

"It's not a trick." Luke said.

"Give us another hint." Lorelai insisted.

"Use your energy for walking faster instead of talking and we will get there faster."

"So, it's a 'there'."

Rory pointed over at the diner as they walked through the square. "Oh, is it Luke's?"

"Yeah, it is." Luke replied with a nod. "I dragged you two blocks so I could show you the diner you go to every single day."

Lorelai frowned at him. "That's not very fun."

"It's not the diner."

Lorelai leaned over to Rory as they walked and whispered, "You think we could break him before we get there?"

"It's hard to break Luke, but if anyone could, it would be us." Rory whispered back.

"You aren't breaking me." Luke said, cutting in. "You are also really bad at whispering."

"Shoot." Lorelai said, snapping her fingers. "Now he knows our plan."

"We are almost there."

"This surprise is exhausting." Lorelai said with an exhale as they started walking over the footbridge. "I wonder where the Armbrusters are."

"The who?"

"Mean duck family." Rory explained.

"Of course." Luke said, walking them through a wooded path. When they started to reach the end of it he stopped suddenly, turning around. "Okay, stop. We're here."

Lorelai looked around with squinted eyes. "Our surprise is a bunch of trees?"

"Lorelai, close your eyes." Luke said, getting her to close her eyes. He watched as she left one open slightly, still able to see. "I can see you peeking." He said, walking behind her and putting his hand over her eyes and his other on her shoulder so he could guide her. He walked them a little further on the path then stopped, keeping her eyes covered. He watched as Rory saw the inn, a big smile forming on her face as she looked over at him. "Ready?" He asked, speaking right next to her ear.

"Has my nagging you not already made that clear?" Lorelai asked. She felt his hands move away from her face and opened her eyes, looking over their surroundings. Right in front of her was a beautiful old inn, known to her already, though she had forgotten about it completely. She glanced over at Luke, still unclear on what this meant. "What are we doing at The Dragonfly?"

"Well, you are always talking about how you and Sookie want to open your own inn someday, and I don't know if this is the kind of place you are looking for, but if it is, and you like it, I already talked to Fran who owns the place and she willing to give you a great deal for it. I'm not sure what your budget is, but I could cover whatever is leftover cost wise. I could be a partial owner, or an investor, whatever you are comfortable with. And it needs a lot of work too, y'know, to get it up to standards, but once it's done you could make turnover by year two." He explained as Lorelai stared at him in amazement the whole time.

"Mom, are you going to say anything?" Rory asked, smirking at her mother's bemusement.

"This place is beautiful." Lorelai said, looking back at the inn.

"You like it?" Luke asked.

"I love it." Lorelai said, smiling over at him. "Can we look around?"

"I got the keys last night after work." Luke said, pulling them out of his pocket.

"That's why you were late." Rory pointed out.

"I had to be brief about it. If I would have told you anything else you would have broken me for sure." Luke said, glancing over at Lorelai who was looking at the Inn with amazement. "Shall we?"

"Yes, definitely, let's see it." Lorelai said, walking with them to the porch.

Luke unlocked the door, holding a hand up to let them walk past him and inside. "I opened the windows earlier so we could see and to air it out a bit. There were also a ton of cobwebs in here, walked right into one of them." He said, watching as both the girls went around admiring the place.

"I can't believe this place has just been sitting here untouched, it has so much potential." Lorelai said, running her hand across an old 'The Dragonfly' sign that was hung where she assumed the reservation area had been. Just then there was a knock at the front door, causing them to look over toward it. She looked back at Luke, questionably. "Do you already have a guest booked?"

"Wow, when you have an idea you sure commit to it." Rory said.

"It's not a guest." Luke said, smiling at them before he walked over and opened the door.

"Sookie?" Lorelai said, noticing her walking inside.

"Luke, you weren't exaggerating on the phone." Sookie said, looking around as she walked over to Lorelai. "This place is amazing."

"You knew about this?"

"Only for a few hours. Luke said to meet you here after I saw you walk by."

"So, what do you think?" Luke asked, walking back over to them. "Is it something you would be interested in owning?"

Sookie walked down the hallway then yelled back to them, "Oh, we could put the kitchen back here!"

"I think that is a yes." Lorelai said with a laugh, looking over at her giddy friend as she came back toward them.

"So, this means you are buying the inn?" Rory asked.

"They can look around more before they decide." Luke said. "You haven't seen the upstairs yet, or the stables outside."

Lorelai gasped. "Stables? We could have horses?" She said, grabbing onto Sookie's arm. "Sookie, we could have horses!"

Rory chuckled as she glanced over at Luke. "I'm not sure they'll have to see anything else to decide."

Over the next hour Luke took them all on a tour around the place. He showed them upstairs to where all the rooms had been, the barn outside that housed the stables, and the trails behind the inn that they could use to walk the horses. When they had seen everything they walked back to the front of the property, admiring the whole building again.

"Lorelai, what do you think?" Sookie asked.

"It's everything we wanted." Lorelai said.

"It's yours if you want it." Luke told them.

Sookie looked over at Lorelai and smiled. "I do if you do, Lorelai."

"I do, I want it." Lorelai said, happy tears forming in her eyes. "It's perfect." Lorelai said, staring back at the inn.

"I'll let Fran know so we can start moving forward on it." Luke said.

"Oh, does someone want to help me measure the rooms?" Sookie asked, pulling a tape measure out of her purse.

"You brought a tape measure?" Lorelai asked with a chuckle.

"I need to know if the kitchen is big enough."

"I'll help you, Sookie." Rory said, walking with her toward the door.

"And if it's not big enough, we can knock down some walls." Luke called out as they walked into the inn.

"You shouldn't have told her that, she will have you in here with a sledgehammer tomorrow." Lorelai joked.

"I'd be happy to do it, but we should probably wait till after we pay for the place."

Lorelai smiled over at him. "What made you think of this?"

"Well, when I was going for my run Rachel and I found it. We forgot it was even back here, so while she was taking pictures, I looked around. There was just something about this place that seemed like you, like it was somewhere you were meant to be. Plus, it's in Stars Hollow, so you don't have to drive far every day and we get a lot of tourists here."

"But you went to Fran, you arranged the whole thing, and you are offering to help us pay for it."

"You have helped me so much this last month." Luke said, looking over at her. "I don't know if I can ever pay you back for everything you have done, but I'm hoping this is a start."

"This isn't just a start, Luke. This has been my dream for years."

"Hey, you're always telling me all that crap about dreams coming true, right?"

"It's not looking like crap right now." Lorelai said, smiling as she linked arms with him. "Thank you, Luke.

"This is your thank you." He said, gesturing towards the inn.

"You are really good at thank you's."

"Well, I considered getting you a card or some flowers, but that stuff is so overdone." Luke joked. "So, you're sure this is the place you want?"

"One hundred percent sure. I couldn't have picked a better place." She said, staring at it awhile before glancing over at Luke. "Hey, Luke?"

"Yeah?" He asked, looking at her.

"I think we should kiss."

"Ah," He paused, unsure of what to say. "You think we should-"

She cut him off. "Like in front of the town, when we say goodbye and stuff like that. We should kiss, that way it's more believable that we are a couple."

"Can't we just tell them we don't like kissing in public?"

"Is that true though, do you not kiss in public?"

"I have before."

"So, they probably already know you don't mind doing it, so they will figure out we're lying. And they know I'm not shy."

"I guess we could kiss in front of them sometimes."

Lorelai smiled lightly. "Though, we should probably do a practice kiss first. It would be pretty embarrassing if we went in for a kiss and bumped foreheads. They would know it was our first time doing it."

"A practice kiss?"

"Yeah, nothing special, just a small little peck on the lips."

Luke stared at her a moment, waiting to see if she was being serious, and he gathered from the looks of it that she was. "Okay." He said, hoarsely.

Lorelai stepped in front of Luke, looking straight into his eyes as she set her hand lightly on his cheek. She felt as his hands brushed her sides, wrapping around her body and pulling her closer to him.

At that moment neither of them had to think about it any longer, both leaning in and letting their lips meet in the middle. It was short and sweet, but it was definitely more than a peck. When they pulled back they both stared into each other's eyes, unable to break away from the other's gaze. They started gravitating back toward one another when they heard the inn door opening, splitting apart instantly.

"There is no kitchen space here! We need to extend it and I'll need plenty of ventilation." Sookie said, coming outside with Rory right behind her. "And an area for an outdoor fireplace for barbecues. Plus, storage. Where do these people put anything? Ooh! And a pantry. And a canning room. And I'd love to smoke our own meat."

"Absolutely!" Lorelai said.

Luke leaned towards her and whispered, "Really?"

"She will calm down eventually then we can get rid of a few things on her list."

"Good." Luke said with a nod. "Are we ready to leave yet?"

"No!" Lorelai and Sookie said in unison.

"Before we left the house you said you were starving."

"I am, but I'm not ready to leave here yet." Lorelai said.

"Okay, how about I go back to the diner and get us all some dinner, then we can eat here." Luke suggested.

"Oh, yes!" Lorelai said, excitedly. "And bring a blanket, it will be like a picnic."

"There are benches in the back."

"It's a picnic, we're supposed to be eating on the ground."

"Says who?"

"Every picture you've ever seen of a picnic shows people eating on the ground."

"Yes, and every time I have seen a picture of people eating on the ground I've thought, what the hell are you people doing sitting on the ground? Spring for some beach chairs, you cheapskates."

"Fine, we can sit on the benches."

"I'll go with you, Luke." Rory said, stepping over next to him. "Help you carry the food back."

"Alright, we'll be back in a bit." Luke said. "And if you go inside, don't stay in there too long. We haven't tested the place for mold yet."

"Pstt, mold is on half the food in my fridge. I'll be fine." Lorelai said as Luke and Rory walked off to the trails.

"This was a really sweet thing for you to do." Rory said, smiling over at Luke as they walked.

"It's no big deal."

"It is a big deal." She said, using a serious tone. "No one has ever done anything like this for her. I can tell she really appreciates it."

"She deserves it."

Rory walked a little further, thinking to herself before looking over at him. "Luke?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you ever going to ask my mom out?"

"What?" Luke said, surprised as he looked back at her.

"You like her, don't you?"

Luke looked down at his feet as he walked. "I like her."

"And you've thought about asking her out before?"

"Rory, your mom and I are just friends."

"But have you ever thought about it?"

Luke nodded. "I have."

"Why didn't you then?"

"You and your mom are very important to me. I couldn't risk messing up what we have."

"What makes you think you would mess it up?"

"Your mom and I don't have the best relationship history."

"Maybe you just weren't with the right person."

"Even with the right person, relationships are difficult."

"You two are so stubborn." She said, shaking her head at him. "One day you will realize how stupid you are both being."

"And I'm sure you will be there to rub it in our faces."

"Sookie will be there too. And she does her 'I told you so's' in song." Rory joked as they kept walking.

After they picked up all the food at the diner they headed back to the inn. When the girls mentioned they were disappointed they couldn't see the entrance of the inn while they were eating, Luke moved the benches to the front yard so they could. The four of them spent the meal talking about the place, thinking up every idea imaginable that they could do there.

"Sun's starting to go down." Sookie pointed out as they all finished up eating.

"We can watch the sunset on the inn." Lorelai said.

Rory crossed her arms. "It's getting cold."

"And Jackson is coming over to my house after he's done working." Sookie said.

"I have my call with April." Luke added.

"Fine, you all broke me." Lorelai said with a smile, shaking her head. "Let's go." She said, all of them standing up and leaving.

They walked with Sookie back to her house and said their goodbyes to her before they headed back home. With their lengthy brainstorming it put them back a little later than planned.

Luke looked at his watch as they walked through the front door and into the foyer. "I'm already a couple minutes late on my call." He said, walking straight to the phone on the desk and picking it up. He started dialing while Lorelai and Rory walked over and took a seat on the couch. "Hey, sweetie." He said, smiling as he spoke to his daughter on the other line. "Sorry I'm late for our call, I just got home."

Rory looked over at Lorelai and whispered, "He's a great dad, don't you think?"

"Yeah." Lorelai said, smiling over at Luke.

"No, I wasn't working. I was having dinner with Lorelai, Rory, and our friend Sookie." Luke said into the phone. "It was nice. How was your day?" He asked, listening to her reply. "Really? That sounds like fun." He said, walking into the kitchen with the phone.

Lorelai couldn't believe the difference one day made. Yesterday she was freaking out thinking Luke had fallen for Rachel again, and today he was helping her get the inn of her dreams. And that kiss, she knew it was only meant as a practice, but she had to admit it was pretty damn good. She decided right then she would have to go to the diner as much as possible in order to get those kisses. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, maybe even evening pie if she had to.