Part Four

Disclaimer: Well if my plan to clone Tristan works out he could be mine ::sigh:: but until then none of this is mine.

A/N: Thanks to those who reviewed. I know w/ all the problems w/ the site it's been hard to get on and read. Well to make a long story short I'm at college in the middle of nowhere and I have to use my friends computer to post this cause I don't have the internet. It sucks but I'll try and post as often as I can. Please review and tell me what you think!

Part Four

They returned to the towels on the sand. Tristan resumed his former position lying on his stomach. Rory put on her sunglasses and removed a book from her bag and began to read. An hour passed in a surprisingly comfortable silence. Occasionally, when she was sure he wouldn't catch her Rory continued her study of him. She didn't know what to make of these feelings and she wasn't quite sure that she wanted to know. As she stared at him she noticed his well muscled back was beginning to become red.

"Tristan. Tristan!" she shouted and received no sign that he had heard her. Rory sighed and crawled over next to him. She looked down at his face half hidden from the sun. He was asleep, peacefully asleep. She smiled at the sight of him looking so angelic. Then remembered the whole ocean incident.

She leaned in close to his ear and screamed, "TRISTAN!"

He jumped so quickly that she didn't have time to move and this resulted in him knocking heads with her.

"Damn it Rory!"

"Ow, sorry but that's payback for you." She replied while rubbing her head where the collision had taken place.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yeah I have a hard head." She said with a smile.

"Don't I know it." He muttered thinking of how dense and clueless she could be at times.

"What?"

"Nothing." He said returning his gaze to her lovely face. He noticed that her pert nose was beginning to burn cause he few freckles to become more prominent giving her an even more innocent look.

"Looks like someone forgot the sunscreen." He said as he skimmed a finger down the curve of her nose.

Rory wrinkled her nose in distaste and retorted, "Well I'm not the only one. You should see your back."

Tristan tried to crane his head around to see his back but found it impossible but he could feel himself burning.

"I guess we should head in." he said reluctantly.

"Yeah." She agreed as her stomach began to growl.

"Looks like someone's hungry." He said laughing as she turned even pinker. "Want to get some lunch?" he asked hoping she'd agree.

"Well," she said thinking it over. She was hungry and she was having fun with him. "I guess so. But where are we eating at?"

"At the Café de Tristan of course." He replied in a mock French accent.

Rory laughed, "So your cook is going to make something."

"Hey, I can cook if I wanted too."

"Uh huh, sure." She responded.

"I can." He refuted.

"Well then make me lunch Mr. DuGrey." Rory said with a flip of her hair, her blue eyes twinkling at the prospect of Tristan actually cooking for her.

They gathered their things together and headed for his beach house. It was just as lovely as the one she was staying in, she thought as they approached the house. On the back porch they hung out their towels and left their sandals on the deck so they wouldn't track more sand into the house than necessary.

In the kitchen Rory sat at the counter in the middle of the large kitchen. Tristan was poking around the shelves looking for something, anything he could make for them.

"What do you want to drink? We have all different kinds of soda, bottled water, orange juice…" he asked.

"Do you have any coffee?" she asked thinking it had been hours since her last cup.

Tristan looked at her in disbelief. "It's 90 degrees out and you want coffee? Are you nuts?"

"Yes." Rory said with a smile.

"Yes, you want coffee or yes you're nuts?" He asked.

"Hmm both I guess. Blame my mother for both." She said with a wide grin.

"You can't have coffee." He stated.

"What? Yes I can. There's a Mr. Coffee over there. If you don't know how to work it—"

"I know how to work it. You've been out in the hot sun all day. You could be dehydrated, drink water." He ordered.

"No I want coffee." She responded stubbornly.

"Too bad. You can't have it. Drink water."

"But I want coffee."

He heaved an exaggerated sigh, "What you want and what you get are two different things."

"You're mean." She said with a pout as he handed her a bottle of water.

"Insulting me is not going to get you coffee any faster." He remarked dryly.

Tristan rummaged in the refrigerator as Rory grumbled about her lack of caffeine. Not seeing anything he could begin to make he went for an old stand-by.

"Spaghetti?" Rory asked laughing.

"Spaghetti a la Tristan, featuring the special ingredient bound to make your mouth water."

"And that would be…"

He shook his head and laughed. "That would be telling. And this is a secret."

He began to boil the water and sat down to talk with Rory cause as the saying goes 'a watched pot never boils'. After some more teasing about his cooking abilities and her coffee addiction Rory asked the question that had been on her mind since she had entered the house.

"Where are your parents? Shouldn't they be supervising your use of the oven?" adding a teasing note to the personal question.

"I'm here with my grandparents." He answered abruptly as his expression darkened.

"Oh."

Tristan ran his hand through his hair in distress. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bite your head off like that. I forget that just cause you go to Chilton doesn't mean that you're up on the recent events in Hartford."

"What events?" she asked timidly.

"My parents nasty divorce. It's creating quite the fodder for the society page. My grandfather thought it would be better for me to be here while they finalize everything. After his last heart attack the doctor ordered him to retire so he and my grandmother are here for the whole summer. And I'm here for the next 2 weeks."

"I'm sorry about your parents. If you ever need to talk…"

"Thanks but I'm fine."

"I see." Rory said and then arched her eyebrows, "I also see that your water is about to boil over hotshot."

"Shit!" he cursed as he looked over and tried to avert the crisis. He managed to get the situation under control. "Who knew trying boil water could be such a trial." He muttered to himself.

Rory overhearing the remark laughed softly. "Obviously you don't know my mother. She managed to burn water."

He shot her a quizzical glance, "You can't burn water." He said stating what he believed was obvious.

Rory cocked her head to the side as if weighing the fact. "That's true but you can evaporate the water and burn the pot."

Tristan chuckled at the thought of this sight, "She didn't."

"Oh but she did. This is why we now only order out for food. She got preoccupied by a Buffy marathon and completely forgot about the water she was boiling. And that is why we of the Gilmore clan rarely cook." She amended.

As he sat the plate of spaghetti in front of her he awaited anxiously for the first bite. She just kept looking at the food.

"Well are you going to eat it?" he asked impatiently.

"I was waiting for you to try it first and if you survive the first taste then I'll try it."

"Ugh." Tristan growled as he took a quick bite. "See I'm fine." He remarked as soon as he had finished swallowing.

Rory eyed the so called food and bravely took her first bite.

Her eyes widened, "Wow this is actually good."

Tristan broke out in his usual smirk "Honey I'm all good."

Rory groaned and banged her head against the Formica counter. "And you were doing so good. I was beginning to think you might be human." She paused and lifted her head. "Well we all make mistakes."

And Tristan just laughed his blue eyes sparkling.

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