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Ch. 14: Getting More Than Their Feet Wet
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"Damn ducks!" Lorelai grumbled, her fist thumping the clock until the blasted animals stopped shrieking at her. Why the hell did she ever think that would be a good noise to wake up to?
She stumbled down to the kitchen, but like always, food was not really in abundance. It looked like another diner breakfast.
The diner. The place where she had left a twelve page long letter to Luke professing her burning need for him. Oh, Jesus Christ. Was she on drugs last night? Abducted by aliens? How in the hell had she ever thought that would be a good idea!
Once again, she threw on the first pair of shoes she could find and pulled on a heavy coat on the way to the jeep, then hauled ass to the diner.
Jess was behind the counter.
"Luke!" She shouted at him, her panic taking a toll on her ability to form her thoughts into complete sentences.
"No, Jess," he corrected, as if talking to a very slow three-year old.
"I know you're Jess! Where's Luke! I need Luke!"
"Got an itch you can't scratch yourself?" Jess smirked.
"What? No, I'm not itchy." She was so panicked the connotation flew right over her head. "A letter!" She yelled at Jess.
"Um, 'R'. That's a good letter."
"No!"
"Okay, fine, you don't like 'R.' How about 'J'? That's a nice letter. Luke seems to like it a lot."
"Was there a letter on the floor when you opened the diner? Did Luke get it? Did he read it? He can't read it!"
"Can't read what?" Luke asked, coming in from the kitchen.
Lorelai froze. "Um. The newspaper. There's this whole article on whale hunting that I knew would make you angry so I'm just protecting you from it."
Jess put down the coffee pot. "Oh, now that you mention it, there was some sort of stationary thing lying by the door when I opened this morning. Cute little Garfield envelope."
"What the hell is going on?" Luke asked. "Why are you in your pajamas?" he added when he noticed what Lorelai was wearing.
Lorelai ignored him. "Jess, where did the cute little Garfield envelope go?" she asked, filling the question with fake sweetness so she wouldn't reach over and strangle the kid.
Jess smiled. "That Garfield, he's one funny cat. Always after lasagna. Hmm, I seem to recall I put the letter under the counter here, but you never know…he could have gotten another lasagna craving and wandered off."
Luke looked under the counter and pulled something out. "This it?" His name was written on the front. "Jess, why didn't you give it to me?"
"Because I don't own any shirts that say U.S. Postal Service on them. And really, when you think about it, do you want me to be a mailman?"
Luke thought about it, and imagined the headlines. "No. But next time, just give it to me right away."
"Lesson learned, Uncle Luke."
"Don't call me that."
"Aw, I can finally call you 'Daddy?'"
"Get back to work," Luke grumbled.
Jess picked up the coffee pot and left the counter. "Yes, Daddy."
Luke rolled his eyes.
Lorelai, during the entire exchange, hadn't been able to move a muscle. She stood frozen to her spot. Luke was holding the letter. Luke was holding THE letter. He couldn't read it. She was fairly certain the world would end if he did.
"Give it back to me," she demanded.
Luke looked at her. "Why?"
"Because I wrote it and therefore I own it and I want it back." She lunged over the counter and tried to snatch it from him. Luke held it over his head. Damn him for being taller than her.
"What's so important?"
Lorelai climbed on a stool, then stepped onto the counter and yanked it out of his hand. "Nothing."
Luke looked shocked. "Did you just walk on my counter?"
"Bye!" Lorelai said, and ran towards the door. She had the letter, and she wasn't going to hang around and idly chit chat until it was destroyed for good.
Luke wasn't going to let her off that easy. He followed her out the door, ignoring the cold blast of air, and since she didn't hear him sneak up on her, he managed to grab it out of her hand.
"HEY!" She yelled, almost having a heart attack.
"It's for me, it has my name on it, and I think I should read it."
He took a step away from her, and she followed. He took two steps; she also took two steps.
"Give it," she said, her voice threatening.
"Get it," he replied.
She lunged at him and he dodged, jogging away from her. She followed suit, her coat flapping open and her pajamas not doing much to protect her from the cold. They were lucky it was seven thirty, and not many people were around to witness the spectacle.
Lorelai caught up to him and actually jumped on his back
like a monkey. "Give it!"
Luke reached behind himself and pried her off him. "Oh, I think not. There's got to be a reason you want it so bad."
Lorelai lunged at him again and he ran away, past the gazebo and towards the trees. She followed him, not quite as fast as he was but still not too far behind. He stopped at the edge of the bridge. The wood had a thin layer of ice on it and he wasn't crazy enough to risk killing himself.
"Luke, I swear to any god that will listen that if you don't give that to me, I will never ever set foot in your diner again."
Luke snorted and took a few careful steps backwards, reaching the middle of the bridge. "Yeah right."
Lorelai followed him onto the bridge. "Fine, okay, I was lying. But if you don't give that letter to me, you will regret it."
She advanced on him like an Old West gunslinger, her fingers clenching and unclenching.
Luke ripped open the envelope. "I think I'll just see what's so damn important."
Lorelai panicked. He could not read the letter. Nothing good would come of it. Only bad things. Bad, horrible, friendship-ending things. She made a decision.
She lunged, wrapping her arms around his waist and putting all her strength into pushing him. His expression was incredulous as he slid on the icy surface, and felt himself going over the edge. Reflexively, he grabbed Lorelai.
Both fell off the bridge and into the lake. It had only iced over in patches, and even that ice was thin.
Lorelai screamed when she broke the surface.
Luke didn't scream because that wasn't very manly, but he cursed a nice blue streak.
"What is your problem?" Lorelai yelled at him.
"Mine? You pushed me in. I just brought you along for the ride!"
"Whatever!" was the brilliant reply she came up with, because her brain had frozen and couldn't think of anything better to say.
Luke looked at the letter, which was still in his hand. The water had made the ink run, rendering it illegible. "All this just for a stupid letter. Are you happy now? It's gone."
Lorelai shivered. "Yeah. Happy."
Luke also shivered. He waded over to the edge, and Lorelai followed. "We have to get out of these wet clothes before we die."
They walked quickly back to the diner, so frozen they could barely move. Lorelai fumbled in her coat pocket for her keys. Luke pushed her away from the Jeep and into the diner. "Jay's got some clothes upstairs you can borrow, so don't bother to drive home all wet."
Lorelai found the prospect of freezing to death on the way home better than wearing Luke's girlfriend's clothes. She started to argue, but Luke wouldn't hear it, he just grabbed her by the coat and half dragged her into the diner.
Jess and the three customers stared at them when they entered.
"Don't even say anything," he shot at Jess, and then looked at the customers. "You people either."
"And I thought I was the only one bad enough to go in the lake. You two must have been very naughty."
Luke would have yelled at him but he was pretty sure his nose had frozen completely, so yelling was not his number one priority. He ignored Jess and herded Lorelai up the stairs to his apartment.
"Go jump in the shower," he told her, stopping in front of the bathroom. "Warm yourself up."
He pulled out some clothes from a dresser and turned back to her. She was still standing where he'd left her, looking like she was in a state of shock. "You okay?"
She nodded her head slowly, shivering. He sighed and pushed her into the bathroom, turning on the shower and waiting for the hot water, trying to ignore the chills he was feeling.
"Get in," he told her, when the steam started to rise.
Lorelai broke out of her trance. "You get in too."
Luke looked perplexed. Lorelai rolled her eyes. "Leave your clothes on, but you're freezing and you'll be dead by the time I get out of here, because I plan on staying in the hot water forever. So just get in and warm yourself up."
Lorelai stepped into the shower and let the hot water flow over her. She moaned in delight as her body slowly warmed up. Luke's will was broken then, and he climbed in with her. She moved out of the way so that he could get most of the spray.
She took her coat off, throwing it on the bathroom floor with a wet flop. Luke turned his back to her; her pajama top was white and he could see things he shouldn't be seeing. He followed suit, taking off his flannel shirt so he could get more hot water onto his freezing skin.
Lorelai watched the play of his muscles under his wet t-shirt, until he warmed up and stopped shivering.
"Luke?" she asked, wondering why he wouldn't look at her.
"What?" he said, a little gruffly.
"Are you mad at me?"
"Oh, you mean from when you tried to kill me by giving me hypothermia?"
"No, for replacing all your flannel shirts with pink tutus."
"I don't know. Maybe an explanation would help."
"Maybe you could turn around. That would help me a lot. I mean, I could keep talking to Mr. Left Shoulder-blade, but I think Righty's getting a little jealous."
Luke didn't turn around. "I think it's best for me to stay like this."
"Why?" Was he so mad he couldn't even look at her?
"Because your…um. Your shirt is uh, white," he managed to get out.
Lorelai looked down. Without a bra, her wet top might have won her an honorable mention in a wet t-shirt contest. "Oh."
"Yeah." That was about as much as Luke could take; he'd wait for an explanation when they were dry and properly clothed. He slid the shower door open. Lorelai reached out to stop him, wrapping her fingers around his wrist.
"Look," she started, and it took all his will power to not look down past her neck. "I'm sorry about that whole pushing you in the lake thing; I panicked. You know when you get a crazy idea, and it seems good at the time, and you're so wrapped up in how good you think it is that you don't realize it's crazy? Like the Spice Girls, or those tequila lollipops with the worm inside?"
Luke figured the best thing he could do at this point was nod. She continued with her explanation. "Well, that happened to me yesterday. So just trust me when I tell you that what was in that envelope was crazy. Insane, even."
"What was in it, Lorelai?"
"If I'd wanted you to know, I would have let you read it." She saw the look on his face from her snarky comment, and in a more civil tone added, "It doesn't matter now. It's gone."
His heart was beating fast; she could feel his pulse under her fingers. "You can tell me," he said.
She shook her head, not looking at him because it was too difficult to face him. "You'll hate me all over again."
"I never hated you," he admitted, shocked that she had thought so.
"Never?"
"Okay, maybe for those two years where you called me 'Duke.' But not since I got to know you. I may have been mad at you, yeah, but I didn't hate you."
Her fingers tightened around his wrist, and it felt like all he could think about was the tiny brush of her skin against his. He wasn't cold any longer; the bathroom had steamed up, and the water practically scalded his skin.
"How come you never asked me out?" Lorelai blurted. She hadn't intended to say that; she blamed the steam and the cold.
"What?" Luke managed to respond, completely forgetting about the wet t-shirt. Or almost completely.
"Never mind," Lorelai muttered, and this time it was her who tried to leave the shower. Damn Luke for having one of those tiny little shower stalls, and not a bathtub/shower combo like normal people. It was like being in a hot, wet closet.
Luke wouldn't let her leave. "There's obviously something going on with you. So just get it out, because I don't want to repeat this lake thing again."
Lorelai tried to downplay it. "It's nothing big, Patty just mentioned last night how she thought it was funny that after all these years, you never asked me out, being the cute young single girl of the town that I am, and then Jay comes here and you two are dating within months. So I was just thinking that maybe there's something wrong and off-putting about me."
That was a total lie, but he would never know it.
Luke looked completely blank for a good ten seconds, then his eyebrows furrowed. "There are a lot of things wrong with you, such as your psychotic addiction to coffee and habitual watching of crappy reality T.V. shows, but it's not off-putting."
Lorelai nodded, and tried to hide the real emotions she was feeling. "Oh, okay, good. Glad to know I'm not repulsive."
Luke studied her intently. She couldn't bring herself to look him in the eye; instead she watched his Adam's apple bob as he swallowed nervously. "Did you uh, want me to ask you out?" he quietly asked.
The part of his collarbone that showed was fascinating, and her fingers roamed over the exposed skin without any conscious decision on her part to do so. "I never really thought about it," she admitted, and that part was true; it had only been recently that the notion had made itself known to her. She dipped her fingers into the little divot between his clavicles. "But I know that I would have said yes."
She snuck a glance at his face after this admission, afraid to see his expression but still needing to know. The intensity of it made her stomach drop. He was looking at her the way she looked at a big piece of espresso-flavored cheesecake; ravenous, craving, like she was everything he ever desired and he wanted to consume her entirely.
She was still playing with his chest, her fingers lightly skimming along the collar of his wet shirt, feeling both his wet skin and the rougher wet fabric. It was only when Luke caught her hand that she even realized she'd been touching him.
Luke was not a dangerous man. She trusted him; she knew both instinctively and consciously that he would never hurt her. But the way he looked at her just now, the way he removed her hand from his chest and pinned her arm over her head against the shower wall, the way he closed the space between them until her wet and translucent shirt was brushing his own, gave her a feeling of trepidation. She could feel a rapid heartbeat, and knew it was hers because the same beat was pounding in her brain and ringing in her ears.
She was in a shower with Luke, and he had her pinned to the wall, and her breasts were flattened against his chest, and he was going to kiss her. And she wanted him to.
"I would have said yes," she repeated, this time with her eyes firmly on his, closing only as his face came closer.
His lips brushed hers, wet from the shower and gentler than she would have expected. Being weak in the knees was such a swoony, girly thing, but Lorelai was experiencing that very sensation. She wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him back without the restraint with which he'd kissed her. It was desperate and needy, and far better than she had imagined. Every part of her body, down to the smallest cell, felt alive. Complete. Satisfied.
The way he kissed her, his lips not sloppy and haphazard but determined, made her shiver, even though the shower was almost scalding. When his tongue slipped into her mouth, she whimpered, her arms wrapping even more tightly around his neck. Not wanting to let go because she was afraid; afraid that she would fall, her legs having turned to pudding. But mostly afraid that they would come to their senses. While this was right on so many levels, it was wrong on only one.
Lorelai tried her hardest to ignore that; Luke's thumb gliding from her jaw to her chest helped. But even one of the most amazing make-out sessions of her life couldn't keep her from acknowledging that one level of wrongness was enough.
"Luke," she pleaded in the brief moment that his lips were not in full contact with hers.
"Lorelai," he whispered back, clearly not grasping her intention.
"Luke, no," she managed to say again, but only after more kissing. Finally, she bit his lip, hard.
It was as if the bite had brought him back to a fully conscious state of mind. He realized the full implications of what they'd done for the first time. "God, Lorelai, I'm sorry."
"Me too," she said, pushing herself away from him and opening the shower door. "It's my fault, completely. I know you and Jay aren't married, so this doesn't make me a homewrecker, but I still feel bad. I'm like an apartment-wrecker or something," she rambled, her emotions and hormones making it hard for her to form her frayed thoughts into coherent sentences.
Luke looked for words, but she stepped out of the shower quickly and closed the door behind her. So much easier when she didn't have to look at him. "I'm going to change and go home now. I'm real sorry about pushing you into the lake. I'm real sorry about everything."
She grabbed the towel, the extra clothes, and left the bathroom, not looking behind her. Minutes later, she was driving home as fast as she could, trying to think about what she had to do at work today and not about the kissing with Luke, and not about how she was wearing his girlfriend's clothes.
-end ch 14-
Finally!