"It's Still There – part 12"
. . . . .
The next morning, Lorelai and Rory were walking through the crowded mall, each carrying several shopping bags. They stopped at the food court for a snack, and they sat down at a table with pretzels and lemonade.
Rory pulled a list out of her pocket. "Okay, we're not making good progress on the list so far."
"We are, too," Lorelai insisted.
"Mom, we've been shopping for three hours and we're only done with Lane and Sookie."
"Well, that's two people off the list. That's progress."
"Yes, well, we'd be progressing more if you didn't spend 45 minutes shopping for bras for yourself," Rory pointed out.
Lorelai took a bite of her pretzel, then wagged a finger at Rory. "Hey, the baby book said that to prevent future sagging, I should get comfortable, supportive bras. You don't want me to have saggy breasts, do you?"
Rory made a face. "Okay, stop, please."
Lorelai frowned. "If a mother can't discuss her boobs with her own daughter, who can she discuss them with?"
Rory gestured to Lorelai's stomach. "Well, maybe you'll have another girl and you can discuss them with that daughter."
"Yeah, maybe." They were both quiet for a moment as they ate, then Lorelai smiled at Rory. "So. . .is that what you want?"
Rory looked up from her food. "Huh?"
"A sister. Is that what you hope it is?"
Rory shrugged. "No, I don't hope it's anything. I mean, sister, brother. . .I'll be happy with whatever it is."
Lorelai nodded understandably and sipped her drink.
"What about you?" Rory asked. "Or when people ask you are you just gonna go with the old run of the mill 'it doesn't matter as long as it's healthy' answer?"
Lorelai shrugged. "I really don't have a preference. I mean, I've been thinking about it a little and. . . I kinda want both. I'll be perfectly happy with either."
"Yeah?"
"Yeah."
Rory bit off a piece of pretzel before asking, "So, what does Luke want, a boy or a girl?"
Lorelai shrugged. "We haven't really talked about it. But I think, despite the widespread generalization that all guys want a son, he'd probably be pretty happy with either, too."
"That's the best way to be," Rory commented. "That way there'll be no disappointments."
"Right." Lorelai paused to take a long sip of her drink. "And I know he doesn't have any experience with babies, but he's one of those guys where you just look at him and you can tell he's gonna be good at it."
Rory smiled and nodded in agreement. "He has that whole 'gruff on the outside, softy on the inside' thing going on now, and I think when the baby comes, the softy inside is gonna be coming out a lot more."
Lorelai smiled and nodded. "Yeah, I can't wait to see that." They finished up the last bites of their food, then threw their trash away and started walking toward the other end of the mall.
"So, listen, hon," Lorelai said. "I feel like it's been awhile since I've told you that I love you."
"You said it this morning."
"Okay, well, just making sure you knew it."
"Uh, thanks. Love you, too."
"Okay, good." Lorelai cleared her throat. "'Cause, see, I was reading this baby magazine and it was talking about siblings. About how sometimes they get jealous of all the attention that the new baby gets and how they think that the parents don't love them as much anymore and. . .so I just thought I should talk to you."
Rory smiled at her, clearly amused. "Uh, Mom, I'm eighteen years old. I'm starting college in the fall. I think the magazine's referring to siblings who are, you know, toddlers or something."
They stopped walking and turned to each other. "I know, but I still just wanted to make sure we were good."
"We're good, we're fine," Rory assured her.
"It also said that a lot of times there are problems with kids of the same sex. Like, for example, if you have a daughter and then you have another girl, the oldest might not feel as special because it's not the only daughter in the family anymore," Lorelai explained. "And then they'll have all these crazy feelings of rejection and take it out on the baby. So you should know that even if I have another girl, it doesn't mean, 'Oh, look, I have a new daughter. Let's forget about the other one.' You know that, right?"
Rory let out a laugh and rolled her eyes. "Oh my God, you are so insane." She kissed Lorelai on the cheek. "Yes, I know that you're not gonna toss me aside if you have another girl. No, I'm not going to feel rejected or un-special or any of that. And I'm certainly not going to harbor any grudges against the baby, I swear."
Lorelai nodded. "Okay, good. Because, you know, whatever the baby is – boy or girl – it's certainly not gonna change the bond that you and I have, or make the experiences that we went through any less special."
"I know, I know," Rory said, patting her on the arm. "Mom, really, I'm completely fine with the baby. I couldn't be any happier about it, seriously. I've told you that. You have heard me tell you that, haven't you?"
Lorelai nodded and sighed. "Yeah, I have, but then I read these magazines and I see all these articles and I start worrying about weird things like that that I never would've been concerned about until the stupid magazine put the thought into my head."
"So maybe you should stop reading the magazines," Rory suggested.
"Maybe I should," she agreed. They resumed walking, and Lorelai suddenly stopped in front of a store window. "Ooh, wait a sec. Look."
Rory stopped, and the two of them stared into the window. "What are we looking at?"
Lorelai tapped on the glass. "That chess set right there. Isn't it nice?"
"Yeah, I guess, but you don't know how to play chess."
"No, but Luke does," Lorelai replied. "He's told me stories about how his dad taught him how to play when he was younger, and Luke would try really hard to win and he'd spend all this time thinking out his moves and stuff, but his dad would still beat him almost all the time."
"Aw, poor guy. You would think that his dad would've let him win sometimes just to make him feel better."
"You mean like the way I always let you win at Trivial Pursuit when you were little?"
Rory rolled her eyes. "Please. If you were letting me win, you wouldn't have been so bitter after every game."
Lorelai scoffed. "That was all part of the act to make you think you beat me fair and square."
"Whatever you say."
Lorelai waved her off. "Okay, let's get back to the point. I think that chess set would make a good Christmas gift for Luke," she said. "I mean, maybe he can teach us to play. . ." She put her hand on her stomach. ". . .and then when this one's old enough, he can teach it to play, too, just like his dad taught him."
Rory smiled. "Aw, that's so cute. You should get it."
Lorelai stared in at the chess set for a moment, then smiled and nodded. "Yeah, I think I will." The two of them walked into the store.
. . . . .
A few nights later, it was just after seven when Luke walked into Doose's Market. He grabbed a shopping basket from the stack by the door, then walked straight to the candy aisle.
He was browsing the selection when Jackson walked up behind him. "Hey, Luke."
Luke nodded toward him. "Oh, hey, Jackson. How's it going?"
"Pretty good, you?"
"Okay. Just going on a craving run." He gestured to the candy display. "Lorelai called me a little while ago at the diner and told me that I shouldn't even think about coming home unless I have chocolate."
"You don't have any at home? I'd think that'd be a staple in your house."
"Yeah, it pretty much is, but apparently there's only stuff like brownies and cookies and cupcakes, but she's craving chocolate candy," Luke said, rolling his eyes.
"Ah, got it. Women, huh?"
"You're telling me." He glanced to the display and shrugged. "I'm not sure what she wants, though. She didn't give specifics. I guess I should play it safe and get an assortment."
"Good idea, cover all the bases." He patted Luke on the shoulder. "See you later."
"Yeah, see ya." Luke turned to the display and started tossing candy into his basket.
. . . . .
Rory was on the couch reading a book when Luke arrived home ten minutes later. She looked up as he walked into the living room. "Hey, Luke."
"Hey."
"I hope you brought chocolate. Mom told me not to let you come near her without it, that I should use brute force if necessary to keep you away."
Luke held up the bag. "Got it."
"Okay, good." Rory flexed her arm. "Because I would hate to have to use this on you."
Luke smiled. "Yeah, I'd hate that, too. Where is she?"
Rory pointed toward the stairs. "Bedroom."
"Thanks."
Luke climbed the stairs and stopped outside the open bedroom door. Inside the room, Lorelai was hanging up some clothes in the closet. As she turned to grab the next pile from the armchair, she saw him in the doorway and her eyes lit up. "Ooh, thank God! Please tell me you have the goods!"
Luke held up the bag. "Right here."
She grinned and rushed over to him, snatching the bag from his hands. "Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you." She kissed him. "I love you, you're the best." She looked into the bag and gasped. "Oh my God, you bought a lot."
"Yeah."
Lorelai walked over to sit on the bed, and Luke sat next to her. She reached into the bag and pulled out a candy bar. "Ooh, Kit Kat." She opened it and took a bite, letting out a moan of approval. "Mmm." She chewed it slowly, savoring it, and when she was finished, she started pulling the other candy out of the bag. She nodded approvingly as she went along, occasionally holding up a candy bar to her nose and inhaling the chocolate aroma.
When the bag was empty, she stared down at the selection in front of her, then narrowed her eyes at Luke. "You got regular M&M's, but not peanut M&M's?"
"Yeah."
"Why?"
Luke picked up a blue box. "Because these are chocolate covered peanuts, which are essentially the same as peanut M&M's, so I figured why waste money and get two similar products?"
Lorelai grabbed the box and shook it angrily at him. "These are Goobers, Luke! Goobers are not like peanut M&M's. Yes, they both have peanuts and chocolate, but they taste nothing alike. And do Goobers have a thin candy shell on the outside?" Luke started to say something, but she cut him off. "No, they don't! They're not the same." She sighed and tossed the box aside.
"Well, eat a handful of Goobers with a handful of regular M&M's," he suggested. "Then everything will mix together and it'll taste like peanut M&M's."
Lorelai stared at him for several seconds with wide eyes, her mouth agape, shocked at the suggestion. Finally, she scoffed loudly, shook her head and muttered, "God, you just don't get it." She grabbed the Kit Kat and shoved the rest into her mouth.
Luke rolled his eyes. "You're right, I don't get it. Maybe next time you should be more specific instead of just saying, 'Bring me home some chocolate.'"
Lorelai scoffed several times before finally exclaiming, "Oh my God, don't make this my fault just because you screwed up and didn't bring home what I wanted!"
"I brought home exactly what you wanted!" He picked up a couple packages of candy. "Look right here – you asked for chocolate, here's your stupid chocolate!" He dropped them into the pile on the bed.
"But you know that I love peanut M&M's, Luke!" Lorelai exclaimed, her nostrils flaring with anger. "Why would you go on a candy run and not get peanut M&M's when you know that I would more likely than not want some peanut M&M's? Because you don't think!"
Luke groaned and threw his hands up in frustration. "Fine, you're right, it's all my fault."
Lorelai pushed the candy aside, then climbed off the bed and grabbed her robe from the closet. "I'm taking a bath," she declared indignantly. She started to leave the room, then walked back to the bed and grabbed some of the candy. She shot Luke an evil look before she stormed to the bathroom and slammed the door shut.
Luke sighed and wearily rubbed his face, then slowly stood up and walked down the steps.
Rory looked up from her book. "Everything okay?"
"Uh, they will be." Luke picked up his expectant father's book from the coffee table and sat down next to Rory. "As soon as I read up on how to deal with mood swings."
. . . . .
On Friday night, Lorelai and Rory came out of the video store and walked quickly to the Jeep, both shivering in the cold air. Lorelai started the car and turned the heater on full-blast, then pulled down the street and stopped in front of the diner. "I'm gonna run in and see when Luke's coming home. He might want us to wait for him to start the movies."
"Because he's just dying to join in on our 'Best of Chevy Chase' marathon?" Rory rolled her eyes. "I don't think so."
Lorelai gasped. "Do not mock the importance of a Chevy Chase marathon or I'll never take you to Wally World."
"Okay, first off, Wally World's not real. And second, I'm not mocking it. I'm excited about it, I just don't think that Luke will be."
"I think he likes. . ." Lorelai's voice trailed off as she stared in through the diner window. "Huh."
"What?" Rory followed Lorelai's gaze into the diner, where Luke was sitting at the window table with a woman. "Who's that?"
"I don't know."
"One of Luke's friends?" Rory asked.
"I don't know, I've never seen her before." Lorelai narrowed her eyes as she watched the two of them smiling and talking. "They look chummy."
"Yeah."
"I'll be right back." Lorelai climbed out of the Jeep and walked into the diner, straight over to their table. "Hey."
Luke and the woman both looked up, and Luke smiled. "Hey."
Lorelai leaned down and kissed Luke, then rested a protective hand on his shoulder as she forced a smile toward the woman. "Hi, I'm Lorelai, also known as Luke's wife, also known as the woman carrying his child. And you are?"
The woman's eyes widened, slightly taken aback. "Oh, uh, Nicole Leahy, nice to meet you." She extended her hand, and Lorelai shook it.
"She's Taylor's lawyer," Luke explained. "They were going over some stuff for the soda shop."
Lorelai glanced at her watch. "Oh, I didn't think lawyers worked at six on a Friday night."
"Yes, well, we started at four, but dealing with Mr. Doose always tends to take a little longer than most other clients," Nicole said.
"Speaking of which, where is Mr. Doose?" Lorelai asked, looking around. "'Cause I bet it'd probably be easier talking about the soda shop with him if you two were in the same room, huh?"
"Uh, he had to run home to get something," Luke said, narrowing his eyes at Lorelai's unfriendly tone.
"Oh, so you came over to keep her company," Lorelai commented, giving his shoulder a squeeze. "How nice. I hope the other customers don't get jealous about the special attention Nicole's getting here."
"Well, I came over to make sure she wasn't violently coerced into being his lawyer," Luke said, "because I couldn't figure out why anyone would voluntarily take the job. And then we got to talking about Taylor. . ."
"And it didn't take long to see that your husband seems to harbor a bit of antipathy toward Mr. Doose," Nicole commented with an amused smirk.
Lorelai pursed her lips and nodded. "That he does." She turned to Luke. "So, uh, I just stopped by to see if you were coming home soon, but. . .you seem pretty busy here, so. . ." She nodded toward Nicole. "Nice meeting you."
Nicole smiled. "Yes, same here."
Lorelai headed for the door, and after excusing himself from Nicole, Luke jumped up and followed her out onto the sidewalk. "Lorelai, wait a second."
Lorelai turned around to face him, but didn't say anything, just stared at him expectantly.
Luke approached her with hesitance. "You're okay, right?"
Lorelai shivered and pulled her jacket tighter around her. "I'm fine. I'm going home to watch movies with my daughter."
Luke glanced at the Jeep and nodded toward Rory, who waved. Then he stepped closer to Lorelai and rubbed her arm. "Are you mad that I was sitting with her?"
Lorelai shook her head adamantly. "Nope, I'm not mad."
"Seems like you are."
Lorelai sighed. "Well, I'm not, I'm fine. You can sit with whoever you wanna sit with." She waved a hand toward the diner. "If you wanna keep the red-haired lawyer chick company, knock yourself out. I don't care."
Luke rolled his eyes. "Yes, you do. But don't worry – I get it."
Lorelai arched an eyebrow. "You get it? What exactly do you get?"
"I read about this," Luke said knowingly. "Pregnancy makes women emotional, and sometimes they feel a little insecure, which means that their jealousy is easier to set off. So seeing me talk to another woman is going to make you feel weird and protective and jealous. I get it."
Lorelai scoffed and glanced down at the ground. "Well, aren't you Mr. I-know-everything-about-pregnancy."
"I'm just saying, I understand why something like that might make you jealous, so there's no reason you have to pretend that you're not."
"I'm not jealous," she muttered in a less-than-convincing tone. "So you were sitting with some strange woman, who cares? I don't."
Luke tilted his head doubtfully. "I kinda think you do."
Lorelai sighed and rolled her eyes. "Okay, your confidence about my so-called jealousy is really cocky and annoying."
"Sorry, I'm just callin' it how I see it," Luke said. "But like I said, I get it, and it's no big deal." He pulled her into a hug and rubbed her back. "And anyway, she knew I was married. She told me she liked my wedding ring."
Lorelai pulled back and wrinkled her nose. "So. . .I can probably push aside the thought that she was in there trying to seduce you."
"Yup."
"Unless she's one of those trampy girls who likes to be the 'other woman' and she still flirted anyway."
"She wasn't flirting," he assured her. "And I don't really think I'm her type anyway."
Lorelai smiled and ran her hands over his muscular arms. "Luke, you have a body worthy of inclusion in a Fireman of the Month calendar. You're every woman's type." Lorelai glanced at Nicole through the front window. "What's with that voice? It's like a helium-balloon-sucking incident gone horribly wrong. Plus, she's kind of. . .mousy looking."
Luke rolled his eyes. "Stop, she's nice."
"I'm just saying, if you're gonna have another woman on the side, it should be someone prettier than me or else it's just not worth it."
"Guess that rules out my ever having another woman on the side."
Lorelai smiled. "Wow, check you out with the quick complimentary comebacks." Luke smirked and kissed her deeply.
After a few seconds, Rory opened the door of the Jeep and called, "Okay, come on, can't you do that another time? I'm ready to watch the movies."
Lorelai pulled back from the kiss. "Gotta go watch some Chevy Chase," she said. "You coming home soon? Should we wait for you?"
"Nah, you start. I'll probably be 'bout an hour."
Lorelai glanced at the diner window. "During which time you will not be cheating on me with the mousy lawyer chick, right?"
"Right."
"Mmkay, good." She kissed him goodbye. "Bye."
"Bye." Luke watched until she climbed into the jeep and pulled away, then he walked back into the diner.
. . . . .
A few nights later, Lorelai was sitting at a sewing machine in the corner of Miss Patty's dance studio, helping with the costume fittings for the annual holiday procession. The studio was loud and crowded with townspeople.
Just as Lorelai finished hemming a shirt, Sookie brought over another one to be altered. "Got another one for ya," Sookie said. "You sure you're okay? Not too tired?"
Lorelai nodded. "Yup, I'm fine. I've got the easy job, I get to sit down the whole time."
Sookie sat down next to Lorelai as she started working on the next costume. "So, go on, finish the story."
"Oh, right. Where did I leave off?"
"Something about Luke's shoes."
"Right. So, like I said, I was sleeping when he got home last night, and when I got up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, I find out the hard way that he left his shoes right in front of the nightstand."
Sookie gasped and clasped a hand over her mouth. "Oh no! Did you fall?"
"No, but I stumbled and slammed my knee into the nightstand, and let me tell you, it was painful." She frowned and reached down to rub her bruised knee.
Sookie grimaced with sympathy pain. "Aw, honey, I'm sorry."
Lorelai waved her off. "Not your fault. It was Luke's."
"And did you let him know it?"
"Of course. As soon as I got hurt, I screamed an unrepeatable word and that woke him up," Lorelai said. "And then I went into a ten minute tirade about how he should be more careful and how I could've gotten hurt much worse and all this stuff. It was like 2 in the morning and I was really going at him."
"Understandably so. I'd have done the same thing," Sookie said. "And what did he do? Did he apologize at least?"
Lorelai nodded. "Yeah, he said it was late when he got home and he was tired and he'd just kicked his shoes off without thinking and he was so sorry and it would never happen again, blah blah blah, all that stuff. And he got out of bed and hugged me and asked if I needed ice for my knee and everything. He was so sweet." Lorelai frowned. "I could tell he felt really bad, and then that made me feel bad for going nuts on him. And then I had a sort of emotional breakdown."
"Emotional breakdown?" Sookie asked with wide eyes. "That sounds kinda scary. What happened?"
"Well, we were just standing there hugging, and I'm feeling terrible for screaming at him, and you know I've been way overly emotional lately, so I suddenly start crying and I start apologizing for everything," Lorelai explained. "Not just for last night, but all the other times I've been moody and cranky and yelled at him and snapped at him and blamed him for stupid stuff. . ."
"Like the peanut M&M's incident?" Sookie asked.
"Yes, exactly." Lorelai sighed and leaned back in her chair. "And he said that it's no big deal, that he understands that it's from the pregnancy and all that, which of course makes me cry even more because I start thinking about how great he is and how lucky I am to have him and everything and. . ." Lorelai shook her head. "It was just a very emotional few minutes there."
Sookie patted her on the arm. "Yeah, sounds like it." The two of them continued talking for a few minutes, then Sookie left to go prepare more costumes for alterations.
A few minutes after that, Kirk walked over holding out his recently-mended cloak. "Excuse me, Lorelai. I was hoping you could redo this."
"Why, what's wrong with it?" Lorelai asked.
"Well, I just realized that when Sookie measured me earlier, I was wearing these shoes." He gestured to the worn-looking loafers on his feet.
"So what, Kirk?" Lorelai asked.
"Well, these are not the shoes that I'll be wearing when I walk in the processional. The ones I'll be wearing make me about an inch taller, and so the bottom of the cloak will not lie exactly three inches above the ground like I'd prefer."
Lorelai stared at him for a moment in disbelief. "So, let me get this straight. You want me to take that cloak, undo the stitching around the bottom – the stitching that I just did not twenty minutes ago – and then re-stitch it all the way around again so that it's an inch lower?"
"Yes, that's right." He held the cloak out toward her. "Thanks."
Lorelai rolled her eyes and pointed toward the door. "Get out of here, Kirk."
He narrowed his eyes at her. "But I can't wear – "
"Yes, you can, and you will," Lorelai told him. "Now get away from me before I throw this sewing machine at you. And you definitely don't want that to happen because if Luke finds out that I picked up something that heavy, which could possibly cause injury to our unborn child, he will ask me why I did it, and I'll have to explain to him that you were bothering me, and I don't think you wanna find out how he'd react to that, do you?"
Kirk quickly shook his head. "No, not particularly."
"Didn't think so."
Kirk glanced down at the cloak. "Maybe I could fix it myself."
"Maybe," Lorelai agreed. "Or an alternate plan could be to forget about the freaking one-inch difference because it's an incredibly stupid reason to want to re-hem a cloak." She smiled. "That's just my personal opinion."
Kirk frowned and walked away, clutching his cloak to his chest. Lorelai returned her attention to the sewing machine.
Not a minute later, Luke walked in and she quickly abandoned her sewing task. "Hey."
Luke gestured toward the studio door. "Okay, I just passed Kirk outside – why did he tell me that he didn't make you pick up a sewing machine?"
"Long story. Come here." She grabbed his jacket sleeve and pulled him down into a kiss. "Hi."
"Hey." He sat down next to her. "How's it going?"
"Pretty good. Tell me what the doctor said."
"He said the shoulder healed well, but that I still need to keep up the arm exercises for a few weeks to strengthen the rotator cuff."
Lorelai nodded. "That's exactly what I was going to tell you, that your, uh, rotating cuff thing could probably be strengthened a little more."
Luke smirked. "Right."
"I have an intricate working knowledge of the medical world," she told him. "Did he say you can drive?"
"Yup, so then on the way home I stopped by to see Gypsy," Luke said. "She said she's waiting on a couple of parts, but that the truck would probably be done by next week."
"It's taking a long time," Lorelai commented. "It's been over a month."
"Well, they're not used to handling something that severe. They're used to dents in the fender and changing the oil and fixing broken windshield wipers."
"True."
"So. . .that's all with that." Luke patted her on the leg. "How's your knee? I'm so sorry about – "
"I know, I know." Lorelai smiled and kissed him on the cheek. "It's okay, it's just a little bruise. It'll go away."
"I still feel bad."
Lorelai waved him off. "Simple mistake, forget about it."
"Yeah, well, it's kinda hard to forget about something that your wife screamed at you for twenty minutes about in the middle of the night."
"Twenty? I think it was only ten."
"Definitely felt longer."
"I'm sorry about the freak out," Lorelai said. "I'm sorry for all the freak outs. I can't help it. It's the hormones, hon."
"I know, it's okay." He put his arm around her and pulled her closer.
They were quiet for a minute as they watched the people around them, and Lorelai's eyes landed on the small Christmas tree in the corner of the room. "Luke, when are we gonna get a tree?"
Luke groaned. "Not this again."
"Yes, this again. You keep putting it off," Lorelai argued, sitting up. "First you're too busy, then you're too tired, then you say it's too cold out. You still haven't gotten the boxes of decorations out of the attic for me. Christmas is two weeks away and our house is completely decoration-less."
"Just the way I like it."
Lorelai frowned. "Come on, Luke. I'm tired of driving through the neighborhood and seeing everyone else's decorated houses and then pulling up to our lonely naked house. It makes me sad." She gave him her best pout.
Luke sighed. "Fine, we'll take care of that stuff this weekend, okay? The tree, the decorations, the stupid Christmas lights – everything."
Lorelai grinned. "Promise?"
"Yes." Luke kissed her, then stood up. "I'm gonna go. I'll see you at home."
"Okay."
"How much longer you think you're gonna be?"
Lorelai glanced down at her watch. "I'll probably be home around eight."
"Eight. . ." Luke glanced down at his own watch. "So about an hour. Okay."
"Bye."
"Bye." Luke walked out of the dance studio and over to the diner. Rory was waiting out front by Luke's old pickup truck, the one that was now being used by Jess.
Rory smiled and held up a set of keys. "Got 'em."
"Good."
Rory tossed him the keys and they both climbed into the truck.
"She's gonna be home around 8," Luke said as he started the truck.
Rory glanced at the clock. "Oh, that doesn't give us much time."
"It shouldn't take that long to pick out a tree," Luke said as he pulled out into the street. "If she was coming with us, then yes, we could be there all night while she examined them all for the perfect one, but between the two of us, it shouldn't take that long."
"Good point." Rory smiled. "This is gonna be a good surprise. She was just saying this afternoon how she's tired of you putting off getting the tree and she was ready to just ask Pete from the nursery to help us bring one home like last year."
"Well, I just told her in there that we'd do it this weekend, so I think she'll be pretty shocked to come home tonight to a tree in the living room. She'll probably be too tired to decorate it tonight, but at least it'll be there for when she's ready."
"Yup." They were both quiet for a moment, then Rory asked, "Have you gotten Mom any presents yet?"
Luke nodded. "A couple."
"Anything big?"
"Well. . .she mentioned a few weeks ago that she wanted a rocking chair. You know, to rock the baby."
Rory smiled. "Aw, so you went out and got one?"
Luke nodded. "Yeah, a really nice wooden one."
"She'll love that, Luke," Rory said. "That's a great gift."
"Thanks."
"Where is it now?"
"Still at the store," Luke replied. "I'm gonna pick it up next week and store it at the diner 'til Christmas."
"Well, try to make sure no one sees you bring it in," Rory warned him. "'Cause then someone might ask her about it and spoil the surprise."
"Good point, thanks."
"And if you're gonna bring any presents into the house, make sure you hide them well or she'll find 'em. She's a snooper."
Luke smirked. "Yeah, tell me something I don't know."
"Hm, okay. . ." Rory thought for a moment. "She has a girl crush on Drew Barrymore."
Luke let out a laugh as he gave Rory a confused sideways glance. "What?"
Rory smiled and nodded. "Yup. Did you know that?"
Luke shook his head. "Uh, no – she never mentioned it."
"Well, girls don't usually talk about their girl crushes to guys. But it's true."
"I'm not even sure I know what a girl crush is."
"It's not like a. . .you know, physical attraction thing," Rory said, shaking her head. "It's like an admiration/fascination thing, like looking up to the popular girl in high school or something like that."
"Ah, got it." Luke thought for a moment, then remarked, "So her love of that movie she always watches with Drew about the high school kids. . ."
"Is not solely based on the entertaining eye candy of the Alias guy," Rory finished. "That certainly doesn't hurt, but it's mostly due to her fascination with Drew."
"Interesting."
"Haven't you noticed how we have almost every Drew movie on tape or DVD?" Rory asked.
Luke shrugged. "Not really."
"One of the gifts I'm getting her for Christmas is The Wedding Singer on DVD," Rory said. "Because we used to have it on tape but she wore it out from watching it so much, and we never got around to buying it again. She wanted to steal it from the video store when we rented it a few months ago, but I talked her out of it."
Luke shook his head with an amused smirk. "A girl crush on Drew Barrymore."
"Yup. She has other girl crushes, too, but a woman deserves some privacy."
"Wow, learn something new about your wife every day, huh?"
Rory giggled. "You can't tell anyone, though. Not everyone likes their girl crushes to be known."
"Do you have any?" Luke asked.
"Like I said, not everyone likes their girl crushes to be known," Rory repeated with a smirk.
Luke smiled and nodded. "Okay, got it." He pulled the truck into the parking lot of the nursery. "Okay, let's go pick out a Christmas tree."
. . . . .
To be continued . . .
Thanks so much for reading and for the feedback, I really appreciate it!
