Lorelai's alarm clock went off and she rolled over. 7:30. What kind of
ungodly hour is 7:30 on a holiday.....But her and Rory had to be at the
field by 8:30 for the tournament to start and Marty was going to be at the
house at 8:15. She groaned and rolled out of bed, stumbling down towards
the bathroom and threw a shoe at Rory's door along the way. She heard a
grunt from inside and proceeded to the shower. Luke, Nicole, Digger, Emily
and Richard, all of Stars Hollow. PHYSICAL ACTIVITY. Lorelai groaned again
as thoughts crowed her head. This was going to be a long, long day.
*************************
The knock on the door shook them both out of the stupor they were in. Rory lifted her head up from the table and blinked. The knock came again.
" Go away!" Lorelai yelled sleepily, her head still on the table.
" Rory?" A voice called out unsurely from behind the door.
" Marty." Lorelia mumbled.
" He's late."
" He's a smart boy. Get the door."
" Get up."
" I'm getting." Lorelai crawled out of the chair and went to grab their bags from the living room, while Rory went to the door, and pulled it open.
" Morning Rory."
" Hey Marty, my mom's just grabbing the bags now."
" Did I wake you guys up?"
" Sort of. We were sleeping on the kitchen table."
" All night?"
" Just now."
" You've got crumbs in your face." Mary pointed out the pop tart crumbs embedded in her cheek.
" One of the many hazards of sleeping on a kitchen table."
" Am I late?"
" A little?"
" Is that bad?"
" Do you value your life?"
" Um, yes?"
" It's a very good thing."
" Good."
" Roryyy?" Lorelai's voice came out from the living room." Give your poor weak mother a hand with the bags!"
" Do you want help with that?" Marty peered into the house, but Rory laughed.
" No, here, take my keys. You can get the car started. We'll be out in a minute."
"Alright." Marty took the keys and popped the trunk, switching his bag over from his own car. Rory wandered back into the living room and loaded up with several bags, containing clothes, food, general first aid supplies, including numerous ice packs, and a large box. She started to follow Lorelai out to the car and caught sight of what she was wearing from behind.
" Hey Mom? You know how we were talking yesterday? What about Jason?"
" What about Jason what?"
" Won't if be hard to compete in the Nicole/Lorelai flirt off with Jason around?"
" He's not going to be there until around 11, and can only stay until 3."
" But what if Nicole tries to get some hardcore competition in while he's there and you can't fight back. That'll be a major disadvantage."
"It doesn't matter, because there is not flirt off."
" But what if she starts sitting on his lap or something."
"Once again, no flirt off."
" Or making out under the bleachers."
"Yale has made my little girl dirty! There is no flirt off."
" Liar!"
" I'm not lying."
" You did see what you put on this morning, right?" Lorelai looked over her clothes.
" So?"
" So you're going to make sure that Luke sees, and then it might as well just light up in neon saying 'I'm a big distraction for Luke to get back at Nicole breaking up our moment.'"
" You're gonna have to stop with the moment stuff."
" Intense eternal blending of souls during a brief physical passage of time?"
" Making it poetic does not make it better. Now hurry up Missy."
" One last question."
" Shoot Dexter."
" Exactly what wattage are you setting the neon sign at. Is this going to require sunglasses, or merely a turning of the hat to divert rays."
" You are very lucky I love you. Now scoot. Lets go." Lorelai scolded, pushing her out the front door.
" I still don't see how you having free range and an excuse to flirt openly with Luke is going to leave Nicole begging Luke for forgiveness."
" That's because you're not in my head."
" This has nothing to do with Nicole. She's just your excuse."
" I thought you decided against that psychology course for the sake of our mental health."
"You've got the hots for the diner boy."
" I don't like athletic Rory. Athletic Rory's mean."
"You want to kisssss him, love him and hug himmmm."
" Ewwwww! Eww. Stop that. Okay, no more Sandra Bullock, I don't care if the character is us butchified. That was definitely in no way congenial. Ugh. I haven't even had my coffee yet."
" You could go ask Luke, I'm sure he'd give it to you."
" RORY!"
" What?" Rory looked at her for a minute , trying to think of what she had just said. Her face suddenly contracted into a look of disgust.
" EWWWW! MOM! That was by far the dirtiest and most disturbing thought in the history of precoffee discussions. Ew. Get in the car. And no more talking. EWWWW. IT'S LUKE!"
" You started it." Lorelai grumped, climbing into the backseat of Rory's car as Marty gave them a strange look.
*************************
Luke climbed out of his truck and walked up behind Lorelai and Rory. They were crowded, along with the rest of the team and a hesitant Marty, around the bench, pulling on jersey shirts.
" Hey you two. What did you do now?" He nodded at the box they were pulling the shirts out of.
" We made uniforms!" Rory exclaimed, pulling a shirt out of the box for Luke. The shirts just had a grey body, but they actually had managed to find a jersey with green and black plaid sleeves.
" And everyone's got nicknames on the back." Lorelai grinned, looking at Luke.
" Where did you find these?" Luke was inspecting his with a mix of incredulousness, disbelief, and a little bit of fear.
" We scoured every shirt shop from here to Seattle. Turn it over!"
" Iceman?" The two of them giggled.
" Like Val Kilmer. From Top Gun."
" And Emily Gilmore. From Hartford."
" You're mother's nickname is Iceman." Luke looked suspiciously at Lorelai. Emily Gilmore didn't strike him at the nickname type.
" No, my mother's nickname is something I'd rather not say in the company of the little ones. My mother's nickname for you is The Ice Man, or That Man From The Diner, or The One Named After The Big Dog. But those were too hard to put on a t-shirt." Luke smiled, looking amused.
" I get the diner and I kind of understand the weird Great Dane-Danes reference, but what's with the Ice Man?"
" The first time she met you, you were bringing ice to Rory's sixteenth."
" Of right. So you're mother has a nickname for me."
" Three." Lorelai replied and Luke nodded, almost approvingly. The two of them smiled at each other for a moment before Rory coughed awkwardly.
" So, what's everyone else?" Luke asked, trying to cover the awkward silence.
" Well, Marty's is Naked Guy, of course." Marty looked a little embarrassed as Rory spun him around so that Luke could see.
" Don't worry. You'll get used to it. They've been doing this to me for years."
" It gets worse?"
" This is only the beginning my friend."
" Hey, we're still standing here!"
" And we've got Julius Salad."
" Cause Caesar works with either." Lorelai said in a sing-songy voice. Luke rolled his eyes.
"Davy Crockett." Rory announced.
" For that unfortunate incident with the raccoon last year when he was cleaning out his attic." All three of them winced, remembering the scene that had played out in front of the diner.
" I'll bet even the real Davy never had the courage to wear a living coon skin cap."
" I didn't do it voluntarily." Dave grumbled from the bench, rubbing the bald patch on the back of his head.
" Second last, we have Thankfully Not The Steve From The Park."
" Long enough?" Luke grunted. " What if Park Steve sees that?"
" He won't see it." Lorelai said confidently.
" Why not?"
" He's at the park. He's always at the park. That's the reason we call him Park Steve and why he gives Rory the heebe jeebes." Lorelai explained to him in her signature it's- painfully-obvious-to-me-so-there's-no-reason-it- shouldn't-be-to-you-too voice.
" Of course. Wait. What about Kirk." Luke craned his neck, trying to catch sight of the back of Kirk's shirt.
" Hey Kirk! Turn back around." The four of them stared at the shirt for a minute.
"......Kirk? His nickname is Kirk?"
" He chose it himself."
" You chose Kirk?"
" What's wrong with Kirk."
" Never mind."
" I like Kirk." Luke rolled his tongue around in his mouth, and counted to ten in his head, then just ignored Kirk.
" And you two?" Rory and Lorelai grinned and turned to the box. They pulled out two jerseys, which were light blue with dark blue and grey plaid sleeves, pulled them on and turned around.
" Team Gilmore?" Luke laughed a little. " Showstopper?" He read the smaller lettering below on Rory's shirt.
" For my stunning good looks." Rory posed playfully.
" And her ability to shut down a ballet with a single review!" Lorelai said with her fake TV announcer voice. Marty laughed awkwardly.
" I read that one. I mean, there's rapier wit, but you really carpet bombed the hippo."
" Your not helping. I'm never going to live that review down am I."
" I'd just hope you never have a roll over the band of your bra missy."
" Moving on now."
" What's yours Lorelai?" Luke couldn't see anymore lettering on the back of her shirt, but Lorelai grinned mischievously.
" Farther south. They did sweatpants too." Rory rolled her eyes as Lorelai lifted the back of her shirt up and exposed her nickname printed a la Juicy style. Luke swallowed and felt his ears turn hot.
" Trafficstopper?" He said gruffly, refusing to look her directly in the eyes. Lorelai just raised her eyebrow at him and grinned. Rory saw this and grabbed Marty's arm.
" And Lorelai Gilmore throws the ceremonial opening pitch. Why don't we just go...you know...over there..." Rory pointed vaguely towards the bleachers and dragged him away.
" What's that all about?" Marty asked curiously, looking back at Luke and Lorelai.
"I'll explain later. It's one of those Stars Hollow things, like the lack of a good pancake at Al's Pancake World, or the freakish amount of porcelain cat figurines per capita. You don't question it. You just have to accept it, and move on."
" HOW much time do you spend with Paris?"
" You're right. Too much."
********
" Looks like I can't keep track of your eyes all the time either." Lorelai scolded Luke back behind the bench.
" Hey, you're the one who printed words on your pants."
" And you're the one who took ten seconds to read one word. What's wrong, Hooked On Phonics didn't work for you?"
" Hey, where'd Rory go? I brought some coffee, but I left it in the truck."
" You wouldn't be trying to change the subject? Or distract me at all would you?" Lorelai tugged at the back of his hat.
" No." Luke grumped, starting towards his truck.
" Someone's feeling embarrassed. Looks like Oogling Man would have been a better nickname."
" I was reading." Luke kept his back to her.
" You liiiiiiked it. Admit it." Lorelai purred playfully and grabbed Luke's hat.
" Hey !"
" Not until you say it!" Luke chased her into the parking lot and around his truck. She stopped when she was at the opposite side of the bed and gave him a challenging look.
" I want it back."
" Come and get it." They stared each other down for a moment, their eyes narrowing. Luke moved left, and Lorelai started to run right, but Luke doubled back quickly and caught her at the front of the truck. Lorelai screamed and started laughing as he grabbed her around the waist and held her tight against his chest with one arm, prying his hat out of her hand with the other. He finally got it out of iron grasp and Lorelai collapsed in laughter, Luke holding her up as he grinned.
" My hearts racing." She grinned, looking up at him.
" Yeah mine too."
" Probably cause you scared to living daylights out of me."
" Maybe the running." Luke said, taking a deep breathe.
" Yeah.....Definitely the running." Lorelai bit her lip, and a little grin started to rise at the corners of her mouth. She snatched out at the hat again, but she lost her balance and fell to the ground as Luke pulled it away, dragging him down with her. He landed on top of her.
" .......Okay, ow........Hey, Mr. Heavy-As-A-Load-Of-Bricks, try not to break your star player before you start the game."
" I think I'll be fine." Luke shot back. Lorelai pretended to be offended and pushed him off. But she pushed to hard and he fell hard on his ribs on the pavement.
" I'm starting to think that you're accident prone." Luke shot, rubbing his side and slowly pulling himself up. He offered Lorelai a hand and she struggled up to her feet, rubbing her nickname.
" More like destined...for accidents that is." The two of them didn't let go of each other's hands for a second.
" Are you ready to play Luke?" Nicole came up beside and wrapped an arm around Luke's waist. Luke looked over, surprised
" Oh, hey, Nicole. I was just helping Lorelai up." Luke let go of her hand, but his finger trailed a little bit along Lorelai's wrist as he pulled away.
" I'm accident prone." Lorelai stuttered, trying to smile.
" I saw." Nicole smiled back, with a bit of a smirk that Luke didn't see. " Now Luke, why don't you take me over to the bench and get me one of these...cute jerseys." Nicole glanced smugly back at Lorelai at the end of the sentence, then linked her arm with Luke and urged him towards the team bench.
" Yeah, of course. We'll see what your nickname is." Luke said absently, starting to walk away with her, but glanced back quickly and saw Lorelai standing awkwardly, biting her lip and staring at the ground, obviously deep...ish..... in thought.
" Hey!" He called back smiling. "Remember, no stealing my hat during the game." Lorelai looked up surprised and started to grin again.
" I bought the hat, I can steal the hat."
" Here." Luke tossed her the keys to his truck, which were missed by Lorelai and hit her in the foot. "The coffee's on the passenger seat. And be nice. Share with Rory. Nice catch too. Good omen for the game." Lorelai smirked and flounced off to the truck before joining Rory and Marty, who were just greeting her parents. Nicole put her hand on Luke's back, pushing his towards the bench.
" Lorelai bought you that hat?" Nicole asked.
" Um, yeah, a while back."
" You know that's the only hat I've ever seen you in."
" It's possible."
" Do you have any other hats?"
" Yeah, a couple."
" And you only wear this one because...."
" It's just a hat."
" It's your Lorelai hat."
" Do you want me to take the hat off or something?"
" No. Nevermind. The hat's fine." Nicole glared at Lorelai's back. " Maybe I'll buy you a new one."
" Uh, yeah, sure. If you want." Luke mumbled, tugging his hat a little further down on his head.
*************************
The knock on the door shook them both out of the stupor they were in. Rory lifted her head up from the table and blinked. The knock came again.
" Go away!" Lorelai yelled sleepily, her head still on the table.
" Rory?" A voice called out unsurely from behind the door.
" Marty." Lorelia mumbled.
" He's late."
" He's a smart boy. Get the door."
" Get up."
" I'm getting." Lorelai crawled out of the chair and went to grab their bags from the living room, while Rory went to the door, and pulled it open.
" Morning Rory."
" Hey Marty, my mom's just grabbing the bags now."
" Did I wake you guys up?"
" Sort of. We were sleeping on the kitchen table."
" All night?"
" Just now."
" You've got crumbs in your face." Mary pointed out the pop tart crumbs embedded in her cheek.
" One of the many hazards of sleeping on a kitchen table."
" Am I late?"
" A little?"
" Is that bad?"
" Do you value your life?"
" Um, yes?"
" It's a very good thing."
" Good."
" Roryyy?" Lorelai's voice came out from the living room." Give your poor weak mother a hand with the bags!"
" Do you want help with that?" Marty peered into the house, but Rory laughed.
" No, here, take my keys. You can get the car started. We'll be out in a minute."
"Alright." Marty took the keys and popped the trunk, switching his bag over from his own car. Rory wandered back into the living room and loaded up with several bags, containing clothes, food, general first aid supplies, including numerous ice packs, and a large box. She started to follow Lorelai out to the car and caught sight of what she was wearing from behind.
" Hey Mom? You know how we were talking yesterday? What about Jason?"
" What about Jason what?"
" Won't if be hard to compete in the Nicole/Lorelai flirt off with Jason around?"
" He's not going to be there until around 11, and can only stay until 3."
" But what if Nicole tries to get some hardcore competition in while he's there and you can't fight back. That'll be a major disadvantage."
"It doesn't matter, because there is not flirt off."
" But what if she starts sitting on his lap or something."
"Once again, no flirt off."
" Or making out under the bleachers."
"Yale has made my little girl dirty! There is no flirt off."
" Liar!"
" I'm not lying."
" You did see what you put on this morning, right?" Lorelai looked over her clothes.
" So?"
" So you're going to make sure that Luke sees, and then it might as well just light up in neon saying 'I'm a big distraction for Luke to get back at Nicole breaking up our moment.'"
" You're gonna have to stop with the moment stuff."
" Intense eternal blending of souls during a brief physical passage of time?"
" Making it poetic does not make it better. Now hurry up Missy."
" One last question."
" Shoot Dexter."
" Exactly what wattage are you setting the neon sign at. Is this going to require sunglasses, or merely a turning of the hat to divert rays."
" You are very lucky I love you. Now scoot. Lets go." Lorelai scolded, pushing her out the front door.
" I still don't see how you having free range and an excuse to flirt openly with Luke is going to leave Nicole begging Luke for forgiveness."
" That's because you're not in my head."
" This has nothing to do with Nicole. She's just your excuse."
" I thought you decided against that psychology course for the sake of our mental health."
"You've got the hots for the diner boy."
" I don't like athletic Rory. Athletic Rory's mean."
"You want to kisssss him, love him and hug himmmm."
" Ewwwww! Eww. Stop that. Okay, no more Sandra Bullock, I don't care if the character is us butchified. That was definitely in no way congenial. Ugh. I haven't even had my coffee yet."
" You could go ask Luke, I'm sure he'd give it to you."
" RORY!"
" What?" Rory looked at her for a minute , trying to think of what she had just said. Her face suddenly contracted into a look of disgust.
" EWWWW! MOM! That was by far the dirtiest and most disturbing thought in the history of precoffee discussions. Ew. Get in the car. And no more talking. EWWWW. IT'S LUKE!"
" You started it." Lorelai grumped, climbing into the backseat of Rory's car as Marty gave them a strange look.
*************************
Luke climbed out of his truck and walked up behind Lorelai and Rory. They were crowded, along with the rest of the team and a hesitant Marty, around the bench, pulling on jersey shirts.
" Hey you two. What did you do now?" He nodded at the box they were pulling the shirts out of.
" We made uniforms!" Rory exclaimed, pulling a shirt out of the box for Luke. The shirts just had a grey body, but they actually had managed to find a jersey with green and black plaid sleeves.
" And everyone's got nicknames on the back." Lorelai grinned, looking at Luke.
" Where did you find these?" Luke was inspecting his with a mix of incredulousness, disbelief, and a little bit of fear.
" We scoured every shirt shop from here to Seattle. Turn it over!"
" Iceman?" The two of them giggled.
" Like Val Kilmer. From Top Gun."
" And Emily Gilmore. From Hartford."
" You're mother's nickname is Iceman." Luke looked suspiciously at Lorelai. Emily Gilmore didn't strike him at the nickname type.
" No, my mother's nickname is something I'd rather not say in the company of the little ones. My mother's nickname for you is The Ice Man, or That Man From The Diner, or The One Named After The Big Dog. But those were too hard to put on a t-shirt." Luke smiled, looking amused.
" I get the diner and I kind of understand the weird Great Dane-Danes reference, but what's with the Ice Man?"
" The first time she met you, you were bringing ice to Rory's sixteenth."
" Of right. So you're mother has a nickname for me."
" Three." Lorelai replied and Luke nodded, almost approvingly. The two of them smiled at each other for a moment before Rory coughed awkwardly.
" So, what's everyone else?" Luke asked, trying to cover the awkward silence.
" Well, Marty's is Naked Guy, of course." Marty looked a little embarrassed as Rory spun him around so that Luke could see.
" Don't worry. You'll get used to it. They've been doing this to me for years."
" It gets worse?"
" This is only the beginning my friend."
" Hey, we're still standing here!"
" And we've got Julius Salad."
" Cause Caesar works with either." Lorelai said in a sing-songy voice. Luke rolled his eyes.
"Davy Crockett." Rory announced.
" For that unfortunate incident with the raccoon last year when he was cleaning out his attic." All three of them winced, remembering the scene that had played out in front of the diner.
" I'll bet even the real Davy never had the courage to wear a living coon skin cap."
" I didn't do it voluntarily." Dave grumbled from the bench, rubbing the bald patch on the back of his head.
" Second last, we have Thankfully Not The Steve From The Park."
" Long enough?" Luke grunted. " What if Park Steve sees that?"
" He won't see it." Lorelai said confidently.
" Why not?"
" He's at the park. He's always at the park. That's the reason we call him Park Steve and why he gives Rory the heebe jeebes." Lorelai explained to him in her signature it's- painfully-obvious-to-me-so-there's-no-reason-it- shouldn't-be-to-you-too voice.
" Of course. Wait. What about Kirk." Luke craned his neck, trying to catch sight of the back of Kirk's shirt.
" Hey Kirk! Turn back around." The four of them stared at the shirt for a minute.
"......Kirk? His nickname is Kirk?"
" He chose it himself."
" You chose Kirk?"
" What's wrong with Kirk."
" Never mind."
" I like Kirk." Luke rolled his tongue around in his mouth, and counted to ten in his head, then just ignored Kirk.
" And you two?" Rory and Lorelai grinned and turned to the box. They pulled out two jerseys, which were light blue with dark blue and grey plaid sleeves, pulled them on and turned around.
" Team Gilmore?" Luke laughed a little. " Showstopper?" He read the smaller lettering below on Rory's shirt.
" For my stunning good looks." Rory posed playfully.
" And her ability to shut down a ballet with a single review!" Lorelai said with her fake TV announcer voice. Marty laughed awkwardly.
" I read that one. I mean, there's rapier wit, but you really carpet bombed the hippo."
" Your not helping. I'm never going to live that review down am I."
" I'd just hope you never have a roll over the band of your bra missy."
" Moving on now."
" What's yours Lorelai?" Luke couldn't see anymore lettering on the back of her shirt, but Lorelai grinned mischievously.
" Farther south. They did sweatpants too." Rory rolled her eyes as Lorelai lifted the back of her shirt up and exposed her nickname printed a la Juicy style. Luke swallowed and felt his ears turn hot.
" Trafficstopper?" He said gruffly, refusing to look her directly in the eyes. Lorelai just raised her eyebrow at him and grinned. Rory saw this and grabbed Marty's arm.
" And Lorelai Gilmore throws the ceremonial opening pitch. Why don't we just go...you know...over there..." Rory pointed vaguely towards the bleachers and dragged him away.
" What's that all about?" Marty asked curiously, looking back at Luke and Lorelai.
"I'll explain later. It's one of those Stars Hollow things, like the lack of a good pancake at Al's Pancake World, or the freakish amount of porcelain cat figurines per capita. You don't question it. You just have to accept it, and move on."
" HOW much time do you spend with Paris?"
" You're right. Too much."
********
" Looks like I can't keep track of your eyes all the time either." Lorelai scolded Luke back behind the bench.
" Hey, you're the one who printed words on your pants."
" And you're the one who took ten seconds to read one word. What's wrong, Hooked On Phonics didn't work for you?"
" Hey, where'd Rory go? I brought some coffee, but I left it in the truck."
" You wouldn't be trying to change the subject? Or distract me at all would you?" Lorelai tugged at the back of his hat.
" No." Luke grumped, starting towards his truck.
" Someone's feeling embarrassed. Looks like Oogling Man would have been a better nickname."
" I was reading." Luke kept his back to her.
" You liiiiiiked it. Admit it." Lorelai purred playfully and grabbed Luke's hat.
" Hey !"
" Not until you say it!" Luke chased her into the parking lot and around his truck. She stopped when she was at the opposite side of the bed and gave him a challenging look.
" I want it back."
" Come and get it." They stared each other down for a moment, their eyes narrowing. Luke moved left, and Lorelai started to run right, but Luke doubled back quickly and caught her at the front of the truck. Lorelai screamed and started laughing as he grabbed her around the waist and held her tight against his chest with one arm, prying his hat out of her hand with the other. He finally got it out of iron grasp and Lorelai collapsed in laughter, Luke holding her up as he grinned.
" My hearts racing." She grinned, looking up at him.
" Yeah mine too."
" Probably cause you scared to living daylights out of me."
" Maybe the running." Luke said, taking a deep breathe.
" Yeah.....Definitely the running." Lorelai bit her lip, and a little grin started to rise at the corners of her mouth. She snatched out at the hat again, but she lost her balance and fell to the ground as Luke pulled it away, dragging him down with her. He landed on top of her.
" .......Okay, ow........Hey, Mr. Heavy-As-A-Load-Of-Bricks, try not to break your star player before you start the game."
" I think I'll be fine." Luke shot back. Lorelai pretended to be offended and pushed him off. But she pushed to hard and he fell hard on his ribs on the pavement.
" I'm starting to think that you're accident prone." Luke shot, rubbing his side and slowly pulling himself up. He offered Lorelai a hand and she struggled up to her feet, rubbing her nickname.
" More like destined...for accidents that is." The two of them didn't let go of each other's hands for a second.
" Are you ready to play Luke?" Nicole came up beside and wrapped an arm around Luke's waist. Luke looked over, surprised
" Oh, hey, Nicole. I was just helping Lorelai up." Luke let go of her hand, but his finger trailed a little bit along Lorelai's wrist as he pulled away.
" I'm accident prone." Lorelai stuttered, trying to smile.
" I saw." Nicole smiled back, with a bit of a smirk that Luke didn't see. " Now Luke, why don't you take me over to the bench and get me one of these...cute jerseys." Nicole glanced smugly back at Lorelai at the end of the sentence, then linked her arm with Luke and urged him towards the team bench.
" Yeah, of course. We'll see what your nickname is." Luke said absently, starting to walk away with her, but glanced back quickly and saw Lorelai standing awkwardly, biting her lip and staring at the ground, obviously deep...ish..... in thought.
" Hey!" He called back smiling. "Remember, no stealing my hat during the game." Lorelai looked up surprised and started to grin again.
" I bought the hat, I can steal the hat."
" Here." Luke tossed her the keys to his truck, which were missed by Lorelai and hit her in the foot. "The coffee's on the passenger seat. And be nice. Share with Rory. Nice catch too. Good omen for the game." Lorelai smirked and flounced off to the truck before joining Rory and Marty, who were just greeting her parents. Nicole put her hand on Luke's back, pushing his towards the bench.
" Lorelai bought you that hat?" Nicole asked.
" Um, yeah, a while back."
" You know that's the only hat I've ever seen you in."
" It's possible."
" Do you have any other hats?"
" Yeah, a couple."
" And you only wear this one because...."
" It's just a hat."
" It's your Lorelai hat."
" Do you want me to take the hat off or something?"
" No. Nevermind. The hat's fine." Nicole glared at Lorelai's back. " Maybe I'll buy you a new one."
" Uh, yeah, sure. If you want." Luke mumbled, tugging his hat a little further down on his head.