Disclaimer: I don't own anything but the story idea.
A/N: See Chapter One for full premise. To sum up, this is an AU (Alternate Universe) in which Jess Mariano never existed. In his place, Jessie Danes, daughter of Liz, has come to live with her Uncle Luke for the summer. I am very pleased that so far people are enjoying this. Reviews are always welcome, no matter how short or long (just in case you're reading and not reviewing…you know who you are). Thank you to all of you have been reviewing. It does mean a lot. A special thanks goes out to Lindsay for letting me bounce all my crazy ideas off of her. This story would not be here without her. Literally. She had to talk me into posting it. And another big thanks goes out to my new friend Sarah for taking the time to read drafts of recent chapters.
July: Cowboys and Ballerinas
Chapter Thirteen
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The next morning, Luke was downstairs delivering a plate of pancakes to Babette when Lorelai came in on her way to the Dragonfly. Seeing him across the room, she smiled in his direction and headed for the counter.
Luke made his way over to Lorelai and mutely poured her a cup of coffee. He was still upset over last night's phone call to Liz and had been brooding all morning. In addition to this irritation, Jessie had slipped into bed with him last night like usual, but instead of staying on her side of the bed, she'd stuck close all night long. It was almost reminiscent of the days before they'd gotten the bigger bed and he was a little cranky over not having gotten the space he'd grown accustomed to.
And on top of all that, this was the first one-on-one interaction he'd had with Lorelai since his Stupid Hand Move, which is what he'd begun calling it in his head.
"Morning, Luke!" Lorelai sang out, hoping she sounded normal. Although she had been trying not to think about the Scary Touching of Ballet Thursday, as she'd come to think of the incident, it was something that wouldn't leave her alone. In fact, she'd been replaying the scene in her head quite a bit, and kept coming up with the same question: good touch or bad touch?
"Mornin'," Luke grumped back, in no mood for her usual shenanigans. He finished pouring, tried to avoid eye contact and was prepared to leave her when she observed casually, "You look awful."
"I love it when women say that to me," he replied, before he could stop himself.
Lorelai blinked and then laughed, recalling her words to him when she'd invited him over to watch Casablanca. "Sorry, it just looks like you had a rough night." She looked around for Jessie and when she didn't see her asked, "Is everything okay?"
With a deep sigh, Luke shook his head and shrugged, uncomfortable dumping more on her than he already had. "Yeah, fine," he said trying to brush her off with a wave of his hand.
"Luke," Kirk interrupted from a table a few feet away. "My girlfriend and I are ready to order."
"I'll be right there, Kirk," Luke snapped and walked away from Lorelai. Again Lorelai blinked as she stared at Luke's flannel back walking away. "Humph," she muttered as she brought the coffee mug to her lips. Later, when Luke came back to take her breakfast order and Jessie had not come downstairs yet, she tried again. "Jess is sleeping in today, huh?"
Luke's mouth twisted into something she couldn't quite read as he said, "Yeah, we had some drama last night."
"More fighting?" Lorelai asked playfully, hoping to joke him out of his mood.
"Nah, it was more…just family stuff," he told her. "You ready to order?"
"Um, yeah, the pancakes with bacon."
"'kay," he mumbled as he wrote it up and walked away. Truly stumped now, Lorelai was past caring about the awkwardness between them. "Hey!" she called to him as he came back from the kitchen.
He turned, with his eyebrows raised and said, "Yeah?"
"Come here," she ordered.
He walked back over to where Lorelai sat and said, "What?"
"What's going on? What family stuff? Did you talk to her about staying?" Lorelai's eyes showed concern and Luke suddenly felt guilty for not coming clean right away.
"No, nothing like that," he admitted. With a noisy exhale, Luke crossed his arms over his chest and explained, "Jessie asked if she could call Liz and it just didn't go very well."
Lorelai's concern deepened and she leaned forward to say softly, "Oh, no. What happened?"
"The usual," Luke scoffed angrily. "Jessie was excited and happy one second and a complete mess the next. I still don't know what Liz said to her but Jessie isn't one to cry and I'm telling you…" he paused here searching for the words, "…it just…it was awful," he finished with a small mirthless laugh.
"Luke, I'm so sorry," Lorelai whispered sympathetically.
"Forget it," he replied, remembering himself at last and feeling embarrassed for confessing what his father would surely classify as too much. "Your order should be up soon," he said gruffly as he walked away.
Lorelai again watched him go and frowned thoughtfully as she traced her index finger around the rim of her mug. She was still a little weirded out, but she was more worried about Luke and Jessie. As if bidden by her thoughts, Lorelai looked up to see Jessie rounding the corner from the curtained area. Her hair was tangled and her eyes were still a little puffy, but she was dressed in shorts, a t-shirt and her old sneakers.
"Morning, Jess," Lorelai said, smiling.
"Hey," Jessie answered, climbing up onto the stool next to hers.
"How you doing?" asked Lorelai kindly, wanting to give Jessie the opportunity to talk if she needed to, but not wanting to demand information.
"Okay," she answered sleepily.
Lorelai tried to surreptitiously look Jessie over to make sure that she really was okay. The only thing she noticed was that her toes were practically popping out the fronts of her battered sneakers. "Time for some new shoes, huh?" Lorelai asked kindly.
Jessie looked down and frowned. She'd been wearing these shoes since the beginning of last school year and yeah they were a little tight, but it didn't seem nice for Lorelai to point out how crummy they looked. "I guess so," she shrugged, eyebrows creased.
Behind them, suddenly came a yelp and they turned to see that Kirk had finally noticed Jessie sitting there. "Lulu, you get the check and have them make it a to-go order. I'll wait outside," he said in a high-pitched voice while trying not to make eye contact. Quickly he high-tailed it out of there.
They watched him go as Luke came out of the kitchen and approached them. "Hey, Jess," he said gently. "Sleep okay?"
"Yeah," she said slowly and with a yawn. "Can I have French toast?"
"Sure, I'll go put the order in," Luke answered as he poured her some juice.
Lorelai gaped at them. Luke never let her eat like that. Junk food on a plate is what he called it. Must've really been a bad scene last night. "Hey, Luke," she said suddenly.
He glanced up at her and said, "Yeah?"
"Um, the clog in the bathtub is back. Could you come over later and have a look?"
"Sure, Lane is coming in for the lunch shift. Jess and I'll stop over sometime after eleven-thirty."
"Great," Lorelai smiled. Then, as if it had just occurred to her, she added, "Hey, you know what? Rory was going shopping later on today. Why doesn't Jessie go with her? Get some new shoes? Some clothes? Girl time. Could be fun," she finished brightly.
"Shopping? She's eight. You really think I want to get her into shopping now? It'll happen soon enough, I'm sure," he said with a roll of his eyes.
"Yeah, but Luke, look at her shoes," Lorelai pointed out.
Luke came around to the other side of the counter and for the first time noticed his niece's shoes. They looked like they hurt her feet. "How long have you needed new shoes?" he asked Jessie sternly.
Shrugging, Jessie said, "Mommy said we'd get new ones when school was over, but then I came here."
Drawing himself upright again, Luke said, "Okay, you go with Rory today and get some new shoes – wait, Lorelai, does Rory even know how to buy shoes for kids?"
"It's the same as buying shoes for adults, Luke. You find a size that fits and you purchase them."
"Alright, fine," he agreed. "Jess, does that sound okay to you? I'd take you shoe-shopping but I'd rather stick a fork in my eye."
This elicited a giggle and Jessie nodded. "Okay."
"While they're out you can come by, then?" Lorelai asked.
Luke stared at her for a second before saying with a quick nod, "Sure, I'll be there."
"Great."
True to her word, Rory was waiting for them when Luke and Jessie arrived at Lorelai's. The heat was still oppressive, but they managed the walk in a little under five minutes. After giving Rory some money and making sure that Jessie would behave herself, the two adults watched their two kids drive off.
"So, show me this drain you've got," Luke said as he picked Bert up off the ground where he'd been resting while they said goodbye.
"Yeah," Lorelai said, "here's the thing. I sort of lied."
"What?" he asked. "You sort of what?"
"I lied," she repeated.
"Why would you lie?" Luke demanded.
"Because you wouldn't talk to me at the diner."
The air between them felt very cramped and tight and they were both thinking of the reason why he wouldn't talk to her at the diner. "So you're saying that whenever I don't voluntarily include you in my life you'll trick me into somehow forcing me to?"
"Not quite," she said, "but listen. You looked really bad this morning and I wanted to make sure you know that you can always talk to me. No matter what."
"Thanks," he said sarcastically. "It's good to know, too, that even if I don't want to talk to you, I have to, anyway."
"That's not what this is about," she argued.
"Well, what is it about, then?" he snapped, frustrated.
"It's about you and Jessie. Raising kids is hard. I know because I've been there, but you don't have to do it all on your own, you know?"
Luke just shook his head and glanced away. She didn't get it. He was totally alone. No matter how much she argued the contrary, there was only so much he could share with her. She was, after all, just his friend.
"I'm sorry," Lorelai said when he didn't respond. "I shouldn't have lied to you." She edged toward her front porch and offered, "Can I get you some iced tea? As a peace offering?"
Luke looked at her again and realized that he was sweating through his t-shirt. "Okay," he relented. Who was he kidding after all? He could never stay mad at her. She disappeared into the house and he walked over to the porch steps.
Sinking down to sit on the top step, he methodically unbuttoned his flannel shirt and peeled it over his shoulders. The dark blue t-shirt underneath traced the heat of his body in a dark strip down the center of his back. He could feel the ends of his hair curl with sweat and he made a mental note to get a hair cut. He hated when his hair got long enough to curl when wet.
As she came back outside, Luke thought he heard Lorelai suck in a deep breath of air behind him and he turned. Her face was flushed. Handing over his glass of tea, she pressed her own glass against her temple and sat down next to him.
"So," she said when she'd settled herself beside him.
"So," he replied quietly.
Lorelai propped an elbow on her knee and settled her chin in her palm as she tilted her head to give him a side-long look. He looked…good. Why did he look so good to her? Damn that Jessie, anyway. Lorelai took a big gulp of tea. She needed cooling off. "Are you still thinking about asking Liz to let her stay?"
He nodded thoughtfully as he said slowly, "Yeah, the more I think about it – and after last night…" he trailed off with a small shrug of his shoulders and a twist of his lips at the thought of Liz. He took several sips of tea and tried to concentrate on the here and now. He could worry about Liz later. In fact, he'd have to worry about Liz later. Right now he needed to worry about mopping is sweaty neck. Even as he thought it, Luke took his discarded flannel, wadded it up and swabbed it across the back of his neck.
"Hot out," Lorelai observed, watching him.
"Uh huh," he replied with his eyes closed as he tried to reach.
"Here," she said. "Let me." Lorelai took the shirt from him and finished drying the back of his neck. She'd had to lift the bill of baseball cap up a little bit to do it, but when she was finished, she fished an ice cube out of her drink and carefully let it glide across his skin. Back and forth on the tanned flesh she watched as the cube left trickles of water behind it. Startled at the initial contact, Luke jumped a little and then shivered. Glancing quickly up at her he found that she was concentrating on the ice cube with a furrowed her brow and puckered lips. God how he wanted…stop, he told himself with a sigh that he hoped wasn't too obvious.
"Feel better?" she asked softly, noting that his head had dropped down to give her complete access to the sensitive area.
"Yeah," he whispered, barely audible. Lorelai leaned toward him further and took the ice cube into her palm so that the ice was pressed between his neck and her hand, and let her fingers dip down below his t-shirt line. Further and further she edged into his shirt, each time feeling him tense a little as the frigid cube made contact with his wet, hot skin. With deep concentration she slowly allowed the ice to melt between them and she let the tips of her fingers slide along his bare skin as the ice got thinner and thinner.
Luke's skin wasn't the only part of him that was going haywire. If she kept this up much longer he'd need to put the flannel shirt in his lap to save him from embarrassment. What was she doing to him? And why now? After the awkwardness of the Stupid Hand Move and the way she'd clearly been thrown by it, why was she doing this? Was it all just a game to her? Behind his tightly closed lids all he could picture was the look of concentration on her face as she slowly bathed his body one meticulous stroke at a time. He couldn't take it anymore. But, the other side of his brain said, when will you ever get another chance like this? Enjoy it. See where it goes.
Where it goes? he replied. It'll go with me leaving and her meeting another jackass. Only this time, she'll probably marry the jerk. So, make her realize that that would be a bad decision, the reasonable part of his brain said. Oh, sure, he answered. Just look up and say, Hey, I know this might be coming outta left field, but is there any chance at all that you might want to spend the rest of your life with me? Yeah, I'm sure that'll go over big. Before he could come up with a reasonable reply, Lorelai's arm dipped so low into his shirt that she was up to her elbow. He shuddered as the droplets of icy water trickled down to the small of his back. Jesus, she was killing him.
"Why are you doing this?" he finally asked, knowing that if she went much further he'd be in danger of losing what shred of control he had left.
Sure enough, this broke the spell and Lorelai pulled away and tossed the almost-gone ice cube nonchalantly into the nearby grass. "You looked hot," she answered with a shrug.
Grimacing a little, Luke pulled back, too, and said, "I'm surprised you haven't complained about the smell yet. Sweat ain't pretty."
"Yeah, I was just about to mention that," she answered. In truth, the scent had been a little intoxicating. Sure, it was sweat but the musky tanginess hadn't been offensive at all, it had been…stimulating. Damn that Jessie. Now that the piece of double chocolate cake was sitting on her front steps for the taking, she just wasn't ready to rationalize the calorie intake. Looking away, she joked, "I could probably come up with something for you to fix if you're bored."
"Nah, I should get back," he replied, let down.
"Oh," she answered, feeling it, too. "Yeah, you're probably right. I'll send Rory over with Jessie when they get back."
"Okay, thanks," Luke said, rising to his feet. He drained the glass of iced tea, relished the clinking of the ice within it, and handed it to Lorelai who took it with a small smile.
"See you later," she said, waving.
"Bye," Luke answered, taking Bert and his wadded up flannel and leaving her on the steps. Lorelai watched him walk away and wondered why she felt so empty.