Chapter 2: A New Day

BEEP BEEP BEEP – The alarm clock rang the next morning at 7.30 am.

"Jeez can't anyone get some sleep around here" Lorelai said as she covered her head with the pillow. She had set the alarm the previous night, but she hadn't got much sleep, she had so many thoughts running through her head about Rory, her parents and Luke. She lifted the phone and was about to call Rory when she remembered what time it was. She thought it was better not to call her this early, she probably needed a good sleep anyway.

She got up, dressed and showered and went downstairs, she had to sort out things for breakfast for the guests, and she wanted to talk to Sookie about Luke, she couldn't keep it to herself anymore. She went downstairs and saw a few kitchen staff setting up the tables in the dining room for breakfast, she continued on and walked into the kitchen.

"Hey sookie" Lorelai said

"Morning honey" Sookie said

"Any Coffee around this joint?" she said.

"Yup hold on I'll get you some"

"Thanks" she said and smiled, "Sookie?"

"Yea?"

"Luke kissed me" she blurted out.

"What? When? How? Oh my god I can't believe you kids finally kissed" she squealed as she jumped up around.

"Me neither actually, it happened last night outside on the porch after everyone else had gone to bed" Lorelai said smiling

"How was it? This is so exciting. Are you a couple now? Ohhh this is the biggest town news since....no it's the biggest. This is so great! I have to tell Jackson" Sookie screamed suddenly in trance as if she was talking to herself.

"Hey there Sookie, come back to us" Lorelai said

"I can't I'm so excited with you and the Luke and the kiss and the Luke" Sookie started making up a tune, very similar to the one she had sung when Rory first started going out with Dean.

"Ok but we haven't told anyone, and I really don't want anyone else to know at the minute please Sookie promise me you won't tell anyone, even Jackson because it's so new and you know what this town is like!" Lorelai said in a serious tone as she looked at Sookie sternly.

Sookie frowned "Can I tell Davie?"

Lorelai laughed and said "Fine you can tell him but only because he can't tell anyone else, unless he is a super telepathic baby" she said.

"Yay, so tell me everything already, leave out nothing!!" Sookie said.

"First please stop screaming and talking like that, if your voice got any higher the dogs within a mile radius will think someone is using one of those special whistles and the Inn will be surrounded and stand still hon, you look like a kangaroo on speed...haha great mental picture"

Sookie laughed "Sorry honey I'm just so happy!"

"Ok well last night, Jason showed up and in a nutshell he told Luke that we were still together so obviously Luke was pissed because he thought we were dating" Lorelai said.

"I told you he didn't just want company to the wedding or movies, oooh he loves you, with the love and the Luke and the Kiss" Sookie started to sing again.

"Sookie, you're not gonna hear if you keep singing" Lorelai said, and Sookie immediately stopped.

Lorelai told Sookie the whole story about how the kiss happened and then about Kirk, she didn't mention anything about what was going on with Rory because it was way too soon to be telling anyone about it yet. She was really happy that Sookie liked what was going on, she hoped she would stop singing that stupid song though.

"Ok hon well I'm going to do the rounds, check the guests are all ok, so breakfast will be ready soon?" She asked as she walked backwards out of the kitchen. "Because I think that there are a lot of hungry people out here"

"Yup it's coming right up" Sookie squealed, obviously she still hadn't got used to talking at a normal volume Lorelai thought and grinned.

"Ok hon and thanks for paying attention to the whole voice thing"

Luke had been walking towards the kitchen, he was going to ask if Sookie needed any help but the truth is he wanted to see if Lorelai was there because he hadn't seen her around. He was a few steps away from the kitchen and turned round when he heard Kirk shout "God morning Vietnam", "crazy fool" Luke grumbled to himself and turned round suddenly when he felt someone bump into him.

"O...Luke...hey...Sorry" Lorelai said, embarrassed she looked down at her feet.

"Sorry I wasn't looking" he said, his voice instantly softened.

"Ditto " she said as she looked up at him and smiled, they stood for a few seconds smiling and looking deeply into each others eyes when someone shouted over "Hey is breakfast almost ready" and they both jumped.

"Oh did we interrupt you two kids" Patty said smiling as she nudged Babette.

"Breakfast will be right out Patty" Lorelai said and looked at Luke, he nodded and went to sit down, this was a new situation for both of them and they really didn't want the whole town knowing about them.

After breakfast the guests went up to pack their stuff, Luke and Lorelai hadn't spoken since their staring incident before breakfast and had deliberately avoided eye contact because they knew this would just draw attention to each other. He noticed she hadn't actually sat down to eat anything herself because she was so busy getting everyone else sorted out, she must be hungry he thought, he grinned, she was always hungry though so no change there.

Lorelai stood up after breakfast to just say a few words to everyone who had come for the test-run. "Ok everyone, thanks a lot for coming, it was great having you all here to share this with, I really hope that you all enjoyed your stay at the Dragonfly Inn, and if you know what's good for you, you will all come back as paying guests in the future" Lorelai said laughing as she looked over at Sookie who was standing just outside the door of the kitchen smiling. "Now if everyone would pack their things I can arrange for Derek to take all your suitcases down, and again thanks for coming, this Inn has been mine and Sookie's dream for many years as you all know" she said, she was so happy that they had taken the step to open their own Inn, this was a new beginning for them both.

Most of the guests went up to Lorelai afterwards to congratulate her on the Inn and how great it was, Luke wanted to wait until he had her alone though, he didn't really want to say anything in front of everyone in case they got the wrong idea...well actually the right idea but they just didn't want people knowing quite yet. He hated being the topic of conversation, which is why one of his main aims in life was to try and keep his personal life as quiet as possible, which was a hard task in this town.

Twenty minutes later Lorelai was in her room starting to pack her things away so that her room could be cleaned, 'Ok I was here for a night but I have enough clothes here for a week' she thought, 'God I am hungry, I'll go down as soon as I'm finished this to get something to eat'. She was leaning over the bed with her back to the door when she heard a knock, 'great, probably Michel coming to complain to her' she thought. "C'mon in" she shouted.

"Hey" Luke said.

"O, hey, I thought it was someone else", she said

Luke was standing in the doorway holding a cup of coffee, he thought she would probably need some. Lorelai spied the cup and smiled the bright smile he loved so much, she ran over and said "aw you're the best, I was just starting to get the shakes there, only one cup this morning – what is that all about? This running my own Inn business sure is going to get in the way of my caffeine addiction"

"Yes well knowing you, you will do just fine with both" Luke said as he rolled his eyes.

She took the cup off his and smelt the fresh coffee aroma and moaned as she took a sip, it drove him crazy when she did that, it made him think about her moaning at something else, then he thought back to the kiss from the previous night and tried hard to keep a straight face.

"So I think the test-run went well don't you think" Luke said.

"Yea me too" she said and smiled, "I'll have to wait and see what everyone wrote on the comment cards" she groaned and said "Especially Taylor's". She frowned slightly as she imagined the pages of criticisms he would have for her.

"Taylor's an idiot" he said gruffly and frowned slightly as if thinking about how annoying Taylor could be.

"Anyway I'm just heading to the diner now, Caesar opened up for me but I told him I would be there by now" Luke said.

"O ok" she said trying to hide her disappointment that he was leaving.

"I just wanted to bring you coffee and tell you how great the Inn is and you should be very proud, I can already tell that it's going to be a success" he said and smiled and then looked at his hands nervously.

She smiled at him, "Thanks" she said. He smiled back at her one of his genuine smiles that he rarely did to anyone but her which she loved, she felt so nervous all of a sudden. When did she ever start to feel like this near Luke? This was Luke as in the guy she had been friends with for years and had been like a father to Rory, when had she been stuck for what to say with him?

There was a sharp knock on the door and they book turned round, to see Michel looking in and she rolled her eyes as she could already sense what was coming. "I know that this might be a hard concept for you to grasp but we have an Inn full of people and we have a lot to do today, I have a hair appointment at two and I will not miss it because you are a lazy American, it takes 3 weeks to get an appointment with Fernando" he whined in his annoying French accent, he started to get more agitated as she tapped her foot against the floor waiting for him to finish.

"Ok, when you're on the way to the salon you should pick up some chill pills though, and remove whatever is up your..", Lorelai said as Luke coughed. "Ok I'll be right now okay?" Lorelai said looking at Michel.

"I will be waiting with bated breath" he said sarcastically as he walked out.

"Mmm I'm rethinking the whole going down thing at all if he's going to be waiting with 'bated breath'" she said grinning slyly. Luke stood beside her a rolled his eyes, same old Lorelai he thought.

"So I might see you later at the diner?" he said hopefully.

"Yea I'll see how it goes with Rory but I will probably be in at some stage" she said and then added "I'll need to get my fix of coffee too ... I would like to get a picture of the person who invented coffee and put it on my mantelpiece" she said as Luke rolled his eyes yet again.

"But if I can't find them or they are too ugly to be put in my house I'll just get a picture of Starbucks instead" she said as she started to babble, then she looked at him and said "but yea I'll probably be at the diner today, can't go 24 hours without the greatest coffee in Connecticut" she smiled at him, obviously flirting.

"Well you wouldn't wanna go without coffee" he said gruffly.

"Well there's another reason I wanna go as well" she said smiling.

"O yea?" he grinned

"Yeah well I hear there's a pretty hot guy that works there"

He got closer to her and whispered "O yea?" grinning.

"Yea" she said smiling "Don't tell me you haven't noticed Caesar walking about in those tight pants recently" she said grinning.

"Only kidding, it was you I was checking out" she said as she moved closer to him, jeez...she just realised she had been checking Luke out, wow this had been a weird 2 days.

He smiled as he put his hands on her waist and pulled her closer to him, "Well you can get something that's not on the menu" he said grinning, "Dirty!" she said as she put her arms round his neck. She pulled him closer to her and kissed him softly and then deepened the kiss as he slipped his tongue into her mouth softly, she let out a quiet moan which he smiled at through the kiss. She ran her hands through his hair as they kissed passionately and tickled the back of his neck with her fingers as she gently put her hands on the sides of his face. He moved his hands further down her back as she ground her hips ever so slightly into him, he moved his hands down until he started to caress her ass and squeezed gently as she moaned. They continued to kiss until he pulled back and kiss her softly, they both tried to catch their breath.

Luke never wanted to let her go, he could kiss her all day like this.

"If this goes on I'll never be able to leave" he said smiling nervously.

"Hehe" she giggled "My evil plan has worked" she said as she kissed him softly on the lips.

"I gotta get downstairs now anyway" she said.

"Ok well hopefully I'll see you later" he said as he grabbed her hand and looked into her eyes.

"Yea hopefully" she said smiling.

"Bye" he said and turned and left her standing there stunned.

Did that just happen? She thought and smiled at how amazing she felt from the kiss, her lips still felt the tingles. She then heard a crash downstairs, "Ok ok I'm coming" she shouted.