A/N: Sorry for the obscenely long wait between chapters. I really have no excuse.

Disclaimer: Still not AS-P. Still don't own any of it. Still looking for my own Luke.

Chapter 3: Best of My Love

Lorelai's first thought when she woke up the next morning was that the sun came up ridiculously early at the beach. Her second thought was that she was alone in bed. Slipping on Luke's t-shirt (which had been discarded the night before in one of several vigorous rounds of beach house christening), she padded downstairs, where she found a note written in Luke's hasty scrawl sitting on the kitchen counter.

Have gone to forage for your breakfast. Back as soon as possible.

Love, L

P.S.: There is no coffee in this house.

P.P.S: No, that is not my idea of a sick joke.

She grinned at the little Luke-joke, not even disturbed at the impending lack of caffeine, and went back upstairs to change.

As she got dressed, Lorelai glanced at the disheveled bed and smiled, remembering the events of the previous night. It wasn't just the sex—which, to be fair, had been incredible. It was more about the connection. She felt like ever since they'd made it back to each other after that horrible winter, every thing they'd done—talking, making love, just hanging out together—had taken on new significance. They'd made it through Luke's insecurities and her own fears and those awful weeks apart, and to her what they had now was more precious, but more solid than ever.

Or, at least, she knew she felt this way. She was pretty sure Luke knew it too, but sometimes it was still so hard to tell. That was one of the problems with being in love with Unreadable Monosyllabic Man. So much went unsaid.

As Lorelai came back downstairs a few minutes later, she heard Luke come into the house from the floor below.

"Is that my little hunter-gatherer?"

Luke appeared at the top of the stairs with a smirk. "Hunter-gatherer? Is that another way of calling me a caveman?"

"Oooh. Caveman. That's one we haven't done in a while." She sidled up to him and gave him a soft, lingering kiss. "Morning."

"Well, we'll definitely have to remedy that situation." He kissed her back. "And good morning to you, too."

Lorelai pulled back with a smile, then noticed the bags and familiar-looking Styrofoam cup he was carrying. "Whadja bring me?"

"Well, when I was looking for a market I saw this place called the Orange Blossom Bakery. I remembered reading about it in the guidebook, so I got you some stuff to hold you over until I can actually cook something." He handed her the coffee and a small brown bag, then started putting the other groceries away.

"You really are an angel," she grinned. She took a long, appreciative sip of the coffee, then opened the bag and pulled out an irregular-shaped pastry. "Well, this is new."

"It's called an 'apple ugly.' It's supposed to be their specialty."

" 'Apple ugly,' huh?" She gave a little shrug, then took a bite. A second later, she let out a delighted moan. "Oh my god, this is amazing." She cradled the pastry to her. "Don't listen to those mean people at the bakery," she cooed. "You're not apple ugly, you're apple pretty."

To this, Luke could only shake his head and roll his eyes.

"So," Lorelai said around another mouth full of pastry, "have you recovered from your Road Trip with the Girlfriend stagefright?"

Luke's face reddened and he rolled his eyes. "Yes, and can we please forget that ever happened? I feel like enough of an idiot as it is."

"It's forgotten. No more talk of Luke's boyfriend jitters." Lorelai swallowed the last of the apple ugly and walked over to Luke, sliding her arms around his waist. "Besides, judging by your performance—or should I say performances—last night, I'd say you've definitely recovered your confidence."

"Oh, yeah?" Luke leaned down and gave her a quick kiss. "Glad you approve."

"Oh, I definitely approve," she grinned, "but just to be sure you're completely back to your manly, confident self, I think we should have a second go-round tonight."

"Well, in the interest of accurate testing and reporting, me and my restored confidence will be happy to oblige."

"Good." She kissed him and slipped out of his arms. "You ready to hit the beach, Moondoggie?"

"Moondoggie?"

"Yeah. Moondoggie. Dreamy surfer boyfriend of Gidget, the spunky, beach-loving ingenue played by the recently deceased Sandra Dee on the big screen, and later by the even more perky Sally Field on t.v."

"Oh, him." Luke shoved the last of the empty grocery bags in a cabinet and came around the counter. "Sure, let's go."

"Wait, wait," Lorelai said, taking in the usual Luke uniform of flannel, jeans, and baseball cap. "You can't go to the beach dressed like that."

Luke gave her a confused look. "Why? What's wrong with how I'm dressed?"

"Well, first, it's eight-six degrees out there, and I really don't want you to keel over of sunstroke on our first day out. Second, you go to the beach like that and you'll look like a refugee from the Ted Kczysinsky School of Fashion Design for Unibombers and Hermits."

"Look, there is nothing wrong with what I've got on. I wear this every day, and if it's not good enough for the beach, then that's just too bad."

"Yeah, but . . ." Lorelai started to protest, then trailed off when she saw his eyes begin to twinkle and the corners of his mouth turn up. She gasped in mock outrage and swatted him on the chest. "You know, you'd better never let anyone in Stars Hollow know you actually have a sense of humor. You'd never be able to scare Kirk or Taylor again. It'll be like Lex Luthor finding out about Superman's weakness for Kryptonite."

"Duly noted." Luke tugged affectionately on a strand of her hair, then headed for the stairs to change. "I'll be two minutes."

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A short while later they made their way down to the beach (Luke now in a t-shirt and khaki shorts). The gloom and chill of the day before had given way to a crystal blue sky and balmy breezes, and Lorelai stood still for a minute, just taking in the salty tang in the air, the sound of the waves crashing on the sand, and the warmth of the sun on her face.

"My god," she sighed, looking up and down the nearly deserted beach. "Isn't this just perfect?"

"It's amazing." Luke turned to her and smiled. "This was a really good idea."

Lorelai grinned back at him. "Someday you'll learn that all my ideas are good ideas. Especially the one about curtains in the diner."

"I'm not even going there."

"Oh, you say that now, but my hair flip/black dress/red lipstick triple combination will have you hanging curtains faster than you can say 'gingham or eyelet.'"

"And to your triple-combination-of-sex I will respond with the Danes manly growl/tattoo-baring t-shirt/pie in bed/nuzzling the special spot quadruple play. I win."

"Oh, honey, I think we both win in that scenario." Lorelai picked up the bag they'd brought down to the beach and began rooting through it. "Crap. I forgot the sunblock."

"I'll get it."

"Nah, I'll go. I need to get some water, anyway."

By the time Lorelai made it up to the house and back, Luke had spread out their blanket and had reclined on it, sans shirt. He was also talking two very tanned, very blonde, very nineteen-year old girls. Probably admiring his tattoo, she thought. The skank twins must have sensed Lorelai's territorial phermones, because they walked off before she even made it back to the blanket.

She plopped down on the blanket beside Luke, unable to keep a pout from forming. "What did Paris and Nicole want?"

"Huh?"

"Your little girlfriends."

"Oh, them." He gave a disinterested shrug. "They were just asking me to go clubbing with them tonight. Apparently they've got some even hotter friends, and they said I could hook up with any or all of them." As usual, the smirk gave him away.

"Oh, I see." Lorelai stood up and slowly peeled of her t-shirt and shorts. "Well, it's too bad you're going to be busy," she purred, " 'cause I was really hoping you could put some sunblock on my . . . you know . . hard-to-reach areas."

Luke stared up at Lorelai, taking in the way her bikini revealed and yet flattered her body. His face flushed slightly, and he swallowed. "Somehow," he said in a husky voice, "I don't think they'll miss me."

Lorelai sat down on the blanket with a victorious smile. "Good," she said, turning her back to him and handing him the bottle of sunblock. "Now SPF me, baby."

Luke took his time rubbing in the lotion, massaging every inch of the bare skin on Lorelai's back and shoulders. Before she knew it, Lorelai was letting out soft moans of contentment. "God, you do that so well."

Luke leaned forward with a chuckle and put his lips to her ear. "You do know you're the only one I want to hook up with, right?"

She bit back another moan at the sensation of his breath on her skin and turned, prepared to make one of her patented smart remarks. But the retort died in her throat when she saw the sincerity and openness in eyes. "Yeah," she said softly. "I do."

"Good." He kissed her softly and gave her shoulder one final rub.

They lay on the blanket in contented silence for a while, Lorelai reading Entertainment Weekly and Luke reading the local newspaper. After about half an hour, though, Luke finished the paper and began to fidget.

"Okay, I can't stand just sitting here any more. You wanna go for a walk or something?"

Lorelai tossed her magazine on the blanket beside her and stood up. "Yep. I think I've learned all I want to about Bachelorette Jen's new man."

They walked hand-in-hand down the beach, not saying much of anything. Inside, though, Lorelai was still turning over the thoughts that had been with her since earlier that morning—thoughts that had only increased after their little exchange on the blanket. Maybe these thoughts kept cropping up because they were alone together, away from everything that usually distracted them, and now she had to face them head-on. Maybe it was just some kind of weird delayed reaction. Whatever the reason, the need to be sure, to finally resolve everything, made her stop suddenly.

"Hey," she said. "I need to tell you something."

"Okay." He looked at her expectantly.

Lorelai took a deep breath, not sure how to start—not even sure, now that the moment was here, that she wanted to start. Maybe it was best to let sleeping dogs lie. But she plunged ahead anyway, needing to get it all out. "I just . . . I mean . . .Last winter, when we . . ."

Luke's face tightened, and he looked away. "You don't have to . . ."

"Yes, I do. I mean, I know everything's okay. We had our break, then I came and cried in the diner, and we kissed and made up, and you poured me a cup of coffee, and we shorthanded our way through the rest of it, just like we always do. Now, don't get me wrong, I love our shorthand thing. It's one of the great things about being us, plus it's a terrific time-saver." She took his other hand in hers and turned him to face her. "But I just still feel like there's stuff I need to say. Stuff I need you to hear."

"Lorelai . . ."

"Please just let me finish, and then I promise we can go back to our usual sexy banter—which, by the way, I also think is one of the great things about being us."

Luke said nothing, and Lorelai took another breath. "I know that last winter, with everything that happened with my mother, and with Chris and GG and his dad, that you didn't feel like you were a priority with me. You didn't feel like I was all in, and I guess you were justified, 'cause you gave so much and did so much, and even though I was nuts about you and so happy with you I still found ways to keep you at arm's length. I mean, that's what I do. What I've always done. But I want to make sure I don't do that with you, because you mean too much to me to keep at a distance. So even though things are great now, I just want you to know something."

She reached up to cup his cheek, making him look her directly in the eye. "Next to Rory, you are the most important person in my life. Period. Being with you has made me happier than I've ever been. It's made me a better person than I've ever been. And I don't think there's any way I could love you more completely than I do right now." She paused for a moment, then looked away, suddenly embarrassed at having spoken so openly. "Okay, so, cheesy outburst over. We now return you to your regularly-scheduled lactose-free programming"

A second later, though, she felt Luke slide his arms around her and bury his face in her hair. "Thank you," he murmured.

Lorelai pulled away for just a moment to look into his eyes. Overcome by the naked emotion she saw there, she wrapped her arms as tightly as she could around his neck, nuzzling his cheek.

"Any time," she whispered. "Any time at all."

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Up Next: So that's why they named a cocktail after it.