A/N: Thanks to my betas Matt and iheartbridges!
Disclaimer: Gilmore Girls belongs to Amy Sherman-Palladino, et al. Not me.
Blue
June, 2005
"Luuuuke! Pancakes!" Lorelai breezed into the diner, bells jingling over the door. They each leaned over the counter for a kiss before Lorelai plopped herself onto her usual stool at the counter.
Luke was wearing her favorite of his flannels- the blue and white one very similar to the one that Lorelai had pilfered for herself to wear to bed. She liked it so much on him because it brightened up the color of his pretty blue eyes. (Pretty in a manly way, of course. He'd get all grumbly if he heard her refer to any part of his body as "pretty").
"Hey," he said, leaning closer to her, his elbows on the counter. "I made plans for us for Friday night." He spoke in that low, deep, husky tone that always sent a shiver through her.
"Oh yeah?" she breathed.
"Yeah. It's a surprise," he answered, standing up straight, a mischievous glint in his eye.
"Oh shoot! I can't!" Lorelai said suddenly, dropping her hand to the counter.
"Why not?" Luke looked disappointed.
Lorelai sighed, "I meant to talk to you about this earlier, but I didn't know how you'd take it." She paused long enough to see the questioning look on his face, and then continued quietly, "I might be going to Friday Night Dinner."
"What?" he asked out of disbelief.
"My mother came to see me a couple of weeks ago. She asked me to come to Friday Night Dinner…" she paused and looked down at her hands before meeting his eyes again. "Luke, she apologized to me."
Luke didn't know quite what to say. Emily Gilmore definitely wasn't one of his favorite people, especially right now. He couldn't fathom why a mother would do something like what Emily did to her daughter. But on the other hand, Luke also understood the importance of family. Because of the fact that both of his parents died when Luke was so young, he was more sensitive to the fact that you only have one set of parents, and it doesn't do anyone any good to shut them out of your life, especially after they've apologized for something that they've done.
"Did she mean it?" he finally asked, quietly, with a serious look on his face.
Lorelai pondered for a moment, her big, blue eyes aimed at the ceiling as she did so. Yeah, I think she did," she answered finally, her eyes meeting back up with his again.
Luke sighed and walked around to her side of the counter to sit on the stool next to her. "Why didn't you tell me about this earlier?" he asked, a bit of annoyance evident in his voice. He was a bit upset that this had happened a couple of weeks ago and she had never told him about it, but at the same time he knew what a sensitive issue this was, and he didn't feel the need to get them both all worked up over it.
Lorelai sighed heavily. "I just—I guess I just didn't know how you were going to take it-- me having contact with my parents again after what they did to us. And it was the same day that we had that fight about the Twickham house… I just thought we needed some cooling off time in between fights." That last part was a little attempt to lighten the mood, but the look on her face was still serious.
Luke, still fighting to suppress his feelings of anger with this whole situation, reached out to her hand, and held it in his own, running his thumb lightly over the back of her fingers. "Do you want me to come with you? It might be easier for you to have someone else there to run interference."
Lorelai smiled sweetly, "No, I don't think it's the best idea for you to come to dinner with me yet. Sometime soon, when things are better between me and my parents, I definitely want you there. They have to know that you're a fixture in my life. But I think this time, I should go by myself." She paused, and added, "Plus, Rory will be there. She's used to being my buffer."
They were interrupted by the sound of Kirk's whiny voice. "Luke! I've been sitting here for ten minutes! I never have to wait this long at Al's!"
"I'll be right there, Kirk!" Luke looked at Lorelai apologetically.
"Go, go. I'm fine, really. I'll see you at home later." She liked how that sounded.
Luke smiled, and moved in to kiss her softly. She then kissed his cheek, and then moved her mouth to hover over his ear. "Thank you." She whispered. Luke pulled back slightly in order to look at her as he responded. "You're welcome."
Lorelai hoped Luke fully understood what she was thanking him for. For understanding her need to start the healing process with her relationship with her mother, for forgiving her for not telling him about her mother's visit earlier, for wanting to be there with her to face her parents at Friday Night Dinner, for everything. Lorelai watched Luke as he walked over to Kirk's table, order pad and pen in hand. "What do you want, Kirk?" he asked brusquely. Lorelai looked on, smiling to herself at the sweet, understanding man she knew under that gruff exterior
………………………………
Rory's phone was ringing. She almost didn't answer it, as she was trying to finish her homework for her summer class. It was definitely a work-intensive course, a regular sixteen-week semester crammed into five. But as the phone kept ringing, she decided to answer without checking the caller I.D.
"Hello."
"So, today: a beautiful, warm, sunny, June day, and I'm doing my homework thinking, 'I have all weekend to do this. Why am I wasting such a day?' And then my mind wanders to the beach. Yes, I know Connecticut beaches are scummy, and you don't want to swim in the water because who knows what's floating around in the Long Island Sound, but Savin Rock Beach is only ten minutes away in West Haven, and hanging out in the sun, and walking in scummy water is so much better than staying inside doing homework all day"
"Oh, hey, Marty."
"So what do you say?"
"What do I say to what?" Rory asked, putting down her pen.
"What do you say to going to the beach with me for the day?"
"Oh well, I don't know, Marty. I've got a ton of homework…" she looked down at all of the books, and notebooks spread across her desk.
"The same amount as me, seeing as we're in the same class."
Rory sighed. "I don't know…"
"Oh come on, Rory, its early afternoon. We go to the beach, hang out, eat an early dinner at Jimmie's restaurant; we can be back here with time left to work on homework if you insist on not taking the whole day off."
Rory thought it over for a moment. It was true that she had all weekend to do this reading. And why waste a perfectly nice day? "Alright, it sounds great, Marty."
"Alright! I'll be by your dorm to pick you up in a half hour!"
"Okay, see you then." Rory hung up. A day off would be nice. She closed her books, and started gathering her things for the beach.
…………………………………
Lorelai left for the Inn after eating her pancakes. As soon as she was out of sight, Luke picked up the phone, dialed a number, and waited for the person on the other end to pick up.
"Yeah, Steve, it's Luke Danes. Yeah, I have to cancel those reservations for Friday…yeah… but what about next SaturdayFriday, can I still get a table on the private balcony?...Ok… Ok, thanks a lot."
……………………………….
"Marty, what are you doing?" Rory was standing up on the sand, far, far away from the water, watching as Marty was standing knee-high in the ocean. It was close to low-tide, so the water was especially shallow, and Marty was searching around for something under the surface with his hands.
"Hold on, I want to show you something!" he responded, still searching.
Rory ventured a little closer to the water, careful to stay away from those little snails that like to slide across your toes at low-tide.
"Ah, I got it!" Marty said with triumph, bringing something large out of the water. "Check this out." He started walking towards Rory, sea creature grasped in both hands, his arms stretched away from his body, the creature's tons of tiny legs flailing all over the place from its underside, underneath a big shell.
"Ew! What is that!" Rory asked, mouth gaping open.
"It's a Horseshoe Crab. They're all over the place down here, crawling along the bottom. You have to watch out, though, because you see this?" He pointed to a long, pointed appendage at the back of the creature. "You step on this, and it could go straight through your foot."
Rory made a semi-disgusted face, staring at the Horseshoe Crab, which bore a strange resemblance to a space alien. "Aren't you afraid it's going to pinch you?" She suppressed the urge to let out a girlish scream in disgust as she watched the little claws reaching out towards Marty's fingers.
"Nah, its claws are too tiny to do much damage." Marty placed it back into the water, and watched it slowly skitter away along the bottom of the ocean.
"So, Jacques Cousteau, you seem to know a lot about the things of the sea."
Marty laughed at the Cousteau reference. "Yeah, I spent a lot of time watching the Discovery Channel growing up, and I loved coming here and searching for all of the sea animals I had learned about."
Rory nodded. "Yeah, I've never been much of a beach person, and when I do go to the beach, I usually end up lying on a towel on the sand all day."
"Ah, you're one of those." He said with a smirk.
Rory playfully hit his arm in response. You wanna sit?"
Marty nodded. "Sure."
They headed over to the large rock that overlooked the whole Sound, and sat down, dangling their feet in the water which was reflecting the blue of the sky.
There were a few minutes of silence, each enjoying the waves, wind, and each other's company. Finally, Marty spoke up, asking the question he'd been wanting to ask all day—for a few weeks, actually—"Hey Rory? So, what's the deal with you and Logan?"
Rory sighed and answered, "Well, I haven't heard from the guy since the end of April, so I'd say there is no deal."
"Ouch."
"Well, I'm over it. If he doesn't want to talk to me, then that's fine. I knew it was a bad idea to get into a 'casual relationship' with him in the first place."
Marty didn't quite know what to say. He had never thought of Rory to be the casual relationship kind of girl in the first place. He also noticed that she sounded remarkably not bitter about the whole thing. "That's too bad, though. I'm sorry."
"Hey it's not your fault."
Then there was silence.
Neither knew how much time had passed, both lost in thought, but Rory spoke up again, "Hey Marty? This is really nice." She turned towards him and smiled.
He smiled back. "Yeah, it is. Thanks for coming out here with me today."
………………………………….
Lorelai rang the doorbell, and stood staring at the giant, wood doors that she had waited in front of so many times before. She had the same apprehensive feelings as she did that time five years ago when she had showed up on her parents' doorstep psyching herself up to ask for money to pay for Chilton. The difference this time was that her parents were expecting her. And she wasn't planning on asking them for help. So why was she so nervous?
A maid finally opened the door, and Lorelai stepped in.
Richard rounded the corner then, greeting her when he saw her. "Well, hello, Lorelai. It's nice to see you."
"Hey Dad, nice to see you too. New bowtie?" she asked, motioning towards his blue, striped bowtie.
Richard smiled, "Why, yes it is new! Thank you for noticing."
"Richard! I hope you're ready for dinner! They should be here soo—." Emily's voice had drifted through the house, and stopped short when she saw Lorelai. "Oh, Lorelai, you're here."
The foyer had just become as cold as the Arctic Tundra.
"Hey Mom."
"Where's Rory?" Emily asked, looking at the door. Lorelai realized that Emily was probably relying on Rory to be her buffer as well. Poor kid.
"Uh, well, you know how Rory's taking that summer class? She stayed there today to work on some homework with a friend of hers. She should be here soon."
"Oh. Good… Well, let's sit down in the living room while we wait. You want a drink, Lorelai?."
"Yeah, a Martini would be great, Mom, thanks."
Dinner was business as usual at the Gilmore house except for the giant elephant in the room. Things were tense, things were awkward, but no one said anything about the reason why they were in this situation. They just tried to carry on like it was any of the other Friday Night Dinners that had taken place over the past five years. It was definitely emotionally and physically draining.
…………………………………………
Lorelai took no heed to the "Closed" sign on the door, and walked in to the diner, hearing the bells jingling above the door. As she sat at the table near the door, she saw Luke's head peek around the doorway from the kitchen.
"Hey, I'll be right out." He smiled, and then disappeared again.
She noticed the way his face sprang to life at the sight of her, and it induced the lift-off of a thousand butterflies within her.
She looked over, and saw some coffee still remaining in the coffee pot, enough for just one more cup, she thought. Even if it was stale and tasted like gym sock water, it was better than no coffee. Behind the counter, she found her usual giant, oversized, two-toned blue coffee mug, and poured herself the remaining contents of the coffeepot.
She took a sip, and it tasted wonderful. She had the sneaking suspicion that he brewed the pot especially for her, because he knew she'd be coming in after dinner. She smiled to herself as she took another sip, letting the warmth relax her some.
She sat back down at the counter this time, and called to him, "what are ya doin' back there?"
Luke reappeared from the kitchen doorway. "All done. I was just finishing cleaning the stove." After looking at her for a moment, he leaned forward on the counter, and said just above a whisper, "Come here." She leaned forward, and her lips met his in a lingering kiss.
"So, how did it go?" Luke asked, continuing to put things away behind the counter.
Lorelai sighed, "Alright, I guess. It was a bit awkward, but I could tell that my mother was making an effort, and thank goodness I had Rory there."
Luke smiled. "I'm glad. It was a big step for both of you."
"Yeah, there was definitely some progress made tonight." She ran a hand over her face, "Man, I'm so tired!"
Luke waked around the counter and took her in his arms in a comforting hug. She gave into it, leaning against him, her head on his shoulder, letting him hold her up.
"I think I'm going to head home now, and just crawl into bed. I can barely stand anymore. Trying to be nice to my mother is exhausting," her voice was muffled in Luke's flannelled shoulder.
Luke gave her a quick squeeze before releasing her. "Well, I'm finished here, so I'll head home right now with you."
After locking up the diner and turning off the lights, they each drove home in their respective vehicles. On the way there, Luke's thoughts were occupied with Lorelai and her current situation with her mother. He knew how hard it was for Lorelai to forgive her mother and act like everything was back to normal, and that dinner tonight was probably incredibly awkward and draining. It was most likely more difficult than Lorelai let on, and she needed him right now even if she didn't admit it. He'd be there for her any way she'd let him, and he knew exactly what she needed right now—sleep and comfort.
He arrived at home after Lorelai, and as he walked in the front door, he could hear her in the bathroom getting ready for bed. He went upstairs to the bedroom, changed into some sweatpants and a t-shirt, and turned down the bed. By the time he was finished, she sleepily shuffled out of the bathroom wearing his blue flannel. He, on the way to the bathroom, stopped for a moment, caught her with his left arm, kissed her forehead and said, "I'll be there in a minute," before releasing her and continuing his trek to the bathroom.
By the time he got back to the bedroom, Lorelai looked like she was already sleeping, lying on her back with her eyes closed. He climbed into bed, underneathunder the covers and turned out the light.
"Lorelai?" he called softly.
"Mmm?"
"Come here." He rolled onto his side, pulling her towards him. Knowing what he was doing, she turned her back toward him so he was now spooning her; she was cradled against him, his arm wrapped tightly around her.
She smiled at Luke's ability to anticipate her needs. She would never admit to him that she needed to be held that way at that moment. He just knew. After her incredibly stressful night with her parents, it was exactly what she needed.
She settled herself against him and drifted off to sleep.
…………………………………….
Lorelai arrived home as the sun was going down after a long day at the inn. She walked in the front door to find Luke on the couch flipping through channels on the TV. He turned around as she walked into the room, greeting her. Her shoulders were slumped, and she shuffled towards him, obviously exhausted. As she sat down, she greeted him with a soft kiss, and then turned and fell backwards against him, closing her eyes and letting out a deep sigh.
"I am so tired."
Luke placed his arm across her shoulders, guiding her to rest her head on his shoulder. "Hard day?"
"Yes. Everything that could have happened did happen. And I'd rather not talk about it right now. I want this day to go away." She sighed.
Luke softly ran his fingers through her hair, knowing that it soothed her, feeling her relax beneath his touch. "Things will be fine." he said. "Hey, did you eat dinner?"
"Yeah, Sookie made us some food when it was obvious that we'd be there for a few more hours."
"Okay...so, you probably want to get to bed, huh?"
He was still running his fingers through her hair, and it felt so good, so calming, that she didn't want to move just yet. She could feel the stress of the day leaving as the moments passed by. "Nah, I'll stay here for a little while longer. Keep doing what you're doing," she said with a contented smile on her face. "Plus, it's early still. We could watch a movie or something."
"I thought you were tired."
"I'm tired, but not sleepy."
"What's the difference?"
Lorelai sighed, "I'm too tired to explain it now."
"Okay. fine. I think I get it anyway."
There were a few moments of comfortable silence, Lorelai trying to think of what movie to subject Luke to next, and Luke just enjoying these few silent moments with Lorelai. Then he remembered something, and spoke up, "Oh hey, remember those plans I had made for us last week when you had to go to Friday Night Dinner?"
"Yeah?"
"I rescheduled for this Saturday. Is that good for you?"
"Sounds great," she said, with a little more energy. "So, what are we doing?"
"It's a surprise," he said, matter-of-factly
Lorelai sat up, and turned towards him, the spark returning to her eyes. His hand withdrew from her hair to rest on her shoulders.
"Ooohhhh, I love surprises!"
"I know you do."
"What is it?"
"I can't tell you. It won't be a surprise anymore," he said dryly.
"Oh, come on, Luke!" She repositioned herself so that she was in his lap, facing him and straddling his legs. "Just tell me," she said in a deep, husky tone, her face just a mere inch away from his.
"Are you trying to seduce me into telling you?" He showed no signs of giving in.
"Luke Danes! Why ever would you think that?" She said in an overly dramatic voice.
"Hey, weren't we supposed to watch a movie?"
"Luke!"
…………………………………………
This Friday, it was just Lorelai, Emily, and Rory at dinner. Richard was on business in Springfield for the weekend.
"So, Lorelai, how's that inn of yours?" Emily asked after a few moments of uncomfortable silence at the dinner table.
"Oh, it's fine. We had a few issues a few days ago, everything seemed to go wrong all in one day. I kind of felt like Shelley Long in The Money Pit. Except the inn is already built, and it was all in one day." Lorelai said, stabbing her fork into a piece of steak.
Rory gave Lorelai a strange look.
Okay, not her best material. The still remaining awkwardness of spending time with her mother was clouding her ability to use appropriate pop-culture references.
"Is everything okay now?" Emily asked.
"Oh yeah, back to business as usual." She nodded.
There were a few moments of silence before Emily spoke up again. "I haven't seen the place since right before it opened. Maybe I'll take another trip to Stars Hollow, and you can show me around your inn."
"Well, Mom, not much has changed since a year ago."
Rory shot her a look that said "Give her a chance."
"But um, sure, Mom, come on down anytime, and I'll give you the official tour!"
"Sounds nice. Maybe someday this week."
…………………………………………
Saturday
"You ready to go?" Luke asked called from the couch. Lorelai was upstairs still getting ready.
He had grabbed his clothes and gotten ready in the bathroom, finishing about twenty minutes ago, and she was still in the bedroom, primping.
"Almost!" he heard her voice through the bedroom door.
Luke knew that meant he'd be sitting there for at least ten more minutes. He found the baseball game on TV, and settled himself on the couch.
Finally, Lorelai was descending the stairs wearing Luke's favorite dress of hers. It was the same color as her blue eyes, and he loved that it seemed to make her eyes look even bigger and brighter than usual. "Alright, I'm ready. You can stop having a cow now. You're wearing a suit?" Her sentences ran together as she noticed that he was more dressed up tonight than she's seen him in a long time.
"Yeah, is there a problem?" he asked, standing up.
"No! It's just... you don't wear suits that often. You look really nice. I mean, not that you don't look nice usually, you just look... extra nice tonight." She realized she was rambling.
"I knew what you meant. And you look beautiful."
"Thanks, hon." she smiled. "Ready to go?"
They had been together for over a year now, and she couldn't understand why she was all nervous and rambly tonight. The fact that he planned this thing as 'a surprise', and the fact that he was wearing a suit rose her suspicions about what these plans for the night were.
"So, where are we going?"
"I told you, it's a surprise."
"Man, I thought I'd get it out of you that time!" Lorelai said in defeat, crossing her arms over her chest and pouting.
Luke simply rolled his eyes, loving how much she wanted to know what the evening's plans were.
There was silence for a few moments until Lorelai turned towards Luke suddenly, and poked him in the shoulder. "So, where are we going?"
"Lorelai!" he looked at her sideways, and had a tighter grip on the steering wheel, visibly annoyed.
And this is how the car ride went all the way to the town of Bantam where Luke stopped the car in front of a fancy, expensive-looking restaurant.
"This is where we're going," he said flatly, with a half-smile.
"Thank you. Was that so hard?" she answered as he had gotten out of the truck to walk around to open her door for her.
When they entered the restaurant, Lorelai immediately began to study her surroundings. This definitely was a beautiful, fancy place. Romantic too.
Luke was talking to the Maitre d' and he didn't look too happy. Lorelai, who was a few feet behind, where she had stalled to take in her surroundings, moved to stand at Luke's side.
"What do you mean there's no reservations under the name Luke Danes? I called last week and spoke to Steve."
"I'm sorry, sir. Steve isn't here right now, and I don't have your name written down in the book."
"Let me see the book." Luke was getting increasingly irritated. His plans were already screwed up, and it was only the first part of his plan. Well, it was the most important part of his plan, because this is where his plan was going to be carried out.
"We can't show you the book, sir."
"Why not?"
"Restaurant policy."
Luke took a deep breath, and Lorelai, knowing how upset he was becoming, wrapped an arm around his, trying to ground him and calm him down a little.
Leaning in closer to the Maitre d' and speaking more quietly, Luke asked, "What if I give you a fifty?"
"Sorry sir, bribery isn't going to work. This is a very busy night here, and we need our tables for people that we have on the reservation list.
"Come on, Luke, let's just go somewhere else." Lorelai didn't see the use in arguing with the guy when it seemed futile anyhow.
"No, I don't want to go somewhere else. I had a plan." He shouted, waving his arms around wildly.
Lorelai was a bit confused as to what this big plan was, but she firmly grasped his arm, forced him to look at her, and spoke sweetly, "Please, Luke? I'm sure we can get great food somewhere else."
"No, my name was on that reservation list, and that guy just isn't looking hard enough!" Luke's attention was turned to Lorelai now.
"Luke, if the guy says your name isn't there, it isn't there! Let's go, people are staring!" she said, pulling on his arm towards the door.
When they got back out into the truck, there was a short silence until Lorelai asked where else he wanted to go for dinner. He didn't answer.
"Come on, Luke, what's the big deal!" Lorelai asked, exasperated. Now she was getting a bit upset. Luke seemed much more irritable than usual, and she just didn't get it.
Luke erupted, "The big deal is that we were supposed to be in that restaurant, sitting outside on the private balcony overlooking the river. It was supposed to be romantic, damn it!"
Lorelai's features softened at that. "Luke, we can have a romantic dinner some other time. Tonight it just didn't work out. Let's just find somewhere to eat."
"But now we're all overdressed, and everything. I don't know of any other fancy-pants restaurants in the area, so anywhere we go, we'll be overdressed…"
Lorelai cut him off before he went into full-on rant mode. "Fine, let's just go get some take-out and go home." She didn't understand his mood. Yes, he would normally get a bit cranky if a restaurant lost his reservations, but he was downright pissy right now, and it was rubbing off on her.
"Fine." Luke grumbled, feeling bad that the whole night was ruined.
They drove for a few minutes in silence, Luke fuming over the fact that his big plans were wrecked until he saw a sign on the side of the road that said "Bantam Lake" with an arrow pointing down a side road. Suddenly, an idea popped into his head. If he were a cartoon character, a little light bulb would have appeared above him. Without a word, Luke turned the truck down the road heading towards the lake.
"Umm… where are we going?" Lorelai asked with her brow furrowed.
"You'll see," he said. She thought she saw a small smile playing at his lips.
"You're not taking me out into the middle of nowhere to kill me and dispose of my body by shooting it through a woodchipper into the lake like that Richard Crafts guy did to his wife back in the 80's at Lake Zoar, are you?"
"You are crazy, do you know that?" Luke said, obviously in a bit of a better mood than just minutes ago.
"Yes, actually I did. But thank you," Lorelai said with a giddy smile, noticing the lightening of his mood.
Soon, Luke pulled off of the main road onto a dirt road into the woods.
"Oh, I know what you're doing. You're leaving me for the Melonheads to eat."
"The what?" his face was scrunched up in confusion.
"You know, the little, deformed men with the big heads who hang out in the woods of Michigan waiting to eat people who intrude on their land."
"Where do you get this stuff?"
"I have my sources."
Luke rolled his eyes. "No, I am not leading you to the Melonheads, and it's impossible anyway, because as you said, they live in Michigan," Luke deadpanned.
"They could have migrated."
"You talk about these things as if they're real."
"They are! People have seen them!" Lorelai said with her eyes wide, trying to convince him.
They approached a clearing at the end of the road where the emerging moonlight was bouncing off the now-visible water, surrounding everything in a soft, blue-white glow. Lorelai let out a little gasp at the scene in front of her. The wide, expansive lake stretched far, far in front of them so that you could barely see the lights of the houses across the water.
"Oh, Luke…" she breathed as he parked the truck.
Luke smiled as he went around the other side to open her door for her.
"This is beautiful," she whispered, her eyes wondering.
"I know," he said, helping her out of the truck, as she was too busy staring ahead of her to pay attention to what she was doing. "Come on, we can go for a walk along the water."
"Okay," she said, almost speechless. She was always amazed when Luke showed his romantic side like this. She took off her high heels because whoever can walk in sand in high heels belongs on 'Ripley's Believe It Or Not', and enjoyed the feel of the cool sand between her toes.
The combination of the fullness of the moon, and the reflection of the glow off of the water created plenty of light for them to be able to see clearly as they walked along the edge of the water.
"How did you find this place?" she finally asked, playing with his fingers as they walked along.
"I actually used to come fishing here with my dad. Sometimes my mom and Liz would come too, and we'd bring a picnic lunch, and eat, and catch fish all day." Luke paused for a moment. "After my dad died, I stopped coming here, and then I just sort of forgot about it until we were driving by just now, and I remembered how beautiful it was… I realized I missed this place, and I wanted you to see it too."
Lorelai loved learning about Luke's past. He didn't talk about it much; she knew it was painful because he was very close to his parents and missed them very much after they died, but once in a while she would ask him questions about what they were like. They would have loved you, he had told her one time, and that was one of the sweetest things he had ever said to her.
"Well, thank you for showing me," she said just above a whisper, giving him a sweet smile which he returned.
He then realized that this was the perfect moment. This was what he's been waiting for since last week. He was nervous. He had to do it now before he lost his nerve. He looked out at the water for a few moments, thinking of the right words that he had rehearsed over and over in his mind.
Lorelai, noticing the look on his face, and the slight tremor in his hand asked him if he was okay. He took a moment to respond, but when he did, his voice was even and determined. "Yeah, I'm fine… Lorelai, I want to ask you something," he said, and turned towards her, taking both of her hands in his.
Lorelai felt the butterflies take off in her stomach, fluttering around in there and refusing to settle down as she said, "Okay." She had an inkling of what it was that he was going to ask her, and she was ready. She had been thinking about it a lately too, if he was going to asked her what she thought he was going to ask her.
He produced something from his left jacket pocket. It looked like a deep blue colored, velvet jewelry box, and she now knew, without a doubt, what was coming. She couldn't stop the tears forming in her eyes, threatening to spill over.
He began to speak, his voice sounding shaky, "Lorelai, I—I know you know that I'm not…really good with, you know, words, but I wanted to tell you that you know that I love you so much, and…" he opened the jewelry box revealing a sparkling engagement ring, "I was wondering if you'd… marry me." His clear blue eyes looked confidently into hers even though he was shaking on the inside.
Lorelai's hand covered her mouth. She was absolutely speechless. She nodded, unable to speak, as a tear spilled over onto her cheek.
"Yes?" he asked tentatively.
"Yes!" she finally squeaked out.
They enveloped each other in a fierce embrace before Luke pulled back to slip the ring onto her finger. "It was my mother's," he said quietly.
Lorelai cherished the ring even more because of that fact. She stood in silence for a moment, admiring it in the moonlight. From what she could tell, the stone in the middle looked like a light blue-colored stone, probably an Aquamarine, and there were a couple of tiny, sparkling diamonds surrounding it.
"Luke, thank you, it's beautiful," she said looking up at him. "I love you so much," she breathed before cupping his face in her hands, thumbs lightly caressing his cheeks, and pulling him to her for a soft kiss. That's how it started out, anyway, soft, and gentle. The way he kissed her back was one of the gentlest kisses she's ever felt. But soon, the passion kicked in, and all the love they felt for each other was poured into their kisses, and the whole world flickered and whirled away from them as they were lost in each other and their love.
When they pulled away, breathless, the only sound was their breathing and the noise of the small waves lapping against the shore until Lorelai spoke up, "I'm hungry."
Luke chuckled. Leave it to Lorelai to ruin the moment. "You're always hungry."
"I know, but it's late and I haven't eaten since noon."
"Come on, let's get some food." He said, guiding her back towards the truck with his hand at the small of her back.
"Hey, do you mind if I call Rory?"
"Of course not. Call her. I know you two have… things to discuss," he answered with a knowing smile.
Lorelai smiled as she took out her phone and hit speed dial number 2. She heard her daughter's voice on the other end of the phone.
"Rory, guess what!"