Lorelai stood staring at the phone for a few minutes before slowly walking over to it. She picked it up and started to dial the number before hanging up. She looked towards the kitchen knowing Luke was in there waiting for her. She smiled, thinking about how nice it was having someone who was waiting for her, who cared about her. She looked back at the phone and her smile faded. She took a deep breath, dialed the number and started pacing while it rang.
"Hello..."
When Lorelai heard Emily's voice, she could feel the anger rising in her. She took another deep breath.
"Hello is anyone there?"
"... ... Mom"
"Lorelai?"
"Yes … Hello mom"
There was silence at the other end of the phone for a few seconds before Emily spoke again. "Lorelai hello"
"Ah...Hi" Lorelai paused not knowing what to say next. "I ...um... got ... your message"
"Messages" Emily added
Lorelai gritted her teeth "Yes ... well.. I got them.. and.. now I'm calling you back. What did you want to talk about?"
"I wanted to talk to you about what happened. Can we talk about this in person?"
"I think now is fine"
"Well alright. I rang to tell you that ... we'd like you to return to Friday night dinners"
"That's what you wanted to tell me after everything that happened that's all you wanted to say? I'm sorry but I don't think so" Lorelai was about to hang up the phone when she heard Emily.
"I... we... your father and I... we just wanted what was best for you but we realize we went about it the wrong way. Lorelai we want you to come back to dinner we... miss Rory... and… we... miss ... you." Emily stopped and waited for Lorelai's reaction.
Lorelai was sure if her jaw wasn't attached to her face it would have fallen to the floor. She'd never heard her mother say anything like that about her before.
"Lorelai?"
"I'm still here... Look you need to realize that this is how I am. This is me and you need to accept me for who I am. We love Luke and he's going to be a part of our lives forever and you need to accept that." Lorelai paused for a second "Luke would like to cook us all dinner tomorrow night..here.. at our place. We'd like you and dad to join us and Rory will be here too."
"Well..."
"Mom just listen... we are offering you the chance to be a part of our lives again but there is a condition. You are only to come if you can really and truly accept me for who I am and Luke for who he is. You are not to come into our home and be judgmental. If you can do this we'd love to see you here tomorrow night at 7 o'clock, if not well then... that's your decision" Lorelai stopped and waited.
"We'll be there -7 O'clock tomorrow night...Thank you Lorelai"
"Bye Mom" Lorelai put down the phone and walked into the kitchen and straight into Luke's arms.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah fine... they're coming tomorrow night at 7"
Luke rubbed gentle circles on her back "I'm very proud of you. You did a good thing"
"She said she missed me" Lorelai whispered into Luke's chest
Luke smiled, maybe Emily had got the message "Yeah well, you're very missable"
Lorelai chuckled "thanks" she kissed him. "So where's this lunch I was promised?"
Lorelai was sitting on the porch steps when Rory returned home later that afternoon.
"Hey babe how was your day?" Lorelai asked handing Rory her cup of coffee
Rory took a sip and handed the cup back to her mother "It was great. I got four new books and put two on order I'll have to pick them up next week."
"Only four?"
"Yeah well I think Dean got bored staring at me as I looked threw every book for hours"
"How could he be bored starring at you.. You're so pretty" Lorelai giggled
"How was your day with Luke? Wait... if it was dirty I don't want to know" Rory said pretending to cover her ears.
"Ha..ha... Um.. well... parts of it were dirty but I'll skip them. We played baseball and I even I caught the ball once. It was a great catch too. Luke was so proud of me"
"Wow"
"Skip the next part" Lorelai smiled raising her eyebrows
"Mom!"
"Then we had lunch.. actually before lunch I called grandma" Lorelai said casually waiting for Rory's reaction.
"What.. why didn't you tell me that first? You called Grandma? How? Why?"
"I don't know, Luke tricked me into doing it"
"And that's why I don't see him around? You had him killed didn't you"?
Lorelai laughed, "Luke and I talked and he thought I should give them another chance. He really thinks they should be at the wedding, that I'd regret it or something if they weren't there"
"I think you would"
"Yeah well... he's so determined for us to get along, for your grandparents to be in our lives. I had to do it for him"
"Well he really loves you"
"So I gave in and called. I gave them an ultimatum - we'd let them back into our lives if they were willing to accept us...all of us for us or that's it... no more chances. Then I invited them over here for dinner tomorrow night"
"What.. are they coming?"
"They're coming. 7 o'clock tomorrow night. Luke's cooking."
"Wow grandma and Grandpa are coming here... What do we need to do...clean.. shop... move?"
"No we need to do what we usually do. Yeah we'll clean a little but remember they have to accept us, we're not going to pretend that we live in a spotless palace."
"Okay. So what's Luke going to cook?"
"I don't know but he's at the store now buying what he needs." Lorelai pouted "and he wouldn't let me go"
"Why.. does he want the meal to be a surprise?"
"No.. he said I slow down the process and the bill comes to three times the amount compared to when he shops alone."
Rory laughed "How can he not like shopping with , you buy all the best thing"
"Exactly.. and now that you're here we can got to the store and do our own shopping and if we hurray Luke will still be there and he'll pay for ours too"
"Alright let me put these books in the house and well leave"