Thanks everyone for the great reviews, they mean alot...see how fast I got this chapter up. Plus the fact that I'm ill and would go crazy without something to do! Anyway thanks Maddy for beta-ing this chapter, you're a cracker )

PART THREE

Lorelai woke up early enough the next morning so that she would be able to get her daily Luke fix…coffee fix that is, before having to head to the Inn for a meeting with Michel & Sookie at 10.30am. She smiled when she saw Luke's leather jacket hanging on the chair in her room where she had left it when she got home the night before. It looked like it belonged there. It would be nice, she thought, nice to have someone's things around her house sometimes. Lorelai quickly checked her hair and make-up in the bathroom before heading downstairs, grabbing her keys and heading to Luke's for breakfast.

Approaching the diner Lorelai wasn't sure, but now she felt nervous. Last night, well at least the start and end portions of the night had been very similar to a date. Outsiders may have conceived it that way if they had seen the two together, even insiders… such as herself had gotten somewhat mixed up. At several times even having to remind herself that they had both come out as single people looking for others like themselves, not each other…right?

"Coffee, coffee, coffee," Lorelai said loudly as she walked into the diner, looking for Luke at the counter but he wasn't around. Glancing around the diner she caught him. Sitting at a table, talking to the blonde! 'Why is she here? This early? God…desperate or what?'

"That was fast…too fast," she whispered out loud to herself, taking a seat at the counter and turning her back to the two of them. Luke appeared in front of her a minute later.

"What can I get you?"

"Uh some good service may be nice. I've been here five minutes waiting to be served," she grumped, wanting to be annoyed at him for something.

"You just walked in two minutes ago."

"Three and a half actually, not that you would have noticed."

"Fine. What do you want?"

"A coffee…to-go. I'm a busy woman; don't have time to sit around."

"You okay?" he asked touching her shoulder gently, not getting where the attitude was coming from.

"I'm just dandy. Thanks for the coffee." Lorelai said with a fake smile plastered on her face.

"No problem," he said throwing her a confused look at why she was acting so strangely after the night before…he just put it down to Lorelai being, well, Lorelai.

Lorelai left the diner in a bad mood, glancing back through the diner window when she was in her jeep to see Luke back over at the table talking to the blonde.

"Yeah that was Lorelai," Luke said with a half-grin.

"Aw I wish she could have stuck around, I would have liked to meet the girl who managed to capture Butch's heart," Sarah laughed.

"Sarah," Luke groaned.

"Okay okay. So when was the last time you saw Rachel? I got a card from her about a month ago, she was in Africa."

"Ahh she was here a few years back, I've only heard from her once or twice since," Luke said, feeling more comfortable talking to Sarah about Rachel than people around the town because she got that they were friends before they had started dating. Even though he wasn't in love with Rachel anymore he still missed their friendship more than he cared to admit.

"Oh you know who my husband works with now?"

"Who?" Luke said pouring coffee for two other customers in the next table.

"Daniel Buford."

"Dan the man." Luke laughed.

"Yeah, he's still exactly the same, you should see him. Except now I can't believe I ever had a crush on him." Sarah laughed and Luke simply smiled down as he took down some orders. It was nice looking back on some things, when they had accidentally bumped into each other the night before she had said she'd come into the diner and catch up. Since she worked in Woodbridge she stopped on her way over. It was a long commute everyday from Hartford, he was just glad he no longer had to commute…he suffered from slight road rage, especially early in the morning.

"Hey you should come over for dinner, we'll get Dan over and you'll get a chance to meet my Michael."

"Sure that'd be good."

"You can bring your friend Lorelai if you want?"

"Maybe," he said shrugging, thinking letting her be in close contact with people he used to go to school with mightn't be the wisest decision, with embarrassing stories and such it would give her a lot of ammunition. Although still the idea of spending another night out with Lorelai didn't sound too bad to him.

Lorelai snapped at Michel about the number of references he was requiring for new staff at the Inn, of course as usual he wasn't paying attention to anything she said. Lorelai kept herself busy around the Inn, trying not to let her mind drift back to the woman in the diner with Luke. 'Why do I always feel threatened when another woman comes into Luke's life?' she wondered. Suddenly she heard a smash and a scream from the kitchen and ran in to find Sookie sitting on the floor surrounded by broken glass.

"Sookie! What happened?" Lorelai said running to the aid of her friend.

"Well I was practicing with the sauce and then with the peppers and I was flipping, and then the window and my hand slipped and now the windows broken and my saucepan's outside." Sookie said hysterically as the pitch in her voice increased with every word.

"Are you okay?" Lorelai said helping her get up, luckily she wasn't cut.

"I'm okay but I'm so sorry Lorelai, it was there in my hand and then it's flying…" Sookie said beginning to become hysterical again.

"Sookie its fine it's a window, it can be fixed."

"I'll pay for it," Sookie started, lurching for her purse to get some money but Lorelai stopped her.

"Calm down hun, I'll give Luke a call." Lorelai said, already reaching for her cell phone.

"Luke's," a gruff voice answered.

"Hey Luke, it's me."

"Oh hey," he said, his voice instantly softening.

"We had a bit of an accident here at the Inn," she started to explain.

"Why what happened? Are you okay?" Luke said in a concerned tone.

"Well Sookie broke a window. Don't ask how. It involved Sookie, flipping sauce and a saucepan...enough said. Anyway I was wondering if you could maybe fix it. Tom and his guys are off today; hopefully getting us doors so there's no one around."

"Uh sure yeah, I can get off at lunch for a while when Lane comes in."

"Thanks Luke." Lorelai said smiling down the phone, knowing before she made the call that he would come through for her…like he always did.

A few hours later…

"Hey," Luke said appearing in front of Lorelai holding up his toolbox and had a pane of glass under his arm.

"Hey Luke, hey Bert!"

"Don't talk to my toolbox," Luke grumbled as he followed Lorelai to see where the damage was.

"Dirty!" Lorelai giggled and he rolled his eyes and grumbled something she couldn't make out.

"Hi Luke," Sookie squealed.

"Hi Sookie," Luke grunted, heading straight to the window and got straight into it. Sookie shot a look at Lorelai who laughed to herself and poured a cup of coffee as she watched Luke work… just to annoy him of course.

"So you can do it Mr. Fix-it?" Lorelai inquired.

"I can do it."

"Good boy."

"So you have fun last night?" Luke asked after a few minutes when he saw she had no intention of leaving him here to work alone.

"Yeah I did, you?" Lorelai smiled.

"It was…okay." Luke grumbled but gave her a half lopsided grin which she understood to mean yes.

"Umm tomorrow night I'm going out to dinner and I was wondering if you…" Luke started to say until the annoying French man came into the kitchen.

"Lorelai you have a visitor at the desk, during work hours might I add."

"Yeah? Who is it?" Lorelai asked curiously.

"Why don't you go out and check." Michel replied in his thick French accent before turning on his heel and walking back out the way he came in.

"I guess I'll have to go and see." Lorelai said rolling her eyes before walking out to the foyer, hoping beyond hope that it wasn't her mother.

Luke felt like once again he had lost his chance at asking Lorelai out. Although he was only planning to ask her over to Sarah's for dinner but it would still be something, maybe after that he would finally be able to ask her out properly. His sister was getting married in a few days, Thursday actually, and he was thinking of asking her to come to the wedding with him.

"Hi Lorelai," a man greeted her; she stared at him for a few seconds with a smile on her face to cover the confusion as she tried to place who exactly he was.

"Hi there."

"Steve, we met the other night. I thought I'd check out your place," he said with a toothy grin.

"Oh Steve hey, well I'm glad you did," Lorelai said politely.

"You're just getting it up and running then?"

"Yeah, slowly but surely we're getting there. Would you like a tour?" Lorelai asked, forgetting stupidly that Luke was in the kitchen, which she wasn't exactly keen on him seeing Steve here.

"That'd be great," Steve said a little over-enthusiastically.

"Okay then." 'Chill dude it's only a tour, no need to get so excited,' Lorelai thought as she realized how far from her type this man was. Leading him upstairs and showing him the rooms, she rambled on about the special embroidered curtains and oak staircase. Just as they were walking down Luke came walking out from the kitchen with his toolbox in his hand.

"I'm d-done," Luke said surprised when he spotted Lorelai and recognized the man from the bar beside her.

"Oh okay thanks a lot."

"I have to get back to the diner," Luke said, looking back at Lorelai and then man before he left. 'I can't believe I was just getting ready to ask her out,' he thought angrily, kicking himself for almost doing something stupid like that. Getting his hopes up was another thing he hated doing, but around Lorelai Gilmore sometimes he just couldn't seem to help it.

"So the kitchen…?" Steve prodded as Lorelai looked back at the door that Luke had just walked out of.

"…Oh yeah sure," Lorelai said finishing the tour by showing him around the dining room and kitchen, already anxious for him to leave.

"I was just here on my lunch break so I gotta get back to work."

"Oh that's too bad," Lorelai lied.

"So can I take you out to dinner, maybe Friday night?"

"Uh Friday, sorry I have to have dinner with my parents. Why don't you just leave me your number and I'll give you a call." Lorelai said, not exactly lying.

"Sure here's my card. I'm looking forward to your call."

"Alright well get back to work before you're fired." Lorelai quipped and he laughed.

"Bye Lorelai."

"Bye," Lorelai said closing the door behind him. 'I love when great things like that happen at just the right time,' she thought to herself sarcastically.

Later that night…

"Hey Luke," Lorelai said as the bells jingled above the door in the diner announcing her presence.

"We're closed."

"Sure you are."

"There's no more coffee," he grumbled, not really in the mood to go into their normal routine quite yet.

"Are you trying to kill me?"

"No, hence why I'm not giving you coffee."

"Luke! I've had a long day, I still have no doors and Sookie's coffee really isn't as good as yours so c'mon."

"Fine," he mumbled making sure to pour a to-go cup.

"So before when you were at the Inn you seemed like you wanted to say something." Lorelai prodded, after having thought about it all afternoon she now finally had a chance to ask him.

"Say what?" he asked, his face giving up nothing. 'He should take up poker' she thought.

"You said something like you were going out for dinner," Lorelai said quietly, looking up at him trying to meet his eyes which proved more difficult than anytime she remembered before.

"Uh yeah…I'm going out tomorrow night, I just wanted to ask you to…bring my jacket back," Luke said, his defensive walls now rebuilt, not ready to be knocked down again if he chanced asking her out and being shot down.

"Okay, sure." Lorelai said quietly. Luke had to look at her face to check if it was her, as her voice was so low and quiet…not at all like the usual self-confidant tone he was used to. It shocked him when he thought he saw a flash of hurt dance across the blue in her eyes as she rose from her chair and took some money out of her purse. Although it disappeared almost as suddenly as it appeared, she replaced it with a half-smile before turning and leaving the diner. Luke leaned against the counter, watching her leave the same way he had the night before…except this time his barriers were up to stop the hurt moving to his chest. Yes he did the right thing, he would go to dinner with his friends and she would date whoever she wanted…friendship was better than nothing at all he decided.

Will I continue or not? Up to you. This was originally a 2 piece fic, then 3 piece so you decide whether I should continue. Review por favor )