Oi!

So…it's my favorite time of the week again…it's update time!

I wanna thank all of you people that have been following my story; it's almost done now… I'm kinda sad about that… It's good to have something to focus on so I can forget about the spoilers…

Have I mentioned how much I appreciate your feedback?

Can't forget about the best beta duo in the world:

MrsDionysiousOGall and

OzDust

Now on with the story… I'm very proud of this chapter…

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Chapter 9 – One love a la 'The Notebook' to go!

A FEW MINUTES LATER— ON THE DRAGONFLY'S GROUNDS

"There might be some other people at the lake besides us. You see, I was so excited about swimming and cooling off that I mentioned the lake to everyone that complained about the heat..." Lorelai explained, and then offered an apologetic smile.

He hadn't liked that idea; he wanted to spend some time alone with her, maybe even discuss his newfound discoveries with her; but he couldn't do that with an audience.

"But since I know you, and I know you don't exactly love the idea of lots of people around you...I figured we could walk a little more and swim further away, nobody walks too much to find a place to swim, any decent place will do. And you can't really blame them; they just want the heat to go away as fast as possible!" She fanned herself; they had been walking along the lake trying to find a deserted spot.

"Thanks. I hate noisy crowds..."

"I know you do." She suddenly stopped. "Here." She looked around, absorbing the place. "What do you think?"

Lorelai had been standing under a lone strand of light, shining diagonally from above; a gentle breeze passed through her, moving her curls. Luke thought she looked...

"Perfect," he answered, amazed.

"I'm glad you like it!" She beamed excitedly.

"How could I not?" Luke was still reeling from his previous thoughts.

She only laughed at his weird behavior.

"Let's swim, I think the heat's messing with your head..." She dropped their towels over a branch of a tree nearby and then removed her sundress, revealing a blue, tiny bikini, and then hung the dress over the branch.

Meanwhile, Luke was foolishly grinning at her; good thing she wasn't paying attention, as he was completely mesmerized by her beauty. He had to close his eyes to regain his composure. He usually could bear to stand in Lorelai's general vicinity, but since he had realized that his feelings toward her were just too overpowering, increasing in intensity every second, he was too afraid that he would do something stupid or say something too obvious and end up tipping everyone off, including Lorelai, about the way he felt. So he just took a deep breath, preparing himself for a whole afternoon with a semi-naked Lorelai. -Gulp- He also undressed himself, jeans and his sweater, and ended up feeling completely naked wearing just his swim trunks; if he hadn't been so busy with his own little world, he would have seen Lorelai staring at him in pretty much the same way that he had been looking at her before.

"Looking good, diner man!" She whistled mockingly and then ran to the border of the lake, where she sat, only putting her feet in the cold, refreshing water.

Luke just stood there, surprised that she had managed to say something like that when he couldn't even move too close to her without acting like a clumsy idiot. Then he heard a 'splash' sound and was brought out of his stupor: he saw that Lorelai had dived into the lake; and without even realizing it, he soon joined her.

He dove into that cold water, enjoying the feeling of being surrounded by nothing but water all around, like a blanket protecting his body. He found those feelings relaxing and was glad to take a break from the nervousness that always came when he was near Lorelai, even though it was a good kind of nervousness. He swam as fast as he could until his limbs felt numb and his lungs ached for air, then he sped for the surface and relief flooded him when he breathed in again. He tried to touch the ground with his feet, so he was standing up, but when his feet couldn't touch the ground, he realized how far away from shore he was and from Lorelai too. She was looking at him and when she noticed that he was back on the surface, started waving her arms and called him back; he did as told.

"Aren't you full of energy?" she said as he stopped in front of her, then presented him with a full-toothed smile.

"Just swimming a little..." he weakly explained, was it possible to fidget underwater?

"We should race!" She beamed. "I bet I can beat you!" She was already in a 'before the race' pose.

He only laughed at her excitement and ridiculous pose.

"Lorelai..." Luke said in warning; she only looked at him mischievously.

"Ready?" she challenged him to oppose her.

"I'm not racing you, Lorelai..." How was it possible that the same person that could make him feel like a teenager was also the one that could make him so annoyed?

She looked back at him, raised an eyebrow and dove in, swimming as fast as she could. He sighed with conformity and raced after her, who would believe that he would ever be able to deny her anything..., he had it bad...

Lorelai of course won; not only because she had a head start but also because she could decide where the finish line was. Luke didn't like her convenient rules; he, different from her, thought they weren't fair at all...

"I win! I win!" Lorelai shouted when she reached her imaginary finish line, she had to just create one since they hadn't established one before the race, and nothing suited her better than a finish line when she was starting to get tired.

Luke heard her screaming and swam toward her.

"I win! I win!" She continued crying just to vex Luke, but then she felt two strong hands pull her by the ankles and she was suddenly completely under water.

She tried to scream in protest but that didn't really work underwater. Luke continued his hold on her ankles, pulling her down; she moved her whole body to force him to let her go. He grabbed hold of her arms in response and then came face to face with her, wearing a mocking devilish look.

She was surprised by this new playful side of Luke but still managed an equally devilishly look, crooked her eyebrows and started to playfully 'fight' him; he only tightened his hold on her. She decided to use her free legs and started kicking him away; he quickly held her torso and arms with only one of his arms, and used his now free limb to stop her legs. She was completely trapped.

He wore a look that could be translated as 'Look who won now.' She only narrowed her eyes in reply.

Then she suddenly widened her eyes; she had forgotten that she was no 'Aqua man' and needed to breathe. She looked up, indicating to Luke that she needed to go up.

He took them both to the surface, never letting her go.

Once they emerged, Luke loosened his grip on Lorelai and they were able to take a deep breath.

Lorelai started laughing hysterically, uncontrollably and loudly; he looked questioningly at her.

She just had to be nuts, it was the only plausible explanation.

"What is it so funny?" He did, as always, not understand her.

She continued laughing and only pointed at him.

"What is it?" He feared there was something on his teeth or something equally bad.

She calmed down. "I didn't really need to breathe yet..." She took a few steps back from him.

It finally dawned on him, after a couple of seconds, that she had pretended she needed to breathe just so he would let go of her, therefore she would win their 'fight'. He looked directly at her; she had her hand in front of her face, hiding her amused smile.

"I win!" Lorelai said in a quiet tone while looking deep into his eyes.

Luke moved slowly and directly to her; he never broke their eye contact. He could see her freckles and that her eyes were the bluest blue he had ever seen. He tried very badly to remember how to breathe...

Luke had never been a religious person; in fact, he wasn't even sure if he followed any. He had some memory of going to church with his parents, but after his mom died, he just never went back again. He guessed that just wasn't his dad's thing... He had also gone through that phase of his life where he would question religion, evolution and heaven, but he had long ago given up on organized religion, although it could be useful... He suddenly found himself asking for divine help at that moment: he just needed to have Lorelai.

Lorelai was completely paralyzed; her best friend seemed to be almost kissing her and she just had no clue what her opinion about it was; she tried to concentrate on re-learning to breathe: her lungs didn't seem to be working.

Luke leaned closer and gently slid his right arm around her waist. The feeling of her cold wet skin was fabulous to the touch; he waited to see if she would start to scream or hit him but since that didn't happen, he took it as a positive sign. He smoothed her damp dark hair with his left hand, then caressed her cheeks, her nose, her lips.

She closed her eyes, overwhelmed by this new feeling; a thousand million thoughts simultaneously running through her mind; none of them seemed to be in English.

He lowered his head, tightened his grip around her waist, and was about to kiss her when he heard the loudest thunderclap he had ever heard. He knew that the louder the noise, the closer the thunder actually was; he tried to remember the speed of sound so he could calculate the exact distance from danger but all rational thought seemed to be away on vacation at the moment... Although he was still able to remember that staying near water was never a good idea in a thunderstorm, he thought that leaving the lake would be a wise decision at the moment; he took a confused Lorelai's hand and ran toward land.

"What are you doing?" Lorelai spoke loudly so she could be heard over the thunderstorm. Was Luke losing his mind? First he was playful, then he almost kissed her...he did almost kiss her, right? And now he was just running like crazy and, worse, pulling her along...

"Thunderstorms." He pointed to the sky; they were already by the tree where they had left their clothes. "They are attracted to water," he handed her the summer dress. "And water is one of the best conductors of electricity." He was already dressed, then pointed to the dress she had been holding; she slipped it over her head and then put on her flip-flops.

"Oh." She was a little scared and surprised; scared because she could have just been fried and surprised because she would never have guessed that Luke would know this stuff.

He linked his fingers through hers, then tried to calm her down by just looking at her; the scary thing is...it worked. She felt much better when Luke looked at her like that.

"It's not too safe under trees either..." Luke explained.

Lorelai widened her eyes, what? Didn't he know they were under a tree?

"It'd be better to just run back to the Inn..." He was trying to look very calm so she wouldn't freak; she also had to know he had had a good reason to not kiss her earlier... Although he didn't know if she would have kissed him back...he would think of that later.

"It's not like we can get any wetter!" She tried to lighten the mood, then giggled. "That was not intended to be a 'dirty'..."

He smiled back and gave her hand a reassuring squeeze before they started the race back to the Inn.

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Michel was on the Dragonfly's porch; he had arranged a pile of towels on the porch swing. He figured that since it was raining, a bunch of people would be returning to the Inn and he wasn't going to tolerate wet people walking around on the wood floor so it could get stains all over it.

He could already see a couple approaching; they were running and still holding hands. How pathetic were those couples that couldn't stay away from each other… As the couple got closer, he recognized Lorelai and Luke's silhouettes. Why had she come with that poor greasy man?

When Lorelai and Luke finally reached the porch, they were completely soaked; they had water coming out of the ying-yang. They were also shivering from the cold, and then Lorelai sneezed; great, now they would be sick…

Michel handed them the towels.

"The Weather Channel did warn that it would rain in this area…" He looked at them with superiority.

"I knew that. I just really like getting soaked by the rain!" Lorelai answered, faking excitement, but then she sneezed again.

"I see… You should take a shower and change into some dry clothes." Michel tried to sound like he could not care less, although his words disagreed with that.

Lorelai was just too shocked to think of any comebacks, so she just said, "Sure."

They dried themselves the best they could, then took off their shoes and went upstairs to their room.

"Let's go, frogman!" Lorelai said, leading the way.

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AT THE DANCE— EIGHTISH P.M.

Two hours had passed since the near-kiss at the lake; neither Lorelai nor Luke had mentioned it again. They had just pretended it had never happened and went back to 'normal'. They managed to go to their room and get ready for the party without exchanging any more words other than those strictly necessary. 'Could you help me with my tie?' 'Zip me up, will you?' Truth was that both had no idea where the other stood and were too scared to find out; denial seemed like a pleasant idea...

Lorelai didn't know much; she was very confused about this whole thing. But she was certain of three things: Luke had tried to kiss her, she was about to kiss him back and their friendship had just changed forever (she just didn't know into what). She couldn't focus enough to get past that part of her thoughts though…her logic got blurry every time she saw him on the other side of the ballroom and saw how handsome he looked wearing his new dark gray suit…

Luke couldn't stop staring at Lorelai; she was talking with Sandy and others exactly opposite from him on the other side of the room. He had tried to engage himself in conversation with Danny and his buddies, but wasn't successful at all: that deliciously fabulous red dress of hers was incredibly distracting. The dress was made of a silky soft fabric, it had a curve-hugging silhouette and sexy twisted straps outlining the bust line and continuing to the back. Lorelai looked perfect in it.

Lorelai had had enough of Luke's 'stares and no action' behavior; if he wanted something from her, he should just stop being such a chicken and do something about it. She excused herself from the group she had been talking to and started to walk straight towards Luke.

"Hi..." Lorelai said in a low sensuous voice close to Luke's ears.

Luke felt his entire body shiver. "Hi." He wasn't doing a very good job at hiding his nerves, and he knew it.

"Hello guys!" Lorelai politely greeted the other men in the group; they greeted her back. Then she turned to Luke and locked eyes. "Wanna dance?" She slightly tugged at the hem of his jacket.

"Lorelai..." Luke pulled her aside, where people couldn't hear them. "You know I don't dance..."

"You don't?" she asked innocently.

"No," he answered dryly. "And you won't make me do it." He was tired of being bossed around by her; he didn't mind doing her favors but even that had its limits...

"Oh, but I believe that by the power of Grey Skull," she paused for dramatic effect, "I have the power!"

She grinned at his obvious annoyance.

"Jeez!" Luke was surprised at just how immature she could be. "I won't dance." He rested his case.

"K', I'll try again later." She smiled sweetly at him.

"Sure, don't listen to me at all..." he answered ironically.

"Oh, but I heard you. Loud and clear." She mocked him.

Luke never knew if he wanted to punch her or kiss her; either way, he was not going to be convinced into dancing. He hated dancing in crowded places; he felt as if everyone would be staring at him then the room would appear to close in on him and he would have a not-so-attractive hyperventilation attack.

Lorelai saw that Chris was walking their way, so she stepped closer to Luke and put his arm around her hip; he looked surprised at her and she nodded toward Chris in explanation.

Luke had thought that she was still trying to make him dance but then he saw Christopher and it all made sense. He was actually enjoying their lie; he got to find out how her red dress felt to the touch, didn't he? And he had been dying to find that out...

"Hi, having fun?" Chris asked them after he stopped in front of them.

"Lots." Luke mocked, trying to match his excited tone; what was he so happy about?

Lorelai gave him a discreet nudge in the ribs, although she had thought that Luke's response was a little funny...

"Where's Mindy?" Lorelai glanced around, looking for his girlfriend.

"Oh, she's sitting over there." Chris pointed at a table where Mindy sat on her own.

They exchanged smiles and waves.

"Is she grounded?" Lorelai asked in a conspiratorial whisper.

"No." Chris laughed at her comment. "We had to run back to the Inn once the storm started, and when we were almost here, she slipped and hurt her foot."

"Oh." Luke was glad that neither of them had gotten hurt when they ran in the rain.

"But she's fine other than that?" Lorelai asked, concerned.

"Yeah, I just don't think I'll be dancing tonight." Chris smiled shyly.

"I know how you feel." He looked at her questioningly. "Luke won't dance with me either..." She looked at Luke and pouted; Chris laughed at them.

"Since we're both orphaned dancers..." Chris smiled charmingly. "We could dance together?" He looked deep into her eyes.

Luke tightened his grip on her, a typical male protecting his territory ritual. He didn't like what was going on. Chris was clearly crossing some boundaries here...

Lorelai nodded affirmatively to Chris; if Luke didn't want to dance with her, she would be sure to show him what he was missing.

Chris had noticed Luke's protective arm around Lorelai and even though she had already accepted a dance with him, he thought it would be better for his physical integrity if he asked Luke too. "But only if it's all right with your man." He played it cool.

"My man's fine with it." Lorelai smiled then removed Luke's arm from her. She grinned at Luke, "I'll be back!"

They moved the few steps to the dance floor and Chris offered his hand to her, she simpered back. They moved closer and started to slowly sway to the music.

Luke couldn't stand watching Chris holding Lorelai so close and since he couldn't yank her away from his evil grip, he resigned himself to grabbing a beer; that would occupy him a bit. When he came back, now holding his bottle, he saw that they were still dancing together, and every time he felt the urge to kill Chris, he would take a big gulp from his bottle; soon it was empty. He decided to get another one; he didn't think he could control himself otherwise. The rising number of bottles might have had something to do with the fact that soon he found himself talking, flirting even, with a woman he'd never seen before in his life; the other reason was the way Chris's filthy hands were roaming on Lorelai's back.

Lorelai had been having a blast with Chris, but she figured that after half a dozen songs, Luke would have already gotten her point and have regretted not dancing with her. But when she searched the room for a regretful-looking Luke, she came up with nothing. Instead, she was surprised with a scene of Luke flirting with Miranda nearby. That's not how this was supposed to go; he was supposed to want to dance with her, not turn her down for the queen of plastic surgery... So that's why she didn't hesitate one bit when a good-looking man offered her a martini and guided her to the dance floor; if Luke could have fun without her...well, so could she!

Luke didn't pay attention to one word coming out of that stranger's mouth; he had been too busy observing Lorelai's every move to focus on anything else. He saw when Lorelai looked for him and how she didn't seem pleased when she finally saw him with the stranger; he saw that guy take her back to the dance floor and how he talked into her ear... Luke remembered the guy from the poker game, he was one of the men that said his 'wife' was hot, and now he was hitting on her... He physically flinched when the guy touched Lorelai's bare back; he had had enough.

Luke suddenly abandoned the woman he had been flirting with and just walked straight to Lorelai and quickly separated her from the poker game perve; she looked at him, perplexed. He pulled her by the hand.

"What are you doing?" she asked him, her eyes full of fire; she was mad.

"That guy's a perve!" He still had a hold on her hand.

"We were dancing! Just dancing, not like some other people that will flirt with anyone!" Lorelai's eyes burned into his, then she tried to shake free from his grasp.

"I wasn't flirting with anyone!" He matched her shouts, who did she think she was to criticize him?

"Oh, please!" She managed to free herself from him and stormed off to the room.

"Oh shit!" Luke ran after her after realizing what he had done. He knew he had just lowered his chances with her and that had not been his plan for tonight...

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Did you guys like it?

For all the nice readers out there-all over the world-if you have made it this far:

THANK YOU!

Mocha