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April sat on her preferred stool in the diner, her purple spiral-bound notebook lay open in front of her as she marked down the latest findings from her avocado pit experiment. According to her calculations, everything was going according to plan. Tonight her father was working and Lorelai – well she wasn't exactly sure where Lorelai had gone tonight. All she knew was that Lorelai breezed into the diner just a few moments ago, her outfit changed from this morning when she was headed to work, and announced that she needed a cup of coffee to go, the largest cup, and that she would be back later tonight before she was once again out the door. April was going to ask where she was going and why she wasn't having dinner with them tonight since she knew it wasn't a work thing but Lorelai was pretty much a whirlwind, giving her no time to ask questions.
So far she enjoyed staying with her father and Lorelai. Between the necessary studying for school, learning all of Paul Anka's quirks, and the entertainment that was her father and Lorelai since they seemed to be on a different spectrum most of the time, it definitely wasn't boring. Not that she ever thought it could be. And while she could talk to her mother and father about the latest gossip in school and sometimes boys, it was nice to have another female that she could confide in. It was especially nice when she brought up the fact that she had been invited to her first boy/girl party ever and her father freaked out and started talking about kissing because Lorelai was quick to jump in and diffuse the situation to something a little less awkward. Something she would be forever thankful for, even though she talked a little about boys with her father, she definitely didn't want to discuss kissing boys with him. That was more of a mother topic.
April put her pen down and looked up from her notebook when Lane appeared in front of her.
"Hey kiddo," Lane greeted. "Luke said your food would be ready in just a few, need anything until then?"
April shook her head, "Nope. I'm good."
Since it was a little less busy than usual, Lane decided to stay at the counter and chat with the younger girl a little. "Just so you know, I've been studying for our next Scrabble match. I'm totally going to win next time."
"And just so you know, I've been developing my monopoly strategy, a little research on my own and next time I will win that game and at Scrabble," April replied, her competitiveness starting to shine through.
Lane held back a smirk and narrowed her eyes. "How are you at Battleship?"
"Haven't played it much."
Lane smiled. "I'll have to get the game so we can play, see where you stand."
"Lorelai might have it," April piped up. "She mentioned a lot of board games but some are missing pieces."
"Oh yeah, I know. When Rory and I were little we used to play Candyland with actual pieces of candy. But we could have to keep switching pieces because we would eat the candy and then forget what piece of candy we were," Lane started to reminisce. "I don't remember finishing the game, just eating the candy."
"Sounds like fun."
At that time, Luke appeared with April's dinner. "What sounds like fun?" he asked, sliding the plate in front of his daughter. "Turkey burger and sweet potato fries."
"Board games," April replied in response to his first question. She looked down at the plate and then up at her father, "Nothing green this time?"
"Oh right," Luke replied, taking off back in the direction of the kitchen before April could tell him that she didn't actually need anything green and was just pointing out that there was usually something green at her plate every time he served her food.
"And to think, you could have gotten away without anything green on your plate." Lane smiled at the young girl. She noticed customers in need before she reached behind her and grabbed the coffee pot. "Customers to serve, we'll discuss board games later."
Just as Lane left her side, Luke appeared with a small bowl of broccoli and set it down next to her plate, encouraging her to eat it with her burger and fries since it was healthy. She didn't mind him pushing the healthy food on her, she actually enjoyed most of it. As she began to eat her dinner, her father stayed close by occasionally asking her questions about her day at school and her friends while simultaneously tending to a few of the customers' needs. Though she had spend pretty much all of her after-school time in the diner today, she still had plenty to catch him up on.
"Melissa isn't talking to Rachel again."
"Again?" Luke asked, "Didn't they just make up?"
"Yes," April sighed. "But Melissa found out that Rachel invited Joanna to come to Florida with her to visit her grandparents."
"That'll do it."
April nodded her agreement while looking down at her plate. She poked around her fries before deciding to stab at a few pieces of broccoli. "So where did Lorelai go tonight?"
"What?" Luke asked, he looked up from wiping down the counter.
April looked up at her father. "Where did Lorelai go tonight?" she asked again. "She came in here saying that she had to go somewhere and she changed her outfit from this morning, I was just wondering where she had to go tonight." She paused, "Unless it's none of my business."
"Oh no April, it's fine," Luke replied quickly. "Lorelai just went to her parent's house for dinner tonight, she and Rory go over there on Friday nights for dinner."
"And you don't go?" April questioned, a curious look on her face. "I mean, you two are engaged, it would make sense that you would have dinner with her parents as well. So why didn't you go?"
"I go on some Friday nights."
April nodded her head, "Okay. But why didn't you go tonight, is it because I'm here? I wouldn't mind going to dinner with Lorelai's parents."
"You're not the reason I didn't go over there tonight," Luke answered. "I had to work tonight too."
"But if it is an every Friday night thing, you could always plan ahead and go to dinner with Lorelai," April pointed out.
Luke sighed, dropping the rag in his hand down on the counter he moved until he was standing in front of April. "Look, Lorelai has a complicated relationship with her parents. I don't even go to that many dinners and they do want to meet you, they wanted you to come to dinner while you're staying with us but we're just trying to figure things out."
April accepted that answer rather well since she had no more questions to tack on to the end of it. It seemed everyone was still trying to figure things out; she was still trying to get to know her father, he was trying to get to know her, she was just now getting to know Lorelai, and they were all adjusting to the new custody arrangement and shifts in the forming family. Instead of asking more questions, ones that she didn't really have, April once again began filling her father in on the latest middle school gossip, though she knew she would go through all of this again later with Lorelai since she was just as interested in her life. Plus April felt that as long as she talked, her father wouldn't mention anything else about the 'k' word at her first boy/girl party and she desperately wanted to avoid that topic.
She looked up when she heard a tapping next to her now, almost empty plate.
"How about I see if Lane can close up tonight and we'll go for ice cream later?" Luke asked as he began to clear his daughter's plates away.
April nodded then smiled at her father. "Sounds good to me."
Lorelai let out a 'blech' as soon as the door to the Gilmore mansion shut behind her and Rory. Dinner tonight went about as well as she expected it to go. Even though she told her mother earlier in the week that she would be attending Friday Night dinner sans Luke and April, there were still commented hurled her way on their whereabouts and why exactly Lorelai was keeping that part of her life from them, this mainly coming from her mother. That was hardly the case. She wasn't keeping anything from them, not on purpose, she wasn't doing anything to spite them. For now, she and Luke had decided that she would test the waters on the first night and then discuss April meeting her parents. Though it might not be at their dinner by maybe on familiar turf. They had a vague sense of a plan that could still go either way at this point.
"You okay?"
Lorelai opened her eyes, unaware that she had closed them and was now leaning against the front door. She pushed herself away from the door and smiled, "I'm fine sweets."
Rory followed behind her mother as they both made their way to their respective cars, she was parked right behind her mother. "You sure, you don't seem that okay."
Lorelai waved away her daughter's concern. "Just Emily in her typical fashion tonight. I mean she called earlier this week to see what April liked to eat so she could plan dinner but I told her that Luke and April weren't coming and she still acts like it was a surprise. And that I'm doing this on purpose. And then those snide comments about how maybe one day, she'll finally meet April if Luke and I ever have our wedding."
Rory leaned up against the front of her car while she talked. "I think the only cure for that is pie and coffee."
"Does that mean a certain daughter of mine is going to accompany me back to Stars Hollow tonight for said pie and coffee?" Lorelai asked eagerly, a more genuine smile on her face this time.
"Well seeing as you have my room to April and I will have no place to sleep, I don't think I will be heading back to Stars Hollow tonight," Rory replied, the comment fitting in with a few others she made during dinner about how she was now homeless in her own home, all joking of course.
"Oh come on now," Lorelai insisted. "We have a perfectly good couch. I'll give you a pillow or two, a nice and cozy blanket and you will never even miss your room. It will be like nothing has ever changed. I'm sure Paul Anka would love the company, I think he is scared of the dark."
"As tempting as that offer may be, I still have a lot of work to do tomorrow, a couple of tests next week and a paper due plus I'm already looking at internships for after I graduate and…"
"And you're too busy to hang out with your lovely mother," Lorelai offered a suggestion to finish her daughter's sentence. "I understand sweets."
"Eat pie and drink coffee for me?" Rory asked.
Lorelai grinned. "Of course I will." She walked over to her daughter and gave her a small peck on the cheek. "But we're both going to clear our schedules soon and spend time together, just me and you."
"I'll begin the clearing of my schedule tonight."
After talking a few minutes longer and an interruption from Emily who called out the door that if they insisted on hanging around outside they could at least come inside for coffee, the two younger Gilmores scampered back to their cars while insisting that they both at to leave that this very instant. Lorelai pulled away from the Gilmore mansion first with Rory following close behind but taking a different route as she was headed back to her apartment near Yale.
Alone in her jeep and watching the scenery whiz by, Lorelai allowed herself to relax and tried to shake off the comments her mother made during dinner. Not that they were particularly stinging or even that terrible, she had faced worse, but the comment her mother made about finally, maybe, hopefully, meeting at the wedding, whenever that may be, just stuck with her. Especially after April outright questioned when that wedding would be just a few days ago. She had promised herself that she would sit down with Luke and talk about setting a wedding date, when they could and why they weren't, the life they shared together now and their future, but there really hadn't been an opportunity.
She knew that she shouldn't just wait for an opportunity to arise and she should make her own, it was easy enough seeing as she could just take off from the inn during the day and tell Luke that they needed to talk, but she hadn't done that. She couldn't quite pin down the reason. Then at home, April was always around and Lorelai didn't want to have that conversation around her, just not wanting her to overhear what may be said. But as it turned out, April would be at of the house for a few hours on Saturday for a party that she had been invited to, which Lorelai saw as the perfect time to finally talk with Luke about everything that had been rattling around in her head over the past few days.
Not long after she left her parent's house, Lorelai pulled into her driveway and parked behind Luke's truck. On her drive home, just a few minutes into her journey, she placed a call to Luke asking him if there was any leftover pie at the diner and if so would he please bring it home because dinner at her parent's wasn't all that great. Not that she really needed to ask since if there ever was any leftover pie it was usually brought home by Luke.
"I'm home," Lorelai called out as she walked through the front door. She kicked her heels off by the door and dropped her purse and keys onto the small table of the entryway before stopping to take off her coat and making her way to the living-room where Luke and April sat watching TV. "Hey you two."
"Hey Lorelai," April greeted only after her father did the same. She briefly looked away from the television set. "We went for ice cream and we got you some, it's in the freezer."
"Now that's what I like to hear," Lorelai replied, giving the young girl a smile.
Luke looked over April's head at Lorelai who stood at the end of the couch. "And I brought home the pie like you asked for."
"Even better."
Luke watched as Lorelai turned away from them and quickly disappeared into the kitchen. Since April was intently watching some show about girls trying to be models, he didn't even ask why that was even a show, he decided to follow after Lorelai. He told April that he would be right back though he wasn't completely sure if she heard him and headed towards the kitchen as swiftly as he could as not to disturb April's show.
In the kitchen Lorelai made quick work of getting her ice cream out of the freezer and the pie that she promised Rory she would eat for her, choosing just to eat it out of the take-out container so no more dishes were messed up. She looked up and smirked at Luke as he walked into the kitchen.
"America's Next Top Model?" She asked. "Didn't think that was your kind of show."
"I've watched worse movies with you," Luke replied, he moved to stand in front of Lorelai who was leaning back against the counter switching between eating the two different desserts. "How was dinner?"
"Typical," Lorelai replied through a mouthful of ice cream, she made sure to finish off that little bit before continuing on. "Even though I told her that I would be the only one coming to dinner, she still questioned that and wondered why I'm keeping things from her."
"But you're not, we're not," Luke pointed out. "We made a decision, your mother was aware of that, and we're sticking to the decision. They're going to meet April one day."
"Try explaining that to Emily." Lorelai smiled softly as Luke reached out and brushed a strand of hair from her face. "I'm fine, really. She'll have to understand."
"Maybe we'll figure out something before next week."
"Yeah, maybe," Lorelai agreed. She moved past Luke to sit down at the kitchen table while Luke remained standing. "Anyways enough about the same dinner every week, you still freaking out over April going to that party tomorrow?"
Luke sighed heavily. He braced his arms on the counter behind him. "I still think she might be too young. It's a boy/girl party, with girls and boys," he replied, the last part coming out as a whisper.
Lorelai bit her lip to keep from laughing. "It's not a dirty word, you don't need to whisper it." With the already frustrated look on Luke's face she chose not to push that any further. "She checked with Anna and she said it's fine. It's her first one, she's excited."
"Yeah, I know she is. I don't know if I'm ready for her to go to that party."
"You're her dad, of course you're not ready. But Rory was around the same age when she went to her first boy/girl party and she was fine." Lorelai pushed her chosen desserts away from her. "She's just growing up Luke."
Luke didn't say anything, he just looked towards the ground. Logically he knew that April was growing up but he had just learned that he was a father just a little under a year ago and he couldn't help but think of everything he had missed in those first twelve years. The moments that he would never be able to get back. Her birth, first words, first steps, first day of school, everything. And now he supposed this was a first as well and something that he wasn't missing but it was a first that seemed to highlight how much he missed in her life and just how fast she was growing up.
He finally lifted his gaze to meet his fiancée's, concern was etched on her face. "I know," he said. He didn't want to spend a lot of time dwelling on what he missed and he tried to focus on the here and now but the past crept in, reminding him of what he missed with April though it wasn't his fault. "She's just growing up fast."
"Hello, I know all about kids growing up fast. Mine is about to graduate from college next year, it seems like she was just going door-to-door inviting people to her caterpillar's funeral," Lorelai replied as she remembered Rory being so very upset over the tiny caterpillar that lived only a day with them before a funeral had to be planned to give him a proper send-off.
"I just missed so much of her life, you know?" He paused and then blew out a breath. "I'm just getting to know her, spend a lot more time around her and she's going off to boy/girl parties."
Lorelai moved to a standing position then closed the small distance between her and Luke. Her hand went to the side of his face, her thumb stroking over the stubble present. "I know babe. And I hate that you didn't know about her and that you missed out on so many important things but there's going to be so many more important events that you are going to be here for. I know that doesn't get back the things you missed but you know her now, you're here, and you're trying so hard."
Lorelai then smiled, her hand trailing from the side of his face, down to his shoulder, and finally to his chest. "And you are trying really hard, I mean the talk about the kissing...as uncomfortable as it may have been for everyone involved..."
"Well I just thought that's something I should talk to her about, it seemed like a good idea in my head," Luke added in, interrupting her.
Lorelai chuckled. "It wasn't a terrible idea, it's just weird for a young girl to talk to her dad about that kind of stuff. It's great what you're doing though. And this is only one party, not much to freak out about."
"I know but I'm still a little worried."
Lorelai gave a shrug of her shoulders. "You're her dad, it's natural." She paused then looked him in the eye. "There's something else that I want to talk to you about, something that I've been thinking about lately."
"Is everything okay?" Luke asked.
Lorelai nodded her head, "Yeah, everything is fine. I just think that it's time for a certain talk. Something that we haven't really talked about in a while and we need to talk about it. So I was thinking that tomorrow after we drop April off at her party, we could talk."
"Tomorrow?" Luke asked, "Why not tonight? We can talk now if you want to."
"It's already getting late, it's been a long day, and tomorrow we'll have the house to ourselves, not that we really need the house to ourselves but this way we can hash out what we need to," Lorelai informed him. She gave him a grin to reassure him when she saw the look on his face, "Trust me, it's nothing bad, just something we need to deal with."
Luke nodded slowly. "Okay."
She leaned in and pressed a quick kiss to his lips. "Didn't get my hello kiss when I came home." She pulled back from him, grabbing what was left of her pie from the kitchen table. "Now I think I'm going to go join April, catch up on the latest happenings with the models and the middle school gossip."
Luke peered over her shoulder at the mess she was leaving behind. "I'll cleanup in here."
"Oh and that comment earlier about my taste in movies, I only force you to watch the classics, they aren't that bad," Lorelai commented as she exited the kitchen and made her way to the living room, leaving a confused and wondering Luke in her wake.
Don't worry, Luke and Lorelai are going to talk soon, as mentioned in previous chapter.
