Thank you to everyone who has reviewed thus far. Please keep it up.
This Chapter Emily finds out the news! Sorry if she's a little OOC in this one. Just know that I know, as everyone knows, that she wouldn't risk Rory's future. It's just desperate times call for desperate measures and temporary threats.
Enjoy.
~G.G~
Part 3: The Thing About Secrets
There were a limited number of prominent families in the state, and Arthur Reynolds prided himself on knowing them all. He spent his life tracking them, finding as much dirt as he could to fill the society section in the Hartford paper. He even took his vacations where he knew he could dig up stories - five star resorts, ski lodges in remote regions and on cruise ships.
It had been years since he last heard the name Gilmore, not since a scandal involving the daughter, a refusal of marriage and a bastard child. It had kept the paper filled with scandal for months. So when he heard it aboard his latest vacation vessel he knew he had a story. Lorelai Gilmore and a thinly veiled romance that her parents wouldn't have approved of. He had kept a close eye on the pair, and when he watched their impromptu wedding by the ship's captain he knew he had the story of the year. He didn't sleep all night for writing. And by the time he docked he had heard back from his editor and not only was this piece good, it was first page of the section good!
~G.G~
Luke sighed tiredly as he went about opening the diner. Despite the events of the tail end of his vacation, the tense silence that filled the drive and the hour of his return, Luke had called Caesar, and told him that he could come in later, that Luke, himself, would take over the opening, knowing that he probably wouldn't be able to sleep and that diving into work was the only thing that would save his sanity.
And so it was just him there when, as soon as six am hit, Kirk arrived at the same time as Caesar. As the cook went into the kitchen, Kirk sat directly at the counter, three newspapers in hand.
"What are you doing with all those?" Luke asked, coffee pot in hand, watching as Kirk separated the sections that he wanted from those he didn't.
"I'm looking for a job," Kirk told him flatly as he took apart the Glendale Daily.
Luke sighed. It was too early and he was too tired to try to make sense of Kirk. "Don't you have enough jobs, Kirk?"
"Never too many, Luke. You have to keep your options open. Plus, these are the papers that have all the comics I like to read."
He opened the Hartford Sun in the middle, right to where the comics lay, waiting for him. That was why it was his favourite paper, because the comics were so easy to find.
Luke looked up when Kirk dropped the rest of the paper away, noticing at once the headline on the society page. "Gilmore Ocean Wedding". He swallowed hard, taking the paper quickly from Kirk and stuffing it under his arm after a brief scan that only served to confirm his suspicions. Filling a large to-go cup with coffee, he yelled back to the kitchen, telling Caesar that he would be back soon.
Crap, crap, crap, crap, he thought as he hurried his way through town. This was not how things were suppose to go.
~G.G~
An incessant tapping against Lorelai's window annoyed her awake. She looked over in time to see a pebble bounce off the glass. She groaned, looking to her clock: it was 6:10. Whoever was out there playing the part of a love-driven youth was going to die. The roof just outside her window was littered with tiny stones, making her wonder just how many were left in her driveway.
Grumbling louder she tossed her curtain aside to see who she was going to have to get help with burying. Her eyes widened at the sight of Luke, looking around nervously. More confused than she had been before, she opened the window, "Luke? What are you doing here?"
"Keep your voice down," he hissed, looking around guiltily, "Come down and let me in."
"You know," she told him as she opened the front door, "I know I'm very missable, but if you're rethinking this whole divorce thing then I should warn you..." she stopped when he stormed past her into her house, thrusting a coffee cup and newspaper into her confused hands.
"Drink," he demanded, not moving past her foyer, "I need you awake enough to deal with this, because I'm not doing so well on my own."
"Luke, calm down. Sit and tell me what's wrong."
He let her lead him to her couch, but he didn't look ready to calm down. Once seated she looked at the paper in her hand. At the sight of the headline she blinked and took a large drink of the cooling liquid.
"What is this?" She asked, skimming the article, surprised at the pictures that, while not clear, left no doubt in her mind who the article was portraying.
"Kirk brought it into the diner," Luke explained going from panicked to irritated.
"Well lucky for us Kirk doesn't know how to read anything not a comic," she said, trying to find the bright-side of the situation, "But, also too bad the same can't be said for the rest of the town." She took another long drink. "There goes our plan of a quiet divorce with no one knowing about it. I'm sorry Luke."
He looked surprised. "Sorry? What do you have to be sorry for? It's this Reynolds guy who's going to be sorry!"
She caught his arm when he went to stand, and pulled him back down beside her, her hand remaining in his arm, "Rory is still sleeping, so please don't wake her. I don't want to have to explain to her why she's waking up to her step-father throwing a fit in the living room." She glanced back to the writing, "Man, he's good. Did you know that he was watching us? I didn't know that he was watching us.
"'It was evident from the first time you saw them,'" she quoted from the article, "'That there was something brewing between the unlikely couple. That it came to a surprise wedding attended by most of the ship's crew and occupants the final evening wasn't such a surprise to those who saw them together during the rest of the cruise. From casual to formal, from the off-ship visits to on-board activities, from the dining room to their shared estate-room!...' - oh man, Patty's going to have a field day with this - '...romance was written in the stars for the daughter of prominent business mogul Richard Gilmore and one of the social tycoons of Hartford, Emily Gilmore and her entrepreneur companion.
"'Miss Gilmore had booked under an alias, in order to hide the emerging romance from potential prying eyes. After the birth of her daughter, out of wedlock, eighteen years ago, not much has been seen of Gilmore in society. In recent years she has again emerged as a social force worthy of her family name. However, with this recent event, all will wonder how her place in society will survive a sudden marriage to a man whose name doesn't warrant a mention in the society pages of this publication.' Ouch."
"Yeah, I read that last part on the walk over here. But thanks for reading it again."
She smiled at him, and squeezed his arm in support, "So, what are we going to do?"
He sighed, leaning back against her couch, his hands nervously adjusting his baseball cap, "I don't know. It's not that anyone I know will read that paper."
"Well no one that doesn't also know me," she pointed out. "And lets face it, once one person in town reads it, it's going to spread. I give it until noon before they're breaking down our doors looking for details."
"Let them," he said finally straightening, his posture reflecting his determination, "I'm not going to tell them anything. It's not like it's any of their damned business anyway."
Lorelai shot him a glance over the paper, admiring his calm. "Try telling that to Patty and Babette."
"Dont think that I won't. Why are you smiling?"
She shrugged, eyes fixed on the article she was no longer skimming. "Blame the coffee."
"Right. Coffee." He fell silent a moment, watching her calmly drink back her coffee. "Aren't you worried about this?"
"We reap what we sow. No, I'm not happy about being the centre of gossip like this, again, but it's been done. Maybe we can pass it off as some kind of elaborate joke? As long as we don't feed the fire, I'm sure it'll die down soon enough." She studied him, wondering if either of them believed her positive spin on the growingly worse situation. For now, it seemed they were both willing to suspend their disbelief.
Luke fell silent for a moment, looking around as Lorelai looked at him. His eyes fell on the mantel piece and the row of pictures that lined it. "How did Rory take the news," he asked, more concerned about that than about having the entire town giving them a hard time.
"She was… she took it… She was surprised."
He nodded. "And does she…" he fell silent, not really knowing how to say that words that swam in his head. Did she hate him? That was one answer he knew he was potentially not ready for.
"She understands." She glanced at the clock, feeling the growing awkwardness of the moment. It was almost 6:30, "You better get back. But thanks for giving me a heads up. Um Luke, question, though," she added, leading him towards the door, "What was with the pebbles and the homage to the 80's chick flicks?"
"I didn't want to wake Rory," he admitted, as though it was obvious.
She couldn't help the grin that took over her expression, "Of course." She stood there a moment, with her door open, watching as he waited for her to say goodbye, "Uh, and thanks for the coffee. It was much needed."
"No problem. So, ignore it until it goes away? Or call it a joke or stunt?"
"Exactly."
"Okay, I can do that." He shifted his feet, "I know that we've been so caught up a lot with the whole marriage thing that we haven't really focused on the other thing."
"Which... oh! The naked thing."
"Yeah. Uh- we're okay, right?"
The elephant in the room had been let loose and now that she was reminded of it, she recalled how uncomfortable it should have made her. But if she was honest with herself, she knew that it didn't, which itself made her uneasy. There was something about sleeping with him that was easy. Natural. As though it was something she should have been doing all along. Also, knowing what he hid under all his flannel and denim, didn't help her new-found unease with that understanding.
"Yeah, we're okay."
"So, I'll see you at the diner? Later?"
"I'll be by before work. For a refill."
He smiled, relieved. With everything changing so much so quickly, he was glad that at least there was one less thing he had to worry about when it came to them. He had discovered last night how quickly he had gotten used to her. And how small his bed really was even without her there. The first thing he had done after laying down was get up, curse and order himself a larger one. This, he had realized then, was not turning out the way it was suppose to go. He had succeeded in forgetting Nicole and having fun. He just failed miserably in another important matter - he had failed to realize just how much Lorelai had gotten under his skin.
~G.G~
She cursed. The phone was ringing. It wasn't fair. Her sleep patterns were thrown off from having been on the cruise, and she had just closed her eyes and hoped that she could again return to sleep after Luke had left. Checking the clock she cursed again, it wasn't even seven yet. There was only one person alive that would call her that early, even though she had just watched him leave her door only minutes before. The way he was going, she figured, she was going to be a widow before she was a divorcee.
Without checking, she grabbed the phone off the nightstand and angrily connected the call.
"Luke! You just left here, you cannot seriously be waking me up again!"
"This isn't your husband, Lorelai," the icy voice came from the other end of the line. Emily Gilmore.
Lorelai froze, instantly awake, her mind racing. In the chaos of the last few days she had forgotten about the tornado that would erupt when her mother found out about what had happened. She just never would have thought it would have been so soon.
"Mom?"
"Don't sound so surprised. I'm the one who should sound surprised. Surprised that my daughter skipped town to get married without telling me. Sunbathing? Ha! I knew it was a lie."
"I didn't skip town to get married. The getting married just kind of happened, Mom. It was a mistake. Really. I promise you that I didn't do this to hurt you. Things have been nuts, and I just got home. I didn't mean for you to find out this way. Please believe me."
"Of course I believe you."
Lorelai froze, shocked. "You do? Just like that? Because you never..."
"I have to. Why else would my daughter go away on a cruise with a man she claims is only a friend and come home married? Obviously it must have been a fluke."
There was only one thing she could do. She just had to go with it and hope to tuck and roll when the bomb that was Emily Gilmore went off. "It was. It was the open waters and the drinking and the atmosphere. Nothing more. Luke and me, we didn't mean for this to happen."
"Well I suppose you can just get it annulled." There was silence, "Can't you?"
Damn. "Well..."
"Lorelai, you slept with him?"
"I was drunk enough to marry him, Mom, of course I was drunk enough to sleep with him too. Don't worry, we're taking care of it; we're just going to get divorced. No big deal."
"What? No big deal?"
There was something in her mother's tone that gave Lorelai pause. "You wanted us to get it annulled, but a divorce is wrong to you? Can you say old fashioned?"
"Lorelai, how do you think it makes me look? To have you jumping in and out of a marriage like it was nothing more than a pair of shoes?"
Lorelai sat up straight, "I don't know, Mom, how does it make you look?"
"Don't take that tone with me. An annulment is one thing. It makes it seem more innocent, like something you entered into in the heat of the moment. Something like that is more easily forgiven. Divorce marks you for life."
"That's right Mom. Me, it marks me for life."
Lorelai could almost hear the eye roll in her mother's tone. "People know you are my daughter, especially after that damned article. I've already had three people call me about it, offering their congratulations."
"Three people? At this hour? Do your friends not sleep?"
"It's gossip, Lorelai. You have made me the center of gossip. Once again. Have you no regard for my feelings?"
"Don't worry, I'm sure in a week or two someone else's daughter will ruin their lives and you will recover."
"Amy Sanderson's daughter had an affair with her pool-boy a year ago. Mimi still gets looks when bodies of water are mentioned."
"Mimi? Rich people have the strangest names, I swear."
"Stop making jokes."
"Sorry. Listen Mom, I don't know what you want me to do about this..." She looked at the to go cup that sat empty on her night stand. What she wouldn't give for a refill.
"Stay married," Emily interjected.
If she could have, Lorelai would have replayed that moment, just to make sure she had heard correctly. "You want me to stay married? To Luke? A man you still call 'the diner man'."
"Yes. The article hid the nature of his business, so for now it appears perfectly respectable."
Her tone grew tight. "It is perfectly respectable, Mom."
"At least put off the divorce for a respectable amount of time."
"And how long is that?"
"A year, or two."
"Mom! You're crazy. I'm not going to ask Luke to stay married to me just to save your reputation. It's his life too."
"Are you sure that he doesn't want to stay married to you? I mean there must have been a reason for you two to get married."
"Yeah, booze. Open water. Sunstroke. It was either get married or help the hands below deck sacrifice a goat. Mom, we've been over this before: me and Luke, just friends. Besides, you don't want me married to Luke. You don't even like Luke."
"I don't know what you're talking about." She sounded disbelievingly offended.
"Really? Because when I told you that I might - might! - have had feelings for him, you asked me what I was thinking. Obviously that tells me you didn't consider him as being high in the desirable son-in-law department."
"People change, Lorelai."
"People, yes. But not you."
There was a long silence. Silence from her mother wasn't good at the best of times, but while they were fighting, it was that much worse. It meant that her mother was thinking. And when Emily paused to think it meant that she was about to fight dirty.
"How is Rory doing?"
Subject change? Never good. "She's good... why?"
"Is she excited for having graduated? And for Yale?"
Warning bells started to sound in her head. "You know she is."
"Rather expensive, post secondary education. How are you paying for that, again?"
Lorelai's heart stopped. "You wouldn't. That's dirty. And it's low, even for you. Using my kid against me like that."
"I'm protecting her."
"How? How is this protecting her?"
"She is a Gilmore! Not only are you running your name and my name into the mud with your actions, but you're doing the same to Rory's name as well. She is looking for a career in the public eye. What you do is as much under scrutiny as her own actions. And for someone who has been so adamant about keeping her life steady up until this point, how do you think you running in and out of a marriage is going to look to her?"
"About as bad as staying married for the wrong reasons!" Lorelai had always been told about the dangers of getting between a mother bear and her cub. And while she always knew that she, herself, was protective of her daughter, it wasn't until that moment that she learned that she would probably have been able to take on the bear and win.
"Calm down."
"Calm down? You are threatening me, Mother. You are threatening the future of my daughter. I am way past calming down here."
"I can't talk to you when you're like this. I just want you to think about what you're doing here. I want you to know that your actions have consequences, and not just for those around you. Think about it. We'll talk later."
With that Emily hung up and Lorelai was left fuming, and with only one person she could really go to.
~G.G~
Luke was on edge. He knew that the town was looking at him differently. He knew that they were whispering, trying to figure out if the rumors were true. It put him in a sour mood. A more sour mood than the one he had started out with.
Talking to his wife - talking to Lorelai, he corrected himself, knowing that they weren't going to stay married long enough to get used to calling her anything other than crazy and a pain in the ass - hadn't helped the situation. While glad that they had salvaged their relationship, knowing that their mistakes onboard the ship hadn't ruined their friendship, he didn't really like how quickly and easily they came to the decision to end things. Not that there was anything to really end, he reasoned. But still, he didn't like it. He also knew that his parents wouldn't have liked it either.
Jumping into relationships and marriages without looking was his sister's thing, not his. He was never certain that he would have ever gotten married, but to know, now, that he would potentially do it more than once... it didn't sit well with him. His parents probably wouldn't have liked it. And while he knew that they were long dead and buried, living his life in a way that would make them proud was something that he highly valued in life.
He was deep in thought when the bell above the door violently rang. He glanced up to see Lorelai there, hastily dressed, her eyes red with unshed tears. Rage almost radiated from her. Glancing at the clock it he saw that it wasn't even 7:30. That alone told him that something was very wrong.
"Caesar," he called, not looking away from her, "Cover up front, I'll be upstairs for a minute."
He didn't look at the other customers in the diner although he knew that this sight was going to give them more to talk about. He didn't care. In that moment the only thing that mattered was the look of pure heartbreak that was clearly painted on Lorelai's face. He knew that he was at least part of the reason it was there, and he swore as he followed her upstairs that he would do everything he could to make it go away and make everything okay.
Lorelai had done well to keep things together until the door to his apartment closed. Then she couldn't hold back. She was shaking, and hot tears were leaking from her eyes. But even then she waited for him to speak first, not able to find the words to begin to express the pandemonium in her head.
"What happened?" He asked, his voice low, hands fidgeting, not knowing what to do with them. Should he try to hug her? Or should he cross his arms? Would she know he was uncomfortable if he did?
"Emily."
He found himself propped against his table, knowing that whatever he thought could have been causing her tears paled in comparison to what was really wrong. "She knows?"
"Yeah, and all her friends are calling, rubbing her nose in the fact that I got married to a man she doesn't approve of without her knowledge."
"Oh Lorelai."
She shook her head, starting to pace, "She is evil and selfish and... and I can't think of another thing to call her. Me! That should tell you how mad I am at this, that I can't even think of a third adjective for what I think of her right now."
"She doesn't approve."
"That's putting it lightly. But does she agree with us that we should just get a divorce? No! She thinks that since we can't do an annulment that we should wait it out."
He paused, not sure if he heard right. He had long thought Lorelai was the odd one in her family. Here was proof that she might actually be the sane one. "She wants us to stay married? She doesn't even like me."
"I know! But considering our conversation, I think she now likes me even less." She sagged down on the couch, "She threatened not to give money for Rory's school," she confessed in a low tone, finally giving into her frustrated tears as he sat beside her.
He pulled her to him, at a loss for words as she broke. He knew that she would do anything for her daughter, even give up her own life. But if he understood it right, he, too, was being asked to change on the girl's behalf. He wasn't a father, in fact before he had taken in his nephew he doubted ever being able to hack it with kids of any age. And yet, he loved Rory and he knew that he wanted her to have the best in life. She was too much like her mother for him to feel and wish for anything else.
"I don't know what to do," he heard her mumble into his neck.
"I thought Rory had a scholarship," Luke began once the worst of Lorelai's tears had passed.
"A partial one. School's expensive. Mom and dad were giving her a loan to cover her books and the rest of tuition and housing and everything else while at Yale."
He nodded, understanding that part at least, "Would they really hurt Rory like that? By ruining her chances of a good education?"
"No, not Rory, the family's golden child, but I know Emily, and she's only doing this until she can think of a better, more evil plan for me. Anything to keep us together for a "respectable amount of time"."
"How long is that?"
"Until I kill her..." she paused, looking at him. She shook her head, studying the acceptance in his expression, "No, you can't be serious. You're not going to give into her, are you?" She stood, turning her anger on him, "Luke, she's trying to get her way. She's willing to risk both of our happinesses - my daughter's! - so that she doesn't look any worse in front of her DAR cronies."
"I know that."
"Then... why are you just sitting there?"
"Because you probably wouldn't want me to go yell at her for you."
She couldn't help the smile that filtered onto her lips. "You would do that?"
"It wouldn't help anything."
"No, but it's sweet. Luke, I can't ask you to stay married to me. We both agreed that it would be easier to divorce as soon as possible."
"Easier for us," he pointed out.
"You say that like other people matter in this discussion."
"Well obviously they do. Your mother seems to think she's affected and Rory is going to be affected through her. I don't want to hurt Rory."
She smiled at him, her heart warming at his sentiment to her daughter. Inhaling deeply, settling her breath, she couldn't help but wonder, for a brief moment, if staying married to him would really be that bad anyway. "Miss Patty knows."
He nodded, not surprised. Put the paper article together with his early morning arrival at her house, their sudden trip and now how she looked when she showed up at the diner and there was no way the town hadn't turned these events into a whirlwind love affair.
"I heard whispers following me through town," she continued, pulling herself straight.
"No matter what happens now, the buzzards are going to be circling."
They sat in silence a moment, "Say we don't divorce," she began, choosing her words carefully, not looking at him, "Not that's what I'm saying I want or think we should do. I'm just thinking out loud."
"Being hypothetical."
"Exactly. What would we tell the town?"
"To mind their own damn business works for me."
She nudged him with her elbow. "We can't do that. They know about the marriage. They would know about the divorce. They would know if we did or didn't get it finalized. How would we explain it if we didn't get it finalized right away? We couldn't just say that we're doing it for Rory and because my mother is blackmailing us into it. Rory would feel guilty and take it out on her grandmother. And I plan on doing that enough for the both of us.
"And then there is the tricky Emily Gilmore. She would have to show us off to her friends, at least once, to prove that we really meant it. That she wasn't unaware of it happening. She'd probably insist on an overpriced reception just to show that she still has the grace and class she feels is due her. Do you really want to deal with that?
"Not to mention our personal lives. What if we meet people? What if you want to start dating..."
"I hate dating."
"You know what I mean."
"I know."
"Are you really saying that you're ready to take on everything that comes along with staying married to a Gilmore?"
"Remember when Jess got that black eye?" He waited until Lorelai nodded before continuing, "We went on the lake and we talked about Rory. About how he wasn't just dating her. He was also dating her family and her friends and everyone in town who cared about her."
"Wise man."
"I have my moments. Lorelai, I've known you for a long time. I know what your mother is like. I know what you're like. I sometimes think I know too much for my own good. Trust me, I know what I'm getting myself into."
"Getting? That means you want to stay married?"
"Think of it as not wanting to incur the lawyer's bill just yet. I did just pay for a vacation."
Smiling, she threw her arms around Luke, holding onto him tightly, a light laugh escaping her. No matter what else happened in her life she was relieved to know that she had someone like Luke who would be there to watch her back.
"Besides," he continued, uncomfortable with being so close to her, "It may be fun, playing with Taylor a bit."
"I want you to remember you said that."
"What?"
"That it might be fun. Because in a month when my mother is practically begging you to kill her just by being herself, you'll need to remember that you went into this more or less willingly. Thank you, Luke."
"Hey, don't thank me yet. I'm sure I'm no treat to be married to either. Come on, you look like you're hungry. I'll make you breakfast and we'll work out more details tonight."
"Can I get breakfast to go? And for two? Rory is probably worried, I didn't even wake her up before leaving this morning. Although how she slept through you and the phone and the shouting matches, I'll never know."
"Did you want to wait up here? Or are you set to face the town?"
She sighed before opting to join him. Five minutes and a breather later they were both at the counter, Luke going about his routine as Lorelai took in another cup of coffee, waiting for breakfast to be finished, feeling as tired as she knew she looked.
When the phone rang she didn't bother looking up. It wasn't until she heard Luke react to whatever panicked voice was on the other end of the line that she began to pay attention.
"Calm down, Rory, it's okay. She's right here." He cast her an apologetic look before handing her the receiver.
"Where are you!" The young woman demanded, "Your alarm was going off and you weren't home and I was worried sick! You didn't have your cell phone or anything and it wasn't until Babette told me that she saw Luke come over this morning and then you leaving soon afterwards that I thought to call the diner. What's going on? Are you okay?"
"Calm down, Hon," she soothed as Luke handed her the take-out bag, "Don't worry, I'm on my way back. And I have breakfast. We'll talk then."
"She okay?" He asked, taking the phone back, worry painted on his expression.
"Yeah. She's a worrier."
"What are you going to tell her?"
"I don't know. Sometimes I miss the age where I could tell her almost anything and she'd believe it. See you later?"
"I'll be over after work."
She smiled her thanks and started to leave, for the first time not really caring what the others sitting around the diner thought about the look of appreciation she cast towards him.
~G.G~
Rory still couldn't believe it. Not only was her mother married to Luke, but she was planning on staying married, at least for a time. When Lorelai didn't tell her immediately why, she began to get suspicious. And so she did the first thing that occurred to her. She went to Lane.
"They're married? Like, really, truly married?" Rory affirmed they were. For the fourth time. "Wow, and they're staying married?"
"That's what Mom said."
"Wow."
"Yup, a lot of wows going on."
"And she didn't tell you why?"
"No. And that's what's bothering me. I mean we tell each other everything." A thought occurred to her, her frown turning into a furrowed brow. "Well mostly everything."
"Mostly?"
"Our weak communication point has pretty much always been guys. So I guess I can see why she wouldn't want to tell me, but something seems different here. Like there's another reason she doesn't want to tell me."
"What do you think it is?"
"My first thought was Grandma," she confessed, "I know she didn't like Luke and had always hoped that Mom and Dad would get married, but this does seem like something she'd do. Meddle in it, I mean. Maybe mom wants to stay married out of spite?"
"Or maybe it's more than that."
"More how?"
"Well you know how everyone's always said that Luke has had a thing for your mom?" Rory said that she did, "What if your mom also had a thing for him?"
Rory paused to consider the possibility. "You mean, they may have had a mutual, but unspoken, thing for each other?"
"Stranger things have happened."
Considering all she knew of both parties, it didn't seem like such as stretch. "So they want to be married? Then why would she have told me last night that they were going to get a divorce?"
"Maybe she said that for you?" She paused before an idea came to her, and she was off, getting swept up in the romance of the moment. "You said that he showed up at your place early this morning. And I heard that she was real upset when she went to the diner... put two and two together, Rory! He went there to try to get her to agree to stay with him. She must have denied him and then regretted her decision and went to him, begging to be taken back."
"I don't think my mom is really the begging type."
Lane rolled her eyes. Sometimes she forgot how skeptical/realistic her best friend was. Living for so long with Mrs. Kim taught Lane the need for being an optimist. There really was no other way to survive. "You know what I mean."
"Wow. Mom and Luke. You know, it doesn't seem as strange once you think about it some. I wonder why they didn't just come out and say something?"
"Who understands grown-ups?"
"We're technically grown-ups."
"Only technically. But as I'm still under the thumb of my tyrannical mother, I still identify better as a minor."
"So what should I do? About Mom and Luke? Should I tell them that I know? Should I encourage them? Should I do nothing?"
"What do you want to do? I mean are you okay with Luke being your stepfather?"
"I don't know. I mean I'll admit a small part of me was still always hoping for my parents to get it together. But if it's not with Dad, then I'm happy that it's with Luke. So yeah, I'd like for them to make it work."
"There you go. I think you know what to do."
"Yeah."
"Hey, Rory," Lane began after they had fallen silent, a playful smile on her lips, "You have a stepfather."
For the first time since bringing up the topic with her friend a large smile overtook Rory. She had a stepfather. Someone who would be there for her no matter what happens. Someone who would take care of her mother after she left for college. Rory was happy that it was Luke. He had always fit the bill as a father-figure in her life. Most of the time more than her own father did. To have him there for good, to have him there in title as well as in job description... well it felt good. It felt like having a family.
~TBC~
Next Chapter: Word spreads through the town.