Unable to keep this news to herself, Lorelai called Sookie as soon as Cheyenne had fallen asleep.
"Is Luke leaving?" Sookie asked fearfully.
"I don't know."
Sookie and Lorelai both sat silent for a moment. "Surely, he wouldn't leave." Sookie followed up. "Luke loves this town."
"I thought Luke loved his diner." Lorelai added.
"Maybe he's just giving it to Jess, but he'll still be working there."
Lorelai let out a huff, "Luke, working for Jess?"
"Okay… maybe not." Sookie paused. "Should we ask?"
"You'd think if he wanted us to know…"
"Ah, but this is Luke." Sookie interrupted.
"True." Lorelai glanced back into her bedroom where Cheyenne was sleeping peacefully on her bed. She smiled. "I'll ask him about it tomorrow. I'll take Cheyenne over there while it's still the Luke's we know and cherish."
"Let me know as soon as you find out something."
"Will do."
"Good night." Sookie gently hung up the phone and let out a sigh.
Lorelai hung up her phone as well and then crawled into bed beside Cheyenne. It had been so long since she had shared a bed with someone. Rory stopped sneaking into her room at night long ago and even though many parents would probably consider that a good thing, Lorelai found that she missed her daughter's late night surprise visits.
Cheyenne on the other hand bashfully asked if she could spend the night with Lorelai seeing as how it was a strange new and not to mention big house. Lorelai was more than happy to oblige to the young girl. She reached over and turned out the lamp as she snuggled under the covers. She watched the girl sleep for several minutes before finally drifting off herself. Her last thought being, "This is perfect."
The morning alarm sounded and Lorelai quickly reached over to shut it off. Her sleepy eyes opened and she noticed that Cheyenne had not be phased by the alarm at all.
"A heavy sleeper." Lorelai spoke to herself.
She gently stood from the bed and stretched. Deciding to go make a fresh pot of coffee, she'd return to wake Cheyenne later. As she reached the kitchen, the phone rang. Lorelai quickly answered it, mainly because it caught her off guard.
"Hello?"
"I hope this isn't too early."
"Rory? Hey!" Lorelai's face lit up. "How are you sweetie?"
"Good." Rory replied. A loud rush of traffic zoomed by. "I'm sorry if you have trouble hearing me…. I'm waiting on the bus to get here."
"No, it's fine. You're coming in perfectly clear."
"I just wanted to call… ask how things were."
"Things are really good." Lorelai paused. "She's an amazing kid."
"I can't wait to meet her." Another loud rush of traffic. "I was hoping for an earlier visit, but Thanksgiving seems to be the closest."
Lorelai personally thought November was much too far away, but realized Rory was building her life and career and couldn't simply come home whenever she liked.
"Don't worry about it, sweetheart. Take care of everything for Mr. Obama." Lorelai smiled. "Besides, I've been telling Cheyenne all about you."
"I haven't gotten to hear all about her yet." Rory noted.
"Well, within time." Lorelai continued to make coffee while she was on the phone. "Whenever you get a quiet moment, you'll have to call and I'll fill you in."
"That sounds great." A loud horn went off behind Rory's head. "My bus is here." She replied somewhat excited and yet a little regretfully.
"Take care, babe."
"I will. I love you."
"I love you."
Lorelai hung up the phone and sat it down on the kitchen counter. How odd it was that she had a twenty two year old daughter working on a campaign tour with a presidential candidate, and now an eleven year old daughter laying peacefully in her bed. Though in so many ways it should have seemed strange and out of place, it felt normal and very comfortable. It was as if this was what everything had been building up to from day one.
After waking Cheyenne, they both got dressed and headed down to the diner. Surprisingly, it was very crowded. The lunch rush didn't hit until around 11:30 and they had arrived precisely at 10:15.
"Hey." Luke greeted as he saw Lorelai step through the door with a young girl behind her. He looked down immediately at Cheyenne. "Hi there. I'm Luke." He extended his hand.
Cheyenne took it. "Cheyenne Walker." She replied.
"Very nice to meet you." He smiled. "Do you like pancakes?"
Cheyenne shrugged. "I guess so…."
"I'll fix you some pancakes." Luke followed up as he darted back behind the counter.
"Why don't you find us a table?" Lorelai asked as she gazed down at the girl. "I'll be right back."
Cheyenne did as she was instructed and Lorelai approached Luke.
"Hey, can we talk for a second?"
"Uhh…. Sure." Luke wrote down a quick order and handed it back to Caesar. "What's up?"
"I was hoping you could tell me. I saw Jess in town last night." Lorelai directly stated.
"Oh? Yeah, he's here…"
"Yeah, I got that. My question is why?"
Luke stared at Lorelai for a moment. "He didn't tell you why?"
"Well… he said he was coming to take over the diner…"
"So, he did tell you why…"
"Okay, fine… WHY is he taking over the diner? Maybe that's the more important question here." Lorelai folded her arms.
"Because, I'm giving it to him." Luke simply answered. "Does she drink coffee too?" Luke asked pointing over to Cheyenne.
"Luke, please explain to me what is going on here." Her voice was irritated and she was obviously annoyed. "I thought you loved this diner. Why would you just hand it over to Jess?"
"I'm not just handing it over…. And I do love this diner. Jess isn't the little punk kid he used to be. He's trying to make smart decisions now…. He wants a career and good job and he wants to run his own business."
"And what are you going to do? Sit back in the wings and hope he doesn't go bankrupt?"
"No. I'm still going to be an advisor and nothing too drastic can be done without my approval. And…." A pause as he chose his words wisely. "I've got another project I want to do."
"Project?"
"There's a boat out in New Haven that's picking up fisherman. They're making up to one hundred and ninety-five thousand a year up in the Vermont area. It'd be a real opportunity."
"Luke? Are you crazy? You don't know how to be a fisherman. Those men are trained and skilled…. They don't run diners!"
"Calm down." Luke held up his hand. "I don't want to be a fisherman. I want to own a boat. Have fisherman go up there for me. Then split profits with them."
Lorelai sat down at the counter. "And while they're out at seat catching your fish, what are you going to do?"
"Well, I'm not certain yet. Maybe go out and spend some time with April after I get everything lined up with Jess and the boat. I may even check into a couple home business ideas I had thought about. Some handyman work around town would probably be enough to help get me by till I see profits from the fishing trips. I'll also be keeping a 25 cut from the dinner."
"I don't understand… when did you come up with all these plans?"
"They've been running through my head for a while." Luke answered. "I just haven't… ya know… mentioned them to anyone."
"This is what you want?"
"Yeah. I think so. I think it'd be a nice transition and it'd clear up some time for me to do other things that I've kind of missed out on…" Luke took a deep breath. "I should really get back to work, we're having an early rush. What did you want to eat this morning?"
Lorelai paused. "I'll just have pancakes with Cheyenne."
"Alright. Two orders of pancakes. One coffee and …."
"Milk." Lorelai replied "She'll have milk."
"Milk. Got it." Luke turned and headed back into the kitchen leaving Lorelai just as confused as ever.