A/N Thank you to all who read the first chapter and took the time to review or place this story on an up-date. I hope you enjoy the twists, it is loosely connected to the show's time line but really AU. May you continue to enjoy. I love the characters but they are not my creation and therefore unowned.
Chapter 2 Ask Luke
After Rory left Luke started to wait on his customers, all the time replaying his day in his head. When he woke up this morning he never thought that his life would change so drastically in such a short amount of time.
As he took orders, placed orders, delivered plates, filled coffee cups and rang up bills Luke thought about the early afternoon lull when he had gone over to the Independence Inn to fix the back porch as Lorelai had asked.
That French putz was at the front desk and said that Lorelai was in a meeting so he took his toolbox out back to work on the porch steps. There were a few nails that had worked themselves loose during the early fall traffic and Lorelai was concerned that one of the steps might come away from the foundation. It only took him ten minutes and he was finishing up when Lorelai came out the back door getting ready to go down by the lake.
She had a light blue sweater that he had never seen before and it made the blue in her eyes stand out even more. She invited him to help her count the ducks, they had just gotten a new shipment from some farm up the road and Michel swore that they had ordered 6 female and 2 male and now there were twelve ducks. So she was going to count them and make sure they had not received more than they had ordered.
Of course he went with her, Hell, he'd follow her into a beauty salon if she asked him to. It was windy down by the lake and a cold chill went through his flannel. When she turned to talk to him he automatically pulled her hood up to protect her from the wind. At that moment she looked directly into his eyes and he felt himself stop breathing. Still holding onto the hood with both of his hands he gently pulled her towards him and leaned in. For once all the planets were in alignment and no cell phones went off, no one rushed down to take her away, no Taylor interruptus, he leaned in and seized his moment!
The first kiss was so soft he thought he imagined it. When he went to pull away she had her hand on his cheek and pulled him back for a much longer and more passionate kiss. When they broke apart she looked at him her eyes dancing and just whispered, "Wow."
He was sure he had a goofy smile plastered across his face and a thousand and one thoughts rushing through his mind about how he had wanted this for so long and would Tuesday be a good day to get married and how many kids did she want and they would need a bigger house and Caesar could open from now on because he wanted to wake up every morning with this beautiful woman. But the only thing he actually was able to vocalize was, "Yep."
He wasn't quite sure how it happened, but they started walking around the lake, without talking, fingers intertwined. Soon after they found themselves behind the diner and he asked her if she wanted some coffee, not wanting to have this moment end. Since they didn't want to run into anyone just yet they went up the back way to his apartment and talked for about half an hour. Well, she talked, he still was catatonic replaying the only thought he had over and over, "I finally kissed Lorelai Gilmore, and she kissed me back!" That may be the more surprising part of the day, she kissed him back, and she wanted this too! Wow. Yeah, that said it all.
Just before she was getting ready to leave she looked at him shyly and asked what the kisses meant. "I guess it means I would like to take you out." Luke replied. "If that is OK?"
"That is very OK." She said. He imagined that her grin must have matched his own.
"Good. I'll call you later tonight and we can set something up, maybe for tomorrow?" Luke still could not keep himself from grinning.
Then Lorelai looked panic stricken and started to back pedal a bit. "Maybe I should call you first, hmm? I need to talk to Rory about this before she hears it from someone else, OK?"
His heart had sunk a bit, what if Rory didn't want this? He knew that if Rory wasn't comfortable Lorelai would stop whatever progress they had made.
So when he walked her down to the alley he again pulled her hood up to protect her from the cold and kissed her goodbye as though it was the last time he would ever get that chance, because he knew there was a good possibility it would be.
He had steeled himself to accept living with the memory of those three kisses and not expect anything more, but Damn It he wanted the whole nine yards and he was pleased that his talk with Rory went fairly well. Maybe fate was giving him a hand, if Rory had gone to her mom first he may have never had a chance.
Luke chuckled at himself with his thoughts on fate, he never believed in things like that, but he knew he shouldn't have a chance with a woman like Lorelai, she was meant for guys who were good with words and grand gestures of romance.
When he thought of Rory's recounting of their life as she was growing up he couldn't help but think about how Lorelai and he each had a great deal of pain in their lives and each had overcome it. She dealt with it by opening up to possibilities and seeing the good in everyone, even himself. He on the other hand closed down and became too cautious, waiting for the next shoe to drop. While he would do anything for anyone in need even if no one would know about it, he was always aware that happiness could be taken from him at a moments notice. Both Lorelai and he loved family above all else, even this crazy Stars Hollow family that had no blood relation to either.
He looked at the clock and sighed, still an half an hour before he would call Lorelai and set a date for their official beginning.
Rory had quickly walked back home with the bags of food and coffee from Luke's She had a grin on her face that would give her away, so before she walked into the house she took a moment to compose herself. Then the thought that she still had to tell her mom about the "D" came back to the surface, Ugh! Well, first things first, maybe it wouldn't be as bad coming on the heels of giving HER blessing to Luke and Lorelai, since her mom obviously liked Luke and he was crazy about her.
She set her shoulders and opened the door to find her mom on the couch aimlessly flipping through TV channels.
"Where have you been!?!" Lorelai shrieked.
"I was hungry so I thought I would pick up dinner from Luke's." Rory said pointedly. "How was your day? Did something happen you want to share?"
Lorelai looked like she was caught with a boy in her room by her mother and stammered, "Wwwhhhaaaa what are you asking? My day was fine, Michel is fine, Sookie is fine, the Inn is fine, the guests are fine, everything is fine. Why do you ask?"
Rory was really enjoying this way too much, but she continued, "I was home a little earlier and you were in the shower singing Eternal Flame and I saw this really pretty blue hoodie hanging on the banister. Where did you get it? Is it new?"
Lorelai took a sip of her coffee, looked warily at Rory and said, "Sookie and I went shopping today at lunch, she wanted to buy something new, I think it was for Jackson, she really likes him and I found this in that new store on Cherry Street. I think it sets off my eyes very nicely, it's a magical sweater, one that could end my days of singleness and the drought that is known as my dating life, in fact it is my new favorite sweater, and I may wear it everyday from now on."
Rory's grin got much larger and she took great delight in the next statement, "Really? What will happen when throngs of men see you wearing such an obvious statement that you are trolling for a date? We will have hundreds of phone calls and men pounding on our door, so that if a man was attracted to you, but not a forward sort of fella, he would be dissuaded from asking you out because he would assume you were already taken. Pity for him"
Lorelai's eyes narrowed as she looked at her daughter, "But I'm not taken. Not really, not officially, how much do you know?"
Rory gave her the Bambi eyes and innocently protested, "I have no idea what you are talking about. Did something happen today?"
Lorelai's shoulders slumped forward and she started picking at the couch, "Maybe something might have happened today, but you are not going to be happy about it." She said in a very small voice, she sighed and continued.
"Well, you remember Luke? He comes by the Inn to fix things for me, saves a ton of money in handyman costs? Well, Luke came by today and was fixing the backstairs on the porch, they are coming loose with all the traffic we had this fall. So I was going outside to count the ducks because Michel said that we had should have eight but he swore that there were twelve…"
"What difference is there if there are eight or twelve ducks?" Rory interrupted her.
"Because we would be charged for twelve when we had only ordered eight and the males get very territorial."
"OK, just asking, go on."
"Well, as I was saying, I was going to the lake and Luke had finished up and I just sort of asked him if he wanted to count the ducks and he said OK, so we walked by the lake, which was really beautiful and peaceful, but also really cold. There was a wind that blew up and Luke leaned over to pull my hood up to protect me from the cold wind and we had a moment and he leaned in and kissed me."
Lorelai quickly looked up at Rory waiting for the fireworks to start. She had spent most of the afternoon flipping back and forth from being excited thinking about Luke and their kisses and anxious about telling Rory who is going to get angry and want her to stop seeing Luke.
Rory looked at her mother, "Didn't we have this conversation not three days ago? Didn't we decide that dating Luke was a bad idea? That dating Al would be better? I am really sure that kissing either is a precursor or direct result of dating."
Lorelai is surprised that there is not more anger; most of Stars Hollow does not know Rory's capacity for atomic explosions. So she ventures out with, "I remember that you said I couldn't date Luke and I haven't…….yet…….the kisses were hopefully a precursor but I really really would like to, please Rory? I want this more than I wanted Skippy."
Rory deadpanned, "Skippy died. What do you mean kisses? I just heard you say he kissed you. That is one kiss, kisses implies more than one. Was there more than one?"
"OK, Skippy was not my fault, he was defective and it was a bad analogy, and yes there might have been another kiss, maybe two more."
"Maybe? You are not sure? Were these really bad kisses or did you fall asleep in the middle? Does not speak well of Luke's technique, eh?" Rory had to work very hard at keeping herself from laughing out loud while she watched her mom twist in the wind.
Lorelai realized that Rory was taking a great deal of pleasure in this and that there was something that Rory was not telling her so she decided to take back control of the conversation.
"There were three kisses, two by the lake and one in the alley by the diner. And let me tell you lil' missy, the kisses were really AH-mazing. The first one was soft and I wasn't even sure he had kissed me until he almost drew away and then it was like touching an ungrounded pipe in the back yard. A jolt went through me and sent a shock all the way up my spine."
Lorelai smiled as she recounted the next bit of information, "I leaned in to kiss him the second time and it was more PG-13 but equally, wow! Now the third kiss was after we had been at his apartment for coffee and as I was leaving to walk home he kissed me good-bye and it was wonderful and poignant and hopeful and heartrending all in the same moment. Now, THAT was an R rated kiss. It was the first time I felt that someone was created just to give me that kiss. I don't know how to explain it any better, I just need to have that kiss back you know?"
Rory looked at her hands and quietly said, "It's like breathing, you have no choice if you want to live."
"Exactly! That is it exactly! How did you know?"
Ask Luke Rory thought, she knew that this was going to happen and her mom and Luke were going to go through whatever pain would be attached to this relationship, but maybe in between they might make each other happy too. She sighed, "I saw you, you know."
"What!?!" Lorelai exclaimed and looked directly at her daughter. "When did you see me?"
"When you were behind the diner, I actually saw Luke making out with a woman in a light blue hoodie sweater and I was so proud of myself, because I was able to help you avoid the pain of dating Luke when he was already involved with this woman. But when I came home to break the news to you I saw the same blue sweater hanging on the banister and I knew."
Rory continued, "I was so mad at you and Luke that I ran down to the diner to, I don't know, confront him, make him see the problems this brings up, talk some sense into him?" She saw Lorelai's horrified expression and she continued on, "So he was really sweet and concerned that I am OK with this, because he said that he cares about me too. I am really sorry Mom about saying you couldn't date Luke, I am worried that you two would get hurt and we couldn't eat at the diner anymore, but I know that you also have a possibility of being really happy, so I can't take that away from both of you."
"The only thing I want you to really think about, is that this is Luke you are wanting to date, he is our friend already, he is in my life, your life and our life on a daily basis. Please make sure that you are willing to give him a chance to become an important part of our lives and don't lead him on. If you feel you want to bail I want you to talk to me or Sookie before you do something really stupid that could wreck both of our lives, OK?"
Lorelai let all of this sink in before she looked at Rory, "I am going to overlook your trip to Luke's for now, we may revisit that later. I understand your concern about how Luke is already in our lives and I could do something really stupid to disrupt that and make your life more difficult, by the way, real altruistic on your part. I promise you that I want this with Luke. I don't know how it will work out, but for the first time since I can remember I want to find out what it is like to have a man in my life. I want to have to find new stories to tell because he has heard all my other ones. I want to make up after a fight with him because as you have said there are going to be fights and I would imagine much larger ones then we have had already."
Lorelai took Rory's hands in hers and looked into her eyes, "Rory I really want this, please, please tell me you will support this?"
Rory stood up, her mother still holding her hands, and kissed Lorelai on the cheek, "I am rooting for both of you, don't screw it up."
Just then the phone rang and Rory dropped her mom's hands. She looked up at the clock and smiled as she walked pass the phone without answering it. Nearing her door she said over her shoulder, "By the way, it's for you."
Lorelai shrieked and lunged for the phone knocking over a stack of DVD's and taking out a Hello Kitty lamp in the process. Breathlessly she answered the phone, "Hello?"
Luke's throaty chuckle came across the line and sent chills up her back. Oh she was in such trouble!
Luke loved the fact that it sounds like Lorelai ran to the phone, he is amazed that she might actually be as excited as he is.
"Well hello there, did I miss the start of the race?" he asks with a grin.
"Um, no, I was just.., ah, huh. So you did call after all? I thought we left it where I would call you?" Lorelai is feeling like her life has just entered a huge Jell-o bowl and she has no control of it anymore.
Luke started to worry about whether Rory had talked to Lorelai or not. Mind racing he searched for some reason he would have called, "I'm sorry Lorelai, I just was calling to ..I mean I wanted to see how…aw, hell, I just wanted to hear your voice." He adjusted his baseball cap and was grateful she couldn't see him blush.
Lorelai softened a bit, not wanting to ruin this as Rory warned she was capable. So she turned it into a joke, "Aw that is so sweet, Rory told me she talked to you today."
Luke let out a short bark, "Yea, I guess you could say she talked to me. Half the town was in the diner when Hurricane Rory blew through the door. I keep getting questions about what the problem was. But I am glad she came by, it was good to make sure she was OK with us. …there is still an us, right?" Please let there still be an us, please, Luke thought.
Lorelai smiled, "As far as Rory and I are concerned "us" is full steam ahead."
"Good to know."
"So, Luke, you got to experience my little firecracker, eh? Not many people have seen the devil side of my angel child."
"You know once was more than enough in my book, I am watching my P's and Q's from here on in." Luke laughed.
"Yep, but you never know what might set her off, she loves her mom."
"Well, what say I start to treat her mom right, I believe that tomorrow evening was mentioned earlier in the day, but wait, don't you have class on Tuesday?"
"Well, tomorrow is actually a free day, I should be studying but if I do my homework like a good girl tonight, Rory might let me go out tomorrow. So, do you have any ideas or are we going off the cuff?"
"Actually I have an idea, how about a movie and dinner?"
"You mean dinner and a movie?" Lorelai teased.
"I meant what I said, there is a movie in Woodbridge that starts at six, so I thought we could go see it and then go for dinner and coffee."
"Oooo, you said the magic word! You pick me up or I meet you at the diner?"
"Why don't we do this right and I pick you up there? Rory can give me the once over and cover all the rules I need to know. I'll pick you up at five, OK?"
"It isn't even a fifteen minute drive to Woodbridge."
"I know."
"So this means that you are picking me up at five thirty?"
"Yep."
"OK, just checking." Lorelai smiled, it was amazing that he knew her so well already.
"Sweet dreams, study well and I will see you in the morning."
"Gotta get the coffee."
"I figured."
"Also I like looking atcha." Lorelai loved the phone banter.
"Good to know." Luke smiled and hung up. Yep, it was going to be an interesting ride.