Disclaimer: all of the characters belong to Amy Sherman Palladino and the WB

Chapter 5

The next morning Lorelai woke up to the wonderful smell of coffee and food. 'I could get used to this', she said to herself with a smile as she tumbled down the stairs. She stopped at the kitchen doorway and smiled at the scene. Luke was standing there making pancakes and he had made chocolate chip muffins that were already sitting on the nicely set kitchen table. He put the pancakes on a plate and put them on the table with all the other things when he spotted her watching him. He smiled at her standing there in her sponge bob pyjama bottoms and a blue tank top.

"Hey there. I see my plan worked out."

"Really? What was your plan?" Lorelai said with a smile. She walked over to him and put her arms around his neck while he put his around her waist and pulled her closer to him.

"Waking you up with the smell of freshly made breakfast and coffee."

"How could a combination of food and coffee, and on top of that prepared by a sexy guy in boxers and a shirt not wake me?" she said grinning at him.

"Exactly my plan." He said and bent down to give her a long kiss. "Did you sleep well?"

Lorelai smiled up at him. "Very well. How could I not with you lying next to me. How about you?"

"Pretty good. Although I have to say that you take up quite some space in that bed."

"I do not." Lorelai said and punched him in the side.

"Hey. Is that what I get for making you breakfast?"

Lorelai looked as if she were thinking hard for a moment and then kissed him passionately. "That better?" she asked when they broke apart panting slightly.

Luke swallowed. "Uh, yeah. Just don't do that in the diner."

Lorelai grinned at him. "Aw. Lukey's turning red."

Luke glared at her, she knew he hated it when she used that name.

"OK, come on, let's sit down and eat breakfast. They sat down and enjoyed breakfast in silence, occasionally glancing at each other and smiling. When they were finished Luke got up and put the dishes in the dish washer.

"Well I gotta go to the diner for a while. I bet Caesar is not so happy about handling it alone. I think I'll give him a day off this week."

"Allright. But I'm gonna miss you today." Lorelai pouted. She got up from her chair and stood in front of him.

"Well you could always come by the diner and see me." Luke said and put his arms around her waist.

Lorelai gently stroked his arms. "I would but I don't know if I have time to there's so much stuff to do for the inn. I told Sookie to stay at home and enjoy some time with Davey. And Michel. Well you know, he's Michel. Are we still on for tonight?"

Luke nodded. "Yeah. Pick you up at a little before seven?"

"Yep. That's fine."

Luke bend down and kissed her softly. "Allright, I'm gonna head out now. I love you."

Lorelai smiled at him. She always felt her heart jump when he said that to her. "I love you too. Call me sometime?"

Luke kissed her again. "Sure. Bye."

"Bye." Lorelai watched him leave through the back door. Although they had said that they didn't care if people found out about them they still wanted to make sure that there wasn't gonna be too much gossiping.

Luke was glad that there weren't too many people in the diner when he came back. He didn't mind that people would find out about his relationship with Lorelai but he hated gossip about himself. He went upstairs to change and then got down to help Caesar. The only thing people noticed about him was that he wasn't as grumpy as normally.

Lorelai couldn't quite concentrate on her work at the inn. Not only was she thinking about Luke, but she also hadn't heard from Rory, so far. She thought about calling her but that might only make her more angry, so she just had to wait for her daughter to call her. She was really glad that Luke was there for her and that she could talk to him. Not that she couldn't have talked to him before, this was just different. Now he was able to comfort her and support her in a different way than he did before.

At that moment the phone in her office rang.

"Independence Inn, Lorelai Gilmore speaking?"

"Hey."

She smiled when she heard his voice on the other end of the line. "Hey yourself. How's it going?"

"Allright, it's pretty empty here, so I thought I'd give you a call. Are you busy?"

"Yeah, but I'm just gonna take a break for you. I was just thinking about you, actually."

Luke smiled at her words. "Yeah? Like what?"

"Nothing dirty, I have to disappoint you. Just how lucky I am to have you."

"That's even better. I'm lucky to have you too. Sooo…. how are you holding up?"

"Well you know. Michel is being a pain in the ass. He says he's having a migraine and can't work that much, but I think he's just lazy. Tom and his crew finally finished the fence for the horses, so we can let them out of the barn now. The curtains for the rooms got here today so we might actually get the rooms done before the opening. You know it's not like the rooms are the most important thing in a hotel, but…"

"Lorelai?" Luke interrupted her ramble. She had hoped that he wouldn't ask her again.

"I'm freaking out, Luke. I just want to know that she's fine, and that she's not gonna hate me forever. And I wanna call her but that would just separate her even more and have I mentioned that I'm freaking out here?" she sighed out loud and slumped down into her chair.

"Rory doesn't hate you. She'll get over it eventually, and you'll work everything out between the two of you. You gotta give her some time. Trust me, she's gonna call you soon. Hey do you want me to come over to the inn and give you some company?"

Lorelai sighed. "That's really sweet, but you don't have to. I have so much work to do I wouldn't be able to spend time with you. I'll just annoy Michel some more and hope that the time will go by quickly until I see you."

"Allright. I'll let you go back to work."

"Luke?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks. For you know…"

"I know."

"Good. I love you."

"I love you, too. I'll see ya later. Bye."

"Bye."

At five thirty, Lorelai was finally able to go home. She checked the answering machine to see if there were any messages from Rory, but there was nothing on it. She quickly jumped into the shower, hoping that she would feel better afterwards, but it didn't help too much. She put on a pair of jeans, a red blouse and black boots. She wasn't really in the mood for dressing up, so she only put some light make up on and left her hair curly haging over her shoulders.

About five minutes before seven she heard the doorbell and went downstairs to open the door.

Luke was wearing a pair of jeans with a black shirt and had also left his baseball cap at home.

"Hey," she said and kissed him softly. "You look really nice, Luke."

Luke shuffeled his feet on the floor. "Thanks, I guess. You look really nice, too. So are you ready to go?"

"Yeah. Just let me get my purse." She locked the door behind them and they slowly strolled to Sookie's and Jackson's house holding hands.

To be continued….

AN: The next chapter will be at Sookie's. Please RR!!!