Back at the OK Corral
Luke reached for the door handle, but froze when he heard Lorelai call out, "Luke, wait!"
Without removing his hand from the handle, he turned to see her standing on the porch, her arms crossed over her chest. He took in her worn jeans, stretched out hooded sweatshirt and striped toe socks and quickly deduced that she had no intention of keeping their date. Without a word, he yanked hard, wrenching the door open with a loud groan of aged hinges.
"Luke," she called again as she hurried down the steps and across the yard.
"Just forget it! Forget I said anything," he growled.
"Luke, please," she said as she reached out to touch his arm.
Luke shook her hand off as he whirled to face her, his eyes blazing with hurt and anger. "You were really just gonna let me stand there and knock like some kind of moron! Hell, you did! God, I'm an idiot! Was it funny for you, Lorelai? Did you and Rory sit on the couch and have a good laugh?" he demanded. "You know, I know that you can be a little thoughtless at times, but I never, ever thought that you would be that cruel," he said in a low harsh voice.
"Luke, it's not like that…" she started to say.
"You've had your fun for the night," he said as he turned away and started to get into the truck.
"Luke, no!" Lorelai cried as she wrapped both hands around his arm and pulled as hard as she could. She dug her heels into the soft grass, and leaned back with her full weight, desperate to keep him from getting into the driver's seat.
"Let go, Lorelai," he said gruffly.
"Please, Luke, please," she said urgently.
"What?" he asked as he whirled to face her again. "What could you possibly have to say to me?" he asked, as he looked anywhere but directly at her, hating the way his voice cracked and gave him away.
Lorelai looked up at him, noting the tiny scab on his chin where the blood had clotted, and the smooth planes of his cheeks, freshly shaven and soft. A hint of his aftershave tickled her nostrils, as the dark fringe of his eyelashes swept down a moment too late to hide the pain in his eyes. Knowing that she had put it there felt like a knife twisting in her gut. She released his arm and reached up; her palm warm and soft on his smooth cheek, as her fingertips skimmed his furrowed brow, aching to smooth the lines away. When he raised his eyes questioningly, Lorelai whispered, "I fell asleep."
Her fingertips trailed over his cheek, making their way to his jaw as if memorizing the shape of his face. "I can see your face," she whispered.
"What?"
"All smooth, so soft. Have I ever seen your face before?" she murmured as she leaned in and pressed her lips to his experimentally. She pulled back slowly, the tender skin of his bottom lip clinging to hers for a moment longer. "I'll have to tell Sookie about the stubble some other time," she murmured. Lorelai leaned in again and kissed him firmly; winding her arms around his neck and pressing him back against the side of the truck.
This time, Luke was more than ready. One hand grasped her waist, steadying her against him as the other found its way to her neck. His fingers curling into the tangled coconut scented strands at her nape as he kissed her back, pouring his frustration and confusion into the kiss. His hand slipped from her waist to the small of her back, pressing her to him as he angled his head and deepened the kiss, parting her lips with his.
Lorelai sighed into his mouth as the tip of his tongue danced over her lower lip, her fingertips grazing his neck and coming to rest at the base of his throat, stroking the smooth skin that peeped through the open collar of his shirt. She made a soft mewing sound in her throat as his tongue found hers. Confusion gave way, and frustration flamed into desire. Lorelai clung to his shoulder, her fingers digging into the butter soft leather of his jacket as he kissed her right down to her toes; teasing and tasting, devouring and demanding more. His fingers splayed in her hair and he cradled the back of her head in his palm, providing much needed support. Her senses were flooded with him, this man she saw each and every day, but had never seen quite this way. His woodsy aftershave mingled with the light floral scent she had applied that morning, and the heady concoction made her knees weak. His skin was smooth and surprisingly warm and soft. She could feel his heart beating against her breasts, the blood rushing beneath the pads of her fingers, the strength of his muscles tensed and hard, unyielding as they molded to her softer curves. His hands were firm and sure as he held her, one splayed in her hair and other on her back tracing small circles through her sweatshirt that were driving her wild.
"Luke," she gasped as she tore her mouth from his and gulped in a much needed lungful of oxygen.
Undeterred, Luke lower his lips to her jaw, kissing his way up to her ear and drawing the soft lobe into his mouth, capturing it between his teeth with a throaty moan that sounded more like a growl. He gathered her mass of dark curls into his hand and then let them slip and slide slowly through his fingers. "I fell asleep," she whispered to the darkening sky as she let her head fall back into his palm, giving herself over to the waves of heat that coursed through her body. "I was just going to relax a bit," she murmured as he blazed a trail of hot, wet kisses down to her neck. "Oh God," she moaned as he drew her creamy skin into his mouth, laving it with his tongue. "Long day, strange day. Came home early. Confused, worried," she panted as she buried her hand in his hair, holding him there. "Don't stop," she whispered as her nails scraped lightly over his scalp.
Fueled by her whispered words, Luke scraped his teeth gently over the pulse that throbbed in her throat. "Not stopping now," he growled against her skin.
"I was going to go, I was going to go," she assured him, fisting her hand in his hair.
Luke raised his head, his chest heaving as their eyes met and held for a moment. Lorelai stood immobile, stunned by the intensity of his gaze until his eyes fell to her mouth. She lifted her hand from his shoulder, and pressed her fingertips to her swollen lips. Luke leaned in and brushed the barest of kisses across her fingers, and she lowered her hand, her eyes closing as her lips sought and found his once again. Her fingers gripped the lapel of his jacket, pulling him closer as she opened her mouth to welcome him again, kissing him fervently as her body moved against his, desperate to get closer to the heat emanating from his every pore.
They were so lost in one another that neither heard a door open and Babette calling, "Apricot! Mama has your tuna, baby girl!"
Luke's blood pounded in his ears as hand slid down, caressing her denim covered bottom, pulling her closer still. Lorelai circled her hips in a mindless dance of need, moaning into his mouth as their tongues battled and she wantonly ground against his straining arousal. Lips, teeth and tongues clashed and then meshed as the rest of the world fell away.
"Oh my God!" Rory gasped as she stared wide eyed at her mother and Luke making out not ten feet from where she stood in the driveway.
"Well, Uncle Luke," Jess drawled as Lorelai stepped back, pressing her hands to Luke's chest to put at least an arms length of space between them. She blinked rapidly, trying to get her bearings.
"Oh my God! Morey! Lorelai and Luke and makin' out in the front yard!" Babette screeched as she stared transfixed in her doorway.
"Mom!" Rory said accusingly.
Jess shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans and rocked back on his heels. "I guess I don't have to snoop around to see who you got all gussied up for," Jess said with a smirk.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Luke snapped as he moved to stand behind the still open driver's door, using it as a shield until he could collect himself.
"I'd ask you the same thing, but I think the demonstration was pretty self-explanatory," Jess said with an enthusiastic nod.
"Rory," Lorelai said as she turned to her daughter, pressing her hands to her flaming cheeks.
"I dunno, I just came out to get the cat, and they were all over each other!" Babette screeched as Morey appeared in the doorway next to her.
"Was this the thing you had to do tonight?" Rory asked incredulously.
"Wow, she called you a thing, and you got all dressed up pretty. That has to hurt," Jess said to Luke, shaking his head sadly.
"Shut it," Luke ordered as he pointed to his nephew. He glared at Babette and Morey yelled, "Show's over! Beat it!"
Babette made a face and they quickly stepped back. Morey closed the door as Babette dove for the phone. "This is big! This is so big!" she crowed as she dialed Patty's number and then pulled a lacy curtain aside for a better view. "Damn forsythia bush is in the way," she muttered. "Morey! Come over here and give me the play by play," she yelled. "Hello, Patty? You're never gonna believe what I just saw!"
Lorelai turned to face Rory and tied to explain, "Luke asked me out to dinner."
Rory frowned at her mother's attire and asked, "At a truckstop?"
"No, at Silvano's."
"You're going to Silvano's dressed like that?" Rory scoffed.
"No! I fell asleep, okay? I fell asleep, and Luke came to pick me up and I didn't answer the door, so he was leaving and upset, so I ran out here and…" Lorelai tried to explain, the color flooding her cheeks once again as she trailed off.
"You kissed it and made it all better," Jess said knowingly.
"What are you doing here anyway?" Luke snarled at his nephew.
Jess shrugged and said, "Well, after I learned that our evening of male bonding wasn't gonna happen, I decided to go to the bookstore. Rory was coming out as I was going in, so I decided to do the gentlemanly thing and see her safely home. How were we supposed to know that when we got here you would be doing some very ungentlemanly things with her mother in the driveway?" he asked innocently.
"Get out of here," Luke growled as he stepped out from behind the door menacingly.
As Jess backed away he smirked and said, "Did you at least buy her dinner first?"
"Dammit Jess!" Luke roared.
"Rory," Lorelai said pleadingly.
"I was just trying to take her out to dinner," Luke said desperately.
Rory turned back to Lorelai and said, "I think when he says, 'Hi. Are you ready?' you're just supposed to say, 'Sure, let's go.' or something like that."
"Don't be mad," Lorelai said quickly.
"It's all my fault," Luke said as he stared down at his shoes. He rubbed the back of his neck and mumbled, "The whole day has been a disaster."
"A disaster? The whole day?" Lorelai asked pointedly.
Luke looked up and quickly said, "I just mean that things didn't go the way I planned."
"Listen, I'm not mad and this is none of my business," Rory said. She shook her head and began to back away toward the house. "Carry on," she called as she turned to hurry away. "I mean, don't carry on, but, you know, do what you were going to do. Ugh. Not that, but dinner," she muttered as she ran up the porch steps and into the house.
Lorelai stared after her daughter, her arms wrapped tightly around her stomach, her hands clenching the sides of her sweatshirt. "I should…" Lorelai said as she nodded to the house.
"Yeah," Luke answered, nodding as he ducked his head.
Lorelai turned back to him, her face softening as she took in his hunched shoulders. "Can we, uh," she started to say. "Maybe, tomorrow night?" she asked cautiously. "The dinner thing, I mean," she added quickly.
"You want to?" he asked hopefully.
"I'm sorry, was that not you?" she said with a short laugh as she pointed to the side of his truck.
"Lorelai, I didn't mean for that…"
"I know, me either," she said, cutting him off. "I didn't mean to almost stand you up," she said as she reached out and gently smoothed the lapel of his jacket.
"I wasn't sure," he said with a wince.
Lorelai smiled and admitted, "Neither was I. But, Luke, I would never have done something so, 'thoughtless' was it? Oh no, wait, 'cruel,' that was it," she teased.
Luke grimaced and muttered, "Gonna pay for that."
"Yep," she agreed with a nod. She leaned in, tipping her face up for a kiss.
Luke smiled and said, "Too dangerous."
"Just one more. A little one," she whispered coaxingly.
Luke kissed her gently, his thumb gliding across her jaw as his lips lingered against hers. "Do you want me to come in there?" he asked as she pulled back.
Lorelai smiled affectionately and then gave his arm a friendly pat. "No. Thanks, though." She sighed as she glanced back at the house worriedly, and then wrapped her arms around her stomach again. "She told me once that I couldn't date you," Lorelai confessed.
"Oh?" Luke asked, taken aback.
Lorelai smiled, softening the words. She reached out to run her fingers down the sleeve of his leather coat, unable to stop touching him now that she had started. "You were too important, to both of us. She didn't want to take that risk with you."
"Risk?"
Lorelai smirked and offered him her hand. "Hi, Lorelai Gilmore, dating disaster, have we met?"
Luke chuckled as he enveloped her hand in his and shook it firmly. "I don't have the best record myself," he said gruffly.
"We need to talk," she said quietly.
"I think that was the plan for dinner," Luke answered with a self-deprecating smile.
Lorelai nodded as she reluctantly withdrew her hand from his. "I should go in."
"I'll walk you to your door," Luke answered as he shoved his hands into his pants pockets and nodded to the porch.
Lorelai smiled as she glanced over at him and said, "Such a gentleman."
"Well, I had a little ungentlemanly behavior to make up for," he replied dryly.
Lorelai glanced over at him, a flattering pink flush creeping into her cheeks as they started up the steps. When they reached her door, she turned to look at him and said, "Sookie was right. My standards are probably a little too high."
When she saw his frown of confusion, Lorelai shrugged and glanced shyly at her sock clad feet. "You see, no guy ever quite fit the bill, because no one could be everything that my friend Luke is." She rubbed one foot on top of the other, brushing the grass and dirt from her sock. She looked up, meeting his dark blue gaze steadily. "I guess it's hard to measure up to the guy that the girl you're seeing is not supposed to want."
She opened the front door and slipped inside. "Night, Luke. See you tomorrow," she said, and closed it quietly behind her.
****
Lorelai paused in the foyer, waiting until she heard the sound of the truck's engine. She looked down at her ragged old sweatshirt and frowned in disgust. "You look fabulous," she muttered as she bent down and stripped off her grass covered socks. She wadded the socks into a ball and dropped them next to the coat rack before padding barefoot to Rory's door. Lorelai twice on the door, hoping to be heard over the music playing, and called, "Can I come in?"
"Yeah, come in," Rory answered.
Lorelai opened the door and leaned against the frame as she smiled wanly and said, "Hi."
"Hello," Rory replied, lifting an eyebrow in unspoken inquiry.
"He's gone," Lorelai said as she pushed away from the doorway and stepped cautiously into Rory's room. "Hon, about tonight," she began.
"Um, Mom, I'd rather not get into the gory details," Rory said quickly.
Lorelai shook her head vehemently and then tucked her leg beneath her as she sat down on the edge of Rory's bed. "No, no, nothing like that. I meant about dinner, with Luke."
"Ah yes, the thing you had to do," Rory answered with a smirk as she lowered the book she had been reading to her chest.
Lorelai tucked her hair behind her ear and said, "You see, here's the thing. When Luke asked me to dinner this morning, I didn't really think it was a date, but then…" She began to pluck absently at a loose thread on Rory's comforter as she searched for the right words. "Um, Luke, he said some things that made it pretty clear that he thought it was a date, and I, uh, I didn't really know what to do about that."
"What do you mean?"
"He kind of said, I mean, he told me that he had, um, feelings for me. More than friend feelings, you know? And I, I was a little, um, stunned," she finished lamely.
"Really? Why?"
"Why what?"
"Why were you stunned?" Rory asked in a perplexed tone. "It's not like Luke's, uh, feelings about you are any big secret."
"Okay, you know what? Fine, okay, I knew," Lorelai said impatiently.
"Mom, I'm not shocked that you want to date Luke. We've all been expecting it," Rory said with a shrug.
"Someone could have clued me in," Lorelai mumbled.
Rory rolled her eyes. "Well, we considered hiring a sky writer once, but it was cost prohibitive."
"Anyway, that's the story," Lorelai said as she stood up abruptly.
"Doesn't explain how you ended up making out like teenagers on the front lawn," Rory said pointedly.
Lorelai looked down at her daughter and asked, "You really want the gory details?"
"No!" Rory said as she picked up her book again and ducked behind it. When Lorelai laughed, she peeped over the top of the book and asked, "You going to try again?"
"Tomorrow," Lorelai answered with a nod.
Rory nodded slowly and said, "Well, you know the rules."
"I made the rules," Lorelai shot back as she walked to the door.
"No, the Luke rules," Rory said as she sat up a little straighter.
"Luke rules?"
Rory fixed her mother with a stern look and said, "You can't break his heart, he feeds us."
"Duly noted," Lorelai said with a solemn nod. "Sorry about the, uh," she said as she gestured to the front of the house.
"What? As far as I'm concerned nothing ever happened," Rory said primly as she pretended to read her book.
"Need a paddle?"
Rory shook her head and said, "Nope, I can navigate this river all on my own."
"Say 'Hi' to Pharaoh for me," she said as she pulled the door closed behind her.
Lorelai wandered into the living room and snatched the remote from the coffee table as she plopped down on the couch. She flipped through the channels without seeing a thing. Her stomach growled loudly, and she pressed her hand to it as she turned toward the kitchen. After giving up on both her x-ray vision and her telekinesis skills, Lorelai stood up and trudged toward the kitchen to see what might be leftover in the fridge. She stood with the door open, debating between four day old pizza and three day old Chinese, and wishing that she had the steaming plate of pasta that she should be having. She turned her head, glancing first at Rory's door and then at the telephone on the desk. She let the refrigerator door slam shut as she whirled around and headed for the desk.
Lorelai snatched the phone from its cradle and began to dial the diner without thinking. As Caesar answered the phone, Lorelai closed her eyes in frustration. "Sorry Caesar, its Lorelai. I was looking for Luke, but I forgot that he wasn't working tonight." she said quickly. "Hey, do you have the apartment phone number? I'm sure it's in my book, but…" she trailed off as she heard a familiar voice shouting in the background.
"Either order or get out, there's nothing to see here!" Luke bellowed.
Lorelai laughed and said to Caesar, "Hand me over to him, would you?"
"Here you go!" Caesar said in his usual chipper tone.
"What?" Luke snarled into the phone.
"I'm hungry, you were supposed to feed me," she whined.
"Lorelai?" he asked.
"Did you have another dinner date tonight?"
"I thought you were, you know, with Rory," he said in a low voice. "Is everything okay?"
"Everything is fine, except I'm starving," she answered.
"Well, you can't come here," Luke growled into the phone. "I have the smart ass upstairs and the lunatics down here."
"Wanna grab a pizza and hide out here?" she asked.
"Um," he said, hesitating as he glanced around the diner and noticed that Babette and Morey were suspiciously missing from the assembled townspeople. "I think you may still be under surveillance," he murmured into the phone. "And, that might be a little weird, with Rory."
"Oh," Lorelai said blankly. "I guess no place is safe," she said with a rueful chuckle.
"No place in Stars Hollow," Luke conceded.
"Okay, well, I should…" Lorelai glanced back at the refrigerator forlornly.
"We could skip town," he offered, his deep voice sending a shiver down her spine.
"Yeah?" she asked hopefully.
"If you wanted."
"I can be ready in about thirty minutes," she told with a decisive nod.
"Make it twenty and I'll let you order two desserts," Luke countered.
"I can make it fifteen if it's someplace dimly lit," she teased.
"Be there in ten minutes, I'll bring a flashlight," he said, and then hung up the phone with a decisive click.