"Rory!"

"Mom! It's you! It's really you!"

Rory was winding up finals and she had a few days to study before the next one so she drove home to check out the almost finished inn.

"Loin fruit, your mommy has missed you so. I thought I might die without seeing your face again."

"Mom, gross. And I'm dying before you die because this mommy's girl needs a mommy forever. I can't believe I'm here, with you, in this amazing inn. When do you open?"

"Next weekend. We have a trial run on Thursday to work out the kinks, and then, my Leona Helmsley takeover of the hospitality world begins!"

"Cool. Mom, are you okay, your skin is red, do you have hives?"

No Rory, I just caught a glimpse of your ex boyfriend bent over a bookshelf and I cannot activate the trap door I had installed at reception.

"I'm good, need a celery soda from the kitchen and (ugh, Dean smiled at me and he's walking towards us, not now, this is terrible)..."

"Dean, hey how are you?"

"Rory, great, the inn is almost finished and if the doors ever show for the rooms your mom will be in business."

"Well, I know how much my mom appreciates having a helpful handyman like you around, keeping the guys in check so there isn't any catcalling while they eat lunch out of metal boxes."

It wasn't the other guys she had to worry about. He would have been fired for all the thoughts that...if Rory only knew.

"Yes, they've all done a spectacular job, and now to the kitchen to see Sookie and ingest our vegetable soda beverages. Bye Dean."

Mom was a little curt back there. Maybe she's not feeling well, coming down with something. Good thing I'm home for the weekend.

"Hi Sookie!"

"Welcome home Yaley. Here, try my chocolate cookie cappucino cake."

"Whoa, this is seriously the best thing I've ever put in my mouth."

"Dirty!" yelled Sookie and Lorelai in unison.

Dean listened to the peals of laughter wafting from the kitchen. He smiled to himself. If only things were different, and Rory and Lorelai weren't daughter and mother. Dean wanted to be in there right now feeding strawberries or cake to Lorelai, and maybe they'd be the only ones in there, and she'd be blindfolded, a la 9 ½ Weeks, and soon he'd be ripping Lorelai's clothes off of her body…

"Dean! Where is the power sander you were using earlier? I need you to adjust some work tables in the basement."

"Sure Tom, it's in the back hall. I'll get on it."

"Okay. We're calling it at 7 PM. Go home, clean up, and go meet a girl or something. Youth is wasted on the young."

"Yes Tom, have a good weekend."

Meet a girl. The 'girl' he wanted was a mere 40 feet away, arranging books in the library, turning his blood into hot lava as she wiggled her butt to the left trying to scoot the antique ladder down the railing. She was hypnotic.

Rory donated the novels she finished this semester to the Dragonfly library. As she watched her mom try to comically scoot around the room on the ladder she sensed someone was watching them, watching mom. Dean seemed transfixed by her mother's backside. Sure, she'd seen people, Zac, Finn, and people at Yale leer at her mom, she acknowledged she had hot parents because her female friends reacted the same way towards dad. But Dean? He was her friend, Lorelai's friend, and friends didn't, shouldn't look at each other like that. Rory cleared her throat and addressed her mom.

"Mom, I'm hungry. Time to call it a night and hit Luke's for a burger."

"Sure sweets. I'll get my purse and meet you at the car."

Dean snapped back to reality and beelined for the back hall and then basement. He couldn't face Lorelai at the moment. Had Rory cleared her throat? Had Rory SEEN him staring at her mother's ass? That wouldn't be good.

After Lorelai settled into the passenger seat, Rory cut the engine and turned to her mom.

"Mom? Is it strange having Dean work at the inn? I mean, we're friends, and you two are friends too, and, well, it's normal, right?"

Why is she asking this?

"Why are you asking me that? Of course it's normal. Dean and I make jokes, talk tool belt upgrades, it's a laugh riot."

"Well, I don't know if I should tell you this, because it might make things weird, and maybe it wasn't anything, but just now, when you were on the ladder arranging books, I swear I caught Dean staring at your butt, oblivious to everything else around him."

Hm. Lorelai thought she felt it too. She wasn't crazy. Well, not in the classical sense.

"Rory, it's nothing. Sometimes boys check out women's butts, and um,"

"No mom, he wasn't a 'boy' checking you out. I saw a man staring at a woman with the intensity of, of…"

Taylor knocked on Lorelai's window.

"Lorelai, you haven't taken care of the parking permits yet and I thought you were opening officially next weekend. There may not be enough time to procure the proper permits and you are going to have some trouble on your hands missy."

"Yes Taylor, I have it under control. Thank you for personally informing me of the tardiness of my application. It's good. BYE!"

Rory started the car and drove away to avoid further discussion with Taylor, and honestly, to break out of the uncomfortable conversation they were having prior to his interruption.