Anger suddenly flamed through Luke, encompassing his thoughts, essentially burning through any self-control he may have once had at his disposal. He snatched up the vendor receipts scattered across the desk, stormed through his apartment, crashed open the door, and stomped down the stairs. The curtain hanging in the doorway to the dining room knew better than to impede him. Diners meekly hunched over their meals as he passed by, giving him plenty of room. Nothing and no one dared to stand between him and his goal of the kitchen.

"Larry!" he thundered as soon as he crossed the doorway, shaking the receipts at the man. "What in the hell did you think you were doing!?"

Larry glanced up from a pot he was scouring, looking blank. "What've you got there, Luke?"

"The receipt you signed for our bread delivery today, that's what!" Luke snapped, moving close enough to push the piece of paper in front of Larry's face. "Remind me how long you've worked here? And you seriously thought we used more bread than hamburger buns? Are you that stupid or just completely unobservant?"

Larry calmly set down the pot, wiped his hands on the towel tucked into his apron, then reached for the reading glasses hidden in his shirt pocket. He peered at the paper shoved under his nose. "Oh yeah," he said slowly. "We couldn't tell what you had written there."

Luke's mouth gaped open in disbelief for a moment. "You couldn't tell? What do you mean you couldn't tell? I've had the same order every single week for the past year! Ted didn't know that?"

"Ted wasn't running the route this morning. Guess he's on vacation. Went down to Hilton Head for a week, the temp guy said. You ever been there? Sounds nice this time of year, don't you think? I heard the fishing's good –"

"For cryin' out loud, Larry! I don't care about Hilton Head!" Luke exploded. "What am I supposed to do in another day, when we've run out of hamburger buns?"

Larry put his glasses away, studying Luke. "Well…we've got plenty of bread."

"You think people are going to want to eat hamburgers on two pieces of bread?" Luke sneered.

"Don't know why not. My mom used to feed us kids –"

"This isn't your mom's kitchen! This is a business, Larry, a business! Do you understand that?" Luke spun away, then turned back, tugging at his baseball cap in frustration. "I'm going to have to call the bakery and arrange for another delivery, which means we get dinged with a surcharge. I'm thinking I'll just take that surcharge right out of your paycheck for the week! Maybe that will help you remember the next time!"

"Lucas Harrison Danes!"

The authoritative female voice sent a chill down Luke's back. With trepidation, he turned to confirm who it was.

Mia was standing there, her rigid posture registering her displeasure. "Lucas, stop berating this poor man immediately," she insisted firmly.

"But Mia – you don't understand –"

"What don't I understand?" She looked at him in disappointment. "I understand that no employee deserves to be treated so poorly. Now, apologize to Larry and get yourself out in the dining room. I want a cup of tea." She turned on her heel and left the kitchen.

Luke glared once more at Larry while pushing the receipts down into the back pocket of his jeans. "We're not done with this discussion," he warned.

Larry didn't seem to be too concerned about that. He shrugged and picked up the pot and the scrubber again.

Luke saw that Mia had seated herself at the table in front of the window. Resigned to being grilled, he grabbed two mugs and a small wicker basket filled with a selection of tea bags. Knowing what a stickler Mia was about her tea, he picked up the carafe filled with hot water and went over to join her.

"Sit," she told him decisively, pointing at the chair opposite her.

"For a minute," he grumbled.

She took a glance around the room. "If you have the time to yell at Larry like that, you certainly have time to sit down and have a chat with me."

Luke knew better than to argue. He sat down impatiently, drumming his fingers on the tabletop while waiting for Mia to decide which flavor of tea she wanted.

"Now." Mia freed the bag of Earl Grey from the paper packet and placed it into her mug. She looked levelly over at Luke while he poured the steaming water over the tea bag. "This week and the one before have been pretty hard on you, haven't they?"

Luke shrugged, grabbing a tea bag for himself. "It's been fine."

"I don't live in a vacuum, dear. I've heard about everything."

"Nothing to hear," Luke said sulkily, wanting the discussion to end.

Mia sighed. "Why don't you let me take care of Rory for the few days left until Lorelai comes home? You could certainly use the break."

"No," he said brusquely, sitting up straight. "There's no reason for that. Rory and I are doing just fine."

Mia looked at him with pity. "Sweetheart, you've done a marvelous job so far. But let me help now. I think two trips to the principal's office are enough, don't you?" Her eyes, no longer judgmental, started to twinkle at him.

Luke groaned, rubbing tiredly at his face. "I don't – It wasn't – She didn't mean…" He looked helplessly over at Mia, who was now trying mightily not to laugh out loud. "It's not funny," he insisted.

"Oh, I think it's a little funny," Mia observed, her eyes still gleaming, a smile tugging at her mouth. She then gave herself a shake and tried to appear sympathetic. "So what went wrong first, the water heater?"

"Yeah." He leaned back in the chair, shaking his head. "Lorelai got on the road Sunday afternoon with no problems, even though we had to practically force her into the car because she was clinging to Rory so hard. But finally she left, and she called home before Rory went to bed, to let us know she'd gotten there and was settled in OK. Everything was fine. Rory got to bed at a decent time, her homework was done. No snags at all."

"But then?" Mia prompted.

"Monday morning, I got Rory up, again without a hitch. She ran upstairs to hop in the shower. Next thing I knew, she was shrieking bloody murder. By the time I got back upstairs she was jumping up and down out in the hall, half wet, clutching a towel around her, screeching that there was no hot water. So then I ran down to the basement, where I was met with 2 inches of standing water all over the floor."

Mia made some sympathetic clucking noises of dismay.

"The water heater was shot and the drain in the floor was plugged. All I could do was get the drain cleared and make sure everything was shut down. I had Rory grab her stuff for the day and we headed over here, so she could get ready for school up in my place."

"What a way to start a Monday morning."

"Any morning, for that matter." Luke passed a hand over his tired, scratchy eyes. "I sent Rory upstairs while I helped work on breakfast prep. It set us back, but she left for school only a few minutes late. After the breakfast rush, I went back over to the house to assess the damage more. Thankfully most of the water had drained away. I called around to find a new water heater, and the best I could do was an installation date of Wednesday. Then I hauled all of the wet stuff outside, to let it dry out. Luckily Morey had a wet vac, so I could suck up the rest of the water in the basement. I took over some fans that night, too, to dry it out more."

"What a mess." Mia shook her head before sipping her tea.

"Yeah." Luke sighed. "I hated to tell Lorelai, but she needed to know. So when she called that night, I broke the news." He straightened up, looking at Mia in bafflement. "I have to tell you, she never ceases to amaze me."

Mia seemed to be stifling another smile. "Why's that?"

Luke shrugged. "I figured she'd be all torn up about losing the boxes of stuff down in the basement, but she was mostly unconcerned. She said they hadn't stored much down in the basement, that most of the things down there were from the people who used to live in the house." He pointed a finger at Mia. "Who were these people, anyway? Didn't they move anything out of their house when they sold it?"

"It was the Gilberts, remember? Laura and Nate? Lorelai laughed about that when she was looking at the house. She said it was an omen that she was meant to live there, because their names were so similar." Mia moved her tea mug from side to side, dredging up the memories. "They were moving to a nursing home, and their kids were overwhelmed with emptying everything out of the house. Lorelai finally just told them to leave anything they didn't know what to do with, that she'd deal with it all later."

Luke snorted a dismissive laugh. "And later never came."

Mia chuckled. "Sometimes later never does come."

"Anyway, Lorelai told me to just pitch everything, not to worry about salvaging anything. And she said –" he chuckled now, recalling their conversation – "that she hoped the flood had washed all of the creepy spiders out of the basement."

"She is not fond of spiders."

"Nope, not at all." Luke took a moment to reflect, then continued on with the story. "Rory and I muddled through until the new water heater came. We left earlier in the mornings, to get Rory here with plenty of time to get ready for school. But by Thursday morning, even though we had hot water at the house again, laundry was piled up. And you know how much Rory's grown, so she'd run out of clean things to wear. She thought it'd be OK to borrow some stuff from her mom's room."

"Ah," Mia observed, somberly looking at him from over the tea mug.

"I didn't think it was a big deal. I mean, I saw her, you know!" He began to sound defensive. "She had on a brown sweater and I could just see the neckline of a green t-shirt underneath it. And – you know Rory! I assumed whatever she'd pick out to wear would be completely acceptable."

"That's understandable, of course."

"But then…" Luke sighed, twisting in his seat. "She got hot later in the afternoon and took the sweater off."

"And underneath was…?"

He groaned, rubbing his eyes again. "All of these chipmunks and squirrels and deer and rabbits looking at each other sort of…suggestively, and the words 'Innkeepers Do It Inside.'"

Mia bit down on her lips for a moment, trying hard not to laugh. "I remember that shirt," she said, when she'd regained control. "A former concierge gave it to Lorelai one Christmas as a joke. Rory was quite taken with it because she thought the animals were so cute." She cleared her throat. "Lorelai told her the 'it' referred to was work, of course." Her eyes twinkled at Luke again.

"Right," he sighed.

"But I guess the school didn't think it was so cute."

"No, they did not."

"And they called you in?"

"Summoned, more like it."

"But they surely understood?"

"Eventually, mainly because the assistant principal knew Rory and knew what a good student she is; knew what a good kid she is. What she didn't understand was who I was and why Rory was in my care." Luke leaned wearily back in his chair. "That was undoubtedly the longest, scariest twenty minutes of my life, while I tripped all over myself, trying to explain the situation."

"But you did, I trust."

"Well, she didn't call Child Protective Services, so yeah, I guess I finally got her to understand."

"All to the good, then," Mia said briskly. "Thus ended week one?"

"Pretty much," Luke agreed. "We sailed through the weekend. Got the laundry caught up and I cleaned up the basement some more. Lorelai sounded more and more relaxed every time she called us, even though she was homesick and missing Rory. I thought we were home free. Until Sunday night," he said ominously.

"What then?" Mia asked.

"We were just sitting down to dinner, when Rory got a funny look on her face. She ran to her bookbag and pulled out some papers. I thought she was getting sick again, she looked so pale."

"What was wrong?"

Luke hunched over the table, groaning once again. "Because of all of the time she missed when she had the chicken pox, she wasn't there when a social studies project was assigned. She knew it was coming up but she'd never added it to that weekly planner-notebook thing all of the kids have to carry around. Turns out it was due the next day, on Monday. And she hadn't even started on it."

"Oh dear."

"Yeah." Luke looked longingly at the flat surface of the table; briefly thought about lying his head down on it and closing his eyes…if only for a minute…

He shook the cobwebs out of his brain and continued. "We ditched dinner and ran to the library. It was open for another hour, and the librarian – a Rory fan, obviously – helped her to find some books and even let us stay a few minutes past closing to use the copy machine. Then we stopped by Doose's and grabbed a piece of poster board and some markers. Then we came home and ate our reheated dinner while Rory started on her project."

"That doesn't sound too terrible," Mia said, trying to be supportive.

Luke gave her a dirty look. "Right," he said sarcastically. "Have you met Rory, Miss Perfectionist?"

"Oh." Mia grinned in understanding. "Long night, was it, before she was satisfied?"

"If I never see another 3x5 card again…" Luke muttered.

"But she got it done?"

"Yes, but it was way past midnight before she would agree to stop and go to bed." He looked at Mia, pleading with his eyes for understanding. "I knew she needed to get to sleep, but it meant so much to her…and she's such a good kid, you know? She wanted to stay up to do homework, for God's sake!"

"Rory is a dedicated scholar, that is certainly true."

"And even after I got her in bed, she was so wound up, she couldn't sleep."

"I remember those sleepless nights with my boys, usually before a big test, or the night before a school trip they were looking forward to."

"I kept hearing her get up, to make sure she hadn't forgotten something else, so I kept going downstairs to check on her."

"So you got very little sleep, too."

Without thinking, Luke almost confessed that he'd barely slept any of the nights he'd been staying in Lorelai's bed – but he caught himself just in time. Mia didn't need to hear what being covered in Lorelai's floral sheets did to him, or about the very adult thoughts that raced through his head while he was lying in wide-eyed wakefulness on her pillow, or what dark torment the pervasive scent of her perfume caused him. Those were secrets best kept to himself.

"Not much shut-eye," he admitted instead. "That was a slow-moving Monday morning for both of us. I ended up driving Rory to school, partly because we were running so late, and partly because she had the poster board to carry. She got marked tardy, so that upset her, too."

"Poor thing."

"But…she got through her presentation. Got through most of the day. But later, in the afternoon…" He faded off, reliving the nightmare that had been Monday.

"Another summons to the principal's office?"

He nodded. "She fell asleep during English class, and was so belligerent when the teacher woke her up…" Luke sighed deeply. "The teacher was concerned enough to send her to the counselor, and then the rest of the administration got involved…" He trailed off again.

Mia made a vague gesture upwards towards his face. "Was that the same day that happened?"

He rubbed a fingertip over a singed eyebrow. "The fire. Uh, yeah."

"What happened?" Mia asked with real concern.

"Nothing, really." Luke gazed off into the distance past Mia's shoulder. "I was waiting for some oil to get hot in a pan, and I guess I got…distracted, or something, and it flamed up on me. No big deal."

"Luke, you're missing most of one eyebrow," Mia pointed out. "In most circles, that is sort of a big deal, I would say."

"How can you say that? You've never been in a kitchen with Sookie?"

"Well…point taken," Mia conceded.

"Anyway, Larry came running with the lid to the pan and smothered the flames, and it was all over in a minute. Nothing to get upset about." Again, Luke saw no need to tell her that he knew exactly why the oil had caught fire. He'd fallen asleep. He'd been so exhausted he'd literally fallen asleep on his feet, nodding off in front of the stove.

"Larry saved you? My, my. Is that the same Larry you were raking over the coals when I got here?"

Luke grimaced. "Two completely different situations, Mia. Look, I doubt that you'd like it much if I came over to the Inn and told you how to supervise your employees."

"There's supervision and then there's Attila the Hun, and frankly Luke, what I've been hearing about you and your outbursts makes you sound like the latter." Mia shook her head. "People are scared to come in here and eat, for fear you're going to eviscerate them."

"It's not that bad," he disputed, waving a hand at the half-dozen people currently sitting in the diner.

"It's not that good either." Mia briefly glanced down at her tea. "You're tired, Luke, and you're cranky. It's hard being the one totally responsible for a child and a household. Actually, you're responsible for a child, two households, and a business." She looked at him with maternal fondness. "You're entitled to a break, to get yourself back to normal. Let me take Rory for the rest of the time remaining. You know I'd love having her."

"Why are you –?" He glared at her suspiciously. "Has Rory said something? Is she sick of me taking care of her? Did Lorelai call and ask you to step in? Does she think I can't do it?"

"Oh, darling, of course not!" Mia patted his hand soothingly. "Nothing of the sort! I can see that you're just about at the end of your rope, and I want to help, that's all."

Luke pulled the hat from his head and laid it on the table, smoothing back his ruffled hair before he spoke. "This is really important to me, Mia. I promised Lorelai I'd take care of Rory. I know there have been some bumps, but we've gotten past them. As for the things that went wrong, it wouldn't have made any difference if…" He stopped and reconsidered. "Well, maybe Lorelai would have caught the t-shirt. And maybe she has a system in place to check on homework assignments, but I doubt it. And the water heater – I'm glad I was there for that. I'm glad Lorelai didn't have to try and do that on her own. I've told Lorelai over and over that she can depend on me to take care of Rory and I want to prove that's true." He placed his hands flat on the table, ready to plead his case. "It's Wednesday, almost time for Rory to get out of school, so that means it's almost Thursday, and then there's only Friday and the weekend, and then Lorelai comes home. I can do this, Mia, I can. I don't want to step away and give up when I'm this close."

Mia studied him closely, then laughed to herself. "You are just as stubborn now as you were as a toddler, you know." She pursed her lips. "Just as cranky, too."

Luke smiled. "That's part of my charm, or so I've been told."

"I doubt anyone thinks that aspect of your personality is charming."

He smiled again and nodded, but then grew grave again. "You'll let Rory stay with me?"

"There was never any question of letting her stay," Mia corrected. "I just wanted to offer my help if you needed it, that's all."

"We're fine," Luke stated.

"Then my mission has been accomplished." Mia stood up, brushing nonexistent crumbs from her skirt. "What do I owe you?"

Luke stood up too. "You know your money's no good here."

"It's a wonder you're not bankrupt." Mia stepped closer to hug him goodbye. "Call me if you need me. You will, won't you?"

"Of course I will." Luke walked with her over to the exit. "Thanks for coming by to check on me, even though you didn't need to."

"Be nicer to everyone, or I'll be back," she warned him, then stepped out of the door.

Luke watched her walk across the street to her car before he turned and wearily headed back to the kitchen. His ire had been dampened, but he still felt the compulsion to continue the earlier discussion with Larry.

The drainboard was full of gleaming pots and pans, showing what Larry had accomplished while he had talked to Mia.

"Hey," Luke said gruffly, leaning against the counter. "You understand what went wrong this morning, right?"

"Sure." Larry was running a soapy sponge over the counter by the sink. "You didn't write out the numbers plain enough."

"That's not…No!" Luke yelled, already out of patience. "The point is, you should have known how much bread we use here! Larry, I've got to be able to depend on you. If I trust you to work here, you need to pay attention to the details!"

Larry threw the sponge into the sink, then stood for a moment, his back to Luke, his hands on his hips. Finally he turned to look at Luke. "Are you firing me?"

"No! I –"Once again, Luke could barely find the words to express his irritation. "Of course I'm not firing you! But I need you to be more careful if you're in charge. You need to think more about what you're doing and what's happening a day or two down the line. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to work here, but you have to pay attention!"

Larry thought that over. "OK, I can do that. But you maybe need to give better instructions, too."

Luke choked down what he wanted to say. "I'll do my best," he said mockingly.

"OK." Larry fished the sponge out of the sink.

"I'm going to go up and clean up some stuff on my desk, then I'll be back to start dinner prep," Luke told him, ready to head for the door.

Larry turned away, mumbling something as he did so.

"What was that?" Luke asked sharply, still not ready to let him off the hook completely.

"I said I'll be glad when Lorelai gets back," Larry staunchly repeated.

"Why? Because you and the rest of this town think I can't handle Rory on my own?" Luke demanded.

"Nah, it's not that. It's just that the only time you're really happy is when Lorelai is around."

The unexpected insight abruptly cut off Luke's grumpy complaints. He blinked at Larry several times, wanting to dispute him mostly out of spite, but the truth of that bare statement resonated inside of him.

"I'm happy other times," he weakly asserted.

"Not like when she's here." Larry looked at him guilelessly. "You sort of light up when she's around."

Luke choked. He wasn't going to discuss whether or not Lorelai lit him up. He waved a hand dismissively at Larry. "Get back to work," he muttered.

For the rest of the day, Larry's words kept coming back to swirl around his head. Finally he wasn't hearing the words so much as he was picturing Lorelai with that soft smile of delight she favored when he'd done something to please her. His heart gave a sudden sharp pang, the way his stomach might do if it was empty.

That was the moment when he realized just how much he was missing her, and that he needed to just give up and accept Larry's wisdom. That was when he finally understood that these past two weeks hadn't been hard because of all of the stuff that had gone wrong. They had only been hard because she wasn't here.

The remainder of the week passed by in a contented blur as he tried to accept the idea that he could be happy all the time.

He could be happy all the time.

What an amazing thought.

There was maybe another hour before Rory needed to get ready for bed on Saturday night. Her homework was done and she'd already changed into her pajamas. She'd been reading, but now she was sitting beside him on the couch, ready to relax with whatever old rerun Nick at Nite was showing.

Luke stopped her thumb on the remote before she could power on the set. "There's something I'd like to talk to you about before you head off to join Samantha Stevens."

"Am I in trouble again?"

"I don't know. Are you?" He looked at her suspiciously. "I didn't get summoned to the principal's office again, so I thought we were home free."

Rory shrugged. "No notes in my backpack, no calls home…Yeah, I think I'm good."

"Great." Then he stopped, unsure of how to continue. Rory looked at him curiously.

"The thing is…" He stopped again. "Do you remember, that night you broke out with the chicken pox?"

Rory grimaced. "I won't forget that for a long time."

Luke nodded nervously. "Well, that night you asked me some questions, about me and your mom, and why your mom was dating Jeremy."

"Yeah…" Rory said warily.

"And one of the things you said…" Luke took a deep breath, prepared to power through this. "You said you thought that if your mom would date anyone, it'd be me."

"Right." Rory nodded, seeming more confident now.

"So that made me think, that if your mom and I would ever date, you wouldn't be opposed to it."

Rory's eyes got bigger. "Of course not."

"Because your mom, that's one of the things she was worried about, that you might not like it if we were to start dating."

"Wait." Rory turned sideways on the couch, pulling her right leg up on the cushion, so she could see him straight on. "Are you saying that this is something you and Mom have actually talked about?"

"Yeah," Luke said as nonchalantly as possible, trying to bluff his way through the difficult conversation. "It's come up a couple of times." He tried to stop drumming his fingers on his kneecap and glanced at Rory. "You wouldn't object to it, though?"

"No, that would be fantastic!"

He exhaled in relief. "Good. That's good."

Rory started to bounce on her side of the couch and the motion transferred through the cushions to him. "Are you guys going to date?"

He reached over and put his hands on her knees to still her bouncing. "I need to talk to her first, make sure that we're still on the same page about it. You won't say anything to her before I do, will you?"

Rory looked offended. "No," she said, pouting. "You know I wouldn't do that."

"You tell your mom everything."

"Yeah, but this is like a surprise. I wouldn't spoil a surprise!"

Luke had to swallow a lump out of his throat, because at that moment Rory more than ever seemed to be teetering between childhood and maturity. Her girlish pajamas were printed with rubber duckies and her no-nonsense hair swung sweetly her shoulders, but the affronted expression on her face and the sharp way her eyes were upbraiding him made her appear much more grown up.

"I know you wouldn't," he quietly agreed.

"But you are going to talk about it?"

"As soon as she gets home tomorrow. That's my plan, anyway."

"Good plan," Rory grinned.

"Now we'll see if she feels the same way," he hedged, letting his insecurity out.

"She will."

"What makes you so sure?"

"She likes you, Luke. Really likes you. I know she does," Rory summed up seriously. "Women can tell that sort of stuff about each other."

He fought down a smile. "I hope you're right." He reached for the remote to turn on the TV for her.

This time Rory stopped him. "Um, that night, you talked about Rachel. You said you couldn't date Mom because you were still waiting for Rachel. Did you change your mind?"

He thought about the things he wanted, and the things he thought he should want, and the way those opposing wants had been fighting it out in his brain for months.

"Mia came to see me in the diner a couple of days ago," he said to Rory.

"She did?"

"Yeah. She just wanted to make sure we were doing OK."

"We're doing fine."

"That's what I told her," Luke confirmed. "And somewhere during our conversation, Mia told me I was stubborn."

Rory grinned again. "You are stubborn, Luke."

He nodded. "And somehow I think me waiting for Rachel…was just me being stubborn. I don't like change very much. If there's a plan, I think you need to stick to it. Somehow I focused so much on doing what I thought I was supposed to do that all the other possibilities passed me by."

"Like dating Mom."

"Yes, exactly." Luke thought over what he'd said so far. "But you know what? I'm tired of being stubborn. I'm tired of missing out on everything else because I feel obligated to something that happened in the past. I'm tired of believing that happiness is waiting for me somewhere down the line. I'm done with waiting. I want to be happy now."

Rory squealed and threw her arms around him. "That's the best news ever!" she declared. "Wait until Mom gets home and hears that!"

"It's damn time she hears that," Luke thought to himself.

Rory was bouncing in delight again.

"OK, settle down," Luke cautioned her. "I don't want you getting all juiced up right before bed." He turned on the TV.

But Rory grabbed the remote and immediately turned it off. "You just told me a secret. Maybe…maybe I should tell you one, too," she suggested anxiously.

Luke groaned, squeezing shut his eyes. "No, no, no. What's happened? What else went wrong?"

"It's not like that." Rory soberly looked down at the rubber duckies printed on her pajama legs. "It's something else we talked about that night when I got the chicken pox."

"What?" Luke wondered, giving a slight shrug of his shoulders.

"When you were trying to explain to me about Rachel, you talked about my dad. You said I wouldn't want to replace my dad with somebody else, no matter how great they are, because he's always going to be my dad."

"Oh, yeah. Right. I remember."

"Well, I…I lied about that," Rory admitted in a small voice, her chin quivering. "I wish you were my dad all the time. I think all the time about how much better it would be, if you were really my dad instead."

Luke felt his eyes well up. He grabbed Rory and held her to him, pressing a kiss to the top of her head after a long, emotional moment.

"You know that's not what I'm trying to do, though, right?" he asked softly, once he felt sure he could speak without choking up.

Rory nodded her head against his chest.

"I never want to replace your dad. Do you believe me?" He gently put his hand under her chin and raised her face, so he could search her eyes.

After a moment she swallowed hard and nodded.

"But," he said, rubbing his knuckles over her cheek, "to be 100% honest, if I could somehow be your dad, I'd do it in a heartbeat."

Her sincere blue eyes stared back at him and came close to breaking his heart. "Except…you never could've been," she said sadly.

He looked at her questioningly, not quite sure what her point was.

She glanced down, her cheeks flushing. "I mean, because you never would've done what Dad did. And if…even if you did…" She looked back up, bravely meeting his eyes again. "You never would have left us."

Her words shocked him into paralysis. He hadn't realized until this moment that she knew the details of how she came to be. "I never would have left either of you," he agreed, when he could form words again, "that's for certain."

"So," Rory concluded, sighing dejectedly, "there's no way you could've ever really been my dad."

He folded her into his arms again. He held her tightly and dropped several more kisses onto her bubblegum-scented hair. "But I'm here now," he reminded her. "And I'm not leaving now, either."

"Promise?" The word was muffled against his shirt.

"Of course I promise." He moved away from her, giving them room to disentangle from each other. "Your mom comes home tomorrow, and we'll see what happens then."

"That's right!" Rory's smile lit up her face. "Mom's coming home tomorrow!"

"And…we'll talk."

"You'll talk!" Rory began to bounce on the couch again. "You'll talk, and of course she'll say yes, and then you'll date, and then –"

"Don't get too far ahead of yourself." Luke muttered the caution. He sat back against the couch, finally turning on the TV without interruption.

Rory settled herself up against him, ready to watch, but still partially bouncing. "Luke and Lorelai, sittin' in a tree, k-i-s-s –"

Luke groaned and turned the volume up higher, trying to drown out the annoying rhyme. But the smile on his face stayed.

"She's here!" Luke yelled. "Finally," he grumbled to himself, rushing to the front door.

"Yay!" Rory shrieked. Even though she'd been in her room, she managed to beat him to the door, flinging it wide open. "Mommy!" she squealed.

"Baby!" Lorelai ran up the steps, faster than Luke had ever seen her move, and grabbed Rory up in a bear hug. The girls then began sort of a hopping dance, holding onto each other, while communicating mostly through yelps and giggles.

"I'll go get the stuff out of the car," he said, leaving them to their reunion.

Lorelai caught his eye over Rory's head as he moved past. "Luke," she said simply, but there was something about the way she said it, in the gentle way she stretched out the single syllable of his name, that conveyed thankfulness, joy, and pleasure.

Or so he chose to believe.

Smiling, he nodded at her, and proceeded to the car.

By the time he entered the living room after his third and final trip, the girls were seated on the couch together. Lorelai still had her arms circled around Rory.

"Luke, this girl has grown a foot. Shame on you! How could you let that happen while I wasn't here?"

"Sorry. I tried to get her to drink coffee and eat junk, but she told me she wasn't old enough to drink coffee yet and kept insisting she wanted salads."

Lorelai gasped playfully and turned Rory's face towards hers. "Blasphemy! I leave town for two weeks and you completely undo all of my hard work with her!"

"Well, you're home now," he pointed out. "And by the way, what took you so long to get here? We were expecting you hours ago."

"Oh," she said calmly, "I got caught up in this huge wreck."

"What?" Luke had just sat down, but he instantly sprang back up. "What do you mean you were in a wreck? Are you OK?" Panicked, he forgot he'd been all around the car while retrieving her stuff and hadn't noticed any damage.

"No, no, I didn't mean like that!" She grinned up at him. "I mean there was a wreck somewhere on the interstate. Traffic was backed up for miles. When I finally inched up to an exit, I took it, but I didn't have any idea where I was. I ended up so turned around. Seriously, it was worse than our afternoon in the corn maze!"

Luke sat back down, his heartrate returning to normal. Their afternoon lost in the corn maze seemed like ancient history, but he loved knowing that they now shared a past, with memories to relive together.

"Anyway, I had to stop for directions – twice – and it took me forever to get back to the highway. Luckily by the time I did, traffic was flowing again. I never did see whatever had caused the problem." She smiled at him sweetly. "Sorry I worried you guys."

"We were just anxious to get you home," Luke said gruffly.

"Ooh, presents!" Lorelai suddenly cried. She leaped from the couch, nearly upending Rory, and dove for some plastic bags piled on the floor by her suitcases.

"You brought us stuff?" Rory asked, delighted.

"Of course I did. You don't go on a trip and not bring home loot for the kiddies. That's one of the only things I learned from my father." She placed a large bag in Rory's lap, then tossed a smaller one to Luke.

Rory eagerly stuck her hand into the bag, pulling out pens, notepads, and a small stuffed animal wearing a Cornell T-shirt. "Cool!"

"What did you do, buy out the campus bookstore? " Luke guessed.

"Yep," Lorelai nodded. "They kept us so busy most of the time that I didn't have time to go anywhere else. My shopping options were limited."

"But I'm not going to Cornell," Rory reminded them.

"No, but they have cute stuff," Lorelai pointed out. "Luke, open yours."

He drew a gray t-shirt out of his bag. "You're kidding. You bought me a Cornell shirt? What do you think I'm going to do with it?"

"I don't know, but I remember you looked pretty hot in my old Harvard one." She was still smiling widely, happy to be home. "Maybe you can sleep in it. Or keep it in the truck as a backup for the next time you do sweaty home repairs."

He shook his head at her. But "Thanks," he said, and folded it back into the bag.

For the next fifteen or twenty minutes, Lorelai regaled them with tales of her classes, instructors, and fellow classmates. But when she ran out of steam, she completely crashed.

"Sorry," she mumbled, after yet another huge yawn.

Both Rory and Luke yawned too, catching her sleepiness.

Reluctantly, Luke got up. "I think I'll get out of your hair, let you girls get to bed."

"No!" Rory said sharply, giving him a look.

He gave her a look back, trying to convey that his agenda could wait one more day. He didn't want to overload Lorelai when she was dead on her feet. Their discussion could wait until the morning.

"Fine," Rory said, although her capitulation came with a pout. She came over and gave him a hug. "See you tomorrow, then."

He gave her one of the little kisses he'd been lately bestowing to the top of her head. He looked up to see Lorelai staring at him.

"I'll walk you to the door," she said.

Once there, she put her hand on his arm and drew in a big breath. "Luke, I can't thank you enough for doing this for me. I don't think anyone has ever come close to being this generous to me – well, except Mia, of course. Seriously, I don't know how I can ever repay you."

"It was no big deal."

Lorelai laughed. "Uh, yeah, it was! And I want you to know, the reason I was able to do so well in the class was because I knew you were here with Rory. You have no idea what a comfort that was to me."

Luke tried to shrug off her gratitude. "It was all my pleasure. I loved every minute of it."

"Including the flooded basement, I'm sure?"

"Now that it's over, it's fine." He smiled back at her. "You'll be in the diner in the morning, right? There are – We should –"He took a breath. "I need to talk to you about some things."

"Sure. You have to know how much I've missed your coffee. I might even beat Kirk to the door in the morning."

"OK, I'll see you then." He lightly looped his right arm around her neck and started to draw her to him.

Her eyes opened wide and she resisted his effort, looking at him strangely, which was what made him realize he was attempting to kiss her. In his head, they'd had the talk and were already to the kissing stage. He'd completely forgotten that Lorelai was still in the dark. Since he was already too far into the embrace to abort it entirely, he leaned over and gave a kiss to her forehead, pretending that was what he'd planned all along.

"Welcome home," he told her softly. "I'm glad you're back."

She was still looking at him a little oddly. "You've got your stuff?"

"Yep." He shook the bag with the T-shirt at her. "Everything else is already in the truck."

"OK, well, thanks again. And be on guard. I'll think of some way to pay you back for all of this." She tugged affectionately on his arm. "I bet you'll be glad to get back to your own bed. Hey, was it weird sleeping in mine?"

"You have no idea," he muttered, stepping out of the door.

"See you in the morning!" she called after him.

"First thing," he replied, reminding them both.

Being back in his own space, sleeping in his own bed, was amazing. Luke had expected to do a fair amount of tossing and turning, anxious for the morning and Lorelai, but his exhaustion wouldn't allow it. The alarm woke him in the morning from a sound sleep.

He showered and shaved and dressed carefully. He put on the chambray shirt that had once made her drop a cookie sheet. He thought it was important to look as good as he possibly could for one of the most anticipated mornings of his life.

Luke tried to watch out the diner windows, but he really couldn't devote much time to staring down the street during the busy breakfast hour. So of course he was in the kitchen when they finally walked in. He spotted Rory at the counter when he was walking the Rabbi's breakfast over to him.

He dropped off the pancakes in record time before dashing back to the counter. Then he realized there was only one Gilmore girl in view.

"Where's your mom?"

"Sick," Rory replied.

"No!" he yelped, distraught. He couldn't believe it.

"I told you to talk to her last night."

"You didn't tell me, you glared at me."

"Same thing. You knew what I meant."

Luke sighed. "How sick is she?"

"She was up in the night with a bad headache, one of those that make you sick to your stomach. Mia told her to stay home and sleep today."

He rubbed his forehead. "Well…this'll keep, I guess, until she's better. " He absentmindedly patted Rory's arm and headed back to the kitchen.

"Luke!" she called after him.

"What?"

She indicated the empty space in front of her. "Don't I get breakfast?"

"Oh, yeah, sure. What do you want?" He came back to stand beside her, but only half listened to what she told him. It was probably no surprise that he brought her pancakes instead of scrambled eggs.

And Rory, to her credit, ate them without complaint.

Luke managed to keep focused during the morning. He persevered through the lunch rush and waited on the few stragglers who came after. But there came a time when he couldn't keep his mind off of Lorelai any longer. He was so anxious to see her; so anxious to get things settled between them that his nerves simply couldn't take any more delay.

He was alone in the diner for a few hours, so he made a quick sign stating that he'd be back by three – in time to meet Rory after school – and locked the place up. Head down, thinking over what he needed to say, he walked towards the Crapshack.

The only time he hesitated was after he'd climbed the porch steps. With his hand on the front door, he pondered how best to enter the house. If Lorelai was asleep, trying to fight off her headache, he didn't want to wake her by knocking. On the other hand, if she was just resting on the couch, he really wanted to begin their discussion.

In the end, expediency won out. He used his key and noiselessly let himself into the house.

Downstairs was quiet and still. Lorelai was apparently in her room. Telling himself it was perfectly OK to go up to check on her, he carefully crept upwards.

The door to her room was ajar. He held his breath and pushed it open far enough to see her asleep in the bed that had tormented him, her wayward curls spread out over the pillow that had offered no rest to him.

Lured by the sight of her, he tiptoed into the room, coming to stand by the bed, content to watch her sleep.

He was quiet, barely breathing even. But his looming presence was apparently enough to disturb Lorelai. A crease formed between her eyebrows and the next thing he knew, she was sitting up in bed, screaming.

"Hey, hey – it's just me! It's OK!" He tried to calm her, grabbing at her flailing arms.

"Luke?! What are you doing here?" She had one hand on his chest, keeping him at bay, and the other was trying to hold her hair out of her face. "Did you forget this isn't actually your room?"

"I just wanted to check on you –"

She suddenly squeaked, her eyes went wide, and she dove under the covers. "I don't want you to see me like this!"

"What's the big deal? I've seen you in your pajamas before."

"Not like this you haven't!"

His memory replayed what he'd seen but not fully comprehended a few moments earlier: bare shoulders, with thin little straps leading down to something lacy and silky over her chest.

He cleared his throat. "Um…"

"Not to mention I haven't even picked up a hairbrush today, and I don't have on a lick of makeup," she continued to gripe from under the covers.

"I think you look adorable without makeup," he offered, trying to be conciliatory. "I can see your freckles that way."

She pulled down the sheet enough so that one snapping blue eye could glare at him. "Why are you here?"

"Rory told me you were sick. I just wanted to see if you needed anything."

"I'm fine," she said automatically. Then she put a hand up to the top of her head and felt around experimentally. "Yeah, not bad. My head no longer feels like it's ready to split open. I won't know if my stomach's settled down or not until I try to get up."

"You want some aspirin? Glass of water?"

"No." She peeled the sheet down a little further, looked at him less ferociously. "Tell you what, grab that hoodie hanging on the bedpost for me."

Luke handed it to her. She struggled into it under the covers, then cautiously sat up, her back resting against the headboard. She shielded her eyes from the light with her hands for a few moments, then used them to try and tame her hair.

"OK," she said with a sigh. "So far, so good."

Taking a chance – and wanting to be closer to her – Luke perched on the edge of the bed. "Sure I can't get anything for you?"

"No, let me just sit and assess for a minute or two."

"OK." Luke bobbed his head more times than what was necessary. Once he got the bobbing under control, his leg started to bounce nervously.

Lorelai looked at him piercingly. "Are you OK?"

"Me? Sure, I'm great."

She looked him over again. "What happened to your eyebrow?"

He ducked his head. "That's a story for another day."

"Did something more go wrong while I was gone? Is there something terrible you need to tell me? Because even last night, it sort of seemed like there was something else on your mind."

Luke pulled a face, then chuckled a little bit. "Busted," he admitted, shaking his head.

"Ugh." Lorelai leaned forward, putting her hands on his knees. "Give it to me straight. What else went wrong? And more importantly, how much is it going to cost me to fix it?"

"No, no, it's not like that. I just need to talk to you. To tell you something."

Lorelai still looked apprehensive. "OK, so tell me."

He licked his lips and then took a big breath, figuring that once he got started, he was going to need some extra air. He put his hands over hers, which were still resting on his knees. "The main thing is…I know the answer now."

Her eyes flicked over his face. "You know the answer now?" she patiently repeated.

"Yes," he confirmed, nodding.

She nodded too. "Forty-two?" she suggested.

"I…What?" He frowned at her, distracted by her response.

"Forty-two," she said again. "You know, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy? The ultimate answer to everything?" She gave him a teasing look from under her lashes. "That's not it, huh?"

"No, that's not it," he said, trying not to let his impatience show.

"Then you'd better tell me what it is," she said calmly.

Luke tightened his fingers over hers. "On Christmas Eve, you asked me what I'd tell Rachel if she came back after you and I got involved." He heard Lorelai take in a sharp breath. She pulled her fingers out of his grip, but he kept on talking. "And I know now what I'd say to her. I'd say, 'Rachel, I'm glad you're home, but I'm with somebody else now, and I'm…happy. Really, completely happy.'"

Lorelai had shrunk back against the headboard, staring at him.

"I'd tell her that I'd found somebody who wants the same thing out of life that I do. Somebody who thinks living in Stars Hollow and raising a family here is something to celebrate; it doesn't mean you've failed. I'd tell her that I've found what I want." He took another of those big breaths of air, ready to go for broke. "And what I want is you. A life with you."

"Luke," she said, weakly.

"Wait. There's more."

"More," she said, sounding close to hysteria.

"Yes," he said, seriously. He reached forward and captured her hands again. "You worried that what I really wanted was a home. That the house and Rory was the big draw for me, and you were just an afterthought. Well, I ruled the house for two weeks. I was responsible for Rory for two weeks. If that was my fantasy, I got to live it out, and guess what? It wasn't enough."

"No?"

"No. I missed you. I missed you so much. So much, Lorelai." He dropped one of her hands so he could cradle her cheek. "Nothing felt right while you were gone. There was this big empty spot in my life. And I saw how much I need you to fill it up. That's what you've been doing for months now, filling up that emptiness. And this house? It isn't a home without you. It's you, Lorelai. Not the house, not even Rory. It's you that's the most important part."

She continued to stare at him. "I feel…speechless, I guess. What do you what me to say here, Luke?"

"You don't have to say anything right now. But I hope that eventually you'll say that you still want a relationship with me. I hope I haven't waited too long. I hope that you still…you know, like me."

She gave out an abrupt laugh that sounded like it could have easily turned into a sob. "Of course I still like you!"

"Then –"

Lorelai interrupted him. "But I don't know, Luke. This seems like such a hasty turnaround for you. Maybe…maybe you were just lonely, or –"

"No," he said firmly. "Or rather, yes. I was lonely, but lonely in a way that I'd never felt before. You know, Rachel would leave and I'd miss her, but my life went on pretty normally after she'd go. But when you were gone, it was completely different. You're in every single part of my life, so when you were gone…every part of my life felt empty."

They stared at each other for a few moments, both recognizing the hope blooming in each other's eyes.

Lorelai looked down, worrying her fingers together. "You were going to kiss me last night." She stated it as a fact.

"Yeah, I was." Luke chuckled wryly, then tapped at his head. "I've been living with this all up in here for days. I forgot for a minute that you hadn't been around for any of it."

She smiled wanly. She started to speak, stopped, then tried again. "The main thing, Luke…I want you to be sure."

"I am sure. There isn't a doubt in my mind. And you know how I am. Once I make my mind up about something, it's not changing."

"Yeah, I do know that," Lorelai murmured. "That's sort of what worries me." She rubbed her fingertips over her forehead, suddenly looking wan and exhausted.

"Achy again?" Luke asked, concerned.

"Mm, a little, yeah."

"Then rest." He got up off the bed. "Go back to sleep."

She slid down in the bed and Luke pulled the covers up over her. "Do you want me to bring you something to eat later?"

"Ha, are you kidding? Did you see all of the food in the refrigerator? You've probably put it into appliance shock."

Luke squeezed her shoulder under the blanket. "I'll see you in the morning, right? You think you'll feel like going to work?"

"Yeah, I think the headache came on because I was just so tired, and driving all day yesterday was such a strain."

"Rest then," he told her gently.

"Luke." She grabbed his hand before he could straighten up. "You know I'm not saying no, right? I just need time to adjust to this change of attitude of yours. I need time to…" She studied his eyes. "I need time to believe this."

"I get that." He bent over and kissed her forehead again. "Don't worry about Rory. I'll make sure she gets home from school OK. Just sleep tight for now."

"Fat chance of that," Lorelai grumbled. "My pillow smells like you."

Luke laughed. "Right back at'cha," he commiserated, his tone affectionate, as he headed for the door. "I'll have the coffee ready for you in the morning," he promised.

"You'd better," she said. Her eyes were closed, but there was a big smile on her mouth.

Feeling good about what they'd said, and with his spirits rising, Luke left the house.

Tuesday morning was a repeat of Monday. Luke got up, showered, shaved yet again, picked out another nice shirt to wear. Once again he watched out the window for his girls as often as he could. And once again he missed their entrance.

He came out of the kitchen and stopped in surprise, seeing them seated at the counter.

Lorelai looked at him, her teeth nervously chewing on a corner of her bottom lip. Then she tilted her head, a blazing smile slowly lighting up her face. Her eyes sparkled at him. Her chin dipped down, giving him an almost imperceptible nod.

Luke sucked in some air, because he'd stopped breathing while he watched her. He pivoted, taking off the cover over the doughnuts. He snagged one, put it on a napkin, and laid it in front of Rory.

"Eat this to tide you over," he told the girl distractedly. "Because I need to talk to your mom for a minute." He rushed around the counter, grabbed Lorelai around her waist and lifted her off the stool. Keeping his arm tight around her, he hurried her across the room and back behind the curtain.

"Luke, what –"

He rested her back against the wall and then kissed her the way he'd thought about kissing her since the first day she'd stepped into the diner.

Lorelai seemed hesitant for the first few seconds, but soon melted into his embrace, her lips adding to the heat of this long-awaited kiss.

When Luke pulled away, he kissed her ear and the side of her face over and over while attempting to replenish his air supply.

She was breathless too, but trying to laugh. "Luke, what…What was that?"

He grabbed another kiss from her lips. "That was me saying good morning."

"That was good morning?"

"You bet." He dipped to her lips again. "That's how I plan to tell you good morning every day from now on."

She rubbed her face against his smooth cheeks, still chuckling. "What happens if I show up for lunch?"

"Then I tell you good afternoon," he promised huskily, stealing yet another kiss. "Wait until you see how I plan to tell you goodnight."

"Luke!" She playfully swatted at his chest, grinning broadly.

"What? You can say things like that, but I can't?"

"No, you can…It's just…unexpected."

"Then you'd better prepare yourself to expect the unexpected." He ducked down for another kiss, but this time she pulled back.

"Listen, Luke, you have to know I'm all for this. But I still can't believe that you've given up on Rachel. I understand that you think you'd turn her away if she was to come home, but I'm not so sure you would. She's been your dream girl for a long time."

"But not now," he insisted. "Not anymore."

"I don't ever want you to feel obligated to me, the way you've been to her for so long…But if we start and she comes back…I couldn't let you go. I'd fight. I'd fight to keep you, until…" Lorelai's eyes turned misty and her lips quivered. "Until I saw that you were still in love with her."

Luke cradled her hand, which was still resting against his chest, thinking over what to say. Finally he slowly shook his head. "There's no guarantee for me here, either, Lorelai."

"Guarantee about what?"

"Guarantee that you'd stick with me if Rory's dad would show up, full of promises and sweet words. Or maybe you'll decide to reconsider Jeremy down the road. Or maybe somebody else will catch your eye."

She pulled away from him abruptly, angry and offended. "I would not! How dare you think that I'm not serious about you!"

"But see, that's just what I mean." He put his hands gently on either side of her face, then lowered his forehead to meet hers. "You've got to trust me about how I feel about you, about how I feel about Rachel. Just the way I'll trust that your feelings about me are sincere. We've been…fairly intimate…in a lot of ways for almost a year now. Don't you think that we've both had ample time to make up our minds about how we really feel?"

She leaned against him, trembling from her strong emotions. "I'm not changing my mind," she whispered.

"Neither am I," he promised, pulling back enough so he could look her in the eye.

She blew out a shaky breath. "So…this is really happening?"

"Dear God, I hope so," he said fervently, making her laugh.

Lorelai watched as she wiped her thumb under his bottom lip, which made him tremble in a completely different way than how she'd been shivering a moment before.

"Unfortunately, I can't experience the afternoon greeting today," she told him. "I'm going to be stuck at work, trying to catch up."

"Hmm." He held her tightly, nuzzled his chin against her hair. "Too bad, I was really looking forward to lunch. Then how about if I bring dinner over to the house tonight?"

"That would be fantastic." She shifted in his arms slightly, just enough to put one hand against his face. "You gave Rory a doughnut to tide her over until breakfast. Can I have a couple of kisses to tide me over until tonight?"

"You bet," he said eagerly, and tried his best to fill up the anticipated afternoon deficit.

This time Luke didn't use his own key to enter the house, but that was only because his arms were loaded down with the bags containing their dinner. His hands were so full he couldn't even knock, so he rapped the heavy sole of his boot against the door instead.

He could hear the girls calling out inside, and soon the door opened, revealing Lorelai in all of her happy glory.

"Hi!" she chirped.

"Hi," he said mindlessly, totally mesmerized by her beauty.

"You're pretty," she cooed. His ego puffed up from her praise until he realized she was talking to the paper sacks containing the food. She stepped forward to take some of the bags from him. "You're not bad looking either," she whispered to him as she did so.

Rory was leaning against the staircase in the living room, watching him enter. "Hi Luke," she said, her eyes darting between him and Lorelai in fascination, waiting to see what they were going to do.

Luke looked over at Lorelai helplessly, wanting to kiss her, but not necessarily in front of Rory. With a jolt he understood that there were a lot of details about their relationship that he hadn't even begun to consider yet. He glanced uncertainly back at Rory.

Snickering under her breath, Lorelai took over. She walked over to him, put her free hand on his shoulder, and went up on her tiptoes to give him a swift kiss. "Hi," she said again.

"Hi," he mumbled, his eyes guiltily shifting over to Rory, who smugly grinned, then turned and went into the kitchen.

"It's fine," Lorelai assured him, taking his hand and leading him into the kitchen. "She's over the moon about us."

After that first little bit of awkwardness, the night shifted into their normal dinner routine. Luke complained – mostly good-naturedly – about the day's finicky diner patrons. Lorelai wove intricate stories about things that happened at the Inn, devoting ample time to Sookie's culinary mishaps and Michel's budding snootiness. Rory had plenty to say about the unfairness of Lane's mother, and the awesomeness of her homeroom teacher.

The only thing different about the evening was that Luke could now look at Lorelai in full appreciation, not holding back anything that he felt about her. And she flirted with him openly, laughing and twirling her hair, touching his arm often.

After they'd eaten, they switched into clean-up mode, with Lorelai washing, Rory drying, and Luke putting away. Rory had already completed her homework, so they all went into the living room and settled down onto the couch together, deciding to watch a movie until it was Rory's bedtime.

Lorelai leaned up against one side of him, Rory on the other. And Luke thought he'd never experienced such a warm, contented evening. After all, on one side of him was the girl he wished was his daughter, and on the other side was…his girl. That thought gave him quite a thrill.

The contentment only lasted for about fifteen minutes, though, because…on one side of him was Lorelai, soft and sexy and intriguingly scented, and on the other side was his impediment to exploring all of that softness and sexiness.

No, he scolded himself. Of course he didn't feel that way about Rory. He was happy to share this night with her. Glad to be so completely accepted into their family. He fervently hoped for many more nights just like this one in the years to come.

Except…Lorelai was snuggled up against him so tightly she might as well have been molded in place, and certain fascinating parts of her were pressed against him in a way that was almost impossible to ignore. He tried putting his arm around her shoulders, thinking maybe he could shift her position slightly and take his mind off of her nearness, but then she tucked her head down on his shoulder, and the exquisite feel of her silky hair against his cheek became almost a more maddening sensation to bear.

Some long minutes into the torment, she upped the ante by beginning to gently trace around his kneecap with her fingers. He grabbed her hand to put a stop to it and instead found the velvet underside of her wrist, upon which he then felt compelled to rub circles with his thumb.

Lorelai looked wildly over at him and he looked desperately at her, and he was instantly reminded of all of the cute little woodland creatures printed on the t-shirt Rory had gotten in trouble for wearing to school. He knew now just how those rabbits and deer and squirrels felt.

She closed her eyes for a moment and nodded, then scooted away to the end of the couch, allowing him the space he needed to be able to sit through the rest of the movie.

Not that he was actually paying any attention to the movie. The title, the plot, anyone starring in it – it was all just a jumble to him.

The moment the movie ended, Lorelai jumped up from the couch as if she'd been ejected from the cushions. "Bedtime!" she sang out to Rory.

Languidly, Rory got up and stretched. "Mm, yeah. That was a great movie." She looked down at Luke, who hadn't moved. "Are you leaving now?"

"I should, yeah. I should get home," he said awkwardly, but remained in place.

Lorelai stood in front of him, grabbed his hands, and pretended to haul him to his feet. "Rory, go get started for bed. I'm just going to walk Luke out."

Rory paused, grinning slyly at them. "Oh, is that what we're calling it?"

Lorelai fixed her daughter with a stern look. "That was an almost too-grown-up thing for you to say, Missy."

"Then you'd better make sure you don't stay out there too long and make me come look for you, if there are things you don't want me to know about yet."

"Bed," Lorelai said firmly, pointing.

Rory gave one more saucy grin. "See you tomorrow, Luke."

"'Night, Rory."

The girl sauntered off down the hall, and as soon as she was out of sight, Lorelai grabbed his hand again, pulling him out the door and around to the secluded side of the long porch.

This time it was her turn to press him against the wall and then anchor herself to him. Kisses started before his back was completely in contact with the house's old wooden siding. Soon it became apparent that both of them had used the hours between their morning kisses and now to plan for the next time they got their hands on each other.

It seemed to Luke that no matter how tightly he held Lorelai to him, he couldn't get her close enough. No matter how deeply or how many times he kissed her, his desire for her mouth wasn't satisfied. And although he might be feeling more of her smooth skin than he ever dared hope, he still wanted to stretch out his fingers to search for more.

He'd been on a starvation diet and now the perfect feast was before him. He could barely control himself, and Lorelai was doing nothing to encourage moderation. Her hands and lips and tongue were just as busy as his. It wasn't until Luke found himself thinking 'Sure, we're outside on the porch, but it's not like anyone can really see us over here' that he realized how close they were teetering to the danger zone.

"We need to stop," he implored in a husky voice, while at the same time Lorelai found enough breath to gasp out "Do you want to stay?"

"Geez, Lorelai." He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and buried his face in her hair, trying not to touch her anywhere else. "Don't tempt me."

"Right, right," she whispered, shifting her weight from one foot to the other, rocking herself in his arms. She pulled her head back enough to look at him, a frown on her face. "Um, remind me. Why can't you stay?"

"Because there's a little girl in the house."

"Oh…yeah. Right." She loosened a hand and held it up to just below her shoulder. "About this tall, right? Cute little nose? Killer blue eyes?"

In spite of being half-crazed with need, he smiled. "Yeah, that's the one."

"Right. I remember now." Lorelai smiled too, and put her hand against his cheek. "Her. Darn kid."

Luke fastened onto Lorelai's rocking motion to start them slowly rotating, making it into their own dance of deferred pleasure. "And besides, before anything like that happens, I want to take you on a real date. I want to take you to a really nice restaurant, go see a movie if you want to."

"You want to take me out before you take me?" she suggested cheekily.

He grinned. "Absolutely. Before we share that bed of yours, I'm taking you out." He leaned close to her ear. "Your bed drove me crazy."

She chuckled in understanding. "Why don't I see if I can find someplace for Rory to have a sleepover on Saturday?"

Luke stopped still. "This Saturday?"

"Too soon?"

"No! Just –" He collected himself, tried to stifle his wild elation. "Saturday works for me."

"Mmm," she sighed in agreement, snuggling against him again. "I'll ditch the kid for the night and we can start ticking off the items on that list, the one that has all of the things we want to do to each other on it."

"You have no idea how many times I've thought about that mythical list since the night you brought it up." Luke started them gently swaying again. "But if I'm ever going to leave here tonight, it would probably be a good idea for you to stop saying things like that."

Lorelai was only quiet for a minute before a new thought bubbled up. "Hey, can we start calling each other little pet names now?"

"No," Luke snorted.

"Aw, come on! I know, I can start calling you Duke again!"

"No."

"What will you call me?"

He sighed, seeing that he was going to have to play along. "I thought I might call you Snowflake."

"Aww." Lorelai looked genuinely touched. She put her fingertips to the hollow of her neck. "Because of my necklace?"

"Sure," Luke said. "And because, you know, you're a flake."

"Luke!" She tried to draw back her hand to smack him, but he knew her tricks. He tightened his arms around her, limiting her movements, and continued their slow circling in the corner of the porch.

"Or," he whispered softly into her ear, "I could just call you Beautiful, because you are."

She made a pleased little murmur of happiness and kissed his cheek.

"Or," he continued, "for a better idea, I could just keep calling you Lorelai, because it turns out that's my favorite name in the whole world."

He felt her smile against his skin. "Is it?"

"Yep. And you know what else? I'm so glad you named Rory after yourself. That way both of my favorite girls have my favorite name and I don't have to choose between them."

Lorelai stopped suddenly and looked at him with her heart in her eyes. For a moment they didn't need any words at all.

Eventually she shook her head a little bit and laughed ruefully. "You're sure you can't stay?"

"For this minute I'm sure, but I'd probably better leave before you manage to convince me otherwise."

She grabbed his elbows before he could completely step away from her. "One more kiss," she pleaded. "A sweet one."

Like she would ever need to beg him for a kiss. Luke obligingly put his lips against hers, pressing against them lightly, but when he began to nibble, she pulled away.

"Niiiice…" she decreed, her eyes half-closed. "That was a sweet dreams kiss."

"How about you really walk me to my truck now?" he suggested, putting his arm around her waist.

"I was just wondering," Lorelai began, as they strolled over to the driveway, "this is real, right?"

"Is what real?"

"This. Us. The…the kissing. The commitment. It's all real, right?"

He stopped, concerned at the message he was hearing. "Why would you even ask that?"

"Well, the timing. Tomorrow is April Fool's Day. I wanted to make sure this isn't just some elaborate hoax."

He chuckled and wrapped her up in a hug, deciding she was merely teasing. "Of course this is real. I'm sort of flattered, though, that you think I'm capable of pulling off a prank like that."

They continued on towards the truck. "I'm looking forward to my morning greeting tomorrow," she reminded him.

"You and me both." He opened the door and climbed in, quickly rolling down the window so they could talk up until the very last moment.

"I'm thinking maybe I'll wear that black dress on our first date," she proposed, crossing her arms over her chest to ward off the chilly March air.

Luke stared at her, struck dumb for a moment. "That black dress?"

"Yeah, but I think I've put on a couple pounds since Christmas. I might need to diet before I can shimmy into it again."

He could remember in exacting detail how tightly that dress had clung to her curves before, and the idea that it could somehow be even more form-fitting now… "Do we have to wait until Saturday night?" he choked out.

"Yes, we do," she said, giggling. "It takes time to arrange babysitting details. Restaurant reservations. You want to wow me before the taking, remember?"

"Right," he sighed. Reluctantly he started up the truck, smiling one more time at Lorelai before he nudged it into gear.

"Bye Duke!" she cried out gaily, waving and stepping away so he could back down the drive.

"Bye Snowflake," he drawled out as a reply. He relished the smile she gave him in return all the way home.

He took his time driving back to the diner. He parked leisurely, sedately opened the back door, and shuffled up the stairs. He was in no hurry to end this most remarkable night.

His lazy entrance ended when he swung open the door to his apartment and saw the amber light of the answering machine flashing at him. He bounded inside at once and rushed across the floor to punch the button. He couldn't wait to hear whatever silly and/or sexy message Lorelai had left for him.

But it wasn't Lorelai's voice that floated out into the apartment.

"Luke. Hi. Uh, it's Rachel. Listen, I wanted to let you know –"

Horrified, he stabbed at the button, cutting off the message, stopping the voice he no longer wanted to hear.

In turmoil he started to pace, becoming more and more agitated as the minutes passed. Finally he stopped in the middle of the floor and looked upwards, shaking his fists at the ceiling.

"One night! Is that too much to ask? You couldn't let me have just one night to be happy?"

Hearing his own voice echo back at him in the empty space made him realize how foolish he sounded. He sat down heavily on the couch with a groan, and rubbed at his suddenly aching head.

Notes: You can't get too mad at me, because most of you have been telling me for months that you knew Rachel had to show up sometime. And don't worry, as always, I have a plan!