Chapter 10

Rory POV

After Colin and I had gotten dressed, I ran my fingers through my hair and pulled it into a ponytail. We made our way out to the kitchen and Steph handed me a cup of coffee. I took a drink of it. "Ooh Gilmore strength." I said. Steph and the guys laughed at me. I looked up from my coffee and saw that Logan had a guilty look. I sat my cup on the counter and leaned over. "He called you didn't he?" I asked him. He nodded. "It's not your fault." I told him.

He ran a hand over his face. "How is it not? On some level, I encouraged it." Logan said.

"Logan, listen to me. Francine instigated everything. She sent Dad to Boston to talk to Tristan. He lied to me. He told me that he approached my Dad but it was the other way around. You might have encouraged him talking to me but you didn't encourage him lying to me. That was all him." I told Logan as I stood back up. Colin walked over and wrapped his arms around my waist.

"And you guys are ok?" Steph asked.

I looked over my shoulder at Colin and he nodded. "Yeah. I mean, I still have to deal with my Grandmother but otherwise...Yeah. We're fine." I told them.

"Good." Everyone said.

About an hour later, Steph and Logan were getting ready to head to their hotel when I looked over at them. "Take Finn with you." I said.

Finn raised an eyebrow at me. "Finn, down." Colin said.

Finn looked hurt. "Colin, are you really picking Reporter girl over me?" Finn asked.

Colin looked over at me and I smiled. He turned back to look at Finn. "Yes Finn. She looks better in my shirts than you do." Colin said.

"I can't believe you." Finn tried to protest as Steph was pulling him out the door.

When the door shut, I jumped up and went to lock it. It wouldn't help much because Finn had a key. I turned and leaned against the door. "You know that the locked door isn't going to stop him." Colin told me. Of course I knew.

"Well...maybe you should have the locks changed." I said.

"That's a possibility. And would I be the only one with a key to said new locks." Colin said.

"Well... I mean you could always give your incredibly beautiful and smart girlfriend a copy." I said, with a wicked grin.

I slowly walked back over to the couch and straddled Colin. "Hmm...I might have to think about that one. What would I get in return?" Colin asked.

I ground my hips against Colin. "Well...how about a copy to not only my Condo but also my place in the Hamptons." I told him.

He cupped my face and kissed me. "How did I get so lucky with you?" He asked me.

"Well...you've been very patient...waiting on me." I said.

"That I have. I think I deserve a reward." Colin said.

"Really?" I questioned.

Colin gripped my hips a little harder than he normally did. "Yes, absolutely."

"I'll take it under advisement." I said.

It was another two days before I decided to approach my Grandmother. Colin and I had spent the first 24-hours locked in his apartment. Then last night we had moved to my condo knowing that Finn wouldn't be able to get in.

So, now here I was sitting in my Grandmother's sitting room with her waiting on the maid to bring coffee. "Your father mentioned that you took a trip." She said.

Okay, I guess we're going to skip the small talk. "I did. Mom and I took a trip out to my house in the Hamptons." I told her.

"That sounds relaxing." Francine said.

I nodded. "Did Dad tell you anything else?" I asked.

She shook her head. "Was he supposed to?" She asked me.

I sighed. "Tristan and I aren't together, Grandma. Dad told me everything. Colin and I are together. Dad told me what you did, sending him to Boston to talk to Tristan. You shouldn't have done that." I told her.

"Why not? You weren't seeing anyone and your father told me about the weekend that you and Tristan had reconnected in Boston. I thought I was helping." She said, trying to defend herself.

I sighed. "Grandma. I know that you were trying to help, but I can't accept help with my love life. It's something I need to do on my own. Besides, I had been seeing someone. I had just broken up with Charlie, who I'd been seeing thanks to Emily. And Colin and I have been off and on for years." I told her. The maid came in with the coffee, handing each of us a cup. I took a drink.

She sighed. "That's something else I don't understand. Why Colin McCrae? Don't you know his reputation?" She asked.

"Yes. I've known Colin since my sophomore year at Yale. Colin's not the same person he was back then. He's changed a lot. I wish that you'd give him a chance." I told her.

She looked in thought for a moment. "And this merger?" She asked.

"Colin doesn't want to be a CEO. He just wants to practice law. He's the one who approached me about the merger after his Dad died. He never wanted it. Just like Logan doesn't want to be CEO of HPG someday. Colin and I have planned this merger out very carefully. The terms are clear. Colin gets 25% of the company, Dad gets 25% of the company and I get the controlling 50%. He gets a seat on the board. He gets to do what he loves…practice law." I told her.

She nodded. "And this is what you want?" She asked me.

I nodded. "It is." I told her.

"And if you two get married someday?" She asked me.

"He doesn't want to have to make any of the hard decisions. He's leaving that all to me. The only thing he wants to do at the firm is practice law." I told her.

"I'll consider it." She said.

"Okay. Thanks." I said.

Lorelai POV

I hadn't heard from Rory since we'd returned from the Hamptons. I knew that she was planning to talk to Finn when she got home but that was two days ago why hadn't she called. I walked into the kitchen and started a pot of coffee. When it finished brewing, I poured a cup and sat at the kitchen table. I hated not knowing what was going on. I picked up the landline and dialed Rory's number. "Hello?" She said when she answered.

"Oh thank god. I was beginning to think that something happened to you." I said.

"Hi mom." Rory said.

"Hi mom? She says. I've been sitting here for two days wondering what was going on. I figured you would have called." I said.

"I'm sorry mom. It's been busy." She said.

"So tell me…"

"Well, it all started with my conversation with Finn, he figured out that it was kind of a weird coincidence that Tristan shows up right around the same time that Colin gets ready to change the status of our relationship. So, I went to see Dad. I barged into his office and confront him with a theory I had." Rory says.

"What was the theory?" I asked her.

"I glared at Dad and I said that there was no way that he went to Boston and offered Tristan a place at the firm as a partner if he came to Hartford and reconciled with me." Rory tells me. "Dad tries to calm me down because I'm pissed. Then he tells me that it wasn't his choice, that Francine had sent him."

"Are you serious?" I asked her.

"Yeah. Mom, I was livid. But it did kind of explain why she's been so against this merger." Rory said.

"Why?"

"I'll get to it. So when I left the office, I headed over to Tristan's. I told him that I'd talked to Dad and that Dad confessed everything. He felt so bad, Mom. He told me that he was sorry about everything and then asked me if there was any way that we could move past it. I told him no. I told him that he'd lied to me about why he came to Hartford. That if he had been honest with me about everything that Dad had said then we might could have moved past it, but I couldn't be with a liar. I went through enough of that when I was with Logan and Charlie." She told me.

"Good for you. Then what happened?" I asked, taking a drink of my coffee.

"So, then I headed home. I took a quick shower and I put on Colin's favorite dress that I own… you know the one, that green sleeveless one?" She said.

"Oh yeah. That's a nice dress. Did he pick it out?" I asked.

"No, but he was with me when I bought it. Anywho, so then I headed over to Colin's apartment. When I got there, Finn, Logan and Steph were there." She said.

"Logan was there?" I asked, shocked. The last Rory had said was that Logan and Colin weren't speaking because of Logan walking in on Rory and Colin at his wedding.

"Yeah. Shocked me too. I mean, I'd told both Logan and Colin that they were both being stupid fighting over me, and that they needed to make up but I didn't know that they'd actually talked." Rory said. "I found Colin drunk, well maybe not completely drunk, in his study. We talked. I told him everything. Dad, Tristan…the whole scheme of it. We talked everything through. I told him that I was in love with him and that I had been for some time. Then he asked me to be his girlfriend. We spent the next 24-hours holed up in his apartment. Then yesterday, I went to see Francine. I confronted her about her scheme. She didn't seem too happy that I knew about it but she did seem honest with her answers. I told her that Colin and I were together. She asked me why the merger was so important to me, when I asked her to really think about it. I mean, technically, I can push the merger through without her or the rest of the board but I'd like to do it with her support." Rory said.

"That's understandable. So what'd she say?" I asked.

"She started questioning me about Colin. Wondering why it had to be him and did I know about his reputation." She said.

"But he hasn't been that way since Yale, right?"

"Right. He's dated here and there, but it's mostly been me." Rory said. "In the end after I explained everything, she agreed to give it serious thought."

"Well that's good. So, everything worked out?" I asked her.

"Yeah, in the end." Rory said.

"Well, that's good. You guys got any plans this weekend?" I asked her.

"Not that I know of. Why, what's going on?" She asked me.

"Well, Taylor decided to do the end of summer festival again and I was thinking that since things have changed with you and Colin that it might be a good time for you to introduce him to the town." I told her.

"I can talk to him about it. We'll probably bring Finn with us." She told me.

"That's fine." I told her.

After hanging up with Rory, I thought about everything that she had said. Had Chris really let Francine dictate to him about Rory's love life. I'd have to ask him about it at some point. Hopefully, things would work out the way that they were supposed to. Rory definitely deserved to be happy.