A little while later Luke parked the car behind a truck that looked a lot like his and looked over at the passenger seat. Lorelai had fallen asleep with her head resting on the car window. He gently shook her, "Hey, we're here."
Lorelai sat up with a jolt, "We are? Oh man. I wanted to stop somewhere first and clean up." She pulled the visor down and checked her makeup in the little mirror. She played with her hair and applied some lip gloss.
Luke watched on with a smile, "You look fine."
"Fine," she huffed. "I'm meeting people for the first time." She said nervously.
"God Lorelai, you look gorgeous when you wake up in the morning, do you really think you need to try so hard?"
"Stop trying to sweet talk me."
"Can we go in please?"
"Luke," she called as he moved to get out of the car.
He spun to look at her again, "What?"
She looked down at her hand, "The ring?"
"Right," Luke nodded. "I wish you had kept it, it's not like I would give it to someone else." He pulled the box out of his jacket pocket and handed it to her.
She took it, desperately fighting the tears forming, "We can talk about that another time." She slid the ring on her figure, dropped the box into her purse and drew a shuddering breath. Luke watched her as she closed her eyes and put whatever emotions that were bubbling up on the back burner and plaster on a smile. She looked at him with glistening eyes and a radiant smile, "Ready?"
He nodded, "Yeah. Let's go. Leave the bags here, I'll come back out for them once we've had all the introductions."
Standing outside the door they could hear noise, music, laughter, and muffled hollering.
"Sounds like your kind of people," Lorelai teased.
Luke knocked on the door and just a moment later the door flew open and Maisy was standing in front of them.
"Lucas, Lorelai, I'm so glad you made it. I'll bet I have you to thank for that, don't I," she eyed Lorelai as she grabbed Luke into a bear hug. When she released Luke, she hugged Lorelai.
"Mom, let them get in! Some of us haven't seen Luke in forever," Claudia called from the kitchen.
"Oh hush! You know I gotta get my hugs," Maisy laughed.
Maisy motioned them to follow her and made her way to the kitchen.
In the open concept kitchen stood a beautiful, thin woman with light brown silky hair, hazel eyes and a wide, warm smile. She was tall with elegant features. Her hair was tied back in a ponytail and she wore jeans and a t-shirt. She wiped her hands on a small towel before rushing into Luke's arms. "It's always the ones who say they don't like hugs that are the best at it." Claudia smiled as Luke held her tightly. "I've missed you," she whispered to him.
"I missed you too," Luke said into her hair. "Claud, this is Lorelai. Be nice, we like her."
Claudia giggled as she reached out her hand to Lorelai with one arm still around Luke, "Hi Lorelai. Don't listen to him. Of course I'll be nice!"
"Don't worry, he reminds me all the time," Lorelai shrugged. "Your house is beautiful, by the way. Luke thought I was crazy because I said it looks exactly like Angela Bower's house!"
"Oh man! Don't get her started," a voice from behind Lorelai moaned.
Claudia let go of Luke and squealed, "Oh my god, Lorelai! Danny and I drove by the house one day and saw the for sale sign. I told him we HAD to get it because if I was living in Connecticut I wanted to live in Angela Bower's house. I mean the inside doesn't look like their house, but let's be honest the inside of their house made very little sense."
"You chose this house, you have a boy and a girl and you didn't call them Jonathan and Samantha," Lorelai grinned.
"He wouldn't let me," Claudia screamed and pointed to the guy behind Lorelai who was shaking Luke's hand and saying hi.
Lorelai turned to the man, "You're Daniel, I presume."
The man nodded and smiled as he shook Lorelai's hand. He was the same height as Luke, a little bulkier with pale, freckled skin. He had strawberry blonde really thick hair cut short and clean.
"Call me Danny. And please don't get her started, she still tries to call me Tony now and then."
"Women should get to name the kids," Claudia insisted.
"I named my kid after me, so you know I'm on your side," Lorelai laughed.
"I like her already," Claudia smiled at Luke.
"Oh man," Danny groaned. "We're in trouble. Can I get you a beer," he asked Luke.
"Please!"
"You," Danny asked Lorelai.
"Coffee, if you have it."
"Are you kidding," Danny laughed. "She makes Luke send her his special blend every month. TWO last month because of the holiday!"
Lorelai's eyes grew wide, "My mind is blown! Luke sends his coffee out of town? He wouldn't give me any to keep at my house!"
Maisy placed two beers on the kitchen island for Luke and Danny. "How do you take your coffee, Honey?"
"If it's Luke's special blend I'll take it black, please."
"When's everyone else getting here," Luke asked.
Maisy smiled at him, "Needing more testosterone in the room? Buddy took the kids for ice cream, because he thinks that's Grandpa's most important job. Leo and Maggie will be here soon. The restaurant was open today but I convinced them to close early so they could have dinner with us tonight. Sam and Lisa won't be here until late tonight or early tomorrow. Apparently Lisa was finally able to cut the chain from Sam's desk. She said he's working on a really important case."
"What type of law does he practice," Lorelai asked.
The group had made their way to the TV room and settled on the plush couches with their drinks. Luke was at one end of a sectional. When Lorelai sat beside him, his arm went around her shoulders on instinct. He was happy when she settled closer to him, resting some of her weight on him.
"Sam's firm is pretty big with different divisions. They do anything from tax law, estate law and family law. Of course there's a big corporate division. And they do pro bono stuff. That's actually what he's working on. A single mother trying to get full custody of her daughter."
"Wow," Lorelai smiled.
The phone rang and Danny got up to get it. As he walked away the door flew open and Buddy's voice called out, "Make sure to get those cartons in the freezer!"
"I know!"
"Hey, company is here! Best behaviour please," Claudia yelled towards the door.
"Company," Buddy asked. "I thought you just invited Luke today."
"Luke and Lorelai are here," Maisy answered. "We don't want to scare her off."
"Oh, I don't scare easily. Don't worry," she stood up and hugged Buddy. Luke followed suit.
Danny joined the group again, "That was Liz. Apparently the baby and TJ both woke up with fevers. They won't be able to make it after all."
"That's a shame," Buddy said, wondering why Luke looked relieved.
"Hey Luke," Charlie smiled from behind Buddy.
"Hey Kid. This is Lorelai. Lorelai, this is Charlie," Luke smiled as he shook the teen's hand.
Lorelai was nervous about meeting the teen, having flashbacks of her first encounter with Jess. But Charlie, who looked like a shorter version of his Father, smiled and shook her hand.
"You own an Inn, right?" Charlie asked.
"Yeah," Lorelai nodded. "Do you have an interest in the hospitality field?"
"No, but when Grandma told us what you do I checked out your website. I have some suggestions for you."
"Wow, really?"
"How about you let them get settled before you tell her how to run her business," Danny suggested.
Lorelai waved Danny off, "Hey, I will take any suggestions about the possibility of getting more visitors. Websites are important, I'm just not well versed in them. I would love to hear your ideas, but maybe a little later?"
Charlie smiled brightly, showing off his braces, "Thanks! Luke doesn't even have a website for the diner."
"Why does a restaurant need a website," Luke sighed.
"Because HE says so," a cute voice came from behind Luke.
Luke spun around, "THERE'S my favourite!" He bent over and scooped Zoey into his arms. "Hey, you're getting tall."
Lorelai's heart melted watching Luke and Zoey interact. She was more of a mixture of her parents' looks, leaning more towards her Mom, she had Danny's reddish blond hair, but hers was pinstraight like Claudia's. She was showing Luke a necklace that she was wearing. He was complimenting her outfit. She wore jeans with a bit of sparkle in the fabric, a pink and black plaid sweater with a red sparkly heart on the front.
"Mom said you would approve of this shirt," she smiled at him.
Luke still held the girl in his arms, "I want you to meet Lorelai."
Suddenly Zoey was shy, "Hi," she smiled at Lorelai.
"Hi," Lorelai responded. "I hear you're my biggest competition for Luke's attention this weekend."
Zoey shrugged, "He doesn't come around much, so I have to get in my quality time."
"Well, maybe I can convince him to come around more. Or you guys can come to Stars Hollow, I know a place you all can stay."
"Lorelai has horses at her Inn," Luke whispered to Zoey.
The girl's face lit up, "You have horses?" She jumped out of Luke's arms and led Lorelai to the couch to talk.
Lorelai smiled at Luke over her shoulder then gave Zoey all of her attention, "We have two horses, Cletus and Desdemona. Desi is the sweetest, most gentle girl you can imagine. Cletus is also amazing, but he's a bit of a trouble maker. We've found him in the sitting room, the dining room and by the front desk."
Zoey giggled, "That's so funny! What colours are they? How old are they? Do you ride them all the time? Do they really eat carrots? Oh, do you give them sugar cubes?"
The adults were all smiling at Zoey's excitement while Charlie rolled his eyes.
The next few hours were spent with the gang (Luke, Lorelai, Buddy. Maisy, Claudia, Danny, Charlie and Zoey) sitting around, snacking and talking. Luke kept stealing glances at Lorelai, watching her fit in so well with the people he considered family. He loved seeing her happy and making everyone else fall in love with her. He didn't need to be reminded that he never stopped loving her, but here it was anyway.
They all agreed to order pizza for dinner since everyone who cooks would be busy all day in the kitchen tomorrow. Charlie and Zoey brought the menu for their favourite place and were thrilled when Lorelai insisted on trying the garlic knots, cheesy bread and funnel cake sticks. Claudia was happy when it was Luke who insisted that everyone had to have at least a small helping of salad before they gorged themselves on carbs.
As they sat around the dinner table Lorelai noticed Maisy and Claudia kept looking at her and Luke. She knew that she was the girlfriend who needed to impress. She leaned over to whisper in Luke's ear, "Make sure you play up the couple thing, we're being watched."
Luke was able to see Claudia watching them from the corner of his eye, so he turned his head and kissed Lorelai. "That should give us a few minutes of peace," he said against her lips.
Lorelai smiled, "I'll be right back." She touched his shoulder before excusing herself to the powder room.
She shut the door and then rested her back against it. She exhaled deeply and then broke down. She started to cry as silently as possible. She kept looking at the ring on her finger and the tears would start all over again. She pulled her Sidekick from her pocket and started to text Rory.
Lorelai: Kid, this might have been a huge mistake. All this time with Luke, pretending to still be his fiancée. It has felt so good all day until it hit me that it's all a lie. Now I'm crying in the bathroom.
Rory: Okay, calm down. We talked about how this could get emotional. But you insisted you wanted to help Luke out. Take a few deep breaths. Get through dinner and then make an excuse to go to sleep early. Tomorrow will be a busy day, right?
Lorelai: Yeah, you're right. Thanks Sweets. I just needed to hear from you, my Emotional Support Animal.
Rory: Haha, you're sweet. Go, and just try to enjoy the rest of your weekend. Love you!
Lorelai: Love you too! Be safe!