Author's Notes: Let me tell you a story. No, not this story. A story about this story.

I wrote stories about Lorelai and Luke and Stars Hollow for a long time before I started sharing them. There are a bunch of them tucked safely away where they'll never be seen, collecting cyberdust. Some of them are hidden because I've plundered certain lines or ideas and re-used them in stories you've read. Some of them weren't too original to start with. And then there are a couple of stories, (like this one), which I kept coming back to peruse every couple of months because there are some elements within them that I really liked and couldn't forget.

Usually when I come up with a story I see the whole thing. It gets some tweaking, of course, along the way, but usually I already know where it's going before I start it. I thought I knew the ending to this one, but once I got there, I didn't like it. It didn't seem true. Months passed, and another ending suggested itself. I started writing that one, but again, it just didn't fit. Plus, it was starting to veer too close to something else I want to explore some day. So again, this story got shelved ― but not forgotten.

Then one day, not long ago, I heard Luke say one word. Things suddenly clicked and I 'saw' the ending. With the ending in place, I've decided it's time to set this one free.

One last thing to keep in mind: Please remember how much I love Luke and Lorelai together. In fact, I'm pretty sure I'm physically incapable of writing anything that keeps them apart. So, we're good? We understand each other? Read on then, please. I'll be anxious to hear what you all think of this one!

Thirteen Years

A bookstore. Of course it was a bookstore.

Luke shook his head at his own naïveté. When April mentioned she needed to make one more stop before they headed back to her new apartment, he should have instinctively known that it was going to involve some sort of product made up of bound paper and ink. Well, at least he was no longer that clueless new father he used to be, the one who once let her take up residency at a Barnes and Noble in Hartford for over five hours because he was fearful that if he made her cut her browsing time short she would no longer like him. Now she knew the rules and he had no trouble enforcing them. She knew he would only put up with an hour, an hour and a half tops, before he would threaten to leave without her. Two hours was his absolute limit.

Yeah, he thought scornfully. Good thing you're not a pushover anymore.

Sighing, he unzipped the soft, caramel-colored leather jacket April had given him for his last birthday. He scanned the massive space to get his bearings, running the fingers of his right hand through his neatly cropped beard as he did so. Too late he realized what he was doing and jerked his fingers away, tucking them inside his jacket pocket. Now that he no longer had a baseball cap to settle against his head he found that touching his beard had become his new nervous habit.

He located a map of the store quickly. As usual, the 'how-to' section was relegated as far away from the main area as possible. Luke figured that as long as he was here, he'd go look through the woodworking books and see if he could find any new designs. He could look through the antiques section too, because sometimes those books yielded some excellent ideas. If April was still missing by then, he'd go browse through the magazines. Hopefully before he was left with nothing but the celebrity gossip rags April would reappear.

Luke started his trek towards the far reaches of the store, his route taking him past the café, and as usual, the strong aroma of coffee caused a stinging feeling across his chest. For not the first time he wished he could have picked up her coffee habit. Sitting at a little table, nursing a cup of coffee and people-watching would have been an acceptable alternative to mindlessly flipping through books, especially if there was someone to share the coffee with…

Stop, he told himself sternly. You're not going around that tree again. Think about something else.

Luke's methodical brain shifted to thinking about the shelves he was going to put up in April's tiny apartment instead, going over each step of their assembly, making sure he had everything he needed before starting the project.

He was skirting through the children's area when two boys, roughly around five or six years old, suddenly tumbled in front of him. The kids were whaling away at each other while their oblivious mother stood a few yards away, murmuring, "Oh, don't do that, boys," with her face stuck in a book. Luke thought about the Banyan boys for the first time in years and wondered which federal institution was currently housing them. In a few years, when these two turned out to be juvenile delinquents, this mother would wonder what went wrong, too.

"Wise up, lady," Luke muttered under his breath, as he bypassed the mayhem in front of him by turning down an aisle running through the kids' section.

He could see the humor section in front of him, which usually meant the how-to books were close by, when a peculiar feeling ran up his back and across his neck, causing him to stop abruptly and take a sharp breath.

You're crazy, he told himself. You just thought about her. That's all it is.

But still…What was the harm in just looking around a little? Luke had no possible reason to peruse the children's books at all, except to egg on that feeling he hadn't experienced in so many years. Because, after all, there was no way, no way…

He turned a corner into the area with those thick cardboard books intended for toddlers, and…There she was.

She was still gorgeous. He could see that, even from his distance at the end of the row and through the sudden tears that were trying to cloud his vision. She was stretching up to get a stuffed animal displayed on top of a shelf and the black slacks she had on were showcasing her still-incredible long legs. She had on a tightly fitted denim jacket that nipped in at her waist, with ruffles at the hem and cuffs. Her hair ― He sucked in a pained breath. She'd cut her hair! It was straight, and it curved in a few inches below her chin. Several silver streaks showed through the dark strands, but they looked so perfect that Luke wasn't sure that they weren't placed there deliberately, instead of being time's reminder of the dozen years they'd spent apart.

Luke had been steadily making his way down the aisle, not even realizing he was moving, unable to resist the pull of her. He was close enough now to see a few lines on her face, but overall, the years had been very kind.

He watched as Lorelai stooped down, holding out the stuffed monster to an exquisite little girl with dark curls and deep blue eyes, who gravely listened to whatever nonsense was spilling out of her mouth. Luke grinned, his heart beating so fast at hearing her voice again.

"Well, hello there, dearie!" Lorelai said in a shrill tone, voicing the chartreuse monster she was dancing up and down the little girl's arms. "Do you have bananas for me today? Me loooove bananas!"

"She looks just like you." Luke didn't know he was actually going to speak until the hoarse words were out of his mouth.

He could tell that Lorelai still got hit on a lot because he recognized the set of her mouth as she started to turn towards him, ready to tell him politely but firmly to get lost. Partway, though, he saw that she had identified his voice, and by the time her face had turned fully to see him, it was home to that smile that had always melted his heart. Her face lit up in joy.

Dropping the monster, she sprang to her feet with a little shriek and launched herself at him. He opened his arms and latched her to his chest, raining little kisses down on her hair, forehead, anything he could reach. She was saying something — of course she was talking — but he couldn't make any of it out, so tightly was he holding her.

They might have stayed like that until the store employees shooed them out into the night, except that sharp pains attacked Luke's shins and kneecaps.

"What the ―?" he sputtered, stepping back but still trying to hold onto Lorelai. "Hey!" he yelped.

"Oh, Lexie, no!" Lorelai quickly scooped up the little girl, who was doing her best bear attack imitation on Luke's legs. "It's OK, Doll. This isn't a stranger!"

The child had been saying something, over and over, and at first Luke thought she was speaking a foreign language — French? — but now he realized that the word might have indeed been 'stranger.'

"This is Luke," Lorelai told the little girl, her voice giving a warmth to his name that he had all but forgotten about. "This is really Luke. Mommy's friend, Luke. My friend, Luke."

The toddler looked from Lorelai to Luke. She studied him seriously for a moment before doing that lunging thing kids do at that age when they want another adult to take them. Luke remembered his niece at that age and instinctively held out his arms, nestling her against his chest as she settled against him.

"Luke," she said thoughtfully, (or something that could have been Luke), running her fingers against the soft leather of his jacket.

"Yes, Dollface, this is Luke," Lorelai confirmed, almost beside herself in happiness, bobbing up and down on her toes.

The child nodded, still not smiling, and poked him in the chest. "Cof-fee," she proclaimed.

Luke's mouth dropped open.

"Yes, yes, Angel Girl, Luke's coffee!" Lorelai clapped her hands in delight.

Her deep blue eyes, so much like Lorelai's, stared at him, and she said the one word that threatened to completely undo him.

"Pie."

"Lorelai, how…" Luke managed to get out of his strangled throat.

"Oh, she knows all about you, my friend!" Lorelai beamed at the little girl and kissed her tiny fingers quickly. "She's heard all of my Luke stories over and over! She knows all about painting the diner, except for the one special spot, and she knows about the night we broke the bells, and she knows about the sleigh ride, and the Dragonfly…" Oncoming tears suddenly pinched off her reminiscing, and she nodded enthusiastically, pretending that she was actually done talking.

Luke looked from Lorelai to the little charmer in his arms, not able to believe what he was seeing and hearing. "She looks just exactly how I always thought —" Like Lorelai a moment before, he had to break off the comment. One thing he'd learned about getting older: Emotions were a lot tougher to control.

Lorelai picked up his thought easily, and although the tears were still threatening her as well, she decided to go with what had always been her strong suit.

"Contrary to popular belief, Luke," she told him quietly, her eyes twinkling through the moisture in them, "I am not Wonder Woman! She's not mine!"

"She's not?" Luke again studied the mass of curls, the blue eyes.

"This is Lexie," Lorelai announced with a little flourish. "She's two and a half, and she's Rory's."

"Rory's." Luke could see it now, Rory's serious gaze, the calmness, the studious inspection of life.

"Tell Luke who I am," Lorelai said to Lexie, pointing to herself.

"Gammie," Lexie said promptly.

Luke quirked an eyebrow at that and Lorelai laughed. "Yeah, it's supposed to be 'Grammie' but we're having some trouble with 'r's. Thank goodness Rory decided not to name her after herself, or the poor kid could never do introductions!"

Lexie started to squirm, so Luke put her down, and they watched as she made her way over to the discarded monster Lorelai had flung to the floor in her haste to get to Luke.

Lorelai turned back to Luke, touching his arm lightly. "I can't believe this is real. I feel like a genie popped out of one of these books and granted me one last wish."

"Yeah, I kind of feel like I won the lottery, too," Luke admitted.

They grinned at each other like idiots until Lexie's cries of protest broke their attention. A little girl in pigtails had tried to take the monster away from her.

Lorelai went over to mediate the dispute, expertly distracting Lexie with a book with sparkling fairies on the cover, while handing the monster to the new little girl.

"So, what are you doing here, of all places? Don't you still live outside of Philadelphia?" she asked him.

Luke was surprised she knew that, but answered quickly. "Yeah, I'm still there, but April's just moved here. She's working on her doctorate, and she's going to be a teaching assistant at NYU. I helped her move in a few weeks ago, and she asked me to come back this weekend to help with some stuff."

"Wow. That's great. So all grown up, huh?"

"Yeah. So what about you? I never pictured you living in the city."

"I don't," Lorelai agreed, quickly. "I live about an hour from here, in a little suburb called Regency Hill. It's not Stars Hollow by any stretch, but the town council has some occasional hijinks and it's small enough that I can walk through the downtown area and actually know some of the people. So, it's not bad." She nodded, as though trying to convince herself of that. "And I like that I can get here quickly, like today, when Rory needs some help with the munchkin."

"Rory's in New York?"

"Yeah, they live about three blocks east of here." She suddenly switched topics. "Hey, do you have to go right away? Lexie's getting restless, and if you have time, we could go sit in the café and get her a snack. Give us time to catch up. If you want," she added quickly, afraid that she was presuming too much.

"I'd love that," Luke said sincerely, and then bit at his lip to keep from telling her everything else he'd love.

They were getting settled at one of the small tables Luke had looked at so longingly just a short time ago. At Lorelai's direction, Luke had gotten a highchair for Lexie, and Lorelai was now securing her in the seat. She had chosen a "Gingerbread Story Snack" for Lexie, which consisted of a gingerbread boy and girl cookie, some small tubs of icing and decorations, and a placemat full of places for the characters to visit. Luke had some tea and Lorelai had coffee, but had resisted Luke's attempts to get her something sweet to go with it.

"No," she told him regretfully. "The old metabolism's finally slowing down. I can't eat the way I used to."

"Never thought I'd hear that," Luke grinned. He leaned over and showed Lexie how to take the popsicle stick spreader and put some icing on the cookie, and how an M&M could be an eye. She beamed at him in admiration and then cautiously tried her own hand at decoration. Her tongue poked out of her mouth as she determinedly tried to mimic his efforts. He could tell now, more than ever, Rory's makeup in the little girl. Lorelai would have licked all of the icing out of the tub by now. The M&Ms would have had no chance to be eyes.

As he was straightening back up, Lorelai's hand came out and touched his beard. She gave a little gasp as she touched it. "Oh, soft!" she said, amazed. She continued to run her fingertips through it. "I guess I thought it would be prickly, like a porcupine. But this is…nice." She felt his jaw clenching under her hand, and the blush that spread over her cheeks let him know that she suddenly realized she'd been stroking his face. "So, what made you decide on the beard?" she asked, tucking her trouble-making hands under her thighs and staring down into her coffee cup.

"Well, you know I always hated shaving. Thought I'd finally give it up completely," he deadpanned, trying to get his heart rate regulated after feeling her fingers touching him. "This way I just have to trim it up every other week or so, and I'm done."

"It looks good on you," she said, still sounding somewhat shy.

"And what in the world made you decide to do this?" he questioned, reaching over to tug at her hair lightly. He couldn't keep the bitterness out of his voice.

"Not a fan, huh?" she grinned at him. "Typical guy. Always wanting the long locks."

"You look beautiful," he conceded, gruffly. "I just really liked your long curls."

"I know you did, Babe," Lorelai said gently, not even aware that she'd unconsciously used one of her old endearments. "But it was time to try something new." She tucked her hair behind her ear in that familiar gesture, but what he saw when she did it made him lean forward in his seat once again.

"I can't believe this," he murmured, fingering the earring dangling from her ear. "I can't believe you wore these today."

"Yeah. What a coincidence, huh?" Lorelai looked uneasily away from him, nervously tapping her foot under the table.

"I'll say!" Luke brought his hand down over hers. Lorelai's gaze came back to him and they shared a smile for a few moments. He remembered when Liz gave the earrings to him that day, telling him to give them to Lorelai ― or Nicole.

Like there was ever a choice, he thought ruefully.

"So," he began, after a pause, "Rory's married?"

"Yeah, she's been married about five years now. Jeff is a great guy."

"You like him?" Luke asked with raised eyebrows.

"Look, just because I didn't like Dean at first…or Jess…or Logan…or any of the other losers she dated…" Lorelai took a deep breath. "Jeff was totally different. I knew from the beginning he was different. I knew he was 'it' long before Rory did."

"Of course you did," Luke teased.

"I did!" Lorelai protested. "They met when they were both covering the presidential campaign. Jeff's talent was spotted immediately and he got snapped up to do other things, but he and Rory just had this bond from the first. They 'got' each other, you know? No matter where they were or what was going on in their lives, they made time for each other. Rory kept insisting they were 'just friends', but I knew the truth from the first moment she mentioned him to me. And then when I met him, it was so obvious. Even when I saw him on TV, there was always this little sparkle in his eye that I knew was because he was thinking about Rory ―"

"Wait. He's on TV?" Luke asked.

"Did I not mention that?" Lorelai gave a little sigh. She gave Lexie's hair a loving tousle. "This is Lexie Simmons."

Luke put his mug down abruptly, staring first at Lorelai and then Lexie, then Lorelai again. "Her dad is Jeff Simmons?" he hissed.

"You know who Jeff Simmons is?" Lorelai asked, amazed.

"Yes, Lorelai, I know who Jeff Simmons is," Luke said in exasperation. "Is there anyone on the planet who doesn't know who Jon Stewart's successor is? Man, you must be over the moon!"

"That's not who he was when they first met," Lorelai chuckled. "He was just a really good guy who loved my daughter the way she deserved to be loved. All of the rest just sort of snowballed over the last few years."

"Unbelievable," Luke muttered. "So they met on the campaign trail?"

"Yep." Lorelai took a gulp of her coffee. "Ugh. This is so below your standards," she told him. "Anyway, even though Rory had this perfect guy in her life, she kept falling for all of these imbeciles and kept breaking her heart, and moaning around about how it was just never going to happen for her, and finally she came to visit me this one weekend and I just snapped as she was moping around about this latest loser, who I may add, made Logan look like Clark Kent. So I grabbed a piece of paper, and in about three minutes I had made the pro-con list to end all pro-con lists ―"

"Not the pro-con list!" Luke cried, rolling his eyes.

"Do not mock the pro-con list," Lorelai said firmly. "I'll have you know it worked. Rory took one look at it and ran to Jeff, and it's all been unicorns and rainbows ever since."

"Man." Luke tried to take this in. "Is Rory home with Lexie?"

"As much as she can be. She does some writing for the show. It's kind of their first baby. She does some freelance stuff. And she does some college lecturing, too. You know Rory. She never sits still, she's always striving to do more, and lately the good stuff just seems to be falling into her lap." Lorelai paused, looking at Luke. "She's really happy. She's…content."

"That's good to hear." Luke smiled at her, trying to keep the tinge of sadness out of his voice. He cleared his throat and asked hesitantly, "Did your parents get to see Lexie?"

"No." Lorelai's voice dropped. "They knew Rory was pregnant. It was funny, really, because Rory had decided not to tell them about being pregnant that last night at dinner. She had just found out, and she was worried about telling them and then having something go wrong. But we were sitting at what turned out to be our last dinner, and we were actually having such a great time with them, and Rory just suddenly blurted it out. It was 'Rory's going to Yale' all over again. They were so excited! Making all sorts of plans for the baby. Then the next week, they were in the accident."

Luke took her hand again, letting his thumb rub over hers. "I was so sorry to hear about that, Lorelai."

"I know," she nodded, "Your card got forwarded to me. I appreciated it."

"So now you're the big Gilmore honcho, huh?" Luke asked, trying to lighten the mood a little.

"Watch yourself, buddy. I know where all the bodies are buried now!" She smiled a little. "Dad had actually been turning things over to me gradually for the five years before. We'd incorporated the Gilmore Foundation and got all of the trusts finalized. It keeps me busy, but it's really a well-oiled machine, and they don't need me on a day-to-day basis. I still do consulting for the Durham Group five or six times a year. I don't like to travel all of the time, but it's nice to go for a week or ten days, look over the property for them, and then make the recommendation. The rest of the time I'm available for Foundation stuff or when Rory needs me to pinch hit when her babysitting plans fall through."

"You're happy, then," Luke stated, his hand tightening on hers.

Lorelai blinked at him, trying to will a smile to her lips, trying to come up with some acceptable variation for the word happy. "I have a good life," she conceded.

Luke leaned over to help Lexie open her other tub of icing. She had been carefully picking up the sprinkles and eating them one by one.

"Oh, but you!" Lorelai suddenly grabbed her bag and started pawing through it. "I know about you! I can show you!"

Luke looked on in confusion while Lorelai opened her wallet and started to pull something out. As she unfolded the shiny piece of paper, Luke groaned.

"I can't believe you've got that. How in the world?"

"Jess and Rory still email occasionally." She grinned at him. "He alerted us, and we bought up all of the copies we could find." She finished spreading out the article from Philadelphia magazine that featured Luke and his custom woodworking shop. "That is one fine picture of you, sir. How many ladies came to your door after that hit the streets?"

Luke didn't want to admit that there had been some. "Business picked up. That was the only reason I agreed to do the stupid thing."

"Your work is amazing, Luke. Of course, I always knew it was. I had the chuppah to prove it. Hey, how much do you suppose it is worth now that you're the 'It' guy of woodworking?"

"Probably the same thing it was worth when I was Luke in the diner world," he muttered.

"I visit your website," Lorelai told him. "I know what some of your stuff goes for. You've gotten quite a reputation, Luke."

Luke looked at her levelly. "You know, there's a contact link on the website."

"I know," Lorelai said, just as evenly. He didn't need to know how many times her finger had hovered over the 'send' button. She looked away and changed the subject. "How long have you lived there now?"

"I don't know exactly. Eight, nine years?" He tried to think back. "You left after Rory graduated, and I leased out the diner the next year. I tried to tell myself I'd grow to appreciate New Mexico, but it just wasn't for me. Too damn hot. Then April decided she wanted to come back to New England for college, so I decided to make the change, too. I mean, the only reason I went there anyway was for her. By then Liz and her family had already moved closer to Philadelphia for Jess, so I decided I'd find a place around there, too. I found this old house with a little acreage, and an old workshop I could fix up. It gave me something to do, and pretty soon all of Liz's crazy renaissance buddies wanted me to make them chairs, or shelves, or something, and the next thing I knew I had a business going. It didn't suck, you know? I actually enjoyed it. It was better than diner hours. Better money, too. And… no Kirk!"

They both laughed.

"Were you still in town when Taylor died?" Lorelai asked quietly, a few seconds later.

"No, but I heard about it from Gypsy when I finalized the sale on the diner." Luke shook his head. "Hard to think about Stars Hollow without Taylor Doose calling the shots, isn't it?"

"Sure is. When I first heard, I thought maybe you'd finally snapped and killed him. But it was one of the darn porcelain unicorns, huh?"

"Not quite." Luke smiled softly. "The second porcelain unicorn shop had gone out of business, and Taylor finally had his location for his collectible plate store. Gypsy said he was fussing with the electrician who was installing some new track lighting to shine down on the Elvis plates, when he just clutched his chest and keeled over."

"Sad."

"Yeah." Luke sighed. "And then Miss Patty…"

"I came back for her funeral," Lorelai said. "I wasn't going to believe she was gone without seeing it with my own eyes. At least she went out the way she always wanted to, with rose petals and a guy named 'Fernando' in her bed."

Luke's eyes opened wide. "I thought that was just a rumor."

"Oh, no, it was true. He sat in the back row, crying all over Crazy Carrie."

"Wow." Luke shook his head, trying to take that in. "Have you kept in touch with anyone else?"

Lorelai nodded happily. "Earlier this year, Rory and I took the Munchkin and flew out to California to see Lane and Zach and the boys. The boys are 12 now, all long and gangly like Zach, but with Lane's face and coloring. It's the oddest thing to see, but so them, you know? Kwan is turning into a pretty respectable rocker, much to his parents' pride, but Steve is studious and really thinks he has a religious calling. Of course, Mrs. Kim is beside herself with joy at the thought of that! She lives close to them, and tries to pretend she doesn't watch game shows all day and still claims to eat nothing but sprouted wheat muffins."

Luke grinned. "Lane sends me Christmas cards with pictures, but it's been a long time since I've actually heard anything from them. They've still got the recording studio going?"

"Yep. They've dabbled in all sorts of things, and Zach always seems to find whatever the next big thing in sound technician-y stuff is going to be before anyone else does. They still go out and play gigs, too. They've even hooked back up with Dave, you remember him? The guy who started Hep Alien in the first place?"

"Can't say as I do."

"Well, anyway, we had a great visit, and then we stopped at Sookie's on the way back home. Have you been there? It's like the best place on earth!"

"Lorelai," Luke said patiently, "if I'd been to Sookie's, do you think she might have, oh, I don't know, mentioned it to you?"

Lorelai giggled. "Yeah, you're right. She would have been on the phone instantly. But you should go. It's fabulous. They're outside Sandusky, Ohio, and Jackson raises the most amazing, exotic stuff, plus he runs a winery that's won all sorts of awards, and Sookie's restaurant showcases the wine and all of the stuff he grows, and every time you turn around, another gourmet magazine is talking about her talent, and all of the critics rave about her menu, because there isn't a menu, because it's Sookie, you know, and she makes whatever catches her fancy every day. Being there with them was exhausting, but it was great. Davey's almost through with high school and looking at colleges. Talk about feeling old!"

"The other kids are OK?"

"All five of 'em."

"Five, that's…that's…wow. I don't think I knew about the last two."

Lorelai ticked them on her fingers. "Davey, Martha, Wanda, Collie and Regis."

"Collie?" Luke asked, skeptically.

Lorelai grinned. "Short for Colgate. Jackson finally got his way."

"Good God." Luke snorted a laugh. "Poor kid."

"Oh! And then last month I was in South Carolina, so I stopped by to see Babette and Morey," Lorelai remembered suddenly. "They're in an assisted care facility there. They just talked the management into letting them have a cat. It's named Brandy and it looks just like all of the other cats they've had."

"Morey still wearing the shades?" Luke asked.

Lorelai nodded, growing sober. "It's for a reason though, now. He's got that disease that's destroying his retina, so he needs to protect his eyes from the sunlight."

"Sorry to hear that," Luke said sincerely.

Lorelai nodded, and then grinned again. "It was weird to be there. They didn't build this place, so everything is normal-sized, you know? For once Morey doesn't have to stoop all over inside the house. And I swear Babette is totally shrinking. I don't think she even comes up to my waist anymore."

Luke chuckled at that. He'd been watching Lorelai nervously flip through her wallet as she talked to him, and now he turned it towards him so he could admire a picture in one of the plastic pockets there.

"We took that this year, on Mother's Day," Lorelai said eagerly. She slipped the picture out of the space and handed it to Luke, so he could see it clearly.

"Look at Rory," he marveled. She had always been a pretty girl, but now she looked like she had grown into her beauty, as though happiness and contentment could give Olay a run for their business. Rory was sitting on a stool, holding a laughing Lexie, while Lorelai stood behind them, leaning over Rory, with her arms wrapped around both of them. The smiles on all three faces were identical, as was the joy reflected in the three sets of blue eyes. "Beautiful," he told her, feeling rather than hearing the little catch in his throat. "Perfect."

"Keep it," she told him, as he made to give it back to her. "Believe it or not, I have others."

"If you're sure," he said. He got out his wallet to slip it inside. "Thanks." He noticed Lorelai's eyes trying to bore through the leather, and he wondered what she'd think if he showed her that yes, the horoscope was still there.

He jumped in his seat as his cell phone started to vibrate. "Damn thing still scares the daylights out of me," he groused to Lorelai as he answered it.

"Dad, where are you?" April asked him, bewildered. He wondered if she thought he'd finally cracked and left her in the bookstore as he'd threatened to do for years.

"I'm in the café," he told her.

Silence.

"You're in the café?" she then asked, loud enough for Lorelai to hear her, too.

"Yes," he snapped, annoyed. "I'm in the café and I'm sitting with the most beautiful woman in the place. You can't miss me." He sounded cranky but grinned at Lorelai as he said it.

"O-kay," April said, not knowing what to make of her dad's apparent joke. "I'll be there in a minute."

"April's coming to find me," he told Lorelai, as he put away the phone and his wallet. "This is definitely a first. Usually I'm the one bugging her to leave."

Lorelai nodded, her face clouding over. A little flicker of something painful swept over her eyes. "Why don't I just get Lexie, and I can get out of your way…"

Luke caught her hands as she started to stand up and pulled her back down. "It's fine, Lorelai. It's really fine." He took a deep breath, and squeezed her hands harder. "It should have always been fine." He was relieved when she gave him a wavering smile and squeezed his hands back.

A moment later April stood by the railing indicating the start of the café space and looked for Luke. She still wasn't sure he wasn't pulling her leg. She scanned the patrons there without seeing him. There was a guy with a jacket that looked just like her dad's, but that couldn't be…She looked closer, gasping when she realized that the handsome man was indeed her dad. He was smiling. She'd never seen him smile like that, all goofy and …Good Lord! She gasped again. He was with a beautiful woman! They were holding hands!

Flabbergasted, April stared at the scene before her. Her brain couldn't take in the fact that some sort of picture-perfect child was sitting at the table, too. How in the world had her antisocial father picked up this stunning woman? Aunt Liz had tried every conceivable way to set him up, as had April herself as she'd gotten older, and he had refused them every time. How could it be that in a strange city, her father, Luke Danes, could be holding hands with…

"Lorelai?" April gasped out, finally recognizing her.

"Oh, honey, look at you!" Lorelai jumped up in her usual warm manner and hurried over to April, wrapping her in hug. "Look how tall you are! And so pretty!" She admired the way April had tamed her wild hair, smoothing it back into a chignon with just a few curling tendrils framing her face. The glasses were long gone, and April was at least as tall as Lorelai.

"Oh, Luke," Lorelai said, sounding a little choked. "Look at her chin, and the shape of her face. Oh, and her hands!" Lorelai shook her head a little, smiling. "She does look like you!"

Luke, the proud daddy, just grinned at them both.

"Oh, this is Lexie," Lorelai said, drawing April over to their table. "This is Rory's little girl."

"She's adorable," April said, admiring the cookie Lexie showed her. "It's good to see you again, Lorelai."

"It's been a long time since your thirteenth birthday party, huh? Now here you are, all grown up and smart and living in New York! I guess you can buy your own bags of lip gloss now."

"But they've never been as good as the ones with the sparkles in them that you found in Stars Hollow!" April insisted, smiling at the memory.

Lorelai tried hard to smile at the memory too, but she felt her lips quivering dangerously. When she turned away she saw that Lexie had laid her head down on the table.

"Uh-oh. It looks like I'm being a bad grandma here, making her stay up all past naptime." She glanced at her watch. "Yikes! I had no idea we'd sat here so long. I'd better be getting her home before Rory gives this babysitting gig to someone more punctual." She lifted the tired toddler out of the highchair, wiping her sticky hands with a napkin while Luke tried to help by bagging up the cookies.

"It's been…it's been really great to see you again. Both of you. So good. You have no idea," she babbled, getting Lexie's jacket on.

April stooped down next to Lexie for a moment, showing the little girl a book she was going to buy on butterflies.

Lorelai turned to Luke, who was trying to pretend it wasn't killing him to let her go. Something about standing there in the café made her think of the diner. She remembered leaning across the counter all those countless times, brushing his lips with a goodbye kiss. It seemed so right that she did just that, cupping his cheek with her hand and leaning forward to peck his lips.

That was what she intended, anyway. Luke could sense her thoughts because it was the same thing he was thinking. His hand slipped under her short hair, caressing her neck, and his other hand anchored onto her back. Somehow he managed to stand up, and in seconds what had been intended as a sweet, G-rated kiss escalated up several notches.

April noticed that Lexie was no longer looking at the butterfly book, but was focused on something over her shoulder instead. April turned to see what it was.

"Holy ―" She spun Lexie around, so as not to scar the girl for life, and cleared her throat loudly. "Lorelai, Lexie's ready to go," she said loudly.

Luke and Lorelai broke apart, looking dazed. Lorelai's hand was pushing on Luke's chest, as though she was trying hard to keep some distance between them. Luke's hand was on her face. Both of them were breathing hard.

"Go," Lorelai said, sounding distracted. "I need to go." She picked up her purse and then swung Lexie up to her shoulder. "Bye, April," she said, nodding to her. "Luke," she said softly, letting her hand graze his arm as she passed by.

"Bye," he said gently, dropping back down in his chair. He didn't watch her leave, but stared at his hands instead. He couldn't watch her leave. Not again.

"Would you care to explain that to me?" April demanded, once Lorelai was out of sight. She slipped into Lorelai's vacated seat.

"Explain what?" Luke asked, still staring at his hands.

"What?" April said incredulously. "That serious, heated groping that just happened here, that's what! Every woman in here is salivating over you right now. We might have to smuggle you out of here. Which would be OK, except that you're my dad, and it's a little disturbing, you know?"

"Sorry," Luke said gruffly, not able to look at his daughter yet. "That wasn't what I meant to have happen just now."

April sighed, shaking her head. "You know, you never told me what did happen between you and Lorelai. Just all of a sudden you weren't together any more. And I was just this self-centered kid and when you told me to never mind, it didn't matter, that's just what I did. But now I see that it did matter. It mattered a lot. What happened, Dad? Why did you break up?"

He swallowed hard, wondering if it wouldn't be better to still ignore it. But part of being a dad, he had learned, was trying to make sure your kid didn't make the same mistakes you did.

"I was stupid," he told April. "I was stupid, and I hurt her. Then, because she was hurting so bad, she did something awful and it hurt me back. And then," he said, looking so utterly destroyed that April's heart broke for him, "I did the stupidest thing of all. I did nothing. I did nothing, and now thirteen years have passed and we're still apart, and I…I miss her everyday," he admitted in a voice so low April could barely hear him.

"Ah, Dad," April said, reaching over to pat his back. "You still love her, huh?"

"Of course I still love her," he snapped. "You don't stop loving someone just because they're not around anymore."

"OK," April agreed, soothingly. "Well, let's get out of here and figure out how to get you two together again. Why don't we call her later, and ask her advice on decorating apartments or something…" She stopped at Luke's stricken look. "What?"

"Don't have it," he muttered.

April stared at him for a moment, trying to figure out what he didn't have. It came to her suddenly, knowing her dad. "Oh, geez, Dad, you didn't get her number?"

Luke shook his head.

"Her address?"

Another shake.

"Rory's number? Anything?"

He sighed, rubbing his head.

"It's OK." She patted his shoulder again. "We'll figure out something. We'll Google her. If nothing else, we'll just camp out here in the bookstore until she brings Lexie in again." She pulled at Luke's arm until he reluctantly stood up and they headed to the cashier.

Luckily it appeared that Lorelai's genie was still on duty, because just as they stepped out onto the sidewalk to make their way through the mass of pedestrians towards April's apartment, they heard Luke's name being called. Luke turned, catching a glimpse of Lorelai's bobbing head. He thrust the package of books at April and hurried to meet Lorelai.

She sagged against him as he reached her, fighting for breath after her brisk jog back to intercept him, accomplished while carrying Lexie. He took Lexie from her and put an arm around Lorelai for support as she tried to catch her breath.

"She's heavier than she looks," Lorelai gasped out, pointing at Lexie.

"Yeah, that's it, because you're not out of shape or anything," Luke commented, trying not to be totally overcome with the relief of seeing her and the joy of having her physically in his arms again.

Lorelai smacked his arm for his snide comment. "You're the track star, Butch, not me."

April had made her way through the crowd to join them. She held Lexie's hand so her Dad could concentrate on Lorelai.

"Rory called," Lorelai said, as she tried to pull herself back together. "She was checking on Lexie, and of course, I told her all about seeing the two of you. And she said why don't you guys come over and join us for dinner tonight? If you want to, you know, if you don't have other plans. It will be really casual. There's a great Italian place down the block from them and we were just going to order in. Jeff should be home tonight and he'd love to meet you. And Rory wants to see you so badly." She looked pleadingly at Luke. "Please?"

Luke glanced at April. She smiled, nodding her approval.

"We'd love to," he said, feeling that goofy grin spreading over his face again.

"Good, good," Lorelai said, still panting a little bit. "I was so scared I wouldn't get back here in time to catch you. I was going to call and then I realized I was such a dope and didn't get your number."

"Yeah, there's a lot of that going around," April agreed, ignoring her dad's dirty look.

"Let me give you her address," Lorelai said, and April instantly whipped out her phone and took down all of the information.

"We'll see you around seven, then," Lorelai said, completely glowing with happiness. She picked Lexie back up and turned to leave. "Rory's going to be so excited!"

They watched her walk away. She turned back once to have Lexie wave at them.

"Yeah, Rory's going to be so excited," April commented dryly.

Her dad wasn't listening to her at all, however. "I need to find a grocery store," he muttered, running his fingers through his beard while he made a list of ingredients in his head.