Luke's Daughters

Chapter Eight

Jess

"Thanks, you guys. I appreciate you coming all the way down here to bring me my stuff," I told Chris and Matt. We had just carried the last boxes from their car up to the apartment and were now starting to unpack everything.

"It's no problem," Chris said.

"And since we were heading to Chris' family reunion in Boston this weekend anyway, Stars Hollow was only a minor detour," Matt added. Huh, I thought. I hadn't heard about that part before.

"But, of course, we still would have come just for our good friend Jess," Chris grinned at me.

"Of course. Anyway, now I don't feel quite so guilty anymore."

"Do we still get free food?" Matt now realized his mistake and looked like he was on the verge of panicking.

"Sure, you do." I grinned at them and my two friends high-fived. "Boy, I really am gonna miss you two."

"We're gonna miss you, too." Chris admitted.

"But you know you're always welcome to come visit us at the Truncheon any time you want. And we're gonna be back here when you open your bookstore at the latest," Matt promised.

"Hey, Jess! I need you to get your butt back down to the diner," Rory called as she burst through the door. "I know I ... didn't know you had company. Sorry." Rory smiled sheepishly.

"No problem, darlin'." Matt said heading over to her with a charming smile.

"Yeah, a beautiful lady like you can disturb us any time." Chris was right on his heels.

"Down, boys!" I told them, making Rory laugh. "This is Rory. She's my uncle's daughter and you've met Uncle Luke. So, you best behave yourselves."

"So, Rory's your cousin?" Matt asked.

"No!" both Rory and I exclaimed, and Rory proceeded to explain to my friends the complicated story of how the two of us were more or less related. "But since we used to date back before my mom and his uncle got together, we don't really focus on the cousin part. That's just too weird."

"Understood," Matt and Chris chorused.

"So, you're the ex-girlfriend Jess keeps talking about," Chris shot me an evil grin. "You know, Rory ..."

"You needed my help downstairs, Ror?" I asked before Chris could say anything to embarrass me further.

"Um, yeah. Luke sent me up, he needs you to take over. You know, because of his meeting with Anna and April. I would help out, but I need to get to work."

"Of corse, I'll come with you right now. Guys, I trust I can leave you two up here without having to worry about you breaking something." I shot my two friends a warning look.

"Sure you can." Matt grinned at me.

"It was really nice to meet you, Rory," Chris added.

"It was really nice to finally meet you guys, too." Rory smiled at the. "And next time, I want to hear all about what Jess has told you about me." The boys burst out laughing and Rory just looked at me with an innocent smile.

"Let's get you out of here," I told her and pushed her out the door before turning around one last time. "You guys just come down if you're hungry."

"Relax, Jess. I'm just teasing," Rory said once we were out the door. "So, you've been talking about me?"

"No," I immediately answered. "Well, maybe a little bit. And I was wondering if I could ask you something."

"Sure, Jess, go ahead. You can ask me anything." Rory smiled and that gave me the courage I needed to finally get the words I had been trying to say for a while now out.