Jess paced up and down the kitchen, ducking under the phone cord as he tried to do what Luke had asked and take care of the ordering for that week.

"No...ten pounds of the beef patties and twenty pounds of the rindless bacon. Yes...No! No - twenty pounds! No - the bacon, not the turkey...No...The..."

Beep.

Jess cursed under his breath, ignoring the scandalised look from Miss Patty and the gleeful look from Babette. He untangled himself from the phone cord, which took longer than was strictly necessary and made him curse again. This time, it was not softly, nor was it under his breath.

"Not again! Jess!"

"It's not my fault if the delivery guys can't tell the difference between turkey and bacon!"

Luke glowered. "You can't swear in the diner!"

"You swear in the diner!"

"I would never say..." he looked around, lowering his voice, "...that word...in the diner! Look, Jess, whatever's going on, leave the language upstairs."

"I..."

But Luke was unstoppable. "I don't care if you are in l-"

And with the worst word Luke had heard in years, the diner door slammed and Jess was off down the street, sprinting faster than Luke had ever seen him move in a year.

... ... ...

"I love you. I love...you. I love you...lots...I love - damn!"

"Aw, Jess, I love you too."

For the third time that day, Jess swore. Lorelai was sitting, knitting needles poised, behind him on the bench in the gazebo. Jess had blown past her in such a hurry that he hadn't even seen her. Lorelai looked up, amused.

"You kiss my daughter with that mouth?"

Jess clamped his hand over his mouth and looked down at the ground. For the first time in his life, he found himself strangely close to a sensation that felt like fighting back tears. Rory was so precious to him, yet it was driving him crazy. He couldn't tell her he loved her, he couldn't tell anyone he loved her, because he had told so many girls over the years that he loved them and every single time, it had been a lie. He thought of Rory's small hand in his, how small and fragile and delicate it was, and was reminded of how determined he was not to hurt her.

"Jess, I've been there. Everybody's been there. You fall in love for the first time in your life and you realise that all the other times you thought you were in love or you said you were, you really weren't because they were nothing compared to how you're feeling now."

Jess swallowed. He wasn't sure how he felt about Lorelai being able to read his mind.

"I'm not reading your mind, you know."

Damn! How did she do that?

"Why...why are you knitting?" he managed.

"Taylor was being...well, Taylor, this morning, and he suggested that we all sit in the gazebo and knit, and then people would sponsor us and we could rebuild the bridge."

Jess fought down a flashback that involved Rory, scantily dressed in the middle of the night, straddling him not far from that bridge.

"You'll get through it, Jess. Whatever it is, she's a smart girl. I should know...she is my favourite daughter."

... ... ...

Rory paced up and down her bedroom, twisting her shirt in between her hands. Never, never before in her young life, had she felt so torn. Jess was clever, smart, talented with his fingers and undeniably sexy. That much she was clear on. But he hadn't said...he'd never said...

She sank to her bed, fighting back tears. They had agreed to be together only in public places until they could trust themselves in private. But she didn't feel that she would ever be able to trust herself in private around Jess. Their innocent little game of Who Want To Be A Millionaire had nearly ended in passionate sex on the bedroom floor, and what had worried Rory the most was the fact that she had really wanted it to. Every part of her body had wanted it to end that way. Every part of her body burned at the mere though of his touch, his kiss.

She lay on her back on her bed and closed her eyes. She hadn't seen Jess for nearly a week, not since they had argued about the Beatles and then resolved their argument against the back wall of her house. She couldn't be sure, but she had a feeling that that was the night that had tipped her over the edge. That had made her want Jess more than life itself. But then again, maybe it had been watching Jess see her shirtless, or feeling him press against her in the store cupboard, or sitting in his lap in the diner that first night, or maybe even the first day she saw him walking down the street in his leather jacket.

It was strange, considering how recently they had met and the whirlwind nature of their romance, that she had come to depend on him so much. She yearned to feel his lips on her mouth, caressing her gently and making her want to melt into him. She longed for his touch, his hands on her skin, causing the delicious rippling over her and through her, driving her to a place where she felt things coursing through her that she had, up until that point, only ever read about in her books. He made her thighs tingle and her stomach tighten and her hands grab at him, raking her nails down his back until his wonderfully hard body was touching her in all the right places, the hot places on her body that positively ached with the need to feel him pressed against her.

The doorbell rang, which jerked her out of her little fantasy, and made her realise with some embarrassment that one of her hands was lingering on her thigh and the other was curled around her breast. She jumped up, splashes of red colouring her cheeks and her hair mussed on one side where she had rubbed her head against the pillow. And although she couldn't have known, she also had a wild, lustrous gleam in her beautiful blue eyes. But then again, maybe she did have some idea that something had changed inside her. Because at that moment, she came to realise something. Something that would change the way she saw things, particularly Jess.

She pulled open the door, still guiltily struggling with the needful thoughts that plagued her. Then her mouth fell open.

It was Jess.