Page 60 of Pity Play

If the smile on her face is any indication, she likes the idea. “I love their Bordeaux cherry.”

“Add a scoop of pistachio and you’ve got my favorite combination.” Standing up, I tell her, “I just need to get my stuff out of the kitchen.”

When I come out, Lorelai is already wearing her coat and standing by the front door. She looks endearingly sweet, and not for the first time since being back in Elk Lake, I wonder what it would be like if something were to happen between us.

Opening the door, I tell her, “I used to ask my dad why he didn’t carry cherry and pistachio at the diner for me.” She looks up questioningly. “He said he didn’t want to take the business away from a fellow shop keeper.”

“That was nice of him,” she says.

“My dad has always had a strong sense of fair play. He’s always been honorable that way.”

Lorelai shivers and pulls her coat tighter around her. “I should have brought mittens, but it feels ridiculous to still be wearing them in March. You know in some parts of the country they don’t even have to wear coats in March?” She sounds so annoyed, it causes me to smile.

“I do know this. Did you know that in Hawaii they’re even wearing their swimsuits now?”

She flicks my ear with her fingers. “You don’t have to rub it in.” I reach up and touch her hand before she can move it away and it really is cold. Capturing it in mine, I bring it down and keep holding onto it. She doesn’t pull it away, so I tell her, “I’llkeep you warm.” I don’t realize until afterwards that sounded like some kind of a romantic pledge.

As we walk down the street, it starts to rain, and Lorelai groans, “Now we can be coldandwet. In case you’re wondering this is not the kind of thing I like about living here.”

“You could move to Florida,” I tease.

“I would rather live at the South Pole,” she says. “Midwestern humidity is one thing, but Florida humidity is godawful.”

“I used to think I’d like to live in Costa Rica,” I tell her. “I always felt I was best suited for a tropical climate.”

“Maybe you’ll open a restaurant there someday,” she says. She keeps her eyes straight ahead.

“Maybe so,” I tell her. “But if I did that then I’d be spending a lot of my life traveling.”

“I would have thought that would appeal to you. You seem like an adventurer.”

“I like to travel on vacation,” I tell her. “But if I started opening restaurants all over the world, I’d never be able to stay put long enough to do the other things I want to do.”

She slows down as we reach the ice cream parlor and asks, “Like what?”

This probably isn’t the thing to say while holding her hand, but I do anyway. “I want to have a family some day and I don’t want to be on the road all the time and miss out on spending time with them.”

Lorelai’s posture tenses. “You want to raise kids in Chicago?”

“I hadn’t really thought about it,” I tell her. “I mean, it might not be ideal, but that’s where Capon is.”

“I want to raise a family in Elk Lake,” she says. “I know exactly what it’s like to grow up here and I couldn’t imagine there being a better place.”

I open the door to the ice cream parlor for her before following her in. The old-fashioned décor is how I have always remembered it. White, cast-iron chairs surrounding glass tabletops. Pink andwhite striped wallpaper as the backdrop to pictures of different ice cream creations.

“You should try my favorite,” I tell her.

She smiles sweetly. “I’m game.”

I point to a table by the window. “Go sit down and I’ll be right back.” I watch as she walks away, and I realize my heart is starting to beat in double time whenever I’m around her.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

LORELAI

My stomach is doing flips of joy. Not only did Luke and I have supper togetheronprom night, but he’s taking me out for ice cream,andhe held my hand the entire way here.Dear younger self, all your dreams are coming true!

After a couple of minutes, Luke walks across the ice cream parlor carrying identical sundaes served in sugar cone cups. He announces, “As per our earlier conversation, one scoop of Bordeaux cherry and one scoop of pistachio with homemade hot fudge.”

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