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Something tickled. Logan shook his head involuntarily, his still mostly asleep body rejecting this outside stimulus. There was a laugh—a high pitched giggle—and then, something cold and sticky pulling on his earlobe.
His eyes lurched open and he turned onto his back, now fully awake. He grabbed the culprit lifting her easily so she was hovering above him, an arm's length away.
"You think that's funny, do you?" he asked the still giggling toddler who hung in midair.
"Horsey, horsey," she chanted in reply.
"Do I look like a horsey to you?" he asked.
"Horsey."
Logan lowered his daughter until she was sitting on his chest, then turned his head to face her mother who was sitting on the bed, propped up against the upholstered headboard with her MacBook in her lap. He was happy to see her hard at work. She'd had a rough spell there for a while, and he'd hated seeing her struggle, first with journalism, then with her book. But she'd finally found her groove again and Gilmore Girls had been as big a success as he knew it could be. Even his father had loved it; but of course he did—it was better PR than even Mitchum Huntzberger could have orchestrated. And now it had been requisitioned for a TV pilot.
"She's very one note today," he said.
"Well, you did promise her a horsey," Rory replied without looking up from her work. "Despite my objections."
"A girl only turns two once, Ace," he maintained. "If she wants a horsey, she should have a horsey."
"Horsey, horsey," Lila chanted again, bouncing up and down and clumsily waving her arms in the air as though she were holding a set of reigns.
Logan sat up, giving Lila a kiss on the cheek. "Uncle Colin is bringing your horsey," he promised her, before addressing Rory again. "Besides, you're the one who owns a horse," He reminded her.
"I do not own a horse," Rory argued, finally closing her laptop and turning her attention to Logan. "Horses scare the bejesus out of me. It's been 15 years since Mom opened the Inn and I can still barely walk past the stables without worrying that Cleetus is going to get out and trample me."
"That may be so, but Colin transferred 50% ownership of Queen of the Sloths to you last year as an engagement present."
"And why did he do that again?" Rory asked.
Logan shrugged. "Don't ask me to explain the inner workings of any of my friends' crazy brains. Maybe he was afraid you were gonna change your mind and wanted to lock it down," he laughed. Rory looked suddenly sober.
"Logan…"
"Hey!" he stopped her, knowing where she was about to go. She was worried that he was afraid she was going to change her mind. "We've been through this, Ace. You've more than earned my trust back. I know you're not going anywhere."
It had taken Logan a long time to get passed his fear that Rory would leave—and take Lila with her. A lot of those concerns were legitimate, given their history. But he'd learned to accept his role in their relationship troubles too. He'd used her rejection of his proposal at her graduation as an excuse not to put himself out there again. Rory may have had her issues with commitment, but how could he really blame her for not committing when he'd never even told her that's what he wanted? He wasn't even sure he knew what he wanted back then—other than someone to love, and to love him back.
That's why he'd stayed with Odette. Why he'd asked her to marry him. She was a great woman, and she wanted to be with him. But she was safe. Colin had once said he and Odette would have been perfectly content together, and he was right, they would have been. But this—what he had now—was so much better than that. Even if it was hard. Even when he had trouble balancing it all—which was pretty much always. This was a family.
"Horsey!" Lila chanted. Logan and Rory both laughed.
"You and your horsey," Logan replied, reaching over to tickle his daughter's belly. She giggled, squirming away from her father's assault.
Rory watched on with her heart glowing. She caught her daughter's eye and winked conspiratorially before diving into the fray and attacking Logan with wiggling fingers, pinning him to the bed so Lila could climb on and help.
"Hey! No fair," Logan gulped out between gasps of air. "Two against one."
"Yes, but on a pound for pound basis, you still outweigh the two of us combined," Rory argued as she continued her assault with a smirk. Logan kicked and squirmed, trying to wriggle out from under them for a few moments more until Rory finally tired and collapsed on top of him to catch her breath. Lila giggled merrily, still attempting to tickle her father.
"Daddy ticklish," she squealed. Logan fake laughed and squirmed for a few more seconds, humoring his daughter into believing her clumsy fingers were capable of making him squeal, before crying "Uncle" in surrender.
"Uncca Finny?" Lila asked.
"Huh?" Logan queried, from his spot underneath his two favorite girls.
"You say 'uncca' to make tickles stop," she replied. "Which uncca make them stop?"
"Oh," Logan chuckled. "Well not Uncle Finn, that's for sure. He is a tickle fight champion. I'd have to say Uncle Robert is the biggest spoil sport."
"Uncca Wobby silly," Lila replied in agreement. "He always so sewious."
"You think she's too young to understand the concept of oxymoron?" Rory asked.
"Ace," Logan chided.
"You're right," she agreed. "Oxymoron is more of a two-and-half year old word."
The threesome snuggled quietly for a few moments before Lila, unable to keep still for long, broke the silence. "Hunngy," she said.
Rory flopped her head over to look at the clock. "We better get up," she admitted. "We've got a lot to do to set up for her birthday party and our Gilmore genes will require sustenance and coffee before we get to work."
"Bweakfast," Lila agreed. "Coffeeee!"
Logan turned to glare at his fiancée.
"I meant coffee for me!" Rory defended, sitting up for emphasis.
"Rory, if you have given our two-year-old daughter coffee…"
"I didn't, I swear!" she promised. "She just wants to be like her Mom."
He glared at her a moment more. "I didn't" she repeated.
"Fine," Logan relented. "Let's go get some breakfast," he added, not moving from his spot.
"Bweakfast then horsey?" Lila asked hopefully, pulling on her father's hand to get him out of bed.
"Well, there may be a little gap in the middle there, Bean," he informed her, following her out of bed. "But your horsey is coming."
"Horsey," Lila repeated with a smile as she led her parents to the kitchen. She was certainly a girl who knew what she wanted.
"What are those?" Logan asked, looking at the two dog sized creatures being unloaded from the trailer onto his expansive lawn.
"They're the horses you requested," Colin informed him with a perplexed look, pouring himself a glass of bourbon from the bar cart on the patio as he, Logan, and Robert watched the party planners set up around them. The patio was decked out in equestrian themed decorations. It looked like the Kentucky derby if all the horses were dyed pink and purple.
"Where's Queenie?"
"I'm sorry, but did you seriously think I was going to bring a world class racing thoroughbred to a two-year-old's birthday party?" he asked, his eyebrows reaching towards the top of his head in incredulity. "I don't think that's safe for the horse or the kids."
"Well when you put it that way," Logan agreed, feeling foolish. Of course the kids were going to want to interact with the horse, not just look at it from afar. "Although I didn't know you owned these horse-mastiff hybrids."
"They're miniature horses," Colin corrected his friend as they watched the creatures be led across the lawn towards a temporary paddock Luke had built to contain them. "And I don't."
"Oh," Logan replied in surprise. "Well, you didn't need to rent horses. I could have done that myself."
"I didn't rent them either," Colin informed him.
"You do realize that if horse-napping is involved in any part of this story, your license to practice law could in in jeopardy."
"Uncca Cowwwwwwin!" A small, blonde, streak clad in a khaki skirt, riding boots and short sleeved version of a riding jacket, barreled into his leg.
"I guess someone's nap is over," Logan commented.
"Well 'hello' to you too, little lady," Colin replied with a smile, leaning down to greet the toddler with a hair tousle.
Lila turned her attention to Robert, half hiding behind Colin's leg. "Hi, Uncca Wobby," she added shyly.
"Happy birthday, Kid," he told her, pulling an envelope out of his pocket and handing it to her.
"Pwesent?" she asked, her blue eyes brightening with anticipation.
"Stock in Slack. They just went public, I got you in on the ground floor."
Lila looked confused and turned her attention back to Colin. Logan took the envelope from Robert with an eye roll. "Horsey?"
Colin laughed. "Another woman who only wants me for material gain."
"At least she wants you," Robert replied bitterly. "I can barely get the kid to look at me."
"Yeah," Colin laughed. "You may want to brush up on those kid skills—soon."
Lila pulled on Colin's pant leg. "Daddy say you bring horsey for my birtday!" Lila interrupted again.
"And Daddy was right," Colin assured her, sweeping his arm out towards the lawn where the horses were starting to explore their new enclosure.
"Yay! Want to pet horsey!"
"Now that's small thinking, Possum." An Australian voice broke in. "It's your birthday, go big! You're going to ride that horsey."
"Uncca Finnnyyy!" Lila let go of Colin's leg and turned to the newest addition, holding her hands up wide. "Uppy, uppy!" Finn hoisted her up into his arms.
"And another woman who left me for Finn," Colin added with a sigh.
"It's the accent," Finn informed his friend. "Women just can't resist it."
"It's true," Robert agreed. "It's how I knocked up Charlotte."
"You don't have an accent," Logan reminded him.
"I did the night I met Char. Irish brogue. She was putty in my hands." The group hadn't been too shocked when Robert informed them he had gotten a woman pregnant after a one night stand. The biggest shock was that it had taken this long. But the real surprise came when he informed them that, rather than just pay the child support and be done with it, he and the mother had decided to give a relationship a try. And even more surprising was how smitten Robert seemed to be with the woman. Actually, the most surprising thing was that Charlotte put up with him.
"I was drunk and horny," a very pregnant brunette woman added, walking up to group with Rory.
"They should put that on the surgeon general's warning," Rory added.
"It would certainly keep me from the bottle," Logan agreed.
"I don't know," Finn seemed to contemplate this, "Robert is a reasonably handsome man, and I can't get pregnant."
"Never gonna happen, Finn," Robert told him, taking a step away from the Australian.
"You never know," Charlotte shrugged contemplatively, taking a sip of the iced tea in her hands. "I'd be open to a three-way,"
"Okay, this conversation has progressed waaaay past what is appropriate around a toddler," Rory reminded them.
"Sorry." Charlotte looked sheepish. "Hi Lila," she greeted the child in Finn's arms.
"Hi Charchar," Lila peeked up. "You want to come see horseys with me?"
"Absolutely," the woman told her. "I love horses."
"Where did you get them from anyway, Colin?" Rory asked, taking in the two small farm animals grazing on her backyard.
"They belong to Queenie's vet," Colin told them.
Rory squinted her eyes in confusion. "And he just let you…borrow…his horses?"
"Her," Finn corrected them. He placed his hands over Lila's ears. "And Colin's totally rooting her," he added in a stage whisper.
Lila squirmed, tired of being held by Finn, and even more tired of all the conversation. She wanted to see the horseys. Finn put her down. "Come on," she said, pulling on Charlotte's skirt.
"I've already heard this story," Charlotte said, "So I'm just gonna follow the birthday girl before she hears anything she should never have to hear.
Rory smiled gratefully and watched as her daughter and friend made their way towards the miniature horses.
"You're sleeping with your vet?" Rory asked reproachfully. "Aren't there, like, rules against that?"
"She's Queenie's doctor, not mine," Colin replied with an eye roll. "Besides, she's not her main doctor, she's just the intern. Did you know vet school is 80% female these days? They get out of school and they're just dying for a man."
It was Rory's turn to roll her eyes. "I highly doubt that."
"Well, fine," Colin relented. "But they make crap money and have a ton of student loans, so positioning myself to be her sugar daddy can't hurt."
"Or you could, you know, try to form a real connection with someone," Rory suggested.
"Yeah, I don't have time for that," Colin argued.
"Mr. Huntzberger, Ms. Gilmore?" A nervous looking person in a catering uniform interrupted.
"Yes?" Logan answered.
"I'm sorry to bother you, but they're here with the carousel, and they want to know where to set up."
Rory's eyes went wide. "Carousel?" she repeated in a high-pitched voice, turning to face Logan. "You got a freaking carousel?"
"It fit with the horse theme," Logan defended.
Rory took a deep breath, trying to calm herself. This party had gotten sooooooo out of hand. She didn't want her daughter to grow up ridiculously spoiled, thinking she was the center of the universe and could get whatever she wanted with some money and a bat of her eyelashes.
"Remind me again how you got me to agree to this?"
"I'll remind you tonight…it's not really company appropriate," Logan told her with a wink.
"Oh please," Rory rolled her eyes. "20 minutes after the caterers leave, you'll be passed out in Lila's bed halfway through her bedtime story and she'll be tucking you in." And Rory would be cleaning up the mess the caterers left behind. No way was this happening again for Lila's third birthday.
Finn snickered. "And you're not even married yet, Mate. Pathetic."
But Logan just smiled. Falling asleep next to his daughter was just fine with him.
"Can I join you?" Honor asked, approaching the table full of women.
"Sure," Rory told her, scooting her chair over to make room for Honor to pull up another.
"Thanks. I need to look busy or my parents will corner me again."
Rory laughed. "I can totally respect that." Rory's relationship with Logan's parents had progressed to being able to be in the same room with them without having a full-blown anxiety attack. And they, in turn, managed to stay civil around her; heck, sometimes she even got the impression that Mitchum almost liked her. Even her grandmother had befriended them again—sort of. She said it was for Lila—that her family should all get along. But Rory knew that a part of her grandmother was happy to get a piece of her old life back, even if things were going well in Nantucket with her new job and her freakish new attachment to Berta and her family.
Still, no matter how civil things had gotten with the Huntzbergers, Rory would take any opportunity to avoid them, so she could hardly blame Honor for doing the same.
"They keep bugging me about boarding schools for Aiden. They want me to send him to Eton. Dad's all—'he'll still be close to family,' as though he still lives in London. He's here more often than not."
"Isn't Aiden only 11?" Lane asked.
"Yep."
"That's not even as old as the twins. I couldn't imagine Steve and Kwan living an entire ocean away at their age, that's terrible."
"That's society life," Paris interjected, sipping on a mint julep. She turned to Rory. "If you're not careful, they'll have Lila in etiquette school by the time she's six."
"Oh don't worry, Gramcy Lorelai will make sure that girl never learns the proper way to courtesy," she assured them, popping a bourbon meatball in her mouth. "She will eat with her elbows on the table, wear hats indoors…"
"Speak with her mouth full…" Rory added with a laugh. Lorelai had always been a big child in a lot of ways, but some days it seemed being a grandmother had turned her into even more of a kid. The other day she'd caught the woman making farting noises with her armpits. How Luke continued to put up with her was baffling, but somehow, since the wedding, the couple was as strong as ever.
"Darn tootin'."
"Hey, Mom!" Steve came running up to Lane. "Kwan is kicking Dad's ass in horseshoes, come watch!"
"Language," Lane admonished.
"Sorry," Steve looked sheepish.
"It's alright," she told her son. "A mother's work is never done," she said, turning to the group. "Time to cheer on my son. Of course tonight I'll have to deal with Zach when he's all sullen over losing to a 12 year old."
"At least their father is around to lose to them. Some of us have baby daddy's who care more about their screen plays than their children," Paris grumbled.
Rory rolled her eyes. Paris and Doyle's divorce had been…contentious, to say the least. And sure, Doyle spent a lot of time in California for work, but he was hardly an absentee father.
"Didn't Doyle just take the kids with him to Hollywood for two weeks?"
"What's your point?" Paris snapped.
"They went to Disney Land and took tours of the TV studio," Rory reminded her friend.
"Listen, we all knoooow you love Doyle. Why don't you just go marry him."
"Well, for starters I don't really think I'd like living in Los Angeles. And also, I'm kind of taken."
Rory looked up and saw that Steve had already pulled Lane halfway across the yard towards the section of the lawn where Zach and Kwan were playing horseshoes.
She figured it was probably time to check on her own kid. She let her gaze scan the backyard, looking for her daughter's bright blonde hair. She found her not far off, sitting on her father's lap getting her face painted.
She wanted to be annoyed with Logan for this monstrosity of a party, but it was hard to stay mad at him when she saw the way he looked at their daughter—like he would move heaven and earth to make her happy.
Rory stared for a moment, her heart more full of love than she'd ever imagined it could be. This had never been her plan—this domestic scene. She'd spent her youth dreaming of traveling the globe, hobnobbing with world leaders, and receiving international journalism awards. There'd been no room in those dreams for wedding planning and raising children. Or so she'd thought.
In fact, the idea that she might need marriage and children to be happy had been truly offensive to her. She hated to admit that she needed a man to be happy—or motherhood. It took her a long time to learn to accept that it was okay to feel more fulfilled having Logan and Lila in her life than she did without them. Because it wasn't marriage and motherhood that fulfilled her, it was Logan and Lila.
And truth be told, she still didn't long for marriage. She wanted to spend the rest of her life with Logan, of that she was sure. But she would have been totally fine Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn-ing it forever. Marriage was important to Logan, though; he needed that commitment from her, and she completely understood why, after all they had been through. And so, they were getting married. But sometimes she worried that Logan would think she was settling. She worried that he would think she had only agreed out of guilt or obligation. She worried that one day, her agreeing to marry him wouldn't be enough for him—that he would need her to want it as much as he did.
Looking at her fiancé and daughter, though, she knew she didn't really have anything to worry about. The charming but selfish boy she'd first fallen in love with all those years ago had turned into a kind and generous man who would do anything for the people he loved. All he wanted was to be with them.
"Earth to Rory," Lorelai's voice broke in.
Rory shook herself out of her daze. "Huh?" she said, wiping away a stray tear.
"You okay there, Kid?" her mother asked.
"Yeah," Rory nodded.
"You've got snot coming out of your nose," Paris noted.
"I'm fine, really," Rory assured them. "It's just…"
"Just what?"
"Look at them," she said, a bittersweet smile on her face as she pointed to the two most important people in her life. Logan was laughing a warm, candid laugh as Lila smeared face paint all over his cheek.
"They look happy," Honor noted with a smile. This was all she ever wanted for her little brother. His genuine happiness.
"Yeah," Rory sniffled.
"So what's the problem?" Lorelai asked.
"There is no problem."
"Ooookay…" Lorelai tried to understand.
"They're perfect," Rory admired. "Absolutely perfect."
"And you hate perfect."
"I hate…" Rory hesitated, glancing to her almost sister-in-law on her right. She didn't want to bring this up in front of her. Was it wise to rehash the past in front of the people she'd affected? "I hate…that I almost…that I tried…" She looked at Honor again, her face filled with regret.
There were still days when she loathed herself for her attempts to keep Logan out of her and Lila's lives. She had almost denied them this beautiful relationship. She'd almost denied herself the joy of seeing how happy they both could be just having a paint fight. All because she'd been scared. Scared that Logan wouldn't choose her. And even more scare that he would. She'd been deathly afraid of this amazingly beautiful life she was currently living. How could she have ever been frightened of this?
"Hey!" Honor grabbed her hand and gave it a squeeze. "You're forgiven."
"But I almost…"
"Almost only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades," Paris quipped. "You want to go join Zach and Kwan at the horseshoe court, you can talk 'almost.' Otherwise, get your act together and just be happy Logan turned out to be way less of an ass than I gave him credit for."
Honor shot Paris a glare which Paris, being Paris, was oblivious too.
"You're right," Rory agreed. There was no use dwelling on the past. She'd screwed up, but fate had interjected and given her her family anyway.
She stood up and walked across the yard to Logan and Lila, scooping her daughter up and giving her a great big hug. She leaned in and gave Logan a kiss. "Thank you," she told him.
"For what?" he asked, perplexed.
"For being the kind of man who would throw our two-year-old a ridiculously, extravagant pony party that could rival the Preakness."
"I thought you hated this party," he replied, his brow furrowed in confusion.
"Oh, I do," Rory admitted. "And the next time she has a shindig this elaborate, she better be graduating college—or being elected the fifth female president."
"Fifth?" Logan asked.
"A new woman every 8 years until she's 35," Rory clarified.
"Right," Logan agreed with a laugh.
"But I still love you for loving her enough to do all this, even if it is too much."
Logan smirked, and leaned in to given Rory and Lila both a kiss on the cheek. "For my girls," he replied, "anything."