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Rory watched a wave of water brush over her outstretched legs. Her toes were wiggling in the wet sand and the skin of her legs dried almost instantly in the blistering heat.
An enormous white sun hat was sitting on top of her head and provided her with some relief from the relentless late August sun.
Behind her she could vaguely hear Sookie and Luke argue about the perfect thickness for burger patties while Lorelai heckled with unrelated jokes and tried to derail the debate. Now and then she could also hear Jackson snoring softly. All four adults were sitting in lounge chairs under a large baby blue parasol.
A little farther down the beach to the left was Kirk. He was building a giant sandcastle with his girlfriend, dangerously close to the waves.
Rory watched them for a while and admired Kirk's stubbornness in trying to build a rather tall sand tower that kept collapsing... currently for the third time.
Her attention was diverted when something emerged from the sea in front of her.
It was a teenage girl wearing large single-window diving goggles with an attached snorkel. Long wet black hair was tangled around her head and neck like seaweed. She was wearing a black swimsuit, covered in tiny white skulls.
"Rory! I think I saw a sea snake!" Lane declared proudly with her arms akimbo.
Rather than being impressed, Rory was more concerned with Lane's skin tone. She was as red as a tomato.
"Lane, you're totally sunburned!"
Rory got to her feet and went over to inspect the damage.
"Wha?" Lane looked down at her arms. "Oh wow, you totally don't notice underwater."
She removed the diving goggles from her head with some effort. Rory tried not to laugh at the suction sound and the round impressions they left on Lane's face.
Rory sighed and transferred her big sun hat onto Lane's head. It looked even bigger on the smaller girl.
"Come here, Mr. Krabs," Rory teased. "Let's get you into the shade."
Rory gently led her friend to the parasol, where her mom and the others were already watching them approach with mild concern.
Rory and Lane had retreated to the idyllic garden behind the beach house, which had several great old trees that were kind enough to provide them shade with their broad canopies. Cicadas were chirping and bumblebees lazily drifted from flower to flower.
The Gilmore family beach house sat in a secluded spot just outside Madison, on the Long Island Sound. It was a weathered old New England cottage with shingled walls and an overgrown hedge enclosing the garden.
Lane sat down very carefully on a wooden sun lounger and Rory sat down next to her on a small wall made of dry-stacked stone that supported a raised plant bed full of sage and rosemary.
The garden was small, enchanting and a little overgrown. Fairly conclusive evidence that Emily Gilmore did not visit her beach house very often.
"Turn around, I think your neck and back got the worst of it."
Lane made a vague noise of agreement and then small noises of pain while she turned around and lay flat on the sun lounger.
Rory studied a glass jar full of a thick transparent liquid.
Sookie had given it to them. "Jackson's finest grade aloe vera extract!" Sookie had proclaimed happily. Jackson had snored a little louder in agreement.
Rory unscrewed it and dunked one of Sookie's silicone cooking brushes into the liquid. Lane twitched when Rory first touched the brush to her bright-red shoulder, but then she made a sound of relief.
"I feel like I'm basting a turkey," Rory said.
"Hey!" Lane complained, but she chuckled at the same time. "Ouch, stop making me laugh!"
"Sorry, I'll stop." Rory said, but she did not really sound sorry.
Rory carefully helped Lane slip out of the top of her swimsuit so she could reach the worst of the burn. The little white skulls on the black swimsuit grinned up at her.
"How did you get this swimsuit past your mom, anyway?" Rory asked.
Lane made a small noise that Rory knew conveyed smugness over a well-thought-out plan.
"I bought three bathing suits."
"Two decoys?"
"Yes. One tame one and one outrageous one."
Rory knew for Mrs. Kim any kind of bikini counted as "outrageous".
"You let her find the outrageous one so she could confiscate it?"
"She actually confiscated both. I guess the tame one wasn't tame enough."
"Then how did you get this one past her?"
"I wore this one underneath my school swimsuit. They have a similar shape so no lines were visible."
Rory stared at her.
"Remind me to never play chess against you."
Lane chuckled.
“I don't care for chess. This is rock 'n' roll!”
Rory took special care to paint the back of Lane's ears with aloe. This task was turning out to be oddly relaxing.
They both turned their heads when a noise came from the house, but they relaxed again when it turned out to be Lorelai.
“I bring tribute.”
Lorelai was wearing oversized sunglasses and a red sunhat with white polka dots that gave her the look of an oversized ladybug. She was carrying three enormous plastic cups filled with something violently blue.
“Sookie says you need fluids. So I brought slushies.”
They both accepted a slushy.
"Mh, tastes blue," Lane said after taking a sip.
"I love blue." Rory agreed while sipping on hers.
"I asked around for cures for sunburns," Lorelai said very earnestly. "But the advice was all over the place. So I just got a bit of everything."
Lorelai placed a bunch of items on a small round table next to the sun lounger.
"Some say you should do yogurt, others said you should slap on some cucumbers, so maybe combine them into tzatziki..."
"Mom..."
"Apparently a bath of chamomile tea works," Lorelai placed a handful of tea bags on the table, "Or a bath with a cup full of apple cider," Lorelai placed a big bottle of apple cider. "But don't drink this one or I'll go to prison!"
Lorelai carefully placed a damp towel on Lane's forehead and studied the sunburns with concern, despite her earlier jokey attitude. Lane smiled up at her. For a second, Rory thought her eyes looked suspiciously shiny.
"I think that's supposed to be apple cider vinegar, not straight up apple cider," Rory said.
"Huh?" Lorelai picked up the bottle. "Okay, this one is for me then."
Sookie's voice rang out through the garden. "Lorelai! Quick, Kirk needs help defending his castle against the waves!"
"Oh, gotta go!" Lorelai said. "You two keep out of the sun!"
"Thanks Lorelai," said Lane with a smile.
"Yeah thanks, mom."
Lorelai quickly jogged back towards the beach.
"You know, Rory. This might be the best day of the year."
Rory gave her a confused look.
"Lane, you got roasted."
"Yeah."
"And your mom will probably hit the roof."
"True."
Lane grabbed Rory's hand and smiled at her.
"I got to pick everything today."
Rory glanced pointedly at her shoulders. "You made some questionable decisions."
Lane grinned. "They were my questionable decisions."
From somewhere in the distance came Kirk's anguished voice.
"THE EASTERN WALL IS COLLAPSING!"
Lane settled deeper into the sun lounger and closed her eyes.
"I also got to see a sea snake. Best day of the year."
Rory let her thumb caress the back of Lane's hand.
"And the day isn't even over yet..."