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Luke and Lorelai-shippers can relax – the couple is definitely still together after all these years.

Scott Patterson, the Gilmore Girls star who plays everyone’s favorite diner owner, told PEOPLE on Wednesday that while he “can’t share much” about the show’s Netflix revival, he can confirm that set photos of him and actress Lauren Graham holding hands are exactly what they seem.

“I can tell you that we are together,” he says of the fan-favorite couple while attending the Kiehl’s National LifeRide for amfAR celebration in New York City. “We are together and we’re sort of figuring out our next step.”

As for speculation that one of the Stars Hollow residents has a baby on board? Patterson is playing coy.

The actor will dish, however, on those first days back on set with his original cast mates after years apart (the show wrapped in 2007).

“That came immediately, that’s never been an issue,” Patterson says of getting back into a rhythm. “That’s part of why the show is so successful I mean, [creator Amy Sherman-Palladino] cast the right people.”

Getting back into character as Luke wasn’t quite as seamless, though, Patterson reveals.

“My first rehearsal, I just struggled – I was like, ‘I don’t feel this guy anymore,’ ” he shares. “My first rehearsal, I went to Amy and I said, ‘I don’t feel this, I got to walk around Stars Hollow. I gotta walk around the set and get the old feeling back.’ So I did. I took about a 10-minute walk, I went through the town and I got it. I felt ready. And I came back in and rehearsed the scene and I thought, ‘I’ve got him.’ “

Image zoom Saeed Adyani/Netflix

What can fans expect from the four-part revival, which is modeled after the seasons? For one thing, Patterson says, a moving tribute to the late Edward Herrmann, a.k.a. Richard Gilmore, who died at 71 in 2014.

“Losing Ed, it left just a gaping hole and it was so tragic and so shocking to lose him,” Patterson says. “But as far as the storytelling was concerned, it really deepened the scripts and affected the tone of a lot of it – and especially our characters and how we related to one another.”

He adds, “On the first day on the Gilmore house set, there were some things there that nobody had seen before that we saw that were so moving, that we all kind of had to sit down … Fans are going to be very touched by how Amy has shown her respect and paid her homage to him.”

So what’s Patterson up to until November, when A Year in the Life hits Netflix? Performing with his brand new band, Gordon.

The group, which Patterson formed after years of searching for the perfect bandmates, performs “edgy blues and rock.” The star is lead vocalist, but also dabbles on guitar and writes all the group’s music.

“We formed June 3, so brand new but we’re killing it,” he says. “We’re just absolutely killing it.”

The band will play next in Ocean City, New Jersey, on Aug. 13th.

Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life debuts Nov. 25 on Netflix.

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