A Father's Love

Chapter 23

Luke wasn't sure what to do, following the confrontation with Shelby about what's been bothering her. He wasn't even sure what to say to Rachel. He knew they should go over there and have Shelby apologize, maybe him, too. When he approached Shelby to discuss it, she hid under the bed and refused to come out, so Luke left her alone.

Tuesday night came, bringing another town meeting. Town meetings had become a favorite of Shelby's, because most of the stuff discussed would cause her to giggle. Luke had to admit, some of it was pretty funny, especially whenever Lorelai was late and would confuse Taylor before he changed the subject back to what they were discussing. However, this particular time, Lorelai was actually on time. Or so they thought.

The meeting ended up starting earlier than usual, which Luke pointed out, annoyed.

Taylor tried to make excuses, which backfired before Miss Patty suggested he'd come clean and admit that Luke wasn't invited since they were discussing recent events that have happened since Jess moved to town. Someone even pointed out he was more than likely the reason Shelby got into a fight with their son. Luke tried to argue he was handling things, and that there wasn't a problem. He had so much stuff on his plate that he did not want to have to argue with Taylor, or even Bootsy, for that matter, who had jumped in. But he did anyway, and nobody was even listening to him. With his mind on the townspeople, Luke never saw what came next.

"'Top i'!"

The whole place grew silent as all eyes landed on the little girl standing in front of her seat. Shelby's face turned the brightest shade of red Luke had ever seen. She was frozen stiff. Lorelai gave her back a comforting rub before standing to her feet and stuck up for Luke, as well.

Grabbing Shelby up into his arms, Luke took back his offer to keep the diner open after the meeting and carried her out of the studio, taking Shelby home.

Up in the apartment, Luke paced around the room, trying to calm Shelby's nerves, running a hand along her back as he spoke soft, comforting words to her, all the while, taking deep breaths and trying to calm himself down. How had he gotten into this mess? All Luke wanted to do was help someone out and be a good father. How did all this drama pile up like this?

After a while, Luke got both of them calm and got Shelby ready for bed.

First chance he got Wednesday, Luke called Madison, once again.

"I'm losing my mind," he began into the phone and began ranting everything that had been happening without stopping to catch his breath. Luke could hear the woman try to get a word in, but his words just kept pouring out. Finally, he ended with the same thing he started with, "I am losing my mind here."

Things were silent for a minute.

"Uh, Madison?"

"I was just making sure you were finished. I thought if I opened my mouth, I'd get interrupted again." She snickered as if it was a joke, so Luke forced one, too. "So, Shelby's having a hard time again, huh?"

"Yeah, and I think it's because of the fight her mom and I had over the phone," he explained.

"That can seem scary for a child to overhear," she said, in sympathy.

Luke shrugged. "I don't know what to do. She won't talk about it when I suggested we'd go over and apologize."

"Yes, Shelby has never been confident in confrontations after upsetting behaviors. She gets really ashamed whenever she feels she's in trouble or the possibility of someone being angry with her."

Luke shrugged a second time. "What should I do? Rachel seems just as hurt about all this as Shelby is. Before all of this, I've never even seen Rachel shed a tear."