A Father's Love

Chapter 24

   Luke parked in front of the school, twenty minutes before school was over. It was usually a nightmare finding a parking space whenever he was picking Shelby up, so Luke made sure to get there, early. Rachel's confession had been floating around in his mind ever since he left her apartment. It hurt the most knowing the life of his little girl was almost taken away. In fact, even though it hadn't been a year yet, Luke couldn't see life without her, anymore. The past year had seemed like a long time and didn't feel like it's been eight months.

He thought about those eight months, too. The times the two spent getting to know one another and Luke learning what fatherhood was all about. The first time Shelby had spoken was one of his favorites. It was a milestone, that was for sure, and a proud moment for both of them.

Reliving happy memories made Luke remember there was a time when it was just the two of them. Sure, Lorelai was around to help, and he was glad and thankful to have a friend like her. But as much as Shelby should have her mom there, too, Luke couldn't help feel selfish, wanting those days back before Rachel returned. He knew eventually, he'd have to get over those feelings. It would just take some time, like he said.

After a while, Luke looked up to see Shelby running towards his truck, a paper bag puppet on her arm and her backpack shaking wildly behind her.

Stepping out, he dropped on one knee and held his arms out. Shelby practically knocked him over when she threw herself into his arms.

"Look what I made, Daddy." Shelby held the puppet up to show him, excitedly. The bag had cut outs of mouse features wearing blue overalls.

"Oh, cool. Is that a mouse wearing clothes?" he asked her.

"We reading If You Give a Mouse a Cookie all week, and today we made our own mouse ..." The last word ended up coming out unclear.

Mouse, what?" Luke looked at her, confused.

She repeated the word, trying to enunciate as best as she could.

After a few tries, he realized Shelby was trying to say the word, puppet. "Oh, you mean puppet?"

"Ta' wha' I say," Shelby told him as if it was obvious, sounding a little annoyed, actually.

"I'm sorry, kiddo. Sometimes, it's hard to understand what you're saying."

"I' okay," she assured her dad.

Luke couldn't help a smile. Yeah, he was right, alright. Shelby was the most forgiving person he knew, even if she was frustrated.

"I go' someting to sow Lor-lai, too."

"What's that?" he asked, curious.

Shelby took off the puppet, passing it to her dad to hold before going inside her backpack, setting it on the ground at her feet. She pulled out a dotted line piece of paper themed to match the book the class was reading. At the bottom of the page, was a box where Shelby grew a picture of someone holding something in their hand. "We do our own 'tory like the one wi' the mouse, so I did one uh-bow Lor-lai. Wan' to hear?"

"Sure," he smiled in interest.

Shelby looked at the paper in both of her hands and read her story out loud to her dad, but soft enough only he could hear her. Luke wasn't familiar with If you Give a Mouse a Cookie since it wasn't a book from his childhood, but guessed it was a book that taught cause-and-effect chain reactions. It was creative and humorous what Shelby had written about Lorelai and her coffee addiction.

When she finished, Shelby showed him the picture she drew. "Ta' Lor-lai and ta' her cof-fee," she pointed at the childish drawing of Lorelai, holding a cup of coffee that was almost the same size as her. Luke commented on the size, too. "Yeah, because you have big cups."