A Father's Love

Chapter 35

    The next weekend couldn't have come any faster in Shelby's eyes, and after an awkward dinner conversation, Luke couldn't help feel the same way. It was Wednesday evening after Luke closed and brought dinner up for the three of them. He enjoyed asking Shelby how her day was and how school was going. Things seemed normal at first. Shelby told him about having computer class as the class' special and working on their typing. Afterward, the table grew quiet as the three of them ate their burgers. That's when the awkwardness suddenly popped out.

Shelby was swirling one of her fries in her ketchup. It must have been floating around in her mind from the school day because she eventually reached over and tapped him on the arm. "Dad?"

"Yeah," he acknowledged her, briefly glancing up from his turkey burger.

"Where do babies come from?"

Right as the question came out, Luke had taken a bite. It caught him off guard he almost choked. Thankfully, he could cough and clear his airways, taking a drink of his water.

Jess also heard and almost choked as well, but he was taking a drink on his soda when Shelby asked. So it caused the soda to go down the wrong tube, producing a coughing fit for half a minute. "Did she just..." he had to cough again. "... ask what I think she asked?" He coughed one more time.

Meanwhile, Shelby was looking between both guys with a puzzled look on her face as if she said something wrong.

Once Luke could speak, he asked, making sure they heard right, though pretty sure they did, "What did you ask, Shell?"

"Where do babies come from?" Yep, they were right.

"Uh..." Luke looked over at his nephew, who held up his hands to say, "don't look at me. She's all yours. I ain't touching that."

He looked back at his daughter. "Um, why do you want to know, kiddo?"

"For our journal wri-ting today, Ashley told us her mom was having a baby and ta' i' was inside her mom's tummy." Shelby shrugged, innocently but confused, "how did i' ge' in tear?"

Luke froze in his seat as he stared at his kid. This was not happening. Not now. He could feel his face grow warm from the awkwardness, and of course Jess had to add to it.

"Yeah, Uncle Luke. How did it get in there?"

His face had to be as red as Shelby's got whenever she felt embarrassed. "Uh, well... Um..." Luke tried to quickly think up an appropriate response to the kid's question. He knew he couldn't tell her the truth, not at such a young age. Closing his eyes, Luke made up something and just went with it. "Well, when... It's, uh, like this."

Jess was mockingly nodding. "Uh, never saw it that way." Luke just told him to shut up which Shelby pointed out it wasn't nice to tell someone to shut up. "Yeah, should be nicer to me, Uncle Luke."

Ignoring his nephew by this point, Luke turned back to his own kid. "You see, when two people love each other very much, that love creates a baby that forms inside the mother's tummy because that's where it has the most room to grow, closest to the heart," he explained, clearly pulling this from thin air. Thankfully, Shelby accepted the answer. Maybe a little too much. Luke didn't think he needed to be specific.

"Bu' I love you a lo', does that mean I will have a baby?" she asked, with a horrified look on her face.

Luke quickly thought up an answer to that question, as well. "It doesn't work if you share blood or DNA with the person." Jess tried to point out about the deep south but he shushed the boy, interrupting him and told both of them to finish eating, glad the subject was finally behind them and hoped he didn't have to worry about explaining the real answer until much, much later.