A Father's Love

Chapter 38

    The Friday before spring break, Rachel stopped by the diner to pick Shelby up for their weekend. Shelby hadn't gotten home yet, though, so she had to wait. In the meantime, Luke took the time to see how she was doing.

Rachel shrugged, sitting across from where he was standing at the counter. "I guess I should admit, it was bound to happen, sooner or later."

"What are you talking about? It shouldn't have happened," he stated.

"Well, yeah, but my dad and I have been fighting since I was five when I said I wanted to play soccer instead of continuing ballet, and it only got worse as I got older."

Luke couldn't help snicker at the thought of Rachel doing ballet, which she raised herself so Rachel could reach over and punch him. "Ow!" he protested. "Sorry, I just can't picture you dancing around on your toes."

"Keep it up and you'll be dancing around on your toes," she threatened.

Luke had to think on that statement, confused. Regardless, he zipped the lip before Luke found out what she meant.

Even though they were just friends now, it always felt weird having Rachel around. Half the time, Luke had to force himself to start a conversation, mostly keeping silent. It was Rachel who usually kept the conversation going, which was good because as long as she did the talking, things seem to run smoothly. Still, he was hoping Shelby made it home soon. It seemed like her and Lorelai seemed to strike up a friendship, though.

Shelby was still hanging around Jess. In fact, aside from her and Rory, Luke was pretty sure the boy hadn't made any other friends. It was amazing Jess was willing to let a kid hang around him, considering it seemed like Jess inherited his low tolerance for annoying people, and that especially included little kids. Whenever there was an obnoxious kid brought into the diner by a customer, both uncle and nephew showed some displeasure. Even Ethan and Alan had a moment or two where Jess looked like he wanted to pull a Garfield and mail the boys to a foreign country.

But not Shelby. Since moving in with them and the two started hanging around each other, Jess hadn't shown one bit of irritation towards his cousin. Possibly it was because Shelby wasn't like other children. She may ask questions from time to time, but it wasn't to the point of annoyance. Plus, it probably helped she was just as mute as he was, if not more.

The bell chimed above the door, finally bringing in Shelby and Jess.

"Go grab'em and we can head out again," he heard Jess say before Shelby dashed upstairs.

"Jess," Luke got his nephew's attention.

"What?" he asked, sounding clueless, like he didn't know what his uncle was going to tell him.

"Did you forget I said to have Shelby home by four?" he reminded him. "I told you Shelby was getting picked up today."

"Sorry," the boy said. "We stopped by the bookstore to see if they finally got Tom Sawyer in yet." He held the book up to show him. "They do, by the way."

"That's great, but her mom's been waiting for an hour."

He gave a slight shrug. "Just lost track of time. Won't happen again."

At that moment, Luke noticed a blur out of the corner of his eye go by. Shelby was then standing beside her cousin once again, this time holding her deck of flash-cards and her backpack gone.

It was Rachel who got their daughter's attention. "Peanut, did you forget I was picking you up?"

Shelby pointed up at Jess.