A Father's Love

Chapter 74

Luke met Lorelai, Sookie, and Jackson at the school, exchanging greetings. He didn't see Shelby there until Lorelai pointed out she was hiding, motioning her head behind her. The kid came out on her own without being asked and shyly waved to her dad. Since Rory was stopping by the town meeting the night before, anyway, she stopped by the diner to grab clothes for Shelby to wear to the graduation.

Luke waved back, giving her a loving smile. "Missed ya, kiddo."

Shelby glanced up at him. But not for very long. Instead, she kept her gaze on the cement.

The group eventually went to find seats together. Shelby sat on the other side of Lorelai, Sookie, and Jackson, the farthest from her dad. At one point, Luke overheard Lorelai warn her, she would be sitting next to her parents.

"Is tha' bad?" she asked, innocently, a tad above a whisper.

"Depends on how you look at it," Lorelai said, but then Sookie reassured, Shelby would be just fine and that Lorelai was teasing. "Hey, just looking out for the kid. She doesn't know my parents as well I do."

When Lorelai got a message on her pager, she had to leave for a moment. Shelby lifted her feet up onto her chair, to hug her knees to her chest. Luke couldn't help notice she would steal looks over at him, and whenever he looked over in her direction, Shelby would look away. It pained his heart to know the tiff between them was lasting this long. It had been three, almost four weeks since Jess left and Shelby temporarily moved in with the Gilmores.

Lorelai returned with good news of getting a bid on the Dragonfly, and also with the older Gilmores, who sat beside Shelby.

With the good news, Sookie rushed off to make the call, almost impaling the man in the head, sitting in front of her, with her camera. By the time she returned, the ceremony was already starting. She got back up to go get some pictures of Rory, real quick while the headmaster was speaking. After he finished, Rory looked back to wave at her group, which Shelby jumped up from her seat to wave back, jumping up and down so Rory could see.

"Honestly, Luke," Emily leaned forward in her seat to look at him, "you can't teach your daughter how to act in a public place?"

Luke just looked back at her, unsure what to say.

Shelby sat back down, also not saying a word. He saw Lorelai whisper something to the kid, quietly snickering to at least get a smile out of her, and snuck a thumb's up towards him, letting Luke know it was all good.

Rory's classmate, Brad, went up after Paris said the Pledge. The headmaster then introduced Rory, the class valedictorian, to come give her speech. Shelby clapped happily when Rory went up to the podium as the adults insisted they weren't crying as Rory began her valedictorian speech, starting with the usual introduction before going on a more personal path.

"I live in two worlds. One is a world of books. I have been a resident of Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County, hunted the white whale aboard the Pequod, fought alongside Napoleon, sailed the raft with Huck and Jim, committed obscurities with Ignatius J. Reilly, rode a sad train with Anna Karenina, and strolled down Swann's Way. It's a rewarding world, but my second one is, by far, superior. My second one is populated with characters slightly less eccentric, but supremely real, made of flesh and bone, full of love, who are my ultimate inspiration for everything. Richard and Emily Gilmore are kind, decent, unfailingly generous people. They are my twin pillars, without whom I could not stand. I am proud to be their grandchild. But my ultimate inspiration comes from my best friend, the dazzling woman from whom I received my name and my life's blood, Lorelai Gilmore."