Chapter 7

Luke pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant where they were meeting Rebecca and her family, parking on the side. He opened his door once he shut the engine off, removing the key, and slid out so Shelby could climb out. The moment her feet hit the blacktop, Shelby dashed over to where her aunt and uncle were waiting, wrapping her arms around her aunt's waist.

Luke smiled until he looked over to see Rachel was still sitting in the truck. She was watching the scene unfold right in front of her. "You gonna sit there the whole time we're here?" he questioned with a chuckle.

She shot him a serious stare, not laughing at all.

He quickly shut up before turning back just as Shelby's cousins were each taking turns, squeezing an arm around the kid's head. "Took a while for Shelby to open up to them and get to this point."

"And my parents?" It was at that point, Edna appeared into view when the boys moved out of the way.

"Your mom, yes." Luke shrugged, "we haven't tried again with your dad yet. Shelby hasn't felt up to it, and he doesn't want to budge on his old-fashioned stubbornness."

Rachel shook her head slowly. Breathing in through her nose, she let it out through her mouth. "Even though I suggested my father come to a session, I don't think it may even work. He's so stuck in his ways."

"Couldn't help to try. That's all you can do." He could say the words just fine, believing them was a whole other story, and, hey, Luke was doing this despite not wanting to. "It's his choice."

"Yeah, I know." She watched her family interact with their daughter for a moment before opening her door and stepped out. Luke met Rachel on the sidewalk and walked over to join them.

Luke shook hands with Mike and the oldest boy.

"It was perfect timing you called, sir," said Keith. "I head off for college, this weekend."

"Oh, yeah? Which one?" he asked.

"Yale."

Luke looked at the young man in surprise.

It was Shelby who spoke up. "Our friend, Rory, is going there, too."

"She is, huh? Well, maybe I'll see her around campus, then."

"And I will tell Rory," she said.

"Hey, where's Jess?" Kevin asked, looking around. "He didn't want to come?"

Luke looked down at Shelby, who grew silent for a moment. He was about to answer for her when she spoke up again. "He moved," was all she said.

Kevin frowned. "Oh. He graduated too?"

That time, Shelby looked up to Luke. He caught her steal a look at Rachel. Luke guessed Shelby didn't want to say out loud in front of her mom that Jess hadn't graduated, thinking Rachel would use it against her cousin. So, Luke decided to come to his little buddy's aide that time.

"It's complicated," was all he could think to say.

Mike gave a confused look. "How is it complicated? He either graduated or he didn't. You can't answer something as simple as that?"

"Michael," Rebecca scolded her husband. "Sorry, Luke. I'm sure whatever happened is your business, not ours."

Luke thanked her. He was glad Rebecca was respecting Luke was a fairly private person and didn't enjoy having to discuss their personal lives. Technically, they weren't his or Jess' family, just Shelby's. So, none of them had any right to know, including Rachel.

With things moved on from Shelby, the family turned their attention to Rachel. Edna pushed through the group, holding her arms out to pull her youngest in, relieved to see her.

Edna cupped Rachel's face in her hands. "What are we going to do with you, scamp?" she playfully scolded the young woman.

Rachel yanked her head from her mother's hands. "Mom, I'm a grown woman, not a child." Luke could see her cheeks turn a dark shade of pink. It was quite humorous to witness.

Edna waved a finger in her face. "Hush it, missy. You will always be my little scamp, Rachel Anne," she scolded firmly. "You need to stop running off. You had us worried sick, not to mention the grief you put on your own daughter. You need to grow up and start taking some responsibility."

Rachel tried to shoo the matter away. "Mom, please. Let's not do this now."

"You never want to do this now, Rachel Anne."

She shook her head at the ground, trying to hold in her frustrations. "Mom."

Luke caught Shelby looking up at him again, wearing a worried expression.

Once again, Rebecca stepped in. "That's enough, Mom. We're here to see your granddaughter. Let's not have this discussion in front of her, please."

Edna backed off. "That's right, we are." The older woman turned around and held a hand out to Shelby. "Why don't we head inside and get out of this heat, shall we?"

Timidly, Shelby took hold of her grandmother's hand and let her lead Shelby inside, along with the guys. Luke followed close behind. He looked behind when Rebecca told them to give them a second. So, they headed inside without the sisters and grabbed a table that could fit them all.

Kevin tried getting Shelby involved in a card game with his Yu-Gi-Oh trading cards he had brought with him until his father told him to put them away, stating this was family time and trading cards didn't belong at the table. That didn't stop the cousins from talking about it. Shelby was going to bring hers but had forgotten them, wanting to trade some of her duplicates.

Kenneth pounded the table in front of Shelby with his open hand, causing her to jump, slightly.

"Kenneth James," Mike scolded his middle.

"I was just trying to get her attention," he shrugged, nonchalant.

"Then, just call her name."

Apologizing to Shelby, the teenager asked, "So, what sport is up next, Scout?"

Shelby motioned for Luke's ear to give him a message. He lifted his head to pass on, "Only Jess can call her, Scout."

"Sorry, I thought it was a universal nickname," Kenneth said, apologetically, "you know, since we can't call ya, Munchkin." The young man teased her with a smirk.

Shelby whispered to him again. "Shelby is fine," Luke passed on.

"Aw, that's no fun," Kenneth teased some more.

Shelby's response was sticking her tongue out at him. He returned the gesture by sticking his own tongue out right back right back at her, which was weird considering it was coming from an almost grown man, who kept a stubble.

"Real mature, Kenneth," Mike scoffed, sarcastically.

"Hey, I wouldn't do it with anyone other than my little cousins," he shrugged.

"Speaking of," Edna spoke up at that point, sitting on the opposite end from where Luke was sitting. She asked Shelby, "Why didn't you come with us to Tennessee? You still haven't met your other uncle, and his family."

Shelby whispered in her dad's ear to tell Edna about her trip to Florida with her friends and their family.

"But you missed last summer, too. Don't you know, family comes first, Shelby?"

"We've had the trip planned since December," Luke explained. "They invited her to go to Disney World as a Christmas present since they see Shelby as a part of their family, too."

"Family is only those who share blood, Luke. Who you're born to. Family should have top priority over friends."

Mike stepped in to remind his mother-in-law, "Edna, remember Luke is her father and has the say what morals are taught."

"I know, but I should get some say in my granddaughter's life to teach her life lessons," she tried to argue.

"What did Mom say?" Keith jumped in the middle, snapping in frustration. "Dear lord, why can't we ever have a nice family gathering without someone shoving in their two cents?"

"Keith Michael," their grandmother scolded. "Do not raise your voice in a public place, especially to your elders."

In a more calm tone, the young man apologized. "I wasn't trying to disrespect anyone, but can we please just drop it? I want to know how my little cousin's trip to Florida was, with no one biting heads."

This was why Luke hated gatherings of any kind. He was only putting up with this family for Shelby. He knew the family had a set way of doing things that were the complete opposite from how Luke thought and did things. It would be great if they didn't push their ways on Shelby and let her decide how she wanted to think.

Michael agreed with his oldest and insisted on dropping the matter.

Keith was about to ask Shelby about her trip when Rebecca joined them, alone.

"Where's your sister, Becca?" Edna asked of her daughter.

Rebecca let out a sigh. "She left."

Luke gave a confused look. "How? She came with us."

Rebecca scooted in beside her mother, who moved over to make room. "She says she was calling Roger."

"Who's Roger?" her mother asked, in a nosey kind of way.

"A friend of hers, Mom," she replied.

Edna wasn't letting it go, though. Not this time. "Why? What happened out there between the two of you?"

Rebecca was staring towards the table in front of her. "Don't worry about it, Mom. Rachel's being... Rachel." She picked up her menu to look through it.

Luke exchanged a look with Shelby, who looked disappointed. He wrapped an arm around her, hugging Shelby to his side. Reaching over, she grabbed her kid's cup, taking a drink of her soda. Eventually, they ordered their meals before Keith could finally ask how her trip was. Shelby ended up giving short, non descriptive responses throughout the rest of lunch.

To cheer his cousin up, Kevin invited her to his Yu-Gi-Oh birthday party he was having next month, in which Kenneth pointed out he was too old to have theme-based birthday parties. Kevin tried to argue until their parents interfered and told the brothers to stop. Luke vaguely heard Kenneth mumble something about his younger brother being a baby.

After lunch, Rebecca and her family said their good-byes, giving Shelby hugs and kisses. Luke was thankful when he heard Rebecca apologize for the family drama, holding her arms around the kid.

Shelby gave her aunt a small smile. "I's okay." Even though he knew it bothered the kid, she was still forgiving about the whole situation. Shelby had to be stronger than Luke was. If it were him, he had quit by now.

Giving her one last loving squeeze, Rebecca said she would make sure they would send an actual invitation in the mail with all the party information before Luke and Shelby headed for his truck.

The drive was silent for the most part. Luke eventually asked how Shelby was doing. She just shrugged.

"We'll do all we can to fix this, kiddo. I promise."

She nodded. "I'm praying," she admitted.

Luke forced a smile for her, which Shelby returned.

They got back to Stars Hollow around six for Luke to open the diner for dinner.

Two days later, Luke had to place this week's order for the diner, checking inventory in the back, first. When he grabbed the phone off its hook and put it to his ear to dial the number, he heard Shelby on the other end, quickly realizing she was talking to Jess, filling her favorite cousin in on what happened the other day.

Luke meant to hang the phone up, but something drew him in to eavesdrop instead, listening, covering the speaker part in case they realized somebody was listening. That is until he suddenly heard somebody call out to him, causing Luke to nearly drop the phone in panic, and quickly hung it up. Luke turned on his heel to see Lorelai sitting there at the counter, hiding something in her hands. He thought he had seen her and Rory earlier that morning while having to confront Taylor about the window the old man installed so people could see into his candy store, and vice versa, but Luke had finally reached his breaking point with the older man, that by the time he settled down, they had vanished. At first, maybe Luke had imagined them being there until he asked Shelby, who said they had rushed off when Lorelai remembered they had to visit Sookie, first.

"My, aren't we jumpy," Lorelai observed.

Trying to calm his heartbeat, Luke cleared his throat before greeting the woman. "Hey."

She gave him a warm smile. "Bonjour, Luke. Pouvez-vous attacher vos chaussures?"

He stared at her, scrunching his eyebrows together in confusion. "What?"

"Uh, hi, Luke. Do you know how to tie your shoes?" she translated.

"Very good," Luke replied with a nod.

"Yep. It came in handy, let me tell you. Not one shoelace fatality on my watch." Luke pulled a mug out from underneath the counter and set it in front of her. "You remembered," she said, holding a hand to her chest, as if touched.

"Yep. A couple things about you, stick," he smirked as Luke poured her coffee. "You have a good time?"

"Vos odeurs de chat."

"What's that?"

"Your cat smells," she translated.

Luke replaced the coffeepot back into its place. "You must've been a big hit with the salon set."

"The trip was incredible. We had the best time. We were supposed to come back on Saturday."

"I know. Shelby almost freaked out when Babette said you weren't back yet."

"Aw, poor thing," Lorelai replied in sympathy.

"I told her, you guys were probably having such a great time, you just lost track of time and decided to stay longer."

"The best," she agreed. "We were in London, and we ran into this group of girls who were heading to Ireland to stake out the Clarence Hotel."

Luke glanced up towards the ceiling, confused. "Why?" he questioned.

"Because U2 owns it, and Bono hangs out there."

He glanced away, long enough to say, "Ah. Him again."

She continued with her story just as Shelby was coming down the stairs. She too was hiding something, but behind her back. "So then, we jumped on a train and we headed to Ireland. Oh, and you were right, Shelby, it is incredibly beautiful, and so we sat in a bar for two days and did nothing but eat soda crackers and funky cheese and he never showed." Lorelai took a sip of her coffee.

Luke threw up his hand. "Que sera."

Hm. Mm, still good," she said into her coffee, in relief. "I told them about you over there, Señor Swanky-pants."

"Can't tell you how grateful I am to have you as my press agent," he told her, sarcastically.

Shelby was hiding a snicker, holding her head away, which he just playfully grabbed the top of. The kid ducked out of the way, pushing his hand away while still holding one hand behind her back.

Lorelai interrupted the scene. "And we got you both something."

Luke perked up at that. "You did?" he smirked.

She nodded with a big, cheesy grin. "Yes, we did."

"You didn't have to do that," Luke told her, modestly.

Shelby agreed.

"What are you talking about?" Lorelai asked as if offended. "We do not go to Europe and come back without bringing something for Luke and Shelby." She pulled out what she was hiding from her lap. "Here," she handed him a jar of jam.

Luke looked at it, exchanging a look with Shelby. "Jam."

"Yes, fancy French jam."

"Fruits de la Terre," he read the label. "Very impressive."

"It's handmade by this woman in Paris who has the most amazing story," she explained.

He stared at her. "Really?"

"Yeah. Orphaned."

"Uh, huh."

"And illiterate," she added.

"Okay," he glanced towards her before looking the jar over.

"Just had nothing in her life, you know, except this burning desire to be the world's greatest jamstress. And she's famous now and, uh, you know, she only makes three bottles of that stuff a year and that's one of them, and I brought it all the way across the, uh..." She briefly stammered before caving. "I got it from Sookie's house."

Luke and Shelby had both leaned on the counter, both finding Lorelai's story amusing. "No," Luke said, jokingly, making Shelby, chuckle.

Lorelai moaned, dropping her forehead into her hand. "Shelby, you told him, didn't you?"

She shrugged, leaning one arm on the counter. "Jus' tha' you said you had to 'top by Sookie's house."

Luke jumped in, "And, I was able to take a wild guess from there." He smirked between the girls.

"I swear, we tried to get you both something, but nothing was good enough," she said, sadly.

Luke stood up from the counter as he told her, "Well, forget it. I didn't get you anything on my trip either. We're even." He set the jam down.

"I got you something," Shelby pulled out what she was hiding behind her back, holding the travel mug out to her. "Ta da!"

"Oh, Shelby, now I feel even more bad." Lorelai took the travel mug from her, guilt spread all over her face. "It's cool, though. A new travel mug I can take to work. Thanks, Shelby."

"I tried finding you something other than anything coffee-rela'ed, but I couldn' find anything I though' you would like," she explained.

"I love it. Never can have too many cups to hold my coffee in." Lorelai gave the kid an enormous smile, causing her to smile in return. "So, how was Florida?"

"It was grey," she answered happily, meaning to say great, not grey. "We shot pain'ball guns, and wen' swimming, and even wen' camping for a few nigh's, too. It was a lo' of fun." The kid ended up going on and on about her trip, including Disney World. Luke actually hoped she would keep Lorelai occupied so she wouldn't have the opportunity to ask about his trip. Shelby also made sure to include the hat she had gotten for her dad, which Lorelai said she had noticed and was wondering why Luke was wearing a Grumpy hat instead of the blue hat she had given him, a few Christmases ago. Of course, Lorelai had to tease him about it.

"Wow, that sounds exciting," she said after Shelby finished talking about Splash Mountain.

Shelby smiled. "It was. I had so much fun, I didn' wan' to leave."

Lorelai snickered. "I bet."

"The only thing that made me want to come home was seeing Dad and everyone else again."

"Yeah, us, too." She leaned forward on her arms, towards her. "Dang, kid," Lorelai said when she leaned back. "I just can't get over how much you have grown over the last couple of months since we saw you, last. You're getting big, stop it."

Shelby shrugged, "I can' help it."

"Ah, that's the same excuse Rory would give me when she was your age," she waved her hand through the air, in front of her, as if Lorelai didn't buy it. In a teasing manner. "I'm pretty sure you can stop it."

"If I did, then Cheryl wouldn' have, had to buy me new shoes while we were there," Shelby pointed out.

"Come on. Why would you pass up an opportunity to buy new shoes?"

"When there's nothing wrong with your old shoes."

Lorelai stared at the kid in a serious manner. "I swear, you are more and more like your dad each time I see you."

Luke had been clearing and cleaning a table while the girls were talking. He came over, now finished, at that point. "I teach her, well," he stated and shared a smile with his daughter.

Lorelai rolled her eyes while holding a half smirk, shaking her head. "Anyway, what about you?" she asked him.

"What about me?" he asked, knowing full well what she was referring to.

"How was the cruise?"

Yep, he was right. "Oh, it was... you know." Luke quickly walked away.

Lorelai twisted around on the stool. "Not really. I've never been on a cruise."

Luke sighed under his breath.

"So," she pressed.

"It was fine," was all he told her.

"Okay. So, you and Nicole had fun, then?"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah," he said awkwardly and offered her more coffee, hoping she would move on.

"Uh, eh, oh," Lorelai just let him pour her more. "So, what did you do?" she continued to press on, eagerly.

Luke continued to play dumb. "Where?"

"On the boat? What did you and Nicole do on the boat?" It seemed like Lorelai would not let up until he told her something.

"Oh, uh, you know, we fluttered around and ate," he fidgeted awkwardly, "and there was a magic show and a singer and pillow mints, and you know, that's it."

"But, you and Nicole had a good time, you got along, and...?"

Luke looked away, interrupting her. "Yeah. Uh, I'm gonna go check on your food." He walked away, heading into the kitchen.

"Okay," he heard her say, slightly confused and pointed out she hadn't ordered anything yet. Luke also heard Lorelai try to ask Shelby about it. He didn't hear a response, but he did hear the kid suddenly bolt back upstairs.

Phew! That was close.

For now...