Chapter 36
The dinner ended up starting after one quick minute than they expected, which Bootsy pointed out a minute couldn't be quick because it was always sixty seconds. Luke kindly told him to shut up, trying to hold down his irritation.
Shelby, who was sitting between him and Jess, patted Luke on the arm and whispered, "Be nice, Daddy," in his ear when he lowered it.
Luke couldn't help smile and kissed her cheek.
Lorelai made it around the table, checking up on everyone, stopping at Luke and Shelby to inform them Sookie made a special non-butternut squash soup for Shelby, to accommodate for her allergy. Luke thanked her and had Shelby do the same. She gladly thanked her. Eventually, the food was served, starting with the soup. One of the servers poured Shelby's, specifically asking for her. Luke responded for her, getting his attention.
Shelby stuck her fingers in her ears when the trumpets sounded. Luke gave a gentle, forceful push on her arm, "Shell, you can take your fingers out of your ears, now. They're done." Her soup was still similar-looking to the rest, it just didn't have the same key ingredient. Shelby was the first of the three to try her soup as the guys stared at theirs, wondering what the soup was made of.
"What's the white stuff?" Jess asked.
"I think it's cheese... or cream," Luke replied, unsure, himself.
"And the green stuff?"
"I think it's best picked off." Luke picked out the leaf from his soup, tossing it to the side. He reached over and did the same for Shelby before she ended up eating the garnish. "You like it, Shell?"
Shelby nodded and took another spoonful. This kid was obsessed with any kind of soup, Luke swore. In fact, when the main course was served, she asked if she could have more soup instead.
"Can you at least try it?" he asked her. "There's trout in it. Like when we go camping."
Shelby made a face, her nose wrinkling at the smell of it.
"Here, take one bite." Luke used his fork to pick up a reasonable amount and held it out for her to take a bite, having her chew and swallow before determining she didn't like it. Shelby could chew it for the most part, but Luke ended up having to grab her napkin and let her spit it out, shaking her head.
Rachel noticed from where she was sitting across the table. "Everything alright?" she asked.
"Yeah, everything's fine," Luke was wrapping the napkin into a ball. "Shelby just doesn't like the food."
"Who could blame her," Jess stated from Shelby's other side, which Luke shushed him.
Using his, Luke wiped around her mouth before suggesting she go ask Lorelai if there was any more of the soup. Sliding around in her chair, Shelby scooted down and slipped in between hers and her dad's. Luke kept an eye on her as she made her way over to the end of the table, shyly gripping the corner to wait until Lorelai was finished talking.
"Hey, sweetheart. Need something?"
Luke was trying to see around four heads, finally noticing Shelby wasn't the only kid there. Dean had brought his little sister along.
Shelby fingered the edge of the table, staring at it as she chewed on her lip, so Lorelai leaned over to give her ear. Luke heard Lorelai let Shelby know she'll go ask Sookie and stood up to head towards the kitchen. Before Shelby could make her way back to her seat, Rory asked if she was having a good time, which she responded with a shrug.
"My, aren't you a handsome fellow," Richard, Lorelai's father told Shelby.
Shelby just stared over in the older man's direction. Rory explained about Shelby being mute in certain circumstances such as this and introduced Shelby to her grandparents.
Both of the Gilmores looked surprised. It was Richard who apologized for the misunderstanding. "I am terribly sorry, Shelby. I saw the way you were dressed and just assumed you were a boy. My mistake." He gave the kid a kind smile.
"I'm sure Shelby probably gets that a lot. Don't you, Shelby?" Rory turned to the kid.
Shelby nodded.
"So that man who owns the diner is her father?" Emily questioned.
"Yeah. Luke got custody of her about a year ago," she explained.
"Got custody? What happened to the mother?"
Rory motioned over in Rachel's direction with her head and briefly explained where Shelby had been the first five years of her life. Lorelai returned at that point and told Shelby there was more soup on its way. Shelby thanked her and returned to her seat.
When dessert was served, Dean's sister, Clara, came over and asked if Shelby wanted to eat hers with the horses, with her. Shelby hesitated until Luke encouraged her to go with Clara, letting the older girl know not to force Shelby to speak if she didn't want to. He was glad when Shelby followed, telling Shelby to be careful holding onto her plate. It was an even bigger relief when he found out the girls played together in the snow, having a good time, even if Shelby hadn't said a word.
As planned, Shelby slept in the same room with her mom. Luke assured her he was just down the hall. Hugging and kissing her good night, the two parted company and let Rachel take over from there.
Everyone woke up bright and early the next morning. To Luke's surprise, Shelby asked if she could go spend the day with her mom. Luke gladly told her she could, but only if she gave him a hug and kiss good-bye first, which Shelby also gladly did. He reminded her to be good. So it was just him and Jess on the drive home.
Shelby ended up staying through the weekend, which worked out perfectly as Luke needed to put some finishing touches on the Christmas present he was making for her. Since she was getting the hang of fishing alone without his help, Luke figured it would be better suited if Shelby had a fishing pole more her size. So, for the past few weekends whenever Shelby was over at Rachel's or at school, Luke spent his breaks working on a child-sized fishing pole, keeping it well hidden so she wouldn't see it until Christmas morning. What he didn't know, though, was that Shelby had a similar idea, making his present.
Shelby finally informed Luke what she wanted to do with her money she had been saving and to his surprise, it had nothing to do with another video game, even though there was still a particular game she really wanted. Shelby willingly would put it off a little while longer and continue playing it over at her friends' house. Instead, Shelby wanted to go Christmas shopping for everyone. Well, except him. But Luke figured she didn't want him to see what he would get her. He found it strange when one day, Shelby came to him, asking to borrow some photos of him and his dad. When Luke tried asking why she wanted to borrow them, Shelby told him she couldn't tell him yet. It was nice, going through old photos and telling the stories behind them with his daughter.
Christmas morning, Shelby climbed onto her dad's bed, doing a Superman leap right on top of him, not only fully waking him, but knocking the air right out of him.
"Aw jeez. Shelby," he scolded her once the air had returned to his lungs.
Shelby sat on top of his torso. "I' time to wake up," she told him.
Luke looked over at the clock on his nightstand and saw it was fifteen minutes before it was time for his alarm to go off. "Not for another fifteen minutes, it's not." He then dropped his head back onto his pillow, closing his eyes. Suddenly feeling a presence inches from his face, Luke opened them again to see a closeup of the kid's face, scaring the crap out of him. He jerked his head away. Truth was, Shelby was causing him to have flashbacks back when he was a kid and his sister doing the same thing. He even caught himself saying, "you are your aunt's niece." It was mostly a muttered thought, but Shelby still heard.
"Wha' aun'?" she asked. In total, the kid had two aunts, one from both him and Rachel.
"Your Aunt Liz. She used to wake me up like this when she was about your age."
"Oh," was all she said. There was a brief pause before Shelby asked, "How come we no see her?"
"Never, kiddo," Luke corrected her. "How come we never see her."
Shelby repeated her question the way her dad said it.
"I don't know, kiddo," he shrugged.
Shelby's face gave a heartfelt, sad look. "I feel bad for Jess."
"Why's that?"
"I see my mom and he don'. Ta' sad."
"I know it is, kiddo. But at least he's got us, right?"
Shelby nodded. "I'll go wake him up." The kid climbed down off of her dad when Luke stopped her, holding an arm around her waist.
"No jumping on him," he told her, firmly. "Do it without knocking the wind out of him and if he doesn't want to get up yet, leave Jess alone. Got it?"
She nodded once more. Once she understood, the kid dashed over to Jess' cot, falling onto the edge on her legs. Reaching over, she patted the boy's upper arm repeatedly until he woke up.
"What?" Jess asked, with some irritation apparent in his voice.
"I' Chris'mas, Jess. Time to wake up." The only response the kid got was Jess turning over and continuing to sleep.
Luke had gotten up by that point. "Let him sleep, kiddo. We'll do our gift exchange later. Okay?"
Disappointed, Shelby scooted back off the cot and stood to her feet.
Coming over, he kneeled to her level. "Hey, we have all day, I promise." Getting dressed, Luke let Shelby help cook breakfast, hoping the aroma of cinnamon French toast and scrambled eggs would get the boy up. Shelby stood on a chair while Luke supervised, doing what she couldn't. It wasn't long before Jess stirred, unable to sleep any longer. Not with the smell of delicious French toast lofting through the air.
"See? I told ya it would work." Luke gave Shelby a quick peck on the side of her forehead.
After the three ate and the kitchen was cleaned up, it was finally the part Shelby had been anticipating. While Luke was pulling out the gifts, Shelby hurried over to her nightstand, pulling out everything but the kitchen sink before pulling out a couple wrapped Christmas presents of her own. He let Jess and Shelby open theirs first, having Shelby open the fishing pole before the other ones.
Ripping off the Christmas tree wrapping paper, she tossed it to the side. "Wow, my own fishing pole," she said, wide-eyed, scanning the army green child-sized fishing pole.
"I thought since you're starting to fish on your own, it'll be easier having one your size," he explained. "You like it?"
Shelby nodded and jumped down from where she was sitting on the foot of her bed to hug him. "Tank you, Daddy."
Luke squeezed her tight and kissed the side of her head. "You're welcome, kiddo." Before Shelby opened another, they let Jess open one of his.
"Huh," he said as he tossed away the same Christmas tree wrapping paper, holding a copy of a book he wanted.
"That's the one you wanted, right?" Luke asked, making sure.
"Yeah. Thanks." Unlike his cousin, Jess didn't show much emotion.
Shelby opened another one of her gifts from her dad. This time, it was another one of Billy Gilman's albums. Taking turns, Jess also got a couple music CDs of bands he liked, plus a shirt. Shelby also opened another music CD, this time it was a soundtrack of songs from the Pokemon TV show, along with a Courage the Cowardly dog shirt and a set of Hot Wheels cars she had been asking for.
"I saw that at the music store by accident and figured that would be perfect for ya," Luke shrugged, meaning the Pokemon CD.
"Is i' a game?" she asked, looking at the back of the case.
"No, it's all the music from the cartoon. It has the theme song, and all of those songs they sometimes play at the end of each episode, including when they rap all the Pokemon."
"Why do i' say Pikachu's good-bye?"
"Where?" Shelby showed him the song she was referring to. "I don't know. Guess that's one of the songs they sang on the show. Come on, let's get this wrapping paper picked up so we can open the diner." He stood up to grab the trash can for the leftover wrapping paper when Shelby stopped him.
"Wai', Daddy. We no done."
He looked back at her. "We're not?"
She shook her head and picked up hers, handing Jess his, first. Ripping the paper off, Jess looked over a black leather wallet Shelby picked out for him. "You like it?" she asked him, eagerly.
"It's nice. Thanks," he told her.
Shelby smiled and latched onto the boy, hugging him tight.
"All right, all right," Jess nudged her away. "What have I said about the hugging?"
Shelby backed away, giggling.
"Here, Daddy." Shelby held up the other gift in her hand.
"For me?" Luke took the present with snowman themed wrapping paper from his daughter and ripped off the paper, wondering what it was. It was flat but was thick and rectangular shaped. He tossed the paper into the trash can he brought over and saw it was a hardback cover book. If it wasn't for the fact Luke been with her when she picked out the wallet for Jess, he had thought she mixed up their presents. "Oh, a book. Thank you, Shell," he pretended to be excited for her. Luke wasn't much of a reader.
"Open i'," she told him, eagerly.
Luke opened the front cover to the title page. What he saw caught him by surprise. In blue crayon, the title read, "Just Me and My Dad." Underneath was one of the pictures Shelby borrowed of him and his dad fishing when he was around Shelby's age.
"I made you a book like ta one I took camping. Remember? Do you like i'?"
His mouth hung open as Luke flipped through the pages. The pictures were glued in on each page to make a children's picture book just like the Little Critter book. A lump formed in his throat, getting caught. Luke also couldn't help feel his eyes water.
"Mom took me to ge' the book and helped me 'pell every-ting." There was a pause. Shelby must have sensed something may have been wrong because she asked, "You no like i'?"
Struggling, Luke forced the lump down before kneeling to her level, closing the book. "I... I love it, Shell. Thank you."
"Buh why are you sad?" The kid looked like she was going to cry any minute.
"I'm not sad, kiddo." He firmly but gently added, "hey, I promise," when her gaze dropped. "I'm just..." Luke searched his mind for the right words. "... touched you would do something like this for me." He then explained what he meant by "touched" once the puzzled look appeared, in terms where she could understand. "What made you think to do this?" he asked with curiosity.
"I remembered ta 'tories you told me and I wan-ted to make you a book for you and Granpa," she plainly said as she shrugged.
Luke couldn't help grin from ear to ear. He hadn't felt this happy on Christmas since the one he spent right before his mother passed. "Come here." Pulling her in, Luke squeezed his little girl in the tightest but gentlest hug he could give. "You have no idea how much I love you, kiddo."
"I love you, too, Daddy," she said from his shoulder.
Squeezing her one last time, Luke kissed her head before letting go.
Just as he did for Thanksgiving, Luke made a Christmas dinner for his customers, as well. Instead of turkey, he served ham.
This time, Rachel stopped by, along with a few of their other friends. Lorelai and Rory were having dinner with her parents, but they stopped by long enough to give both Shelby and Jess a little something and to receive their present Shelby picked out for them. Rory picked out a book she thought Jess would like while Shelby received a stuffed koala bear, twice as big as Pikachu and Maggie was.
"We figured you could use another furry friend to keep you company at night when you're over at your mom's," Lorelai told her.
Shelby hugged the stuffed animal before giving both Lorelai and Rory a hug, thanking them.
While the food was still cooking, Rachel took Shelby to the town's Christmas festival, which Shelby pointed out the Santa was actually Taylor. Thankfully, not out loud where the other kids could hear her.
Luke closed up early that night to spend the last few hours of Christmas with Shelby, drinking eggnog and catching A Charlie Brown Christmas on TV, along with Olive, the Other Reindeer. Jess isolated himself, listening to his new music from headphones while already started on one of his new books, while Shelby curled up on her dad's lap as Charlie Brown and his friend Linus came on screen.
Christmas didn't end at midnight. At least not for Shelby. During her weekend with Rachel, Rachel's sister and three nephews came by for a visit. That Friday when Rachel stopped by to pick Shelby up, she informed Luke; the boys had gotten a Xbox for Christmas and wanted to give all their old games to Shelby, not wanting to play Nintendo anymore. Knowing the two's agreement on video games, Rachel wanted to run it pass Luke first, making sure it was all right.
"Yeah, that's fine. As long as the games are appropriate for someone Shelby's age," he answered from behind the counter.
"My sister says there are a couple shooting games in there, but they're mostly Mario type games."
"What the hell is a Mario?" he asked. "You mean that racing game Shelby plays over at Ethan and Alan's?"
"Uh, apparently, Mario's more than just racing," she told him. "My nephews have every game of his."
"Well, that oughta make Shelby very happy if that includes the racing game. She's been wanting that since her first sleepover. But if the shooting games are mature for her, don't give them to her."
"I'll let my sister know before she gets here, then." In retrospect, even though it was awesome, Shelby's cousins thought of her and even helped them bond by showing her each game, teaching Shelby everything they had learned. For the rest of her winter break, Luke saw very little of the kid. Shelby's small collection of two increased by fifty, and four more controllers that were grey, watermelon red, fire orange, and ice blue. Now with a lot more to play, Shelby spent most of her days on her Nintendo until Luke started pulling her away to get her out for some fresh air or to do some other activity that didn't involve staring at a TV screen.
He did come up one night and found out Shelby somehow convinced Jess to play Mario Kart with her. It was a great mystery how the kid managed to do that, but there it was.
"Come on, that is so cheating!" Jess stated, bitterly. "Who leaves a banana peel in the middle of the track? And why are there cows?" His bitterness increased once Shelby chose the Rainbow Road track. After falling off over a dozen times and coming in dead last, Jess quit, storming back to his book. "The game's broken," he muttered out loud before tossing himself on his bed to return to his reading. Luke couldn't help chuckle to himself under his breath.
Since Luke had a business to run and had to be up early for it, Shelby spent New Year's with Rachel, who let her stay up until midnight. She still called him, though, to give her dad a New Year's kiss through the phone, waking him.
Before the break was over and school resumed, with the lake being frozen over, Luke finally got around to showing Shelby how to ice skate in case she decided to try hockey. She held onto his hands for dear life as they moved around the lake. Luke took things slowly, not letting go until Shelby gave him permission to do so.
She kept looking down at her feet. Luke was skating backwards, leading her. "You gotta watch where you're going, kiddo," he told her. "Look up at me." Shelby lifted her gaze to look up at him as she continued to move her feet the way he showed her. "That's it, Shell. You're doing good."
Eventually, after an hour of circling around the ice, Luke asked if Shelby was ready for him to let go.
"You're doing great. I think you're ready to try it on your own. I won't go too far, I promise." To his relief, Shelby nodded her head, giving the okay. Releasing his hold on her small hands, Luke let Shelby release her hold on him at her leisure, encouraging her as they continued to move around the ice. He glanced over his shoulder every once in a while to make sure they didn't run into anything.
"Keep looking up at me. You got this, kiddo." Luke held his hands open with his daughter still gripping them in hers. He could feel how scared the kid was by how hard she was squeezing. "Come on, Shell. It's just like learning to ride your bike, or learning to sleep alone at your mom's. You got this, I know you do. I believe in you, kiddo."
Shelby looked up, her gaze meeting his. Not even a minute had gone by before Luke felt her grip loosen and eventually, Shelby let go.
"That's it. Keep going," he continued with the encouragement. She was a little wobbly, holding her hands out to the sides for balance. Luke, being overprotective, made her wear her bike helmet in case she fell.
Shelby was doing good, that is until they needed to turn and her feet gave out right from underneath her and fell backwards. Tears suddenly appeared as she sat up, reaching behind her to rub her back. Luke moved closer to reach down and extended his hands out to help her back to her feet, reminding her falling was a part of learning.
"I' 'till hur's," she pointed out, sniffing in, repeatedly.
"You'll be okay," he assured her, calmly. "When I was learning to skate, I skated right into a tree and broke my nose."
That enlarged her eyes up at him. "Were you okay?" she asked, concerned for her dad.
"Yeah, I was just fine. Hurt a lot but it didn't stop me from getting back out there and trying again." Luke smiled for his daughter.
Shelby shook her head, "Please no le'me 'kae into a tree."
It made him chuckle. "I think you have a better sense of direction than I did, kiddo. You won't skate into a tree, I promise." It made her smile up at him. "Ready to try again?"
She nodded.
This time, Luke circled around her to move beside her and showed Shelby how to kick off on her own. The kid was still wobbly, but she moved her feet, trying to copy exactly how he moved his feet, encouraging Shelby as the ice skating lesson continued.
