Chapter 28
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
LUKE
I knew Lorelai was nice, I just never knew how nice. The teenage hostess who works here is nothing short of a brat and yet, Lorelai immediately came to her aid when she sensed her distress. Babies, dogs, and now teenagers? Talk about the trifecta of endorsements.
Opening the bottle of champagne, I pour a little for both of us then raise my glass, “To prom. May it mend more hearts than it breaks.”
Lorelai laughs. “It was strange seeing all those kids from an adult perspective. They don’t look nearly as put together as we gave them credit for when we were their age.”
“That’s the truth.” I take a sip of my drink before saying, “Junior year I went with Ashleigh Ryan, and with Tallia Smith senior year. I have no idea what’s happened to either of them.”
“Did you date either for very long?” she asks.
“A couple months, I think. How about you? Who did you date in high school?”
She nearly chokes on her champagne. “Do you remember what I looked like in high school?”
“Not well,” I lie. The truth is I remember just fine. She was cute enough, but she was much younger than me. There was no chance that I was ever going to look at her the way she wanted me to. More importantly, she was my best friend’s little sister and looking at her in that way would break all kinds of bro codes.
“Well, let me refresh your memory. My hair was orange. Neon orange.”
He laughs loudly. “I don’t quite remember it like that. Do you dye it now?”
She shakes her hair. “No. It just started changing on its own.”
“It’s very pretty,” I tell her, which causes a blush to cover her cheeks.
Ignoring my compliment, she says, “And I was really skinny, and I wore braces. Also,” she hurries to add, “I was a late developer.” Her face reddens again.
“I grew two more inches while I was in college. It’s funny how some kids peak early, and it takes others more time.”
She grimaces. “Yeah, it’s a laugh riot.”
“What about college? What did you major in?”
She rolls her eyes. “English. Which is crazy because what in the world do you do with an English degree other than teach?”
Shaking my head, I answer, “No idea. Don’t you want to teach?”
Her mouth contorts into something of a scowl. “Not particularly. I mean, I suppose I could but it’s not where my heart is. I think the reason I chose that major is because of my love of reading.
“That’s how it was with me. I thought I wanted to be in finance, but after a year I decided to go back to culinary school.”
“Your dad must have been proud.” Her smile is so sweet I can’t help but take a moment to catch my breath. Being with Lorelai is like standing in the sunshine after months of rain.
“Has Noah told you anything about what’s going on between me and my dad?” I ask.
She shrugs. “Not much. Only that you’re having some troubles. At least, I assume that’s why you’re staying with me and not your parents.”
I pour more champagne into our glasses before explaining, “My dad has taken offense that I went to culinary school and didn’t come home to work at Pop’s with him.”
“I could see how that might have upset him.”
“But it’s my life,” I tell her. “Don’t I get to make the decisions for my own life?”
“Of course you do, but you can’t tell someone else how to feel. People have the right to their own emotions, even if it breaks their hearts.”
It sounds like she’s talking about something else here, but I don’t delve into it. “I just found out today that my dad was an orphan who was separated from his brother when their parents died.”
The look of shock on her face could only be equaled by my own. “How did you just find that out? Isn’t that something your dad would have told you before now?”
“You’d think, but he didn’t. My mom left an old photo album out for me so I could get some insight.” I take a breath before adding, “His brother was killed when they were both little boys, too.”
“Oh, my gosh, Luke! That’s horrible! Your poor dad.”
“If I’d known this before I would have seen him differently.”
“Maybe that’s why he didn’t tell you.”
The server arrives with our food, and Lorelai gushes, “Thank you so much!” She’s nice to everyone. I don’t care if you’re the king of England, if you don’t treat service people with respect, you’re nothing in my book. I’d better watch out because if I don’t, Lorelai could become everything to me.
We take a minute to enjoy a few bites without talking. Lorelai is the first to speak. “It makes sense why your dad was so hurt that you didn’t come home and work with him.”
“How do you figure that?”
She wipes her mouth carefully on a napkin before saying, “He must have felt abandoned when his parents died, and even more so when his brother died.”
I probably should have put that together on my own. “Go on …”
“For you to follow in his footsteps but not want to work with him in the business he spent his adult life building, well, you can see how that could seem harsh.”
“You’re suggesting that my dad thinks I abandoned him too?” Now I feel like a real heel.
“I can see how he might. I mean, I’m sure there’s a big part of him that’s still trying to prove himself to the parents that never got to see him grow up.”
So much for getting Lorelai to take my side, although I know this isn’t really an issue of sides. “He never told me and Kelsey anything about this. Not a thing.”
“He was probably focusing on building a better life for you both.” She takes a sip of water before adding, “They say people heal early childhood trauma through raising kids of their own. Your dad was probably just trying to rewrite the past.”
“By pretending it never happened?”
“Maybe,” she says. “How old was your dad when his parents died?”
“I don’t know.”
“If he was old enough to really remember them then the trauma would have been greater.”
“He and his brother were adopted by different families,” I tell her.
She looks as horrified as I was when I discovered this. “That’s had to have compounded his issues.”
“He had it rough. I just wish he could have trusted us with the truth so that we could have known this side of him.”
“I don’t think he was keeping anything from you, Luke. I think he was just protecting himself.” She exhales loudly. “Life can be really tough, can’t it?”
“Yeah.” We finish the rest of our meal in companionable silence. There aren’t too many people you can sit with quietly without feeling a nervous need to fill the air with chatter. It’s not like that with Lorelai. Sitting with her feels good. It feels right. It’s not just that she’s familiar, but she’s so darn loving to everyone. She’s seriously the best person I’ve ever met.
After our dishes are cleared, I leave a ten-dollar bill on the table for the server, and ask Lorelai, “Do you feel like walking down the street to the ice cream parlor?”
If the smile on her face is any indication, she likes the idea. “I love their Bordeaux cherry.”
“Add a scoop of pistachio and you’ve got my favorite combination.” Standing up, I tell her, “I just need to get my stuff out of the kitchen.”
When I come out, Lorelai is already wearing her coat and standing by the front door. She looks endearingly sweet, and not for the first time since being back in Elk Lake, I wonder what it would be like if something were to happen between us.
Opening the door, I tell her, “I used to ask my dad why he didn’t carry cherry and pistachio at the diner for me.” She looks up questioningly. “He said he didn’t want to take the business away from a fellow shop keeper.”
“That was nice of him,” she says.
“My dad has always had a strong sense of fair play. He’s always been honorable that way.”
Lorelai shivers and pulls her coat tighter around her. “I should have brought mittens, but it feels ridiculous to still be wearing them in March. You know in some parts of the country they don’t even have to wear coats in March?” She sounds so annoyed, it causes me to smile.
“I do know this. Did you know that in Hawaii they’re even wearing their swimsuits now?”
She flicks my ear with her fingers. “You don’t have to rub it in.” I reach up and touch her hand before she can move it away and it really is cold. Capturing it in mine, I bring it down and keep holding onto it. She doesn’t pull it away, so I tell her, “I’ll keep you warm.” I don’t realize until afterwards that sounded like some kind of a romantic pledge.
As we walk down the street, it starts to rain, and Lorelai groans, “Now we can be cold and wet. In case you’re wondering this is not the kind of thing I like about living here.”
“You could move to Florida,” I tease.
“I would rather live at the South Pole,” she says. “Midwestern humidity is one thing, but Florida humidity is godawful.”
“I used to think I’d like to live in Costa Rica,” I tell her. “I always felt I was best suited for a tropical climate.”
“Maybe you’ll open a restaurant there someday,” she says. She keeps her eyes straight ahead.
“Maybe so,” I tell her. “But if I did that then I’d be spending a lot of my life traveling.”
“I would have thought that would appeal to you. You seem like an adventurer.”
“I like to travel on vacation,” I tell her. “But if I started opening restaurants all over the world, I’d never be able to stay put long enough to do the other things I want to do.”
She slows down as we reach the ice cream parlor and asks, “Like what?”
This probably isn’t the thing to say while holding her hand, but I do anyway. “I want to have a family some day and I don’t want to be on the road all the time and miss out on spending time with them.”
Lorelai’s posture tenses. “You want to raise kids in Chicago?”
“I hadn’t really thought about it,” I tell her. “I mean, it might not be ideal, but that’s where Capon is.”
“I want to raise a family in Elk Lake,” she says. “I know exactly what it’s like to grow up here and I couldn’t imagine there being a better place.”
I open the door to the ice cream parlor for her before following her in. The old-fashioned décor is how I have always remembered it. White, cast-iron chairs surrounding glass tabletops. Pink and white striped wallpaper as the backdrop to pictures of different ice cream creations.
“You should try my favorite,” I tell her.
She smiles sweetly. “I’m game.”
I point to a table by the window. “Go sit down and I’ll be right back.” I watch as she walks away, and I realize my heart is starting to beat in double time whenever I’m around her.