Page 59 of Pity Play

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, “Hemust 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 companionablesilence. 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?”

---