Reconnecting

Epilogue

Rory's POV-

It was the first week of school. Tori was staring 8th grade (she skipped third and fifth), the twins were starting first grade, and Eli was going to preschool for the second year. Tori had a tendency to take way too long to get ready for school, and I had a tendency to get really frustrated with her when she did. We were both working on it.

"Victoria Emily Huntzberger!" I shouted up the stairs. "You're gonna be late!"

"I'm coming!" Tori shouted. A moments later she ran down the stairs. "See? I'm ready"

"You have 10 minutes before we have to leave, go eat breakfast" I said and followed Tori into the kitchen where Logan was packing lunch for the 3 youngest while they ate breakfast. Tori liked to get lunch in the cafeteria with her friends most days.

"Am I going to see Nathan tonight?" Tori asked. A couple of years before she asked me about her biological father. I told her an age appropriate version of what happened and she asked to meet him. Tuesday evening was when they saw each other, but it was completely dependent on Tori. If she didn't want to go see him, I didn't make her. She didn't see him as her dad or call him that. She called him Nathan. Logan was her dad and that wasn't gonna change.

"Do you want to?" I asked her

"Can we go to granny and grandpa Frank's house?" She asked

"I'll ask them, but probably" I said

"I wanna come" Willow said

"I wanna come too" Ari said

"I'll ask" I said

"Ari, you're up" Logan said. He always went in age order, making their lunches, started with Eli. "What do you want in your lunch?"

"Pb&j, celery, string cheese" Aria said. It wasn't really peanut butter, it was a nut free peanut butter alternative. "And Apple juice"

"Pick a treat" Logan said

"Can I have mnms?" She asked. Mnms were one of those things that had 'may contain nuts' on the label because they were made in a factory that made stuff with nuts. Sometimes we let her have stuff like that at home, when we were with her, but we didn't like her taking it to school because there were times that she had a reaction.

"Not for school" I said

"Then skittles"

"Done" Logan said. "Willow, how about you?"

"Pizza wrap" Willow said. It was just string cheese and pepperoni rolled up in a mini tortilla, and the kids liked to call it a pizza wrap. "3 baby carrots, two strawberries, and apple juice"

"Very specific" Logan chuckled. "What about a treat?"

"Oreos"

After school I took the kids to Frank and Joan's house. Frank and Joan were great. Even though they were technically only Tori's grandparents they treated all of the kids the same, and all 4 kids called them granny and grandpa Frank.

"Tori, how are you liking 8th grade?" Joan asked

"It's ok" Tori said. "Everyone's taller than me though"

"That doesn't matter" Frank said

"I know"

"Granny, can I give Scout a treat?" Eli asked. Scout was their 2 year old German shepherd dog.

"I'll get you one"

——

That Friday we went to Friday night dinner at my grandmother's house. Everyone was there that week. My mom and Luke. April, Joey, Lucas who was now 5, and April and Joey's younger son Ryan, who was 3.

While she'd had some worse times over the past few years my mom was generally doing ok. She'd had more surgeries and treatments than I could count, but she was somehow almost always still in good spirits. She'd actually been doing a lot better the past couple of months.

"What's new with everyone?" Grandma asked

"I actually have some news" mom said. "I didn't want to say anything until I knew for sure, and I'm still gonna have to have scans done every 6 months to be safe, but as of this morning I'm officially cancer free"

I jumped up and went to hug her and didn't let go. "This is amazing"

"Yeah, it is" mom chuckled. "But I really need you to let go, because I can't breathe"

"Sorry" I said and sat back down.

"So that's it?" April asked. "You're done with the treatment?"

"I'm done" mom said with a huge smile on her face. "Other than a scan every few months to make sure it's not back, I'm fine with everything"

"That's wonderful" grandma said

——

My name is Rory Huntzberger. I am the author of the 'Gilmore Girls' book series, along with several others. In total I've published 20 books and I'm currently working on 2 more. I'm also the mother of four wonderful children.

10 years ago I was a single mother, living alone with my daughter. When I reconnected with an old college boyfriend in 2017, I never expected it to turn out the way it did. We got married, he adopted my daughter, and we had three more beautiful kids together.

If you told me 10 years ago that my life would turn out the way it did, I probably would've laughed in your face.

I could never have even hoped that my life would turn out  like this but you know what? I'm pretty damn glad it did.

——

The End.

That's it. I hope you enjoyed reading this story as much as I enjoyed writing it. I already have my next story planned out, and I hope to post the first chapter within the next day, so I hope you'll give it a read.

Please comment if you have any requests for a story you'd like to read. I'd love to write it for you.

Once again thank you for all the love and support you gave me on this story. I really appreciate it.