Page 74 of Since the Day We Wished

Jeremiah finally looked up at him. “You guys broke up?”

Luke gave a slow, deliberate nod. “Yes, it’s over. But tomorrow, I’d like us to take a trip back to Chicago for the weekend. I want you to see the neighborhood where I grew up.”

Jeremiah scrunched his eyebrows. “Why?”

“I need to explain a few things to you. I need to tell you why I did the things I did.”

Luke wasn’t certain this trip would have the impact he wanted but didn’t know where else to turn. He thought if Jeremiah saw why he worked so hard over the years, he would realize it was rooted in the fear of ending up like his father. In the past, Jeremiah had asked about his paternal grandparents, but Luke and Kate would give vague answers as to why he couldn’t see them. They thought they were protecting him from the truth. But now, he’d finally get to see why, firsthand.

The next morning, Luke and Jeremiah drove down to the Savannah airport and flew back to Chicago. Instead of finding a hotel in their old, posh neighborhood, Luke checked them into a hotel close to Fuller Park.

“Dad, why are we staying here?” Jeremiah asked as they got to their room. “This place is run down.”

Luke shrugged his shoulders. “It is. But it’s going to help you understand me.”

The following day, Luke rented a car and drove Jeremiah through his old neighborhood, pointing out where he had gone to high school and where he first met Kate, the convenience store where he first worked, and the apartment building he had lived in with his father until he left for Harvard. After years of neglect, the building was now condemned.

“You lived there?” Jeremiah’s eyes widened as they pulled up outside the dingy building.

Luke looked up toward the second floor. “Apartment twenty-six, right there. I grew up with nothing, Jeremiah. My mother left me and my dad when I was a kid, and he struggled to pay our bills. He used to berate me about growing up and making money. If I didn’t have money, I had nothing, he used to tell me. And I believed him; I worked as hard to get into Harvard and get a good job. After your mom and I got married, I worked even harder to give her a good life. And when you came along, I had to work even harder to make sure you never wanted anything. All the late nights at the office and the business trips...they were to ensure you and your mom had the best life imaginable.”

As Luke pulled away from the curb and drove toward their hotel, Jeremiah looked back at the building without saying a word. Luke wasn’t sure what Jeremiah was thinking, but he hoped something had resonated with him on this trip.

***

After they got back from Chicago, their relationship changed. The wall Jeremiah had built up against Luke slowly crumbled as Luke took a gentle and tactful approach to being a father. The mending of fences had begun, and their relationship grew stronger every day. Luke couldn’t have been happier to be on good terms with Jeremiah. This day had been a long one coming. But it was bittersweet as he still wasn’t over Emma, haunted by how things had ended. He wished things would have turned out differently between them, but he had to respect Emma’s wishes, and so he stayed away from her.

One morning as Jeremiah and Luke were having breakfast together, Luke knew something was on his son’s mind. Not wanting to push, he waited for Jeremiah to speak first.

“Dad?”

“Mm-hmm?” Luke swallowed a bite of cereal and reached over for his coffee.

Jeremiah let out a sigh. “I shouldn’t have said what I said to Ms. Wright. She didn’t deserve that, and I’m sorry I embarrassed her in front of the entire class.”

A sense of pride came over Luke, hearing Jeremiah’s remorse for his mistakes. It was music to his ears, an affirmation of progress. “I know you were just angry, and I think deep down she knows that too. We all have said and done things we regret.”

Jeremiah rubbed the back of his neck as his eyes darted downward. “I don’t think I want to go back to Hadley Cove High.”

Luke dropped his spoon back into his cereal. “You don’t want to go back? You were doing well there, I thought, before all of this happened.”

“I was,” Jeremiah said, “but I can’t go back and face Ms. Wright after what I did to her. Is it possible for me to transfer to another school? Bridwell High? It’s not too far from here.”

“You know, it would make you the bigger person if you owned up to what you did and went back to Hadley Cove High,” Luke said. “I’m sure Emma would forgive you if you apologized to her.”

“I just can’t, Dad,” he said, his voice muffled by a mouthful of cereal.

Luke paused for a moment to think. He didn’t want to push his son too hard after they’d just turned over a new leaf. Their relationship now was better than it had ever been. “Alright. I’ll see what I can do. In the meantime, can you mow the yard? Do you know how to start it?”

Jeremiah stood up, bringing his bowl to the sink. “I can probably figure it out.”

After Jeremiah walked outside, Luke went into his office and researched other nearby schools. He spent the morning making calls to a few of them until he stumbled on Whitmore Academy. It was a private school in Bridwell Bay, and the drive there was comparable to the time it took to get to Hadley Cove High in the morning. Luke called the office and learned about the transfer process, which included an entrance exam for all of their students. Since the semester was almost over, the deadline to take the exam for the spring semester was in a week. Jeremiah would have to make sure he studied hard over the next few days.

Luke told him about Whitmore Academy after he came inside from mowing. Jeremiah sounded interested and said he’d start studying right away. Luke downloaded the study guide off of the school’s website and printed it out for him. But as Jeremiah was reading through it, he looked up at Luke.

“Uh oh.”

“Uh oh?” Luke repeated. “What’s wrong?”

---