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Luke bit his lip. They hadn’t even been in Hadley Cove for two days and Jeremiah was already in trouble. Real trouble. “I’ll be right there.”
His grip tightened around the phone as he hung up.
This was not the new beginning he’d pictured.
He brought the dog back inside, grabbed the keys from the counter, and slammed the door behind him with a muttered curse.
Upon arriving at the station, Luke stormed over to Jeremiah, who was slumped in a chair next to the sheriff’s desk. “I told you to get groceries, and you ended up in a fight. What were you thinking?”
“Dad, it’s not what you—“
Before Jeremiah could respond, a man holding a few papers approached. “Mr. Grayson, I assume? I’m Sheriff Daniels. We spoke on the phone earlier.”
Luke turned around. “Yes. Can you tell me what happened?”
Jeremiah raised his voice. “Dad, just hear me out. It wasn’t—“
“Jeremiah, just give me a minute.”
With an impartial tone, Sheriff Daniels delivered the news. “Jeremiah and the boy got into a scuffle outside the supermarket. The boy’s hand was sliced open on a broken beer bottle. His parents are pressing charges.”
Luke gritted his teeth.
“Dad, you’ve got to listen to me—“
“I don’t want to hear it, Jeremiah. Not now.”
Jeremiah lowered his head into his hands.
As Luke continued to scold his son, the office door flew open. A distressed teenage girl, followed by a woman, made a beeline for Sheriff Daniels.
“Sheriff, you’ve got the story all wrong...he was trying to protect me!” The teenage girl bent over, gasping to catch her breath. “Please, just let me tell you what happened.”
The woman smiled politely and extended her hand to Luke. “Hey, we haven’t met yet. I’m Kara, and this is Charlotte, my daughter. I think she might add a little more color to what happened this morning.”
Sheriff Daniels motioned Charlotte to explain. “Go on.”
Charlotte’s eyes darted between Luke and the Sheriff as she cleared her throat. “I was going into the store when I heard Tony call out to me. I had ended things with him at the start of summer, but he acts like we’re still together. I dumped him because he’s a complete jerk. He thinks he’s funny, but he’s just a bully.”
Luke listened attentively as Charlotte recounted the incident, sensing the anxiety in her voice.
“I tried to ignore him, and that’s when he ran in front of me. He wanted us to get in his car and talk, but I didn’t want to. I was afraid he would drive off somewhere. So I told him I wasn’t getting in, and he grabbed my arm and started pulling me. And out of nowhere, this guy here stepped in and pushed him off me. Tony punched him and he fought back. That’s when Tony tripped and fell onto the broken glass.”
Charlotte pointed to a bruise forming under Jeremiah’s eye that Luke hadn’t noticed before. “See? That’s where Tony hit him.”
Luke turned to Jeremiah. He searched his son’s face, seeking a hint of forgiveness, but only found the telltale signs of hurt.
Why hadn’t I listened? Luke added that thought to his growing list of failures as a father.
Following Charlotte’s account and the ensuing formalities, the Graysons’ drive home was marked by a stifling silence.
Over the next week, a quiet stillness hung in the air between them, the tension thickening until it became almost suffocating as they prepared for Jeremiah’s hearing in juvenile court.
On the day of the hearing, the court ordered Jeremiah two hundred hours of community service, with the choice between roadside cleanup or volunteering at an animal rescue. To Luke’s surprise, his son chose the animal rescue and would start the following week. He considered joining Jeremiah, wondering if it would help mend their strained relationship or just make things worse.
Probably worse, he thought, running a tired hand through his hair.
Why can’t I fix things with my son?
