Ollie beamed up at his boyfriend, not a trace of offense left on his face. Aaron was leaning down to kiss Ollie when Lucky cleared his throat. Both boys jumped, clearly not having known they had an audience.
“Mom!” Ollie’s eyes widened like he’d been caught skinny-dipping. Now that he was looking directly at her, she saw his winged eyeliner and bright eyeshadow as well. To herknowledge, Ollie hadn’t worn glitter since the night of his car accident and Melanie’s murder.
Every time Jenna saw Ollie’s expression of himself, she was filled with even more pride. It wasn’t so long ago that Ollie had been a terrified foster boy who hoarded food and money in his room. Jenna wasn’t sure if Ollie knew that Jenna and Jack were aware he’d taken cash from their wallets during the first few months he’d lived with them. They hadn’t said anything because he’d been terrified and in new surroundings, and they weren’t sure if confronting him would make him run. And Ollie never spent the money. He squirreled it away, telling them it was his emergency fund.
Then one day, around the time that Aaron had come into their lives, the money was found inside Jenna’s purse. Like it had merely fallen out of her wallet. Jenna wondered what Ollie’s reaction would be if she knew that Jack had taken that money and deposited it into Ollie’s college fund.
Additionally, canned food that had also gone missing mysteriously reappeared in the pantry.
Ollie had come such a long way from the malnourished, abused boy Jack had rescued from the Black Pythons MC. Some parents might take issue with Ollie’s, uh,uniquechoices when it came to clothing and style, but not Jenna. And certainly not Jack. The man might not understand it, but that in no way meant he didn’t support it.
Calmer than his boyfriend, Aaron stepped back and straightened. “Hi, Aunt Jenna. Thanks for bringing her down, Uncle Lucky.”
Lucky nodded to his nephew. “Are the two of you ready to go?”
“Just let me pour Ollie’s tea for him to go,” Aaron said as he headed over to the drainboard. He pulled out a large cup, lid, and reusable straw. “Ollie, do you want lemon or mint today?”
“Mint.” Ollie reached behind himself to grab his crutches. “Can you add three drops, please? I’m feeling spunky today.”
Aaron shook his head like he couldn’t believe his ears, but Jenna saw the adoring smile on his lips. The kid was built like a linebacker with a heart of gold. For all his training and his ambition to join the Army after graduating high school in a couple months, he truly had a gentle soul.
“Oh good, you brought her down.” Lucky turned at Lilly’s voice behind him.
Jenna’s eyebrows shot up. “Lilly, what did you do?”
Her sister-in-law was sitting on a motorized wheelchair and was coming towards them at a steady speed from the living room. She took her hand off the lever and jerked to a halt. “Geez!” she exclaimed, catching herself. “I was not expecting that.” Getting up, Lilly turned and held her hands out like Vanna White. “Ta-da!”
As Lucky brought her forward, Jenna’s eyes remained wide as saucers. The wheelchair didn’t look like any type of motorized wheelchair Jenna had ever seen before. “I don’t understand. What is it, and where did you get it?”
“This, dear sister, is called theRedmanstanding powerchair. And don’t get on me for how much this thing cost. It was all your husband.”
The large black chair had a U-shaped headrest. The backrest had shoulder straps like she’d seen on some roller coasters. The armrests had thick cushions with a controller panel with a joystick on the right side. Another belt lay at the waist, though it was thicker than a standard seatbelt and reminded her of a cummerbund. The butt cushion was long and would likely come all the way out to behind her knees. Something black hung off the side of the left leg rest, and she saw buckles on the footrests as well.
The powerchair had a very large black box behind it, along with six wheels. Two small in the back, two medium in the front, and two large in the middle.
It looked impressive, but Jenna still didn’t understand. “I don’t get it,” she confessed. Jack hadboughtthis for her? How? Why?
“Here, come take a seat,” Lilly offered.
Lucky brought Jenna forward. “We’re going to need to keep this away from Scotty and the little ones for a bit. They’re going to want rides and to play with the buttons.”
And there werea lotof buttons, Jenna realized as Lucky gingerly placed her on the seat. Lilly stepped forward and started instructing Lucky on how to buckle Jenna into the chair. It was a bit daunting, being restrained, and Jenna wished that Jack was there to help her through her nerves.
Ollie came forward on his crutches and took her left hand. Aaron was hanging back by the table.
Shoulder straps were buckled behind her arms and linked across her chest. The waist belt was buckled, and she’d been right to attribute it to the look of a cummerbund. The large plastic piece that had been hanging off the leg rest was a cushioned restraint that crossed over her mid-shins, the shape reminding her of a cartoon mustache. Then the heel of each shoe was fitted into a U-shaped support and connected to the footrest by two straps. Other than her arms and her neck, all other body parts were attached to the chair somehow.
Lilly and Lucky took a step back. “Okay, I think that’s it,” Lilly announced with an excited smile.
“What’s it?” Jenna inquired. She felt like she was being strapped down for a lobotomy or something equally as sinister.
Lilly pulled out her phone. “I have the manual here, but we should be able to figure this out. Turn on the chair,” she pointed to the control panel.
Jenna looked down to see a small screen surrounded by numerous buttons. The green power button was obvious. Trusting her sister-in-law, Jenna pressed it. The screen lit up. Right away, Jenna saw that she was in Sitting Mode. Hitting the Mode button, she saw something that caught her eye.
“Standing Mode?” she questioned. “This chair can make me stand?”
“You haven’t been moving around too much, so I want to take that slow,” Lilly advised in her Doctor Voice. “But yes, eventually, we’ll be able to get you standing with the use of the chair. You’ll be able to sit with your legs down or up, lay flat, stand up, and a variety in between. This chair gives you freedoms a manual chair doesn’t. Once you’re secure, you won’t need assistance getting yourself around. Jack even got you the all-terrain wheels, so you can go out onto the grass or dirt paths.”
